Dell M6600 IPS Panel Review

This is not the whole review. I am still working on it. I did however want to share 3 test pictures from the review a little early. Will be editing this post as I add the actual review.

These are the ACTUAL IPS PANEL on an M6600 showing a picture of the guitar, right in front of the real guitar. This is NOT simulated. I took a picture of each guitar with the camera on a tripod, then loaded up the pic on the M6600 and put the laptop in front of the guitar. I then took another picture of the M6600 and the guitar.

These 8 bit sRGB jpg files don't even come close to showing the colors in the actual pics. The red is especially desaturated by having to save for web. The actual review will include 16 bit images.

What you can see is how close to "real" the colors are on the screen. Just awesome.

Remember, these are just test pics. Room lighting is throwing things off white balance when I take the picture of the picture.

First up - 97 Les Paul.



Second, 09 Telecaster



Third, 84 Charvel Model 3a.




Let me start out by saying that the colors on this panel are simply amazing. I don't know if it is the IPS panel itself, the fully 10 bit system, or the wide viewing angles. I expected it to be similar to the RGBLED TN panel in the M6500 and was wrong. The IPS panel in the M6600 really is on another level.

The panel takes a long time to warm up. The color temperature will shift a lot in the first 15 minutes and continue to shift for 30 minutes. This is typical IPS panel behavior, but people new to this may not know about it. If you own a Dell U2410 monitor, you will see the same behavior. Any measurements need to be done with the machine running in a controlled environment with steady temperature and ambient light. I personally am waiting 90 minutes before I start measurements.

Color temperature does seem to shift with brightness. It is close to 6600K at full brightness and falls to 6500K around half brightness. This means that you will need to have calibration curves for each of the brightness levels that you will be working with.

The brightness of the middle 3rd of the panel is brighter than the top and bottom 3rds. The center of the panel measured 302 cd/m2. The top was 289, The bottom was 296.

Max Brightness - 302
Black Point - .31
Delta E - 0.7
Gamut (Adobe RGB) ~110+%

Here is the the Gamut I am seeing currently. Red is the M6600 and Purple is AdobeRGB:



I can definitely say with certainty that the IPS panel in the M6600 is better than the RGBLED TN panel in the M6500. While they do have very similar color gamuts, the Samsung panel in the M6500 tended to "glow" more in the reds and greens.

Here is how the U2410 H-IPS Desktop monitor measured:


These measurements are very close to the ones Xbit Labs took - http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/monitors/display/dell-eips-roundup_7.html#sect0 - so I will assume that these tests have a standard, are verified by 3rd party measurements, and are sound.

One very important thing to realize is that while the color gamut of the M6600 WLED backlit screens only covers sRGB, it does a really good job at completely covering it. If you look at some of the other monitors measured on the Xbit labs page you will see that many desktops don't do as well. Even the Dell U2410 does not cover sRGB as well. These are actually good measurements.

M6600 Touchscreen color Gamut:


M6600 WLED FHD color Gamut:


M6500 RGBLED color Gamut:

 

Great review. Thanks! I have the IPS screen on my M6600. It is just at good at my Dell U3011 IPS monitor. It's the best screen I have ever had on a laptop.

 

review make me wants one of this screens))

 

Awesome! +Rep
Love the first 3 pictures
If only you can compare the IPS m6600 vs 8760w DreamColor2 from HP then it'll be completed.

 

There is a LOT more to compare to finish this review.

Many more measurements
Compared to WLED M6600 in photos
Compared to M6300 CCFL in photos
Compared to 15.6" LG WLED in M4600
Viewing angles of IPS screen
More guitars that are properly shot

Still trying to get my hands on an 8760w to test, but no one here has one. I did compare the M6600 to the Anandtech review measurements and the only spec where the 8760w was better was overall max brightness.

 

Which panels were used in the Touchscreen and WLED measurements? Or are the LG and AUO panels so close it doesn't matter?

 

AUO in the Touch and non-Touch WLED measurements. The RGBLED IPS panel is an LG. The M6500 had the Samsung RGBLED TN panel.

My understanding is that the LG and AUO have to meet the specs laid out by Dell and one of those specs is 72% or better NTSC color gamut coverage. That 72% fully covers sRGB.

 

Thank you. I didn't realize the touch panel was ~13% darker with the same panel, but it makes perfect sense. Too bad I play games or I would spring for the IPS panel. I would miss the touch screen but I think it would be worth it.

 

Thanks for the comprehensive review - especially the color calibration measurements. Those really ARE lovely and helpful - more than Dell's "100% AdobeRGB compatible" marketing lingo. Seeing is believing.
I also found your measurements of the top and bottom screen brightness to be of great help - it proves how equal the screen is lit. Are you considering taking measurements also in the edges regarding brightness? Not just top and bottom? Those would be really really helpful.

The warmup times are a bit sucky though for professionals who need to get to work on images and not want to wait for a screen to stabilize. That's where expensive desktop displays (like Eizo) show superior performance.

 

And the M6400 had the LG RGB LED TN panel.