diff --git a/py-polars/polars/dataframe/frame.py b/py-polars/polars/dataframe/frame.py
index c0ef8427cf15f..8c68710e5392e 100644
--- a/py-polars/polars/dataframe/frame.py
+++ b/py-polars/polars/dataframe/frame.py
@@ -2091,7 +2091,7 @@ def to_numpy(
                 a = s.to_numpy()
                 arrays.append(
                     a.astype(str, copy=False)
-                    if tp == Utf8 and not s.has_validity()
+                    if tp == Utf8 and not s.null_count()
                     else a
                 )
 
diff --git a/py-polars/polars/series/series.py b/py-polars/polars/series/series.py
index ed14a8b673f5d..3279eb50c2bc2 100644
--- a/py-polars/polars/series/series.py
+++ b/py-polars/polars/series/series.py
@@ -1098,7 +1098,7 @@ def __array__(self, dtype: Any = None) -> np.ndarray[Any, Any]:
         Ensures that `np.asarray(pl.Series(..))` works as expected, see
         https://numpy.org/devdocs/user/basics.interoperability.html#the-array-method.
         """
-        if not dtype and self.dtype == Utf8 and not self.has_validity():
+        if not dtype and self.dtype == Utf8 and not self.null_count():
             dtype = np.dtype("U")
         if dtype:
             return self.to_numpy().__array__(dtype)
@@ -3289,8 +3289,14 @@ def has_validity(self) -> bool:
         """
         Return True if the Series has a validity bitmask.
 
-        If there is none, it means that there are no null values.
-        Use this to swiftly assert a Series does not have null values.
+        If there is no mask, it means that there are no ``null`` values.
+
+        Notes
+        -----
+        While the _absence_ of a validity bitmask guarantees that a Series does not
+        have ``null`` values, the converse is not true, eg: the _presence_ of a
+        bitmask does not mean that there _are_ null values, as every value of the
+        bitmask could be ``false``.
 
         """
         return self._s.has_validity()
@@ -4051,7 +4057,7 @@ def view(self, *, ignore_nulls: bool = False) -> SeriesView:
 
         """
         if not ignore_nulls:
-            assert not self.has_validity()
+            assert not self.null_count()
 
         from polars.series._numpy import SeriesView, _ptr_to_numpy
 
@@ -4149,7 +4155,7 @@ def raise_no_zero_copy() -> None:
             # note: there is no native numpy "time" dtype
             return np.array(self.to_list(), dtype="object")
         else:
-            if not self.has_validity():
+            if not self.null_count():
                 if self.is_temporal():
                     np_array = convert_to_date(self.view(ignore_nulls=True))
                 elif self.is_numeric():
diff --git a/py-polars/tests/unit/dataframe/test_df.py b/py-polars/tests/unit/dataframe/test_df.py
index 605c36fb57915..086498239ba38 100644
--- a/py-polars/tests/unit/dataframe/test_df.py
+++ b/py-polars/tests/unit/dataframe/test_df.py
@@ -1318,6 +1318,17 @@ def test_to_numpy(order: IndexOrder, f_contiguous: bool, c_contiguous: bool) ->
     assert_array_equal(structured_array, expected_array)
     assert structured_array.flags["F_CONTIGUOUS"]
 
+    # check string conversion; if no nulls can optimise as a fixed-width dtype
+    df = pl.DataFrame({"s": ["x", "y", None]})
+    assert_array_equal(
+        df.to_numpy(structured=True),
+        np.array([("x",), ("y",), (None,)], dtype=[("s", "O")]),
+    )
+    assert_array_equal(
+        df[:2].to_numpy(structured=True),
+        np.array([("x",), ("y",)], dtype=[("s", "<U1")]),
+    )
+
 
 def test_to_numpy_structured() -> None:
     # round-trip structured array: validate init/export
@@ -1336,7 +1347,6 @@ def test_to_numpy_structured() -> None:
             ]
         ),
     )
-
     df = pl.from_numpy(structured_array)
     assert df.schema == {
         "product": pl.Utf8,
diff --git a/py-polars/tests/unit/series/test_series.py b/py-polars/tests/unit/series/test_series.py
index 7f20a3e9da76f..99cfdb6f13913 100644
--- a/py-polars/tests/unit/series/test_series.py
+++ b/py-polars/tests/unit/series/test_series.py
@@ -713,9 +713,15 @@ def test_arrow() -> None:
 
 
 def test_view() -> None:
-    a = pl.Series("a", [1.0, 2.0, 3.0])
+    a = pl.Series("a", [1.0, 2.5, 3.0])
     assert isinstance(a.view(), np.ndarray)
-    assert np.all(a.view() == np.array([1, 2, 3]))
+    assert np.all(a.view() == np.array([1.0, 2.5, 3.0]))
+
+    b = pl.Series("b", [1, 2, None])
+    with pytest.raises(AssertionError):
+        b.view()
+
+    assert np.all(b[:2].view() == np.array([1, 2]))
 
 
 def test_ufunc() -> None: