Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've been looking for a good replacement for my older NEC 2490WUXi and I'd like to keep using an IPS panel as I frequently have to do photo editing and color reproduction is important. I will be keeping two newer 2490WUXi2 monitors in a triple monitor configuration. I already have the tools to calibrate this monitor and I've been waiting for a good high refresh rate panel since CRTs went away. That currently limits my choices to this model and a similar model from Acer. The actual panel is from the same manufacturer in both so I've been trying the cheaper Acer option. Unfortunately all the monitors I've received so far have been bad out of the box. Monitor 1 - 07/29/15: The first monitor had an odd black smudge roughly 4x4 pixels in size. I've never seen this style of defect in a monitor before so I can't say for sure what the cause is but it looks like there may have been some grease smeared inside the panel during manufacturing. I've taken a picture of the issue and attached it to this review. It's somewhat difficult to see at this scale but if you take a step back and look at it from a distance you can see the smudge. You can also see lit partial-pixels under and around it which shows that the actual pixels are functioning correctly. Monitor 2 - 07/30/15: Failed back light segment. I've attached a picture to show what this one looked like. Monitor 3 - 08/01/15: Over 8 black smudges ranging from roughly 2x2 to 4x5 pixels in size. These covered the center and entire right side of the screen. Monitor 4 - 08/05/15: Two black smudges both 2x2 in size. If one of them wasn't right off of center I would have considered keeping this one as the second smudge was in the very upper left corner and not totally obvious. Monitor 5 - 08/08/15: The first screen with an actual dead pixel in the lower right. There are still multiples smudges elsewhere on the panel: 3 in the lower left about 2x2 in size and one in the upper right also 2x2 in size. Monitor 6 - 08/13/15: More smudged areas. No actual black areas on this panel, but there are noticeable gray smudges in all four corners. Monitor 7 - 08/17/15: More dead/smudged areas. Some of these look like standard dead pixels while others look more like panel contamination. I've attached a new picture of one of the darker areas. While none of them are in the center of the screen there is one in the upper left, two in the bottom left, and one in the lower right. The date on this monitor is May 2015. I had been forgetting to grab that info for the prior panels but I'll try to note it on future ones until I get one that doesn't have any glaring problems. Monitor 8 - 08/20/15: Panel date May 2015. No smudges! One dead blue subpixel near the center bottom which I was willing to live with until I tried to do color calibration. No matter what I did I would constantly get extremely different settings when I probed the corners of the monitor. Dimming the lights in the room and displaying a black image showed a serious yellow discoloration in the lower right corner. This doesn't look like normal IPS glow; I've attached a picture of this one next to one of my older NEC's and while it has more overall glow it's at least uniform. Maybe #9 will be a winner? Monitor 9 - 08/22/15: Panel date Apr 2015. Nope. Multiple smudges right in the center of the screen. I stopped counting at 7 but they're everywhere on this one. Most 2x2 to 4x4 pixels in size, although there are some random 'dust' spots that are blocking one subpixel in places as well. Amusingly this box had a 'QC Passed' sticker where the ASUS tape normally is. Monitor 10 - 09/06/15: Panel date May 2015. Large grease blob 3x4 pixels in size left of center. Three smaller grease blobs 2x2 in size along the left side of the screen. Couple of other 'dust' spots scattered randomly on the screen. Back-light bleed on this one seems to be as bad as #8. Monitor 11 - 09/23/15: Panel date May 2015. Dead pixel blob 2x4 in size slightly below center plus a smaller 2x2 blob two inches below the first. As far as the parts of the monitors that ARE working go: back light bleed seems to be similar or less than my other NEC IPS monitors (except for monitor #8) and color reproduction looks good. Screen brightness appears to be fairly even. Even with these issues I think these will eventually be solid monitors once the panel problems get cleared up.