Buying a new Thinkpad; display quality questions

[jhh]

My old laptop (15" late 2008 Macbook Pro) recently took a short trip off a desk and now it's time to replace it. I already have a T60p and like it, but it's showing its age. Therefore, I'm probably going to buy either a T410 or T410s (or possibly X201, but the resolution isn't that great).

I've heard a lot of complaints about the display quality on the T410 and the non-FHD T510. I don't use them much outdoors so brightness isn't too much of an issue, but I'm worried that the contrast and color won't be up to par. Does anyone have any thoughts on how the generic T410 1440x900 display compares to the FHD available in the T510 (which I'm avoiding because I like the form factor of the T410 better), and how both of those stack up compared to the matte Apple displays?

[amardeep]

Any idea if the T60p is an IPS display or a "regular" one (if you're not sure, what size and resolution is it) ?

[jhh]

Any idea if the T60p is an IPS display or a "regular" one (if you're not sure, what size and resolution is it) ?

It's the regular one if I'm not mistaken; 1680x1050 resolution with the 256M ATI card in it. It's rather dim and I'm not terribly impressed by the quality of it, but it isn't awful either - just sort of "meh".

[amardeep]

I think you'll get roughly the same, if the T60p is tolerable then I think the T410 will be too. I have used a T61p (14" 1400x1050) and a T410s (14" 1440x900). I think the T410s is slightly better, though not vastly. It's quite nice on web-browsing etc, but like most regular screens (certainly Lenovo's), not great at full-screen video with dark scenes. Overall, OK. A difference you will notice is that the LED backlight means you can get an insanely bright display. I don't know which exact brand of screen I have in my sample. I'm also not sure if the exact same screens are used in the T410 models or not. I was a bit worried given the rumours about dire contrast ratios that made it sound like the T400s/T410s had screens with the quality of washed newspaper, but in my experience that's not the case.