I recently bought a 17" LCD flat panel display from Dell. I noticed that there is a cluster of 4-8 pixels on lower right corner of the monitor that are brighter than the rest of the screen. However, these brighter pixels can only be seen when the screen is of a lighter color (the worst being when there is a white background) AND when you look at the pixels at angles greater than 45 degrees (when the contrast starts to degrade). When the background is black OR if you look at the pixels at an angle less than 45 degrees, these "bad" pixels do not stand out and looks to be behaving normally. (ie. If I look a a black background at greater than 45 deg angle, these pixels do not stand out.)

Now, I have read up on LCDs and have a good understanding of how they work. Given my situation above, I don't think I have a true case of "dead pixels" where the pixel remains permanently lit or unlit at any angle of view. I have gone to stores and looked at other LCD monitors and have not found one with this phenomemon.

So, can anybody explain to me what is happening here? Is this considered a defect or is it something normal in the industry that I need to live with? Now that I know the pixels are there, I see them whenever I look at my screen from an angle, which annoys me sometimes. If I look at the screen straight on, again, this cluster of "bad" pixels are NOT apparent.

Thanks for any feedback.
Slam