IIYAMA G-Master GCB3280QSU-B2 - 4 Replacements and Every Unit Had Panel Defects
So far I’ve owned a few monitors from IIYAMA, both at home and at work, and I’ve always had good experiences with them. The quality was usually very solid.
Recently I bought the GCB3280QSU-B2 and honestly it has been a disaster. I’ve already replaced it 4 times and every unit had some kind of panel defect.
#1 – dead pixel appeared after 3 days, but no backlight bleeding/ghosting and very good panel uniformity. No photo.
#2 – dead pixel out of the box, damaged two green and two red subpixels, noticeable ghosting and very poor backlight uniformity. Photo attached.
#3 – dead pixel out of the box, damaged green subpixel, also poor backlight uniformity. Photo attached.
#4 – dead pixel out of the box, damaged two green subpixels, but this one has very good backlight uniformity. Photo attached.
To be fair, the store had absolutely no problem replacing the faulty units each time, so customer service was great.
At this point I’m still considering whether I should keep unit #4 or return it as well, because despite the subpixel issue it’s actually the best unit overall so far. I’m also worried that another replacement could end up being even worse.
Currently, the defective pixel is located near the bottom-left part of the screen, roughly around the middle of the Windows taskbar area. In practice it’s not very noticeable during gaming because there’s usually some kind of UI element in that area anyway, but the fact that a brand new monitor still has defective subpixels after 4 replacements is honestly pretty frustrating.