Thinkpads Forum

My old T42 display is getting much too slow. I am thinking of replacing it. Which Thinkpad has the best screen for photography?

While not perfect, the Flexview display of my T42 has very good viewing angles, unlike what I see in the stores where colours wash out if I move my head up or down ever so slightly.

Get a Frankenpad (15" T60 with 14.1" 4:3 T61 motherboard and UXGA LCD).
See the T6x forum for lots of info.

dantor wrote:My old T42 display is getting much too slow. I am thinking of replacing it. Which Thinkpad has the best screen for photography?

If you decide not to go with a Frankenpad, another option to consider is whatever Thinkpad meets your needs + external monitor. A nice 24 inch IPS panel can be had for $240 or so (1920-1200) recently via sale at Dell (for example). Of course your needs may be much more high end at which point you can get whatever you want and connect it to the Thinkpad (via a dock or directly).

Then you'd just need a "good enough for mobile use" display in the Thinkpad. Yes, it's a little more expensive, but works for me for programming. Good luck.

RealBlackStuff wrote:Get a Frankenpad (15" T60 with 14.1" 4:3 T61 motherboard and UXGA LCD).
See the T6x forum for lots of info.

Thank you for the info. If I understand correctly, a Frankenpad is a laptop built from different parts. That sounds too complicated for me.

wolfman wrote:
If you decide not to go with a Frankenpad, another option to consider is whatever Thinkpad meets your needs + external monitor. A nice 24 inch IPS panel can be had for $240 or so (1920-1200) recently via sale at Dell (for example). Of course your needs may be much more high end at which point you can get whatever you want and connect it to the Thinkpad (via a dock or directly).

Then you'd just need a "good enough for mobile use" display in the Thinkpad. Yes, it's a little more expensive, but works for me for programming. Good luck.

A Frankenpad seems too complicated to build for me.
A laptop with a good display is sufficient when I am travelling. So far, I have not seen any.
Luckily my old T42 with Flexview is still working although too slow for my liking.

It's a generally held opinion that IPS displays are the way to go for photography. Dell's Ultrasharp series are all renowned for their performance in visual work, as well as HP's ZR series. So if you want an external monitor, look to the Ultrasharp, or for a laptop, some of the HP would do.

There are no modern ThinkPads (unfortunately) that fit your needs. But...a Frankenpad does not need to be complicated. You don't have to build it yourself, there is at least one fine example in the market place section of the forum right now. More than one, if I recall.

The only modern ThinkPad with IPS display (which is what you need to get good color accuracy independent of viewing angle) is the X220 or X230. Unfortunately, they have a rather small 12.5 inch 16:9 display with a low 1366x768 resolution. Other than that they're very nice and powerful machines with fast, full voltage CPUs.

yak wrote:The only modern ThinkPad with IPS display (which is what you need to get good color accuracy independent of viewing angle) is the X220 or X230. Unfortunately, they have a rather small 12.5 inch 16:9 display with a low 1366x768 resolution. Other than that they're very nice and powerful machines with fast, full voltage CPUs.

Advantage with both of course is that they can be hooked up to a decent IPS display (>=24") which gives one the best of both worlds.

To be honest I do most of my photo editing with my X220 docked, with photos stored on a HDD in the UltraBase, so the point is perhaps moot (although I've explored the option of using a USB 3.0 HDD).

External monitor (NEC, Eizo) is the way to go. All ThinkPad's IPS panels are 6 bit only.

Thank you all for your suggestions.
At home my desktop is connected to a NEC LCD2690WUXi2. On the road, I just want a laptop with a decent display and a good viewing angle. I will do more checking in stores, and if I don't find any laptop that satisfies me, I hold on to my T42 with.

You could move on to a T60/p with an IPS FlexView display. They would most certainly be significantly newer and faster than your current T42.

That being said, these are about 5 years old now, so some cherry-picking is required.

You're not likely to find anything that fits your needs in the stores. I usually die laughing at what's on display...

Happy hunting.

ajkula66 wrote:You could move on to a T60/p with an IPS FlexView display. They would most certainly be significantly newer and faster than your current T42.

That being said, these are about 5 years old now, so some cherry-picking is required.

You're not likely to find anything that fits your needs in the stores. I usually die laughing at what's on display...

Happy hunting.

I too get a laugh going into a store and "doing the chicken dance" in front of all those aligned laptops. It's easy: walk long the display moving your head up and down, and watch those super bright screens wash out.

dantor wrote:On the road, I just want a laptop with a decent display and a good viewing angle.

Then X220/X230 is a good option if you can live with limited vertical resolution 768 pixels.

The cheapest solution would be the 15" 1600x1200 IPS T60p as suggested by ajkula66. While it's getting old, it's still much faster than your T42. If you are willing to pay more, Vizio's 4.0-lb CT15 with 15.6" 1920x1080 IPS is worth looking into. Another option is Sony's SE series (now called S15 I think), which also has 1920x1080 IPS and weighs just 0.4 lbs more than the Vizio.

The Samsung Series 9 might be worth a look if you want something small with a good screen. It's an ultrabook and brings with it all the ultrabook limitations like smaller non-replaceable battery and no upgrades, but the HD+ PLS screen is quite nice.

Reviews including real display parameters, IPS/PLS models only

Lenovo ThinkPad X230 2306-2AU
Lenovo Thinkpad T60p UXGA
Samsung 900X3B-A01 (Series 9)
Sony Vaio VPC-SE2M9E/B
Asus Zenbook UX32VD

Sorry for getting back so late. With school starting ...

However I have done my homework following the advice that everyone gave me. Thank you.

There are many different things to take into consideration. I went to stores. I checked the websites of manufacturers and even called them (Lenovo the most informative). For now the short list is:
Lenovo -- X230
Asus – UX32VD
Sony -- SVS151190S

Besides, speed, drive and graphic card, among the main considerations are resolution and technical support.

Lenovo’s next day on site extended warranty seems the best.

As far as resolution is concerned I would have to compare in a store Lenovo’s 1366x768 resolution to Asus 1920x1080 in a 13” display and to Sony 1920x1080 in a 15” display.

More homework to be done.

dantor wrote:As far as resolution is concerned I would have to compare in a store Lenovo’s 1366x768 resolution to Asus 1920x1080 in a 13” display and to Sony 1920x1080 in a 15” display.

You probably won't find the X230 in a local store but the Asus and Sony should be easier to find. In terms of size and resolution, the closest thing to the X230 would be a 13-incher with 1366x768. Be sure to spend a significant amount of time on each machine, not several minutes but at least an hour, doing all sorts of things like surfing the web, typing a document, fiddling with DPI settings, mouse pointer speeds, etc. etc.

pianowizard wrote: You probably won't find the X230 in a local store but the Asus and Sony should be easier to find. In terms of size and resolution, the closest thing to the X230 would be a 13-incher with 1366x768. Be sure to spend a significant amount of time on each machine, not several minutes but at least an hour, doing all sorts of things like surfing the web, typing a document, fiddling with DPI settings, mouse pointer speeds, etc. etc.

You are right, it's impossible to find the X230 in a store. I plan on going to a couple of stores with files on a USB key in order to check the resolutions.

There is a comparison between the resolutions of the X230 and the Asus here: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Asu ... 591.0.html unfortunately I don't understand it.

Most browsers, office suites, PDF software, etc., have the ability to make text smaller, which somewhat has the same effect as having a higher resolution screen.