I decided I'd better give Flexview a try one last time before they are gone forever.
So I ordered a T60p (2623DDU) from PCMall on Thursday (June 7) and received it today, Saturday (June 9).
I read my previous reviews from a few years ago on this site regarding the 15" models with Flexview and pretty much nothing has changed. The 15" Flexview, and yes, it is an IDTech model, has superior color and brightness to my T60 (2623D7U). There is still an uneven, slightly darker patch adjacent to where the WWAN antenna is located on the right side of the display, and the bottom right corner has a slightly darker brightness than the rest of the screen. But if I sit a bit to the right, not quite dead on center with the screen it goes away for the most part, so there is definitely a sweet spot in terms of viewing (having said that, I still plan on sitting squarely in front of the screen, sweet spot be [censored]). And as I pointed out in the past, and has since been verified as a manufacturing trait, not flaw, of the IDTech models, a slightly brighter area, approx. 5-7 pixels in width, runs the entire length of the bottom of the screen. However, this is generally not noticeable once the taskbar appears, but can be seen on bootup or solid color screens. And finally, NO DEAD PIXELS! The screen is beautiful!
The above observed traits are the same ones that convinced me to stick with a 14" screen in the past, as well as I preferred the SXGA+ resolution on the 14" screen being somewhat easier to view/read/use, and the smaller form-factor. And on fast-motion game scenes, ghosting is noticeable. So why am I KEEPING this T60p?
I think I am so used to SXGA+ on a 14" that the move to UXGA isn't as pronounced as it was a few years ago when I thought of changing over. Having run a slew of benchmarks, web surfing, and a few games, I really just don't notice the aforementioned characteristics of the screen. But that may have something to do with being a few years older (despite eyesight) and now being married (pre-marriage I was a lot pickier about things, and now I somehow find myself "reprioritizing" and spending less time fretting over the little things, rather saving my energy for the big battles... lol). So not to say, get married or get older, and the screen issues won't bother you anymore... but...
Rather than write up a whole review as I would in the past, I've simply included my Flexview comments above and benchmarks in my signature. I ran the benchmarks on the Preload with WinXP SP2, turned Power to Maximum and turned off ATI Powerplay, all other settings left at default. It's a nice bump up in speed from the T60 with the X1400.
I've got the 100GB 72K Seagate HDD installed, but I'm receiving a 160GB 72k Seagate on Tuesday that I'll swap. SiSoft Sandra indicated a Drive Index of 46MB/s and Access of 13ms, with buffered reads at 71MB/s and buffered writes at 100MB/s.
Bottom line: If you want the additional screen real estate and overall superior screen quality to the LCD-TN technology, the 2623DDU is the way to go, and it's priced right too. I highly recommend it.
Daniel.