Is 14 inch SXGA+ 1400 x 1050 screen as good as 15 inch IPS?

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jlingo · #1 Post by **jlingo** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 2:49 am

Now that I understand Lenovo never makes 14inch monitor with flexview, I was wondering whether Thinkpad T60 14 inch SXGA+ 1400 x 1050 screen is as good as the one 15 inch with IPS/Flexview?

The reason I'm asking is because there are a lot of posts talking about the endangered species of 14 inch SXGA+ and encouraging people to hurry get them before the stock is gone?

I'm using T43 with 14inch with 1400 x 1050 and I find the monitor to be bad/worse than my Acer Travelmate 800. It gave me headache and blurry visions after using my laptop for many hours straight. I didn't feel the same way with my Acer Travelmate.

Thank you in Advance

#2 Post by **gator** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 2:53 am

No, but is not all that bad either.

Puppy · #3 Post by **Puppy** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 3:01 am

No, they are pretty bad. Definitely sub-average among other TN panels (low contrast, very bad viewing angles, backlight leakage)

That's why the "get last few FlexView boxes storm" has started here.

Check following links with pictures comapring various T SXGA+ displays:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11221256@N00
http://home.att.net/~murphj/wsb/html/vi ... html-.html

#4 Post by **ryengineer** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 3:33 am

Flexview is definitely better if you take the brightness and reading/viewing angles in consideration.

#5 Post by **RonS** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 7:12 am

Non-widescreen Flexview is in a league of its own. Or maybe I would say "was" it's discontinued due to supply problems.

I saw a 15.4" supposedly "IPS" screen on a new widescreen T60p and it had horrible screen-door effect.

pianowizard · #6 Post by **pianowizard** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 9:38 am

jlingo wrote:I'm using T43 with 14inch with 1400 x 1050 and I find the monitor to be bad/worse than my Acer Travelmate 800. It gave me headache and blurry visions after using my laptop for many hours straight.

14.1" SXGA+ is definitely not as good as the 15" IPS, but I agree with gator that the former isn't all that bad. I had a 14.1" SXGA+ T43 and now have a 14.1" SXGA+ T60 and find both to be good enough. It sounds like your T43 has an unusually bad screen, because I'd imagine that a screen needs to be really bad in order to induce headaches. I normally get headaches easily (due to lack of sleep, loud music, etc.), but have never gotten headaches as a result of using my T43 or T60.

The display driver may give you ways to change certain settings like contrast, brightness and color balance. Have you tried it? Also, are you using ClearType? I highly recommend turning it off.

Puppy · #7 Post by **Puppy** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 9:57 am

jlingo wrote:I'm using T43 with 14inch with 1400 x 1050 and I find the monitor to be bad/worse than my Acer Travelmate 800.

That's my experience as well. The 14" SXGA+ panel is worse than other TN panels (especially having low contrast making overall washed look) even comparing to low-end notebooks like Acer or Prestigio. AFAIK there are three different vendors but the quality equals

jlingo · #8 Post by **jlingo** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 10:12 am

OK I finally went to see T60 with 14inch SXGA+ for myself. and the screen was even worse than my current T43. The whitish backlight is very noticable at the bottom of the screen and completely black at the top of the screen, some sort of gradient. I went to 2 stores to see for myself the two different T60 units and both results were the same.

At least with my T43, pretty much almost the whole screen has a uniform backlight and a uniform blackness from top to bottom.
Oh well I guess I have to really hunt down for Flexiview or I have to say goodbye to Thinkpad

Puppy · #9 Post by **Puppy** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 10:29 am

jlingo wrote:OK I finally went to see T60 with 14inch SXGA+ for myself. and the screen was even worse than my current T43.

Could you investigate (from serial number) what panel is used in the T43 ?

For T60 there are three 14" SXGA+ vendors (Hydis, Samsung and TMD):
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 62784.html

For T43 there are two vendors (Hydis and Samsung)
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 58431.html

From responses here the TMD is probably the worst one.

jlingo · #10 Post by **jlingo** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 11:24 am

Puppy wrote:
jlingo wrote:OK I finally went to see T60 with 14inch SXGA+ for myself. and the screen was even worse than my current T43.
Could you investigate (from serial number) what panel is used in the T43 ?

For T60 there are three 14" SXGA+ vendors (Hydis, Samsung and TMD):
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 62784.html

For T43 there are two vendors (Hydis and Samsung)
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 58431.html

From responses here the TMD is probably the worst one.

Part Number: 92P6760(I got this from Access IBM) - 14.1 INCH LCD DISPLAY FRU
Samsung Brand. Is it supposed to be good?

pianowizard · #11 Post by **pianowizard** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 11:43 am

jlingo wrote:Samsung Brand. Is it supposed to be good?

My T60 has a Samsung screen, and the backlight is very uniform when viewed at a perpendicular angle.

But still, contrary to what many members of this forum have claimed, I don't find the display quality of non-Flexview Thinkpads to be superior to other brands. Many other things set Thinkpads apart from other laptops, but display quality isn't one of them. If you consider the display to be far more important than the rest of a laptop, there is really no reason to buy a non-Flexview Thinkpad.

Puppy · #12 Post by **Puppy** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 1:05 pm

pianowizard wrote:But still, contrary to what many members of this forum have claimed, I don't find the display quality of non-Flexview Thinkpads to be superior to other brands.

Yes, that's why many of us hoped for 14" IPS. How naive it was ... It seems as Lenovo had main focus on IPS panels for better resolutions in the past. Since they have lost them it looks like they are not able to get decent TN panels. And it will probably become even worse with the mickey-mouse-widescreen epidemy

jlingo · #13 Post by **jlingo** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 6:41 pm

Puppy wrote:
pianowizard wrote:But still, contrary to what many members of this forum have claimed, I don't find the display quality of non-Flexview Thinkpads to be superior to other brands.
Yes, that's why many of us hoped for 14" IPS. How naive it was ... It seems as Lenovo had main focus on IPS panels for better resolutions in the past. Since they have lost them it looks like they are not able to get decent TN panels. And it will probably become even worse with the mickey-mouse-widescreen epidemy

Yes, it's ashamed really.
So now what is the next best laptop brands/models as alternative besides thinkpads?

#14 Post by **Kyocera** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 9:48 pm

There is a sticky now for LCD discussions.

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=40808

Is 14 inch SXGA+ 1400 x 1050 screen as good as 15 inch IPS?

Is 14 inch SXGA+ 1400 x 1050 screen as good as 15 inch IPS?

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