Do you have any more info/links about these issues? I hadn't considered them before, but I sed a kind of "waffles" looking light patetrn coming from all along the right side of the screen, like waves of light-to-dark from top to bottom.

Has anyone else experienced this, or seen mention of it?

Uneven lighting usually refers to a case where LCD wafer has inconsistencies in its density/thickness and therefore screen is lighter in some areas and darker in another. The easiest way to notice that is to have a black/white picture covering your screen and if you have lighter/darker spots in some areas, you can call that `uneven lighting`. Here is an example of uneven lighting:



Light bleeding manifests itself quite similar to uneven lighting but it has a different cause - it's a special form of defect where areas that are not covered with liquid crystals - liquid crystals frame - are not properly isolated from the background lighting therefore light `bleeds` through the frame itself, not through the liquid crystals; or due to some defects in the diffuser. This form of defect is more common in desktop appliances due to higher brightness and one/two huge fluorescent bulbs (unless it uses LED backlight) that serve as a background lighting through a diffuser, but it may appear on handheld appliances as well. It usually appear around the edges (especially if only one fluorescent light is used as a backlight) due to angular direction of the light, and has a quite consistent pattern that only `sharpens` itself and grows in minuscule scale when you increase the brightness, while in case of uneven lighting it grows linearly in the relation to brightness. And here is an example of the most common form of light bleeding (probably a diffuser defect):



You'll hardly find a LCD screen that has even lighting or no light bleeding whatsoever, but in most cases it's tolerable and/or barely detectable with a human eye (especially due to the fact that most of the time you are watching some colored, moving content on the screen, in which cases it's quite hard to notice). If there is really a noticeable difference in brightness on your screen, you might want to try to get an replacement, but if we take experiences from the laptop arena, most manufacturers won't recognize that as a defect.

On another note - before declaring that your screen have an uneven lighting / light bleeding problem, make sure you are looking at it at dead-center, not at some angle. All handheld appliances (and most, if not all laptops) with LCD screens use TN-Film panels (M/PVA, and especially IPS panels are way too expensive for such uses, and they use far more electricity which is impractical for mobile usage) that have a really bad angular dispersion, and you may mistakenly think that your screen has a light bleeding problem when viewed at some angle.

Thank you for that thorough primer. I have been an LCD advocate/fan since Gamegear 1 days (wow, 1993!) and I am intimately familiar with their limitations. The info you provided puts it into a good frame of reference. I concur, unless we are watching solid, dark-colored screens, acceptable levels of bleeding and waffling is not the end of the world. It wasn't my intention to set off another round of "my N900 screen is SUX!" and this adequately heads it off (to those who will bother to check). Thanks again for your time and help.

Dont know what i should say. 2x yes for dead pixel ?? I had sent my N900 back because of this problem. About 7 Days later, i had a replacement. But guess what..... This screen was defect too. It is just a very tiny one, and i have to search for that one sometimes. I think i can live with that one, but it is no good promo for Nokia. How do they test the screen? With that black screen protector on ??

Hi all,
I also have waited months and finally got my N900.

3 problems with mine.

1- Stuck pixels on white. Theres one in the bottom left and a few close to each other in the top right.

The main one in the bottom left is bright white , the other change brightness depending on teh tilt of the screen.

2- the speakerphone sucks *** the person on the other end can barely hear me even if im close up. ( Nothing like the only N9 8gb )

I have spoken to the Carphone warehouse and they said to bring it back so they can give me a replacement tomorrow.

I will let you all know what happens.

It looks like its a common issue with these screens.

I just hope the new one isnt worse!

3- There is some uneveness of the backlight on the right side.
The screen gets quite wavy and dark and is no where near as crisp as the left side ( not so much of an issue )

I mainly just want speakerphoen to work properly and there be NO dead pixels on a £500 phone!

If anyone wants to check theirs again, http://www.imsupporting.com/black.html for a black screen just fullscreen your browser.

Looks like the night sky when i move the screen, Ive never seen such poor quality on a screen

+1 __________

cant vote second time but second device, still zero dead pixels

I wonder if there are any apps that help "unfreeze" dead pixels. There are some for the DS and PSP that quickly flash different colors over the whole screen or specifically targeted pixels. Prolonged rapid color flashing will shorten the life of a pixel though (eventually you'd have a dead pixel again, that can't be fixed) so apps that allow you to target pixels are preferable.

Just a quick update.

The good guys at the Carphone warehouse have sent off for some new N900's from a "new batch"

Apparently Nokia have a thing where their first batches are normally crap.

They will call me when they have them and i can look at them and pick one that im happy with.

So im happy that its getting sorted and I don't even have to send my phone off!!

- It was within the 28days since i got it.
- I dont need to send my phone off, So i will have a N900 till I gets replaced.
- free of charge.

+100 internets to the Carphone warehouse.
Will be doing business again.

have one stuck for black only visable at max brightness ; dont mind still loving my n900