Good TN vs Bad TN

[Thinkpad4by3]

How come the TN panels on the T500, W700 and my 11" MBA seem to be completely fine with good colors and decent viewing angles, vs the piles of crap found in the X201, T420, etc. There's clearly something different but I don't know why TN is so hit and miss??

[Ibthink]

Expensive TN vs cheap TN. There was a better breed of TN panels used in some high end models. Another example of this is the T520/W520 FHD screen, which had a great contrast and color gamut. Its viewing angles were not quite as good as IPS, but a lot better than cheap TN screens that were used in the T420.

[RealBlackStuff]

I think that the change from 16:10 (productive, useful, as in T500) to 16:9 (crappy television format) is mainly to blame.
Too many companies started churning out lousy mass-products since then.
And why do we still get slapped around the ears with those useless 1366x768 screens?

[dr_st]

I think that the change from 16:10 (productive, useful, as in T500) to 16:9 (crappy television format) is mainly to blame.

Has nothing to do with it. Rock bottom TN screens plague most 4:3 Thinkpads. And there have always been rather OK TN screens out there - mostly in the desktop sector, but some in the laptops as well.

[ajkula66]

Expensive TN vs cheap TN. There was a better breed of TN panels used in some high end models. Another example of this is the T520/W520 FHD screen, which had a great contrast and color gamut. Its viewing angles were not quite as good as IPS, but a lot better than cheap TN screens that were used in the T420.

Very true.

While it has taken me some time to "warm up" to T520's FHD panel (V4 with custom colour calibration) while I could never get used to *any* panel found on T410/420/s.

[jursky]

While it has taken me some time to "warm up" to T520's FHD panel (V4 with custom colour calibration) while I could never get used to *any* panel found on T410/420/s.

I have both: AUO V4 (Calibrated) in W530 and an LG IPS in X230 and I consider them both being an awesome LCD panels. But I recall that the WSXGA (1680x1050) panel I had in T500 few years ago was also very good (a 60% sRGB TN panel). But then I saw once the HD+ TN panel in a T430 and I just could not look at it. Maybe I am just spoiled.
My brother has Lenovo IdeaPad Y580 with a FHD TN panel (~91% sRGB) and that one is very good too.