Thinkpads Forum

Is the W500 1920x1200 screen recognized as being really poor?

I currently use a T60p 1600x1200 on a daily basis which has the fantastic flexview screen. I didn't expect the W500 to be as good, but after a few hours I'm considering giving up on the employer supplied W500.

I've played with colours, fonts, and am running at native resolution, but the main issue is any slight movement of one's head (I do tend to move a lot?? !) results in changes in brightness uniformity. The screen also has a shimmery/shiney effect & is very pale. I also wear glasses.

We've got 2 dell laptops at home - studio 15 and studio 17. The former also has a wonderful 1900 screen which whilst small has great viewing angles and brightness. I also have a myriad of desktop monitors and NONE have screens like the W500. It reminds me of an old 760EL with STN screen

Is the W510 any better? I know IPSs are sparse these days, but our home-purchased Dells aren't IPS, and are just fine.

After a few hours working with this machine am seriously feeling far more eye strain than normal

I got my kids to take a look and they had similar feelings.

Am I unreasonable? Or is it really bad? And if so what's better?

(Note - posted initially in the Txx forum in error)

Poor viewing angles, "sparkling" coating and pale backlight: sounds like the WUXGA on my T61p hehe - and I think this is the same display.
Your options would be the WSXGA+ display on W500 which is considerably brighter and does not sport the annoying coating. The viewing angles remain poor though.
Display quality of the new W510 is said to be nice too.

Yes I borrowed a T61 a while back and found it awful too.

To some extent I was spoilt by the T60p flexview, but having said that I had a T2x T4x before (and the 760 770!), and we have a dell studio 17, and studio 15 at home. The latter has a 1920x1080 screen which is lovely. Maybe not quite IPS but very close.

That's what I was expecting from the W500 -- not *quite* as good, but pretty good. I'm now at the point of trying to figure out how to reject the W500 (it's an employer purchase so this will be fun) as it's giving me eye strain. I'm realising it's not just the angle to a reflective shimmer and extremely pale colours too.

*If* the W510 really is a lot better that's potentially good news as it may just be a case of waiting for another batch or two, far easier than trying to argue to purchase a different brand etc. But I know there are several screens -- so understanding the difference & which one is the one to go for gives me a target...

Has anyone else got to the point of rejecting the W500?

Just checked, panel is LTN154U2-L05 (LEN4055) from 2007. Looks to be the samsung panel

The W510 has LED backlighting and has a touch-screen option, which is better than CCFL on the W500. The W700 has dual-CCFL because of the size of the screen. The W701 is purportedly also going to have LED with a Multi-Touch display option.

Let's see what Apple's top-of-the-line 17" WUXGA MacBook Pro will get. Their current ones at least all have LED, and could be candidates for IPS screens for a number of reasons. I'm not that impressed with Mac OS X Snow Leopard on my Thinkpad. However, Windows 7 runs great on Apple hardware. It all depends on what Apple and Lenovo will do with their respective 17" beasts, although the 17" W700 has 2 hours of battery life, where as the MacBook has 8! The W700 weighs almost 9 pounds, and the MBP comes in at 30% less weight.

I'm about to sell my W700 for a nice chunk of cash and temporarily go back to my tricked-out S-IPS T60p. Let's see who gets my $$ come next month.

Another update, I played with the gamma correction. Not on test images, but just using a variety of flickr images comparing to my T60p (regardless of whether the T60p is right or wrong, I'm comfortable with it and it looks like for day-day work)

I was able to get better contrast/colours by going for corrections
red 0.69
green 0.79
blue 0.62

not perfect but far better.

But need to run through lots of other examples. This seems like a huge correction.

i still can't correct for the viewing angle and despite the above changes there's something "grainy" about the Samsung panel, and it's still not *that* bright - with the gamma correction making things worse!

However it might just about be enough.

Having said that I'm having trouble applying the gamma corrections to the correct monitor in a twin-screen configuration, possibly a sw issue ......!

Continuing to try using this, but tending to fall back on the T60p.

from some further research my big problem may actually be the T60p... I've been spoilt by nearly 4 years of delightful IPS screen technology (as is my home desktop monitor) -- and these are the screens I use day in, day out.

Yet no manufacturer is shipping IPS anymore -- there just isn't anything seemingly so good.

I still think the W500 isn't that great, and it's a bit dim, but probably that my expectations are now too high for current business class systems shipping to the masses.

Just like my rock solid metal body'd old mini-DV camcorder, or my (now deceased) metal framed VHS machines now everything gets better with time. In the case of displays cost, power have become more important characteristics than viewing angle, indeed some colleagues have "privacy" features to intentionally restrict viewing angle.

So I'll have to just get on and try to work with it I think...if it gets too dim in a year or two, maybe a replacement panel will come from LG...! And even the W510 has now moved 16:9 instead of 16:10 which is a comprimise in another way

I don't think it was much to do with privacy as far as the viewing angle is concerned. It has been cost IMHO. However, E-IPS has arrived. E stands for "Economy". Basically, I think we'll see IPS return, and Apple may just lead the pack by refreshing its MacBook's with an IPS panel, just like it did the iMac line. We'll find out very soon. Unfortunately, the W701 will not have it, as far as I can tell. It will come out in 10 days or so. Also, I'm sure you've heard of the Apple iPad? It will have a 9.7" screen that is LED-backlit, and it will have IPS! And it'll be cheap, relatively speaking, so...I'm definitely hopeful.

Having said that, I do think that the W510 (successor to W500 series) has a better screen. That's what I've been hearing anyway. The W510 has LED instead of W500's CCFL ---> improvement! It has 270nit brightness, which is higher than the W500 (someone correct me if I'm wrong). It also has 95% of the color gamut on the highest screen option, which is also a Multi-Touch screen. That 16:9 business is pretty darn ridiculous, though. Maybe go 17"?

It sounds like you work in graphic design or something like that...? I'd be interested how you calibrate your display. My W700 has a built-in color calibrator which really makes a difference, but there is still the option to mess with the "color temperature" and "gamma". Then, there is Windows 7 calibration of course, and it has software from NVIDIA. That's too many options for me. lol...

Interesting discussions on all of this screen biz; have been following, wondering how this is all gonna settle out.

As a side note, I'd be curious how much this is going to affect the majority of users, as external monitors are getting so good & cheap that I've gotta think a lot of people will be using those for day-to-day work vs. the laptop screen for occasional/portable usage.

What we see on this forum tends to be much more interested people than out in the real world.

Opinions? I'm not in a position to know general usage on these babies...

And, btw, I'd prefer to see at 16-10 ratio, not the 16-9 being foisted on us via the new model. Kinda cheapening it up a bit, IMO. 'New and Improved' should not include a 10% reduction in width resolution...

Yea, no kidding. I hope the W701 will remain 16:10. Grr.