E6500 WUXGA 2CCFL vs. E6400 WSXGA LED

Hello,

the question is pretty much in the title. I'm thinking about buying a E6500 Latitude with WUXGA 2CCFL display. The comments about the 2CCFL backlight I've read so far haven't been very positive, but I haven't owned a backlight so far and can't decide how serious the possible issues are. I'm mainly working in a text editor on a black background or surfing the web, in particular I'm not doing any photo editing. I'll watch a DVD from time to time but I'm not used to the best display and it shouldn't be too hard to meet my demands when it comes to colors. But of course the display shouldn't suck, displaying wrong colors or being bright at some places and dark at others. And it should be sufficiently bright for working under normal lighting conditions without having to sit right in front of a wall with curtains closed as it is the case with my current display.
The alternative would be a WSXGA display with LED light and I'd probably choose a E6400 instead of a E6500 in this case. But I could also buy it on a E6500.
I'd appreciate any suggestions helping me which display to pick.

Thank you very much.

 

As far as the backlights go, either would probably suit you fine. If battery life is a priority, a LED screen draws less power.

However, one word of advice: WUXGA (1920x1200) on a 15-inch display makes all fonts etc small. I mean REALLY small. Have you ever seen such a display? If not, first go to a store and ask them to show you a 15-inch display running 1920x1200. In Vista, you can compensate reasonably well that using Vista's built-in DPI scaling, but it doesn't perform miracles.

 

My WUXGA screen made me realize at some point that I need goggles. I didn't realize I needed some since I was so used to it. Now that I see the world in a "new" light, there is nothing better than a WUXGA screen (again) . I have my laptop since 5 years now. It needs some getting used to but I don't want to miss the advantages of better productivity and overall overview.

 

It's true that you can and you will get used to smaller fonts over time. For example, I used a 1024x768 13-inch display for several years and recently changed to a 1440x900 14-inch display, in which the fonts are considerably smaller. It took a while (one or two weeks) but now I am perfectly comfortable with the font size, even though I have a minor astigmatism and don't use glasses.

To the original poster: if you have good eyesight, the WUXGA might suit you and it is a great way to have two windows side-by-side.

 

Leaving 147 PPI screens (such as 15.4" WUXGA) at software factory settings optimized for 96 PPI screens makes no sense at all. Of course the wrong PPI software settings hurts the eyes, etc! The fact is that any image (including text) on a higher-density PPI screen is always easier on the eyes than a lower-density PPI screen, as long as the software is properly set for the hardware (all other things being equal). A good printed book is even easier on the eyes than a monitor of 147 PPI - as long as the print face is big enough.

 

I fully agree. Unfortunately, Vista is still not perfect in this respect, although it is considerably better than XP. I used some DPI scaling when I first started using my new E6400, and some text appeared outside of its dialog boxes etc.

To the original poster: screens are usually a very subjective matter. I think the E6400 with WXGA+ is great. And honestly, I have never even seen WUXGA on a 15-inch screen, although I can imagine it is small. Hence my recommendation to try it first.

 

I have the E6500 Latitude with WUXGA and at first wondered if it's the screen for me. After using it for a week I couldn't go back to a lesser resolution. It really makes multitasking easier.

I'm not sure what backlighting issues you're talking about but I don't have any. As far as color rendering, EVERY display device needs calibration to correct it.

 

Thanks for the replies. But I'm worrying about the backlight rather than the resolution.

Kayless: So you have the 2CCFL backlight and you don't experience uneven lighting (bright stripes at the top and the bottom of the screen) or a washed out look? That sounds very promising.

 

I now use Ubuntu 98% of the time, and don't have any problems at all. I also use XP, which I have customized through advanced settings (menus, dialogue boxes, etc), plus dpi change etc, and don't have problems there. The one or two individual programs I have seen that have unreadable menus etc I can fortunately avoid. I can read and write on 15.4" WUXGA day and all night (and often do) with no eye strain, which I can't do on more average PPI screens.

 

2CCFL should be fine in terms of screen quality and brightness but will come at the cost of battery life. Using one LED versus 2CCFL is quite a big difference in power consumption.

There's also the fact that CCFL gradually dims over time, whereas LED stays relatively constant. There's the other small detail where the CCFL will require inverters while the LED doesn't require inverters, so swapping out the CCFL screen with an LED in the future isn't easy.

As for going to an E6400, you should know that there is a pretty considerable difference in display quality between an E6500 screen and a E6400 screen. The 14 inch display panels have a much smaller viewing angle and much less contrast than the 15 inch display panels.