Chantal’s Blog

Kabateck Brown Kellner has filed a federal class action lawsuit today against Apple over their 20-inch iMac displays. What’s the problem with the displays? According to the suit Apple has been marketing the displays as being capable of displaying millions of colours when they are only capable of displaying 262,144. The previous version of the 20-inch (and current version of the 24-inch) iMac displays are capable of displaying 16,777,216 colours. The suit also states that the new 20-inch iMac display is unsuitable for video and photo editing.

The new 20-inch iMac display is Twisted Nematic (TN) as opposed to the 24-inch display which makes use of Super Patterned Vertical Alignment (S-PVA). TN displays can do 6-bits per pixel. S-PVA can do 8-bits per pixel. TN makes use of dithering which is a sneaky technique that attempts to trick the eye into thinking it sees 8-bits. Many people who work heavily with video or photography really dislike the dithering technique used by TN displays. In addition to the lower number colours that can be displayed, TN displays have narrower viewing angles. So why use TN displays if they are not quite as good as S-PVA, you ask? Because they are cheaper.

LOS ANGELES, March 31 /PRNewswire/ — Apple deceptively marketed its new 20-inch iMac in a way that grossly inflated the capabilities of its monitor, which is vastly inferior to the previous generation it replaced, according to a federal class action lawsuit filed today by Kabateck Brown Kellner, LLP.

Source: PR Newswire