PSA: Found a reliable panel seller on AliExpress!

Finally got a working UHD panel (AUO B173ZAN01.0)! (this was my sixth attempt) If anyone wants to know, I used this seller, Yunyida store, on AliExpress. They take pictures of the panel and control board in their listings, and they even took a picture of mine before sending. Packaging was excellent, foam cut outs for everything in a proper box. (not just wrapped in bubble wrap like other sellers)

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/3080047

They send from Singapore. Received product 2 business days after they shipped (sent on Thursday, received on Monday), only cost $22 or so extra for DHL Express.

I even asked that they find me a control board that will support EITHER of the panels I have now - the UHD at 60Hz that they shipped, OR my existing QHD at 120Hz. I haven't tried it with the QHD yet, but it should work. (they took a day to research and locate for me) Very nice to be able to use EITHER my QHD or my UHD panel in the laptop, and still make use of the OTHER panel as an external! Of course, it won't let the G-Sync work externally, but it gives you all the normal external monitor controls.

I feel that most or all the sellers in China, whether AliExpress or eBay, are selling whatever crap they get their hands on - no testing, and while one refunded me ALL my shipping fees (including the $55 to send it back to China!), another was very combative - I gave a plethora of evidence, showing their panel was fake - only 65% sRGB coverage, only 170 nits at max brightness (I shows the on-screen display for brightness control in Windows, timing it so I could have that as part of the screenshot, to show that my reading was taken at maximum). AliExpress customer service said they will refund me without shipping back since I showed them proof that minimum cost to ship will be $55 on a $120 part, and that seller refused to send me a picture of the sticker before shipping, but I do have to wait for the dispute to time out. (seller is not budging at all of course)

Even one seller in U.S.A. sent me a dim panel. I am thinking maybe not everyone notices, especially if they use it in a blacked out room, and by the time they realize their panel has a bad backlight, they're stuck with it?

I would also note that, several sellers on eBay, even though I PAID, cancelled and refunded my order, saying "not in stock" (even though listing said 10+ in stock in some cases) - these were sellers above and beyond the 5 bad ones! I think that, because I sent each one a detailed note demanding no dead pixels, only original AUO, not "No Warranty", etc., they backed out, because they were probably going to send either duds or other brands completely. (many eBay listings even say in the fine details that they might send other brand panels - the ones I picked, but which backed out, did not have any such notes)

I don't know if it matters, but this is also the ONLY panel I've received that has the red words "Do Not Touch" (and also in Chinese) on the tape at the bottom. From what I've seen, only original panels have that. It also has H/W 0A and F/W 1A, with date of 2015, which sounds realistic for AUO B173ZAN01.0. Some of the other AUO panels had 2018 dates on sticker, but 2017 in the listing in HWiNFO.

Now, this panel did also have the "No Warranty" on the back (instead of AUO)... so I am still thinking it's a refurb... but at least it's a WORKING refurb, the way it should be. Or maybe AUO just puts that on panels they sell third party (not to Dell or other computer manufacturers directly). Interesting though that it DID have the red "Do Not Touch". (although it was black tape and not fabric like the sliver tape is on my original QHD panel) I will note that the only panel I received that said "AU Optronics" was actually the worst, with only 63% color gamut in sRGB and 170 nit brightness. (and also had two different Dell part number stickers, and a messed up model number which looked like they might have re-programmed the EDID firmware using a lesser 4K panel)

 

Thanks for your info, wish I had this seller before I got my subpar monitor.

Do you think they have the necessary knowledge to recommend me a 1080p monitor like I was saying in the other thread?

 

I think it is worth a shot. They do communicate well (they know English, get back to you quickly via their message platform). I kind of trust them more being based in Singapore too, seems more like a legit little business instead of those China-based ones which are probably just brokering the order and have no idea what they're even selling. (just my guess anyway - maybe I just got lucky this time around!)

I don't know if they'll know for sure about the mounting tabs fitting and all that though - but there's not many 17.3" panels, maybe they all mount the same anyway? (unlike the very crowded 14-15" panel segment) Definitely double check anything they recommend of course. And be sure it will be 40 pin connector, of course...

 

Make sure you send them a message thanking them for doing the extra work for their customers and that that is highly appreciated. It has to be known that honest sellers are very valuable and they WILL be rewarded by new, and repeat business. Nice to get some good news for once.

 

You just got lucky..

My first "N173HHE-G32" came from that store, it is not an N173HHE-G32, its something else, EDID edited to report like one, but colour accuracy can be described as super blue tint, with at most 5 bits of color per channel, the backlight heats like crazy and it was a huge ding/scratch on the right side.

YMMV, but in my experience, it was 120€ to the toilet, because customs decided to screw with my package and RIP 60 days to open a claim, because it took longer than 60 days to just receive it.

 

Wow, that sucks. Really thought I found a good seller. But I don't get it - from what I saw, they actually DO plug the panels in, take pictures for listings, and even took a picture of my panel before shipping, plugged in. I am guessing they did not do the same for you? Of course, hard to judge brightness from a picture (and no chance to see dead pixels), but mine did have a QC sticker which I think they put on with a recent date, so I thought they are actually reviewing the panels before sending to avoid sending junk at least.

For the price, the panels must be returns/refurbs, so a scratch or two on the back is ok. None of the 6 panels I got ever had any real damage though, it was just all internal stuff (brightness issues on most, reduced color accuracy on one, dead pixels on the first and off-brand).

Shipping back to China is a lot so they don't really tell you that upfront either. Very surprised the one seller refunded me everything (including the priority shipping to me, as well as the $55 USD to ship it back to him), but I guess he was protecting the eBay seller rating.

 

The picture they sent me was a 200x200 resolution image, so there isn't much to tell from that, but I was a bit weary when I saw it, the red was pretty orange, assumed it was a potato camera, sadly its just how the panel is.

For gaming, its decent, and the only way to see the scratch/nick is with a full display black image, in a game I can't notice it unless I search for it, and it is indeed a 120Hz panel, its just a bad panel regarding color accuracy and half the reason I swapped was to get better colours.

I'm not mad with them, I knew the price was too good to be true, but I wanted it..

 

Ouch, didn't realize the scratch was on the screen! I am sure they would have sent you a new one? Or you didn't want to deal with the hassle of sending it back, I guess. (it is a pain, customs form and all that, plus the cost if the seller doesn't cover it)

 

It was past the 60 days, due to how slow customs are in my country, added to that, shipping it back would be around 60€, bought a new display from this seller:

https://www.ebay.com/usr/bumblesale?_trksid=p2047675.l2559

Its a real one, and they are based in UK, it took around a week, the free shipping was not slow postal but they used a courier, and sent the display wrapped in 30m of bubble wrap, the box was massive, like 50x50x50cm, loved them, and they where very informative, and said from the get go that if it wasn't what I wanted they would refund without having to send it back.

They also have a website, and do wholesale for companies, but I don't remember what the website name is.

Of course, your mileage may vary, and buying displays is always hit and miss, unfortunately.

At my old job I could buy directly from AUO, Chi Mei, Innolux and others, but the price was steep, like this display would cost at least 300€, I did laptop repairs, and we also did warranty for Asus, MSI, Lenovo, Gigabyte and some other brands, and we would get pallets upon pallets of displays(and every other part), but no special discount, because it was the brand that was paying the parts, not my company, so there wasn't any decent discount, but at least those where guaranteed to be originals.

 

Nice insight/experience, thanks for sharing! I'll keep that shop in mind for future times too, if they ship globally. I did look at some other European eBay shops for the screen I wanted but they seemed no better than ones from China (same labels, etc.).

I guess being the first replacement panel I've dealt with, and trying to get it for cheap, one doesn't realize how hit or miss panels can be! I was reading an article recently about how LCD monitors used to seemingly never have dead pixels (or at least, it wasn't acceptable), but that was mostly because quality control weeded out the bad ones and sold them to second and third tier markets that might want a working but not perfect display for the cheaper price. Then the manufacturers tried enforcing minimum allowed dead pixels and brightness differences, etc., even for the primary markets. I can see from my experience what a grey area there is of a panel "working" but not really being workable, if one wants the full specs of what the panel SHOULD do.

If Dell charged $300-350 for the panel, I probably would have just bought it directly, but their price was $625 or more, which was just insane (could buy an HDR 4K portable 17" for less than that, or a pretty nice desktop monitor). Kind of laughable how many times I had to receive, ship back, unpack and install to get one that works!