Why Do People Love the T400 CCFL Display?

[wswartzendruber]

I keep reading posts about how people are buying T400s with CCFL displays. I got the LED. I really like my display. Is there something really awesome about the CCFL? Is it maybe a resolution issue?

[DeAnna]

The WXGA+ displays are rarely offered with the LED backlights. So, for me, and I assume many others, it was a mere matter of availability, and placing a higher priority on resolution than the backlight.

I will say that the more I read, the less convinced I was that longevity or improvement in appearance would be as profound as the press. Mine has yet to arrive, but so far, people seem to have been very pleased with their CCFL backlit screens, so I expect other screen elements have been improved over past models to make them so.

[asiafish]

I believe so. I just set up a T61 14" widescreen WXGA+ and had it side-by-side with my T400 (both machines CCFL) and the T400 does have better color saturation and contrast, while both are bright enough at maximum to be uncomfortable.

Very good display (1440X900 CCFL) on the T400.

[fireserphant]

I was fortunate enough to get WXGA+ with LED backlight. It is brighter than my T60 CCFL was.

The option for WXGA+ with LED backlight is limited on the Lenovo website and is probably in high demand. I got mine through the outlet, so I was lucky.

[zenit]

those of you who are happy with your CCFL WXGA+ panels, which screens FRUs did you receive in your computers? As for WXGA+ LED panels, i've had both Samsung and LG and was not particularly happy with either of those.

[ssd_thinkpad]

As it was not mentioned in this topic, the 15 '' WSXGA+ CCFL displays are said to be the best displays in the T series available today. They have also the highest contrast ratio mentioned in lenovos tabook.pdf.

[Tony Chan]

those of you who are happy with your CCFL WXGA+ panels, which screens FRUs did you receive in your computers? As for WXGA+ LED panels, i've had both Samsung and LG and was not particularly happy with either of those.

I have LG WXGA+ LED with my T400 and I'm pretty happy about it. While it's still not sony type of LCD it's colour is very good and lively and bright enough to use under sunlight ( for the first time ever in my Thinkpad ownership ) and dim enough not to create distributance in a dark room / bedroom. Runs cool to touch, and might have use less battery too.

What don't you like about them?

[zenit]

I have LG WXGA+ LED with my T400 and I'm pretty happy about it. While it's still not sony type of LCD it's colour is very good and lively and bright enough to use under sunlight ( for the first time ever in my Thinkpad ownership ) and dim enough not to create distributance in a dark room / bedroom. Runs cool to touch, and might have use less battery too.

What don't you like about them?

Very poor contast due to crappy black value, horrible vertical viewing angles resulting in very narrow sweet spot (horizontal angles are surprisingly okay). On Samsung the reds were very washed out (no adjusting helped it), on LG the greens are washed out (okay after calibration). Samsung whites were blueish, on LG the whites are somewhat pinkish. Poor black values/contast is one thing that bothers me the most about these panels. Both panels are very poor compared to the CMO in the macbook i have on hand and to my ancient Dell inspiron 6000. Side by side with those two laptops, black on T400 looks gray compared to true black on the other two panels.

[pipspeak]

I've never understood why Lenovo started cheaping out on the displays in the past few years. Why can't they offer a decent display as an option on the T400? Is it a supply issue? If people are willing to fork over hundreds for an optional SSD do they not think people are willing to fork over a bit extra for a good display?

My T61 display is horrible, mainly due to washed out colors and appalling viewing angles, which results in only one half of the display being in the sweet spot at any one time. I worry that nothing on the T400 is gonna be any better.

[ZaZ]

I've never understood why Lenovo started cheaping out on the displays in the past few years.

The prices at which ThinkPads sell is way down. They got to make that up somewhere. Other than IPS screens, the regular ThinkPad screens were never that great anyway, offering poor contrast and limited viewing angles.

[pipspeak]

The prices at which ThinkPads sell is way down. They got to make that up somewhere. Other than IPS screens, the regular ThinkPad screens were never that great anyway, offering poor contrast and limited viewing angles.

I understand wanting a lower selling price but the fact there's not even an option for a better display is disappointing, especially when there are options for other very pricey upgrades (such as SSDs). I bet there are plenty of people who would spend $100 to add an IPS screen on a $700 machine, just as there are obviously people who will spend $200+ to add an SSD to a $700 machine.

[ZaZ]

When FlexView T60s were being sold it was a $250 upgrade. I think the market for a better screen is very small. People lament the loss of quality screens, but haven't shown a willingness to pony up. There's a petition thread here, which I can't find at the moment, saying Lenovo needs 15,000 confirmed orders with CC numbers before they'll even consider offering a better screen. I don't think there's more than 20-30 names on the list right now and that's here where interest in the FlexView screens is probably higher than anywhere else. Where Lenovo has some genuine competition from Dell and HP for quality screens in the 17" notebook space, Lenovo offers the 400 nit WUXGA screen on the W700.

Lenovo claims they're sort of at the mercy of the LCD manufacturer's who make more money cranking out TVs than notebook screens. They say have to take what they get, which is why notebook screens have switched to a 16:10 aspect ratio and 16:9 in the future most likely. It sounds like they don't want to put the effort into making a great product, which is sad, but I don't have enough knowledge of the situation to know whether that's true or not.

[dr_st]

There's a petition thread here, which I can't find at the moment, saying Lenovo needs 15,000 confirmed orders with CC numbers before they'll even consider offering a better screen. I don't think there's more than 20-30 names on the list right now and that's here where interest in the FlexView screens is probably higher than anywhere else.

Not to forget that the original post on Lenovoblogs which spurred this petition said "Well over 15,000 confirmed orders".

[curious]

It is disappointing that Lenovo has chosen to save a few bucks by supplying some of the worst TN screens around. Leaving aside the issue of whether it could supply IPS screens as at least an option, the fact is that the TN screens it uses are crappy even for TN screens. For example, Sony consistently supplies much better TN screens in its business models, with good contrast and decent viewing angles.

I really like the Thinkpad keyboard/trackpoint, but, this screen issue has just about made me give up on the brand.

[ssd_thinkpad]

The strangest point is that lenovos chief designer is using an x300 series notebook for daily tasks It's possible he even does not see a difference between good and bad panels

[Puppy]

I can't imagine to use the X300 at all. I've seen the "display" in real and I'd throw it out of the window in a minute. It is even worse than my X31 one I use as a portable web browser. I don't understand they could find a vendor of such horrible component and got a courage to sell it in their flagship product. Either the Lenovo representatives have never seen it or they gets some better panels. These "old" 15" WSXGA+ and WUXGA TN panels had contrast 400:1 or better at least. This is second major step down in the quality in last few years (IPS -> TN with contrast -> TN without contrast).

[ssd_thinkpad]

It is not even fair to compare the x30 x40 series panels with the x300 panels. The x30 x40 panels play in a complete different league. On my last post I wanted to point out, that even the chief designer does not see any difference between the wort panel throughout the whole thinkpad line (that is the x300 series panel, maybe the x200 are worse, too) and uses from all products the one with the worst panel for daily tasks