Comparison of two X61Ss

[richarddd]

Model with 4 cell slimline battery is much lighter than one with 8 cell extended.

UL is brighter than regular LCD, but seems to have a narrower angle of view and a somewhat different color temperature.

Right palmrest a bit hotter on one than the other.

The last two issues could well be unit-to-unit variations and may be noticeable only because I'm paying a lot of attention.

[richarddd]

I'm not the only one having issues with the TMD screen:

I had the TDM SXGA+ , and was very disappointed. Viewing angles was "fair" in horizontal direction, but down right awful vertically to the point where it was around useless to me (Im a bit picky though). Everything had a slightly blue cast to it too. Contrast seemed a bit on the low side too. Enabling cleartype gave weird red "cast" to certain fonts (most notably in outlook 2003 where I had to change some of the default fonts).

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... iew#262485

The regular screen has a better angle of view, is a touch crisper and a more uniform appearance. With the TMD, I can't find an angle of view so that the top and bottom are as bright as each other or a viewpoint so that the left edge and middle are the same brightness, in each case compared to the regular screen.

The differences are subtle, but alas obvious once you are sensitive to them.

The TMD is brighter, but I usually turn it down to the point it's no brighter than the regular screen.

I'd thought the TMD had a bluish cast (as the other poster suggests), but the regular has a yellowish cast.

I wonder if this is unit-to-unit variation or a common issue with Thinkpad LCDs. I'm guessing warranty repair would claim it's within spec.