PS Vita Replacement Vertical Lines

Hey Guys & Gals,

I recently bought a PS Vita from my local Best Buy. Long story short, I ended up returning it as there was a pinkish hue/tint whenever I took a picture or recorded the video. The OLED display was flawless however - no vertical lines or black blotches. I went back to the store last week to get it exchanged and boy was that a mistake. My replacement had a TON of vertical lines. I could still see them even when I jacked the brightness all the way up and it was super noticeable in both dark and light backgrounds. I went back yesterday afternoon and exchanged it again and the vertical lines are present but only on the right hand of the screen. The left side of the screen is flawless lol. The vertical lines are very noticeable and distracting. Given that the backlight uniformity problem (vertical lines, blotches) is pretty common for many Vitas, should I try exchanging it one more time? I heard that one guy went through 7 Vita's before settling upon on one with little screen issues. For a $250 handheld this is pretty disappointing. You'd think that Sony would address this issue publicly but NOOOO. A Best Buy supervisor was also present when I made the exchange and he said that there are very little PS Vita returns and that he's never heard of customers complaining about screen issues. Guess I got unlucky with three Vitas?

Thanks.

Yeah, I guess you are really unlucky. I haven't heard other people complain about this problem before though, but now that I know of this problem I'm really happy mine has no flaws.

But like you said, it is really sad to see those kind of errors on a $250 handheld, especially because you had to problem with several vita's.

this isn't an error the blotches are there because it's present in OLED technology and only visible when you're vexing something very dark like Uncharted's loading screen with the spinning medallion or whatever it's called or when you're starting the Vita and there's spinning bubbles or whatever it's called. You'll see on everything that uses OLED like TVs. Don't know why everyone is complaining because it isn't bad on my Vita.

It isn't bad on mine either. I did see those blotches on the loading screen from Uncharted, but for some strange reasons I always assumed those belonged there lol

I must be lucky, I don't see anything on mine, it is jet black, only time I can see the blotches on a black screen is when I am playing the Vita in complete darkness.

Same here, the only problem I have is that sometimes the touch screen and rear touch become unresponsive, which is normal for devices to start crashing when you leave it on for a month straight.

Really?

Ive left my phone (Xperia Play) on for a month straight and it's good as new

I've been there. You get something that's defective, and no matter how many times you return it, you just keep getting worst back. Seems like Best Buy hates us both.

Well my Vita sometimes needs to restart. Its usually my iPod that starts acting weird after a month.

i have yet to hear about vertical lines but i have only heard about blotches. This is due to the early OLED technology but you seem to be a tad unlucky, I hope the newer Vitas in the future have better OLED technology.

My first Vita had trapped dust under the screen and very clear vertical lines, they were especially clear on gray/blue screens. I got a replacement and the first thing I noticed was how much better the screen was! But then my current Vita has some issues of its own... The right analog stick makes a very loud clicking sound when moved, my first Vita didint do this.. My current Vita also has worse blotches in the dark but overall it's still lots better than the vertical lines!

Every Vita seems to have a problem or two...

the Only thing I hate about my vita is the squeaking of buttons and the RL

It's quite unfortunate that the Vita suffers from screen uniformity problems. I'm on my fourth Vita from Best Buy and I still have the vertical lines. The customer service supervisor wasn't very happy when I exchanged it, and I doubt he would let me exchange it again. Maybe I'll return it for a full refund and get one from Walmart or something lol. The vertical lines bother the heck for me and it's quite noticeable even when I am playing a game. Could it be that Best Buy has a bad batch of shipments?

If you've got that much bad luck I think it might be a possibility that Best Buy got a bad batch.

That's what I'm thinking. Do you think I should try getting another exchange at a different Best Buy location in town? Do you know if their computer systems keep track of how many times a customer returns a product?

You can always try it, although I think if they are in the same town there could be a possibility they got some vita's from the same bad batch. They do probably keep track of it, but I don't know for sure. Anyway, this is much speculation from my side because I can really only guess how bestbuy is acting in these kind of situations.

Guess it's time for me to return it back to Best Buy and try my luck with Walmart and then Target and so fourth. LoL! I mean, I guess I am being extremely nit picky. For an expensive hand held like the Vita, you would expect nothing but high quality parts from Sony. Needless to say I am a bit disappointed.

My buttons stopped squeaking after a lot of use

I just got off the phone with a customer rep from Sony and they said that Best Buy could have gotten a bad batch of shipments. I linked the guy to several threads (and pictures) around the net detailing the problem, and even he agreed that I should not have gotten three bad replacements in a row, all of which are exhibiting the same problem. The rep had a PS vita in hand and I personally asked him to check to see whether he could see vertical lines and he could said that he could not see any.

With that being said, do you think I should return the Vita to Best Buy for a full refund and try to get one from another store?

Thanks.

Full refund and get from another store