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SP2 Screen brightness uneven at edges, 15% - 20% dimmer at top long edge. Normal?

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petrol

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hi there,
My SP2'sscreen is uneven in brightness or illumination. That is, edge to edge, the illumination is uneven.

The top long edge (adjacent to front camera) of about 1cm is about 15% to 20% dimmer than the rest of the screen. The bottom long edge (next to Windows key) is slightly dimmer. Both short edges are bright edge to edge.

-- Anyone else have this issue? (to test, open the NY Times in IE metro-- open any article and hold as portrait. Look at the top long edge (camera side). It might be dimmer down the 1cm edge.
-- does this bother you?
-- is this fixable by firmware, or likely baked into the units?

Now, at my local Microsoft store, each Surface display unit I've inspected has the same characteristic to one degree or another. None of the Dell Venue 11 Pros have this (they are all edge to edge bright), my Nexus 7 and Lumia 920 are edge to edge bright. Dell Venue 8 Pro looks great, too.

I guess I expect a $1000 tablet to be edge to edge bright. As a pro photographer this is annoying as heck. and embarrassing, as I think some client will notice this some day.
 
Hello GoodBytes, thanks for taking the time to reply and look at your screen. I tried taking a photo but it can't pick up the subtlety, even on my SLR.

I just fear it will get worse over time since the floor models at the MS store show it, too, often worse than on my new device.
 
Try and set your camera in manual mode so that it doesn't auto adjust and 'fix' the problem in your picture.

All I can't think about, is that Microsoft switch in your region or simply are using in your region a different vendor for the LCD panel.
But it could simply be a bad batch.
 
The way you're describing this is sounds much like the banding issues from the earlier version of the Intel Video , which would happen with all of the display Surfaces in the Stores as it uses a locked down OS image.
 
jnjroach said:
The way you're describing this is sounds much like the banding issues from the earlier version of the Intel Video , which would happen with all of the display Surfaces in the Stores as it uses a locked down OS image.
Click to expand...

hi Jeff, thanks very helpful... to make sure I understand:
-- does it follow then that this kind of issue is actually fixable or addressable via an Intel update? Or is it something inherent to the hardware that can't be fixed?

-- so the floor models at the MS store each has the same OS image, and therefore would have an Intel Video software issue?
 
The Banding issue was resolved with an updated Video Driver in one of the Firmware Updates (March's IIRC). The Surface Display units most likely have an image from last October, created prior to launch.
 
If I recall correctly the banding issue is actually not solved automatically from the March update, but now is solvable. You have to go in the Intel Control Panel (which is now provided since the March firmware upgrade) and go under:
Power > 'On Battery', and disable: "Display Power Saving Technology"
(which results in no reduction of battery life, as all it did was play with the colors, and act like dynamic contrast ratio, and not actually do anything helpful).
 
Thx goodbytes good to know. I did this but it has no effect on the edge dimming issue I see. So it appears that my top edge dimming issue may not be the so called banding phenomenon.

It's definitely there for me and other Surface machines at the MS store, but not sure if it's important enough for me to give up on my SP2.
 
Can you get AIDA64 Extreme (http://www.aida64.com/downloads - trial version is all you need), once installed on your Surface Pro 2, can you go to (in the program), under Display > Monitor section. It should give you the monitor name, monitor ID, and Manufacture.

Can you give them to me?
 
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sp2-monitorPNG.PNG
Here you go @goodbytes It's a Samsung panel built in 2012!
 
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