FYI: New ACD Specifications

Question

I spoke with Apple today to determine what the deal was with the recently upgraded brightness and contrast specs for the 20" and 23" Cinema Displays. They indicated that the change was actually (quietly?) made back in April 2006, and that any monitor recently sold directly by Apple should be one of the newer models. All bets are off as to age of stock for third-party distributors. Note that it would appear the Apple Part # has not changed, and that there is no date code or serial number string that can identify it as the 'newer' version without entering the number into their computer system.
Incidentally, I noticed that many of the 'ghosting' issues (or 'image persistence', as Apple chooses to term it) have cropped up in the last few months. It makes one wonder whether or not the new (upgraded) and brighter backlight has indirectly caused these issues. Since people may have been receiving these new displays for a few months now, it's at least conceivable that there is a connection. It now leads me to wonder whether the recent price drop is market-driven, or is related to this latest batch of stock which could possibly be sub-standard. I sincerely hope that is not the case, since I just bought a 23" ACD.
Be careful out there...

Answer 1

That was interesting.
Do you detect any backlight leakage on yours in a
dark room with the screen entirely black? That might
be an indication of an improved display you got.
To make my short story longer, here's my deal:
Bought a refurb 23" from Apple about 3 weeks ago for $1099 (ouch!), had 9 dead pixels on the left side of the screen ONLY, no ghosting issues, good color, slight backlight glow along bottom, though very good blacks (not purplish). They agreed to refund me.
Second one is now sitting on my desk via CompUSA (post-sale), May 2006 build date (per Chipmunk, thanks for that guys), only one dead pixel on the extreme right side of the screen, very good color and uniformity, some minor backlight leakage (with blacks appearing slightly purple, though not calibrated yet), but has some erratic ghosting issues. The image persistence is worst when you leave a white background with black graphics up for awhile, but it does go away, and is difficult to see with anything but a uniform desktop color (grey, especially). I'm becoming afraid that the 'image persistence' issue is a necessary evil of the upgraded backlight, though I also wonder whether or not breaking the thing in for awhile will make decrease the ghosting. The date of Apple's article on 'Image Persistence' might also lend some credence to this...
Gorgeous monitor, though, simply drop-dead beautiful.