M4400 - WUXGA vs WUXGA RGB LED...

I'm trying to make this choice too, have ordered the RGBLED last night on a white Studio 16 but am thinking about changing to the normal LED as I don't photoshop for professional purposes and will be playing a few games and watching movies + photoshopping the shots I take (I'm not a professional photographer, just a keen amateur.

Would get the RGBLED, but have been thinking today that an upgrade of my lenses to include a 70-300mm (thus covering 18-300mm instead of 18-75 + 100mm Macro) would be a wiser choice given my needs.

Would like opinions from LED screen users and camera enthusiasts alike haha

 

RGB LED is superior

I've used both a CCFL UXGA 15" screen and a LED screen on a ntbk for over a year

your best moments are late at night(for editing/collating,etc...)

and thats when you can cut the power usage significantly by lowering the brightness..

as for the glare...I've never been bother by it in daylight.

The key is do you use the system outdoors while traveling frequently

if so...get matte finish...check DellOutlet for help

 

Get the RGBLED screen. I also shoot DSLR and RGBLED on my bro's XPS16 kills the screen on my 15" macbookpro LED. much richer colors (esp when calibrated)
Put it this way you can ALWAYS buy the lens later, but unless you like buying new laptops every year, get the better screen on the laptop.

 

I thought I would post on this thread as I hope I can add a bit to the topic.

I recently bought a refurb'ed M4400. The one I got was a higher end model and included the WUXGA RGB LED screen and non-back lit keyboard. Thanks to some screwy internal issue the display would frequently blank. Rather than try to blindly swap parts Dell elected to simply replace the computer. Their policy is they will provide equal or better in this situation. In general they did. The replacement model has a faster CPU (X9100 vs P8600), second hard drive and the back lit keyboard. However, the replacement has the standard WUXGA screen. So now I have the chance to compare both the screen and keyboards back to back.

Keyboard: The back lit keyboard is back lit. That's the end of the positive. It isn't a bad keyboard but it isn't quite as nice as the other one. The keys are are flatter across the top and have slightly less space between the tops. That is, the pitch is the same but the non-back lit keys seem to be easier to identify by touch. The flatter tops with less defined edges might not bother me after I get used to them. The back lit keys are also mushy by comparison. Conversely the non-mushy keys are a bit on the stiff side. Neither are Thinkpad good. I find my M20 keyboard better than either but not by enough to really care.

Now on to the displays. The RGB LED display does red almost too well! Really, a pure red is like looking at a red LED. On one hand that makes the colors look really vibrant but it can also be a bit distracting. The pictures below do a good job of showing the difference in white tone between the two screens. The gloss finish makes things look really crisp but is a reflectivity issue at times. I think by default the colors on the RGB LED screen are a bit less natural than the CCFL display. However, the CCFL is colder in overall tone.

One of the cool things about changing the LED display's brightness is the way the three LED colors adjust at different rates. If you quickly go from bright to dim the display shifts to a yellow tint as some of the back light colors take longer to reach the new level. When you increase the brightness it seems like blue gets there before the rest. This doesn't mater in normal use but it is kind of cool.

The second picture is of three color bars. In paint I created three rectangles with the primary colors (RGB) on a white back ground. The screens were photographed with a Canon Rebel XT. However I stored and then resaved the pictures as jpgs so some level of color drift will be due to the jpg compression. In the photos when viewed on the RGB screen really don't due full justice to just how dynamic the colors are on the RGB screen. The CCFL screen looks to be more of a brick red. However, had I never had the RGB screen I likely would have judged the CCFL screen to be just fine.

Anyway, the flickering computer has to go back to Dell in the next day or so but I wanted to post this before it was sent off. Hope it helps!


The LED screen is on the right.

 

Let me be the first then to say that you should go for the lens upgrade
The 2CCFL WUXGA is a brilliant screen, not as wide a gamut as the RGB LED screen but MUCH better than your regular WLED screens. I hade my doubts at first because of the uneven backlight seen when brightness is at full and you have a black background but to be honest it's not visible at all during normal use. I typically use the screen at 40% and there's no uneven lighting then. Compared to my external monitors (one H-IPS and a Dell 2709w) it has a VERY decent color reproduction considering it's a TN laptop panel (as are the RGB and WLED screens)

Investing in a good lens is the smartest thing a photographer (semi-pro or pro) can do as it'll give you better material to start with. And consider getting a good external iso putting your money in your laptop. A HP2475w is a very, very good entry IPS screen for instance which will give you an image no laptop screen will ever show you.....plus you'll be working on a much larger screen which is a huge difference for photo work.

and.....for EVERY screen...get a hardware calibration tool (pantone huey pro is a cheap and good solution) if you're even only a bit serious about your image repro. Comparing screen like done above is only the starting point, none of these seem to heva been set up properly in factory nor is that to be expected as every panel is slightly different from the next.

 

A few months ago I finally decided to buy a Spyder3 Elite to calibrate my M4400's RGBLED display and have to say the results were fantastic. Before calibration I couldn't view the display for prolonged periods without getting vision fatigue; colors were over saturated, and I was very close to returning it for the 2CCFL. Calibration fixed all of it, I wish I still had my other M4400 so that I can take side-by-side photos but the results really impressed me and has made the display a real pleasure to work on.

 

I have been working with the WUXGA 2CCFL LG (LGD018F) screen about 6 months and I'm very, very happy with it (vivid colours, sharper text, good contrast and brightness, even backlight...).

Unfortunately, I've had a problem with the screen and a Dell technician has come today to replace it. The new one is a SAMSUNG (SEC5443).

The main differences between both screens are:

- Colours: By default, Samsung screen is more "blue" (cool colours) whereas LG is more "hot" (yellow colours...). Moreover, by default, the colours are more, more vivid in LG.

- The backlight is the same in both screens.

- It seems to me that Samsung is more bright.

I doubt if call to Dell again and ask for a LG screen.

By the way, users of 2CCFL Samsung screen: What is your colour/gamma configuration at Nvidia control panel? The colour reproduction could improve with a hardware calibrator?

Thank you!

-----

Edit: After some hours working with the new Samsung screen, I'm beginning to get vision fatigue...

 

Nice to hear.

Yes, it could. Even for well trained eyes, it's damn near impossible to do a so-called "eyeball calibration". In other words, it's almost impossible for non-trained eyes to realize what much of a difference a real calibration could possibly make.

A good AND cheap calibration hardware would be the Spyder 3. Get either the "Spyder 3 Pro" or "Spyder 3 Elite". Don't buy the Spyder 2.

For a full feature comparison of "Spyder 3 Elite" vs "Spyder 3 Pro", see http://spyder.datacolor.com/s3compare.php If you have no idea what any of the benefits you'd get from the "Elite" version would give you, get the "Pro" version, it is more than sufficient unless you know you'll need some features it doesn't have.

A hardware calibration would ultimately "normalize" color tint and vividness. If you wish to have more vivid colors again after calibration, you can use the Nvidia driver software after calibrating to get a screen that is both vivid and without color tints.

Of course, calibrating will not remove uneven background lighting though.

 

Hi Christoph!

Today I called to Dell Support. I explained that I'm unhappy with the replacement screen (specially about colours vividness and the vision fatigue...).

I've demanded a new screen with the same features and quality as my original screen. Specifically, I've asked for a LG screen. The girl has scaled the issue to his superiors.

I'm waiting for a response...

 

How can you tell the screen from LG or samsung, is there any software can test it?