quality of flexview screen/ video card w/switchable graphics

[winslow]

15.0" WSXGA+ (1680 X 1050) TFT, Flexview Display w/ Wide Viewing Angle


How is the quality of this sceen, is it bright enough for comfortable viewing in well lit environment?

AMD M86M Switchable Graphics 256MB

How good is this video card?

[Marin85]

I assume these specs refer to a ThinkPad, namely T400 or T500 since you posted in this subforum. Unfortunately, no T400/T500 comes with a Flexview screen. The screen you mention is also not 15'' but 15.4'' (wide screen). The screens on T400/T500 don´t have good viewing angles.

It depends on what you understand under well-lit environment. In any case it´s not so bright as the ones with LED backlight on these models, which seems to be the only positive thing about screens on T400/T500.

As for the video card, how good it is, depends very much on what you are going to use it for. Apart from this, the switchable graphics gives longer battery life.

[truk]

I don't have any problem with the viewing angle on mine, I can see it well from either side, above, or below the screen to a moderate degree. If you get the LED backlit, you will get excellent brightness. It is easily viewable in a well lit, not lit, or all too lit environment. I can easily see it in direct sunlight. As for the video card, the integrated gets great battery life, and is ok for everyday tasks. The ATI card has not given me problems graphically in any game I've played yet. It does seem to have a habit of crashing in heavy-duty 3d though.

[winslow]

I assume these specs refer to a ThinkPad, namely T400 or T500 since you posted in this subforum. Unfortunately, no T400/T500 comes with a Flexview screen. The screen you mention is also not 15'' but 15.4'' (wide screen). The screens on T400/T500 don´t have good viewing angles.

It depends on what you understand under well-lit environment. In any case it´s not so bright as the ones with LED backlight on these models, which seems to be the only positive thing about screens on T400/T500.

As for the video card, how good it is, depends very much on what you are going to use it for. Apart from this, the switchable graphics gives longer battery life.

I copied and pasted that spec from a link to a T500:

Processor 1
Intel® Core™2 Duo T9600 (2.80 GHz, 6MB L2, 800 MHz FSB)

Operating System 12
Genuine Windows Vista Business 32

Screen
15.0" WSXGA+ (1680 X 1050) TFT, Flexview Display w/ Wide Viewing Angle

Memory 8
4GB (2 X 2GB) PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz SODIMM Memory

Hard Drive 4
64GB SATA 2.5" SSD Solid State Drive

Optical Storage 5
DVD Recordable 8x Max Dual Layer Ultrabay Slim

Wireless 10
Intel® WiFi Link 5300 (3x3 AGN), Wireless WAN card - Qualcomm

Warranty 7
1 Year Standard

Battery 60
6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (6.5 Hour Run Time)

Features
Carrying Case, UltraNav (TrackPoint and TouchPad)

Bluetooth
Bluetooth w/ antenna

Video Card
AMD M86M Switchable Graphics 256MB

Apparently that is the incorrectscreen or at some time it was possible to order a T500 with a flexview.

So the flexview gives better viewing angles but if I want one that can be easily viewed in daylight (outdoors) then I should look for a LCD backlight instead? Is this correct?

[truk]

Look for an LED (light emitting diode) backlit, LCD is the actual screen (liquid crystal display.) I have no idea on the flexview, but if you can get LED backlit, I'd say do it.

[Marin85]

Apparently that is the incorrect screen or at some time it was possible to order a T500 with a flexview.

So the flexview gives better viewing angles but if I want one that can be easily viewed in daylight (outdoors) then I should look for a LCD backlight instead? Is this correct?

The last T series that came with a Flexview display were T60, which are two generations back. Yes, Flexview screens have much better viewing angles than "normal" (TN) screens. If you want a screen that can be easily viewed in daylight, you should look for one with LED backlight. Just to clarify things: Flexview is actually the name given by IBM/Lenovo to the screens that use a particular type of panel, namely IPS. LED refers to the type of backlight used as light source for the panel (LED="light emitting diod"). If you are concerned about the screen quality (brightness + wide viewing angles), you may want to consider a X200 tablet, which is available with Flexview display and LED backlight.

A side note: Unlike the "ordinary" LCD displays that use TN panels (LCD=liquid crystal display, TN=twisted nematic), the Flexview displays offer great color accuracy and wide viewing angles.

Hope this helps

Marin

[basketb]

I copied and pasted that spec from a link to a T500:

Processor 1
Intel® Core™2 Duo T9600 (2.80 GHz, 6MB L2, 800 MHz FSB)

Operating System 12
Genuine Windows Vista Business 32

Screen
15.0" WSXGA+ (1680 X 1050) TFT, Flexview Display w/ Wide Viewing Angle

Memory 8
4GB (2 X 2GB) PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz SODIMM Memory

Hard Drive 4
64GB SATA 2.5" SSD Solid State Drive

Optical Storage 5
DVD Recordable 8x Max Dual Layer Ultrabay Slim

Wireless 10
Intel® WiFi Link 5300 (3x3 AGN), Wireless WAN card - Qualcomm

Warranty 7
1 Year Standard

Battery 60
6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (6.5 Hour Run Time)

Features
Carrying Case, UltraNav (TrackPoint and TouchPad)

Bluetooth
Bluetooth w/ antenna

Video Card
AMD M86M Switchable Graphics 256MB

Apparently that is the incorrectscreen or at some time it was possible to order a T500 with a flexview.

So the flexview gives better viewing angles but if I want one that can be easily viewed in daylight (outdoors) then I should look for a LCD backlight instead? Is this correct?

You got this description from the Lenovo outlet. They are full of it and known for unreliable descriptions. Believe the description if you want to but you will be disappointed.

Edit: besides the screen, the OS is stated wrongly in the outlet description. It is Vista Business 64 bit.

[gidder]

hey winslow i was looking at the same listing on the epp outlet site which is actually why i did not take advantage of the 25% off sale yesterday to try to find out if there is anyway this could be possible. if this listing is correct (there are about ten of them) the flexview screen is the way to go.

it seems that it would be incorrect but is there any chance at all that they are flexview screens?

the whole led or wsxga+ thing is actually going to make my head explode from all the reading ive been doing. i cant decide which one to pick, the battery saving led or the great resolution of the wsxga+

anyone have any real life experience with both on the t500? any idea of how much battery time you actually save with the led? does the led seem washed out to much and people are just afraid to admit it because there was so much hype of its debut?

any input would be appreciated

thanks

[truk]

On the t400, there is great range and no washing. I get excellent battery life, but I can not guarantee that is due to the backlight (although I would give it a good amount of credit, knowing the technology outside of LCDs.)

[Marin85]

Regarding the Flexview question: NO T400/T500 ever came with a Flexview display. This must be some mistake in Lenovo outlet.

[basketb]

hey winslow i was looking at the same listing on the epp outlet site which is actually why i did not take advantage of the 25% off sale yesterday to try to find out if there is anyway this could be possible. if this listing is correct (there are about ten of them) the flexview screen is the way to go.

winslow was actually quoting the most expensive one as that one has the 64GB SSD drive, not the cheap 100GB 7200rpm HD.

it seems that it would be incorrect but is there any chance at all that they are flexview screens?...

No, no chance whatsoever.

[Marin85]

Considering the fact that the laptop display is probably the biggest killer of battery life, I would say that the LED backlit helps quite some for the battery life. What is more, with a LED backlit one can have any level of brightness of a CCFL backlit at lower settings than with actual CCFL, which would suggest that for the same level of brightness LED drains less battery. Also, comparing two different generations of laptops but with more or less same specs, those with LED backlit definitely seem to exhibit longer battery life.

[gidder]

so i see a leaning towards led

funny thing, you know the live chat the have on their site, two different reps said they would choose the wsxga+ over the led

like i said ive been reading so many pros and cons of both i just may stick with the old dell 8200 to avoid the stress !!!

(not really)

[Marin85]

Well, higher resolution vs. LED backlit is completely different topic Assuming we are talking about T500, I would also go for the higher resolution because of the 15.4'' screen. IMO WXGA+ is poor resolution for such a big screen. It´s pity that they didn´t put LED backlit to the higher res screen (but they did this for W700 with 17'' WUXGA screen, I believe it has about 4 LEDs...), that would have been totally awesome

Cheers,

Marin

[gidder]

thanks marin,

i do know that resolution and led are different topics but i guess i was talking about overall quality of the display.

which goes back to one of my original questions does sacrificing battery life warrant the wsxga+ screen? is it that much better then the led (wxga+) screen so loosing lets say a half hour of battery life is worth it?

and i know thats on a preference basis of what your battery demands are and how much computing your doing but again just looking for hypotheticals

thanks again really appreciate the response

[Marin85]

thanks marin,

i do know that resolution and led are different topics but i guess i was talking about overall quality of the display.

which goes back to one of my original questions does sacrificing battery life warrant the wsxga+ screen? is it that much better then the led (wxga+) screen so loosing lets say a half hour of battery life is worth it?

and i know thats on a preference basis of what your battery demands are and how much computing your doing but again just looking for hypotheticals

thanks again really appreciate the response

Ah, sorry, my fault, I guess I didn´t put myself very clearly. Before I had been talking only about LED, but then you mentioned that one has to sacrifice the LED to get WSXGA, so then I replied to this Considering the fact, that these machines come with switchable graphics, that means in particular that whatever model you get, you will be able to run on integrated graphics when on battery, I wouldn´t say that you will have to sacrifice that much of battery life. What is more, WXGA just looks awful on a 15.4'' screen and I think this is worse than some sacrifice of battery life. I can´t tell by how much the battery life would be reduced with standard backlit, but my speculation would be not more than 1 hour for moderate use (under heavy load I think the difference would be more or less marginal, whereas under extreme power saving use the difference might be even greater) since in both cases one sets the display to quite low settings when on battery. But again, this is only a speculation. So, to sum up, if I was about to get a T500, I would definitely go for the higher resolution. WXGA is IMO simply that terrible for a 15.4'' ThinkPad

Marin

[Mandrake]

Regarding the Flexview question: NO T400/T500 ever came with a Flexview display. This must be some mistake in Lenovo outlet.

I think lenovo loves teasing us.