Which T4x0 has the best screen?

[FragrantHead]

You might say it all depends on what you want, so let me narrow it down in order of priority:

(1) High contrast, low black-level.
(2) I'd prefer 1280x800 over 1440x900 (better for my eyes).
(3) Matte screen.
(4) Vertical viewing angles that aren't complete crap.
(5) High brightness is not essential.

I got a T410s multi-touch recently, which turned out to be the antithesis of the above:

(1) Highest black-level and lowest contrast ever. Less than 100:1 according to Notebookreview.
(3) Slightly glossy, probably on account of the touch-screen overlay.
(4) You can calibrate the colour, but the viewing angles are so crap that the top of the display will look slightly purple, while at the same time the bottom will look slightly green when looking head on.

I get the feeling this display must be the worst of the worst; it's the Toshiba/M a t s u s h i t a, not the Samsung, by the way. According to Notebookreview the standard T410 1440x900 display has slighly higher contrast at 137:1 and, in particular, a lower black level. Could anyone corroborate? Has anyone been able to compare these with the 1280x800 displays?

I love the keyboard more than any other (Thinkpad) keyboard I have used, but i hate the screen in almost equal measure. This was supposed to become my daily-work-machine for the next years, but I don't know what I'm gonna do. Windows 7 is driving me a bit nuts as well. I find it a complete mixed bag, two steps forward, two steps back in many ways. I will probably revert back to familiar old XP (would need XP mode anyway for some of my software), hence the preference for a lower DPI display.

[Navck]

1. Good luck. (Not happening)
2. Which means the LCD makers will more or less likely laugh at you and supply you a sub mediocre panel.
3. That is always an option.
4. Define "complete crap", I think the 20ish degree angle I have is great.
5. Mmm, it is for me, want to trade for my T43's messed up Flexview panel? Can't be used outdoors, has pressure marks in the bottom right corner but it comes in SXGA+ and it has super black levels.

[FragrantHead]

Fair enough, but I'd still like to find out which is the best of the bad bunch. I got a 13" Macbook last spring and the screen is not great. Apple reportedly changed the panel for a much better one shortly after I bought mine. From reviews it seems the panel I got is rated at 166:1 contrast. It is far from a good panel, but it's still got a noticeably better black level and there's none of the color shift I get on the T410s. I could live with it (but I can't live with the Macbook keyboard).

[GrandMasterKhan]

U R better off with the WXGA+ on a 14" screen and zooming it ot 125% in Office Apps and IE so you get better real estate on the desktop and the choice of size in usage.

[FragrantHead]

Nope. Not me. You maybe, but not me. I know how to zoom. IE and Office are by no means the only applications I run. Is that all you do? Take ESET Anti-Virus / personal security as an example, only 1 example. Say you want to edit a firewall rule. Well, the dialog does not scale. Not even under Windows 7. Actually I've been quite aghast at the number of dialogs that still don't scale in that OS, regardless of Windows font / DPI settings, even though Windows 7 is of course much, much better than XP at that. Ever tried to work with Oracle? The whole screen / rendering system, installers / database tools etc., is written in Java - Windows has no control over it - and quite often extremely fiddly. A colleague got a full HD laptop at 13". He says it's no problem. I can only use it, because I know what the Windows menus look like from experience. I have a driving license, by the way, but my eyes simply aren't that good to work with high DPI comfortably all day as long as not everything scales properly. Please don't argue the point. You have better eyesight than me? Fair enough. Just don't tell me what display resolution I should get.

P.S.: The Thinkpad zooming feature is horrible! If you ever want to examine ClearType (or non-ClearType) anti-aliasing artifacts, use it for that. Otherwise it's simply not very good.

[Harryc]

I have no problem with the resolution or contrast on my T410, but I have never seen a T410s so I can't compare. I have the 14.1 WXGA+ TFT, w/ LED Backlight

[Navck]

For reference, the T410 may or may not use a "LP141WP3-TLA1 "
I however, cannot find expect specs for that panel, but a closely related model...
http://www.lgdisplay.com/lgdhp/eng/prod ... v?seq=1143
"LP141WP2"

So practically... That is what the T410 "may" have spec wise.

[FragrantHead]

Thank you Navck. I know it's only a maybe, but any detailed technical info on panels is so hard to find. I went to the local repair shop who advised that they swap out only like for like and everything else would be a lottery. Sadly they seemed to have no interest beyond their established business.

[Navck]

Well if you drove you car (Lets call it a Saab 9-5) to the repair shop and asked them to swap your transmission from an automatic to a manual then asked them to turbocharge the car... I think they'd give you some stares, too. (Seeing some of the steps involved would also replace the ECU, possibly some mounting...)

However! You're in luck if you do it yourself.
http://www.lenovoservicetraining.com/io ... index.html
http://www.lenovoservicetraining.com/io ... index.html

What you'll be doing, is not following the exact steps of those videos, instead:
Remove the LCD bezel, remove the LCD mounting rails from the lid. Remove the cable AND THEN remove the rails from the LCD.
That is, if you're working on the T410.
I am not sure how the T410s works, but if its anything like the T400s: Remove the LCD bezel, remove the LCD cable, remove the LCD.

Tadaaa, now you go find the dimensional specs of the panel followed by the power draw and connector specs.