I've got a T60p with 1600x1200 IPS that I've been nursing for five years, waiting for an acceptable screen to come out. Got my eye on a W520, but I wondered if anyone has upgraded to W520 from my screen, and if they had comments on how acceptable the W520's is.

After using the T43p and then the T60p UXGA for three years as my main ThiinkPad I switched to a FHD W510.

In my opinion the FHD display is a worthy replacement. The W510 display is much brighter as I rarely have the brightness above 8/15. The color reproductioin is not quite up to the Flexview standards I was used to. I still use the T60p about 5% of the time and am still amazed by the Flexview LCD.

In summary the evenly lit LED display does a fine job for my use and I recommend it.

Brad

I concur with this. I made the transition from T60p to a W510 and W520 with the FHD display. I give mine a little more gas (13 of 15).

Not only do I miss the Flexview display quality but really miss the 4:3 screen size. Its so much more "programmer friendly". With Codewright I'm maybe going to get my two-horizontal-windows with 6 lines of code in each.

To gain a small amount of vertical space I moved the task bar to the right vertical. I like the extra vertical pixels.

Brad

Is it true, that all the W520/T520 with FHD panel, are always an IPS/Premium/high gamut panel?
(Been into IPS panel lottery ticket thingy for Dell 2007WFP, years ago)

For example, this is what I got from lenovo site :
ThinkPad W520 (4276-2QU)
i7-2720QM(2.2GHz) 4GB RAM 500GB 7200rpm HD 15.6in 1900x1080 LCD 2GB Nvidia Quadro 2000M CDRW/DVDRW Intel 802.11agn wireless WWAN option Bluetooth Modem 1Gb Ethernet UltraNav Secure Chip Camera 9c Li-Ion Win7 Pro 64

Is it an IPS panel or maybe High Gamut RGB-LED TN ?

No. None of these panels are IPS or AFFS.

Sorry to hash up an old topic but recently a seller on ebay was telling me that FHD on the W520 was IPS. Actually it is the next generation IPS screen. Can anyone clear this up? It seems that IPS and FHD on other Dell and HP forums are making the same claims.

If it isn't IPS then what is it? Just FHD?

Thanks for your time.

The FHD panels offered in the T520/W520 do have a good contrast ratio and are brighter than the old T60 FlexView panels, but they're not IPS or AFFS. The only 15" models I'm aware of with IPS options are the HP 8560w, Dell m4600, the Envy 15 and the Sony Vaio SE. If you want an IPS screen those are the one that have it.