HZ27WA, HZ27WB & HZ27WC Problem Thread

[rickh]

Edit (10/04/2011): If you can ignore the problems mentioned in this thread, it's a brilliant monitor for the money!
I wouldn't let them put you off buying unless you require perfection from every pixel.
In real world use, you can quickly ignore a dead subpixel - the dust is a little more distracting though.





I was excitied to get delivery of the Hazro HZ27WC that I had pre-ordered earlier this week.
I opened the box, set it all up, screwed in the stand and then proceeded to adjust the tilt, only to hear the loud *crack* of a screw head popping off!




Things didn't improve when I plugged it in..

My issues:

• stuck subpixel - red
• 10 groups of 'black' spots - what looks like dust or hair behind the glass
• Bottom half of the monitor is 'yellow' rather than white (google 'imac 27 yellow tint')
• Screw head snapped off on monitor stand
• Glass panel is very poorly fitted (flush at the top but not at the bottom and a large gap between bezel and glass in the bottom right hand corner)

People with issues so far:

• phinix - dead subpixels AND black spots
• silverf0x - dust/black spots
• Mr Krugga - dead subpixels AND dust/black spots
• von Pluring - dead pixel AND high pitch noise
• Skunkworks - dead pixel AND black spots
• neologan - palpable and visible defects on glass
• Jody - dead pixel AND black spots
• Sylver123 - dead pixels
• deadite66 - dead pixels
• DarkCell - dust (black spots)
• Combat Fighter - dust (black spots)

My Pictures

Before taking pictures, I wiped down the screen with lint free wipes and screen cleaner spray - these defects are behind the glass!
All of these pictures are taken at a different place of the screen:













Now, I also have an apple cinema display (same panel) and use an imac 27 at work (same panel). Neither of those panels has such issues and the yellow tint is far less noticeable! However, this screen is half the price of the cinema display so perhaps I'm being too harsh!

 

[rickh]

I hate the AG coating on the dell ultrasharps.

The cinema display 27" is the best monitor I've ever seen, this hazro is the same panel but has some problems.

If you can afford it - get the ACD.

I'm still trying to work out what to do next with this hazro..

 

[rickh]

From the statistics so far, I'm pretty confident that replacement is not going to help.

My thoughts are that ocuk and hazro have sold mostly class 2 (ISO 13406-2) screens to us. This wouldn't be an issue if the product description said something along the lines of "95% of these screens WILL have defects" or were marked as B-grade. What we were actually told was that these are comparable to apple cinema displays - which is not the case at all (trust me - I have one!).

My main issue is with the black spots all over the screen which I'm fairly sure is dirt. Whilst a few stuck subpixels is annoying it's not as bad as the dark 'scars'. With the iMacs and cinema displays, uou can remove the glass panel with some suction cups [see here]to remove the dirt - but I'm not sure how the glass is secured on these monitors.

 

[rickh]

I have submitted an RMA request with overclockers with the main issue being the areas of 'black spots' which are effectively dead pixels (since you can't see behind them even if it is just dust).
Hopefully I can get a better unit, I'm not expecting perfection but it seems I have one of the worst units for the 'black spots' issue.

The warranty pages in the hazro booklet tell you that pixel faults must be reported within 72 hours of delivery - so get your RMA requests in now even if you haven't decided to return it yet!

 

[rickh]

Unfortunately this is a downfall of glass fronted panels, the last glass fronted panels I remember selling were some Xerox units many years ago which had exactly this issue but we were selling them into B2B type customers and as such it was never an issue as the advantages of a hard glass panel far outweigh the dis-advantages.

Try to find me some dust on an imac or on a cinema display, you'll have a hard time! If you can find any (I've never seen any) then all you have to do is pop the glass cover off with a few suction cups to give it a wipe.

Why do iphones, ipads and ipods not have large spots on the screens?
Perhaps it's because they fuse the glass to the LCD display so there is no cavity?

The dust on my unit seems to be on the LCD panel itself so I can't get rid of them. Whilst dust may sound trivial to you, it looks very much like clusters of dead pixels!

Perhaps if you look at pictures or play games then this isn't an issue, but I work with white backgrounds all day (documents).

I'm not suggesting that the monitor isn't great, but it is let down by these issues which were avoidable.

 

[rickh]

If we can clean the glass without voiding the warranty, there won't be many RMAs/DSRs, I guess.

+1, it's the dust that bothers me, not the dead subpixel!



FYI, it looks like RMA's will be refused.
I just had a webnote update:

WE can not accept this back as faulty i am afraid.

Regards,

james G*ne

 

[rickh]

Most of our customers will get them and just be amazed by the image quality for the price.

I think we all are to a certain extent!
They are excellent monitors, but the problems prevent them from being perfect.

dust particles are smaller again, resulting most users won't even notice such anomolies.

The dust on my panel is more obvious than dead pixels; as you can see in the pictures I posted. They occupy at least 6 pixels each and prevent light from passing through - effectively dead pixels.

I think if Hazro could fix the dust issue like Apple managed to, then these monitors would be simply unbeatable in this price range. At the moment, the low price reflects the problems.

 

[rickh]

We were hoping for more appreciative comments on price vs. color accuracy, clarity and general brilliance of the panel as opposed to encouragement and prompts to thoroughly scrutinize displays in a quest to find defects.

Whilst the panel itself is "brilliant", the defects detract from the "clarity and general brilliance". I would argue that 10 clusters of dark spots (caused by dust on my monitor) does not represent general brilliance.

When you sell monitors to consumers at a higher than average price, they expect a higher quality product. To you, these monitors may be cheap - but to the average consumer they are not.
So, if we rule out the average consumer who won't spend £400 on a monitor, who's left?

Enthusiasts and professionals.

If we look at this group of consumers, they are concerned with perfection and enjoy good quality hardware. As it is now, this product is not near perfect and does not deserve the price associated with perfection.

I am surprised that you did not expect "scrutiny" from an enthusiast forum and whilst I understand your confusion - I put it to you that you do not understand your target market.

 

[rickh]

I have been following the development of Hazro for a couple of years now..
I'm sorry to say your newest line is not for me either. Seems you ended up with a inferior product in the quest for money saving. Why oh why.

I couldn't care less what the price is. I would probably pay around 1000 - 1500£ for a Perfect, pixel perfect warranty, 27", H-ips, Glossy, low inputlag, NO scaler, led-backlit, DVI, (120hz if possible),
There must be other costumers out there like me as I have been searching for this screen for 3 years now and no vendor seems to want to build this monitor

TBH, I would still buy the hz27wc. If you require the pixel perfect warranty then buy the apple cinema display.

Whilst it's disappointing that these monitors aren't perfect they still represent excellent value.

After a couple of days use I'm learning to ignore the marks on the screen. I wish I didn't have to but it's worth it for the relatively low price. However, if I had paid any more than £500 then I would not be so forgiving.

I've owned a lot of monitors (from cheap TN's to the most expensive IPS's) and I think that this is the best value screen I've ever bought. I was initially upset because of the hype claiming perfection and comparisons between cinema displays/u2711's. If it had said on the product description that "at least one dead pixel and several specks of dust behind the glass is more than probable" when I bought it then I wouldn't have been so shocked when I turned it on!

I hope hazro use these negative comments as motivation to improve the QC. Beneath the specks of dust is an excellent monitor!

Besides, the more of these hazro sell the more value our 3 year warranties hold

 

[rickh]

I noticed something odd (horizontal white stripes that 'leak' out of the browser window) when looking at the lagom.nl page.

It doesn't affect anything in normal use so PLEASE DONT ASSUME THE MONITOR IS BAD BECAUSE OF THIS VIDEO - IT'S JUST A LITTLE 'WEIRD' - SINCE THIS DOESN'T AFFECT TYPICAL USE I DON'T CLASS IT AS A DEFECT

I was just curious if anyone else could replicate this?

I've tried on my other monitors and my laptop and I can't replicate it. I believe it's called crosstalk?

The webpage in the video is here (lagom test page) .
You should be able to replicate the scroll position and window position based on the video.

 

[rickh]

Krugga, after a few more days of use mine has also got a few extra specs on the inside (compared to the pictures I posted in the first post). Thankfully I work with the curtains closed (on a glossy monitor you have to!) so don't notice it!

Can someone else see if their monitor does the thing you can see in the video I posted in post 107?