Thinkpads Forum

WUXGA FHD LED Screens for T510 Expected Dates?

My dad is on top of my head to buy the T510 for him. He has flipped between T410 and T510 several times already

Question now is, does anyone have any sources / updates on when these are / can / will / should be expected?

Can I / should I/ do I have to call Lenovo (Sales line or some other dept) to get the best update?

I'd really appreciate some insight here. I can wait, but my dad needs a clear picture on this.. so either he waits for a bit.. or might have to go for HD+ and miss the FHD.

NClens wrote:Unfortunately, Lenovo is having massive supply issues

archer6 wrote: As of today, I'm finding this to be an industry wide problem. While some laptop makers that sell far less volume than Lenovo still have some HD+, the FHD panels are indeed in short supply. I'm told that May will be the month the supplies flow out to Lenovo and others again.

I second this notion. How long historically has the longest wait time been for a screen? It has already been 6 weeks at least since I have been aware of the shortage.

pufftissue wrote:I second this notion. How long historically has the longest wait time been for a screen? It has already been 6 weeks at least since I have been aware of the shortage.

Was it at all available in the beginning / launch of T510 or has never been available on T510 yet?

crashnburn wrote:Was it at all available in the beginning / launch of T510 or has never been available on T510 yet?

The T510 was released in the third week of Jan 2010. At that time they had all four displays available. I immediately ordered the FHD/non touchscreen, it's a gorgeous display. Just five days later it no longer appeared as a choice. Then two days thereafter the FHD/Touchscreen was also removed. This left only the HD, and HD+ as available choices. Since I buy quite a few new ThinkPads, I check the site twice a week at a miminum. I have a desire to buy a W510 with the same FHD display and have been watching the site every day since Jan 20th. In addition, I've called them five times and each time they say they have no idea when they will be availble. Now going on four months, Lenovo is virtually the only quality laptop maker that does not offer these. Their "reason" is a industrywide shortage. While I'm well aware of this, then why is Sony, HP, and many other able to provide these for their customers? Apparently apathy reins supreme at Lenovo.

Archer6, I would LOVE that screen! Do you have actual measured specs on it, particularly nits, contrast ratio, viewing angles, color gamut? Subjective will do as well. I'm trying to figure out if I need to wait around for the screen to reappear. Who else might already be using this screen so I can google around to find out people's general perception of it? I see on notebook check that it's claimed: 15" FHD (1920x1080) with 280 nits and 95% color gamut. Might this be the same screen that's been praised in the Dell Studio 15, except that the Lenovo one is matte?

pufftissue wrote:Archer6, I would LOVE that screen! Do you have actual measured specs on it, particularly nits, contrast ratio, viewing angles, color gamut? Subjective will do as well. I'm trying to figure out if I need to wait around for the screen to reappear. Who else might already be using this screen so I can google around to find out people's general perception of it? I see on notebook check that it's claimed: 15" FHD (1920x1080) with 280 nits and 95% color gamut. Might this be the same screen that's been praised in the Dell Studio 15, except that the Lenovo one is matte?

The description you have is accurate. I might suggest if there is any way you can wait, that would be prudent. This is a gorgeous display, and one of Lenovo's finest in a very long time. Out of respect to the forum I only list my favorite ThinkPads in my signature below. However that only represents _some_ of the ThinkPads I have and none of the other brands I buy each year for sake of comparison, and to insure that I'm using the laptop that serves me best. Year after year it has continued to be a ThinkPad. Obviously some years and models are better than others, and the FHD display is one of the finest. I have four T60/60p machines all of which I bought new, with 15" 4:3 IPS/Flexview displays. The display that is widely held as the best ever. Compared to the IPS, this new FHD is a truly nice surprise. While it does not have the wide viewing angles, it's contrast, color balance and temps are far and away the best. As nice as a glossy screen may look at a glance or even for an hour or so, I simply cannot live with the glare.

Finally I might ad this, as long as Lenovo has been out of stock on these displays I cannot help but think that sooner rather than later they will appear again. On that note I would also suggest that you do as I am, check the Lenovo site daily and _do_not_ believe what you are told if you choose to call in. Here's an example why. About two weeks after the T510 first appeared as available on Lenovo's site, they were pulled off. Unlike any other company that would leave them in place and simply list them as on backorder, Lenovo just removed them. This not only created a lot of doubt and questions, but overloaded their phone lines with people calling that wanted to place and order only to find them missing. I'm amazed at how poorly the Lenovo web site is run.

I called to check on the status and was told that the T510's would become available in the following six weeks. Well it's a good thing I did not take their word as accurate, as just four days later they were back on the site available again.

The bottom line is this, I'm waiting and I'm sure that if you choose to, once you have your hands on one, you will be very glad you waited.

Cheers....

Thanks for your reassurance. I know that that screen has to come back as well. I just hope that they don't source a screen with the same resolution but inferior in all other ways. It is so hard to find matte screens, and good ones at that. For me, a thinkpad is pretty much the way to go b/c of the build quality and the keyboard and the quietness of the fan.

pufftissue wrote:Thanks for your reassurance. I know that that screen has to come back as well. I just hope that they don't source a screen with the same resolution but inferior in all other ways. It is so hard to find matte screens, and good ones at that. For me, a thinkpad is pretty much the way to go b/c of the build quality and the keyboard and the quietness of the fan.

I'm certain you will be very pleased. The new T510 and W510 models I have are a significant upgrade over my T500 and W500 models.

Cheers...

Is there any likelihood that I can look up a WUXGA FHD model in the Tabook and look for dealers who might have a piece lying around?
Were there any models that had this screen or was it only available on the T510 CTO ones?

I did look it up - The Tabook only has W510's with WUXGA FHD display, no T510s. How is that?

I picked one 4319 2PU

All backordered..
http://www.costcentral.com/proddetail/L ... /11052026/
http://www.costcentral.com/proddetail/L ... /11052027/

http://www.provantage.com/lenovo-43192pu~7LENO1JP.htm
http://www.provantage.com/lenovo-43192qu~7LENO1JQ.htm

http://www.compsource.com/pn/43192PU/Lenovo_1223

One site shows their ETA at 5/11/2010
http://www.shopblt.com/cgi-bin/shop/sho ... ailability

Nice Review:
http://blogs.technet.com/keithcombs/arc ... ughts.aspx

Thoughts & suggestions here.

crashnburn wrote:Is there any likelihood that I can look up a WUXGA FHD model in the Tabook and look for dealers who might have a piece lying around?
Were there any models that had this screen or was it only available on the T510 CTO ones? I did look it up - The Tabook only has W510's with WUXGA FHD display, no T510s. How is that? Thoughts & suggestions here.

Just for clarification there is no such thing as WUXGA FHD, they are two different resolutions.

WUXGA is 1920x1200 in the 16:10 aspect ratio

FHD is 1920x1080 in the 16:9 aspect ratio (Lenovo once offered two versions, regular and touch screen)

If you want WUXGA the only ThinkPad is the W701

If you want FHD it was offered on both the T510 and W510 (I have one of each, non touchscreen) on the day they were released. Four days later Lenovo removed them from the site, and they have not been available since. From Lenovo that is. Many other laptop makers offer them, but Lenovo cites supply issues. While that is a fact to a certain degree, I also believe there is something else going on at Lenovo which prevents them from offering the same FHD display that Sony and many others are offering.

Now going on four long months I called Lenovo _again_ and they now say they have no idea when they will have them.

Thanks archer for the clarification. Thought, I am aware of the FHD / WUXGA difference, I think the above could have used a Slash in between WUXGA / FHD

I went through the Tabook and found the Touch & Non touch W510 models with the FHD.

Can you look up any of the T510s with FHD in the Tabook? Or were they only available for short while on the lenovo site for the CTOs?

I guess, we wait & watch.

I saw the W510 from Tabook at CostCentral.

Aren't there any FHD T510 BEST-SELLERS in the Tabook? Or was that FHD available on CTO only for short while in february? I only found FHD in W510 Best Seller in Tabook

Random thought: can I buy an led t510 and once the fhd 95% gamuit screens are in replace it myself with an aftermarket screen on ebay? I see replacement screen companies on bay selling panels for just about every computer.

archer6 wrote:I also believe there is something else going on at Lenovo which prevents them from offering the same FHD display that Sony and many others are offering.

The same reason preventing them to re-offer high quality displays - cutting the costs as much as possible regardless of losing their customer base. Connecting better gamut with LED backlight only is another good marketing fluff because most of professional monitors still relies on WCG-CCFL rather than LED backlight. Samsung has tried it by XL20 model and failed because the reviews and customer experience wasn't that good as originally expected.

As for these so-called good T510 screens, could someone please take a picture of black color in dark environment. The best would be side-by-side comparison to T60p 15" UXGA. Just to know whether we are approaching the past or not Thanks.

Lenovo charges more for higher resolution screens, so I'm not sure your cutting cost statement makes much sense. The entire industry seems to be dumbing down with respect to resolutions, which is probably why Lenovo, HP and others started using the HD, HD+, and FHD acronyms. This helps them hide the low vertical resolution of their screens.

NClens wrote:This helps them hide the low vertical resolution of their screens.

I thought it was introduced because majority of customers actually want it. If they have to use a strategy to hide it there must be a large customer base located in another galaxy demanding such feature

There is a huge population in another galaxy demanding that form factor.... they are called movie and tv watchers.

TV's drive way more profit then laptop screens. TV's will always dictate manufacturing trends in the industry. Since TV's are all going to full hd form factors and lines are being retooled for it laptops are forced to go along.

infinus wrote:TV's will always dictate manufacturing trends in the industry.

Well, now I can search for a 16:9 digital camera format, including display. Most of digital cameras have better display quality than ThinkPads and still keep reasonable aspect ratio. It must be made for a different galaxy If you ask me what does have digital camera and TV in common I have to reply the same like computer and the TV. But I now I think in an oldfashioned way because I still connect computers more with bussiness or science than entertainment industry. But this era is over with no choices.

It still hasn't explained why there is the strategy of hiding the vertical resolution while the majority of TV and movie watchers (for whom notebooks are made today) is supposed to be keen to buy tons of such products.

Business laptops need vertical resolution, since people usually can read text on a portrait oriented piece of paper much more easily than one which is landscape oriented. So, as vertical resolutions have gone down, I can totally see laptop manufacturers switch to something like FHD. In the old days, they almost always said something like WUXGA with the resolution spec right next to it. Now the ads all just say HD, HD+, and FHD with the resolution stats buried in the fine print if there at all. That's much easier than telling people their vertical resolution just went down from 1200 to 1080.