It seems that faultless product launches are becoming a rarity these days, with product recalls being higher than ever before. It was not too long ago that LG announced an interference issue with their LG Ultrafine 5K Display – a display that retailed for almost $1k. Following on from this revelation, Apple have now stopped selling the existing stock of monitors, and will not be releasing them until LG have resolved the problem. A wise move considering that Apple has found themselves on the back foot recently with the underwhelming reception to their new MacBook Pro which saw customers upset over the poor battery performance. For those unaware of the issue with the LG Ultrafine 5K monitor, it is down to a lack of shielding on the internals which protect the display form interference.

The interference was coming from WiFi routers, which when placed within 2 feet, would result in flickering displays, and in extreme cases, the display would not work at all. As a means of a quick fix, LG advised users to make sure that their monitors were more than 2m away from routers, which for some was not a possibility. There has been no official statement from either Apple or LG regarding a date that the new monitors will be available, however LG has acknowledged the problem, and did issue a statement:

We have been made aware that the LG UltraFine 27-inch 5K display (model 27MD5K) may experience performance issues caused by signal interference when a Wi-Fi access point is positioned behind the display within a distance 2 feet (0.6 meter). Changing the location or positioning of either the router or the display should resolve the issue. Customers continuing to experience issues with their UltraFine displays are advised to contact their nearest LG customer center for prompt service. LG apologizes for this inconvenience and is committed to delivering the best quality products possible so all LG UltraFine 27-inch 5K displays manufactured after February 2017 will be fitted with enhanced shielding.

Either way, this is a frustrating situation for customers who have been told that the wait could be between 5 – 6 weeks until they have stock of the revised monitor.