D630 questions

Greetings,

For months I have been debating between the D630 and T61 for uni, but after reading posts on both for hours and hours I am highly considering the Dell.

I just have a couple questions for all the D630 owners out there.


How good is the screen?
(clarity, brightness, color saturation, viewing angles; I have read all the the 14" are not that great)

How is the light leakage?
(I would like to get a better idea b/c there are conflicting reports)

How is the battery life with the integrated graphics card vs. the nvidia quadra?
(There are some conflicting posts here. Some say very good still with dedicated some say avg; I might do a little light gaming in the future so a dedicated would be nice but not necessary if it eats up too much battery life)

How is the battery life using a 120GB 54000rpm vs 7200rpm?


Just want to say thanks in advance and keep up the good work guys.

 

I've had me d630 for about 1 month now. im also using it for uni.
screen :
1 dead pixel. the light leakage is pretty bad. but when theres no blacks it's not as noticable. so when using windows for actual studying doesn't pose that much of a bother.

watching videos is tolerable.

i've got a 1440x900 screen.

5400 rpm, 9 cell, x3100. roughly 6 hours with surfing the net, IM, wifi on, brightness 1 notch below max. max is freak'in bright, i dont even use max brightness outside in the shade.

other than the craptastic screen, it's brilliant. fantastic battery life, weight is about 6~ish pounds i suppose, i havn't actually weighed it but thats how it feels for me. it's about the weight of my calculas textbook.

 

I've also had my D630 for about a month...I love it!

I have the WXGA 1280 x 800 screen...it's great! Very clear and crisp, and very little light leakage. The vertical viewing angle could be a little better, but that really doesn't bother me too much.

I have the Nvidia Quadro graphics, 80 gb 7200 hd, and a 9 cell battery...I get right at 5 hours battery life with wi-fi on...I do turn up the brightness some from the default settings, so I could probably get even better battery life if I left it at the default.

Hope this helps! Good luck with your decision!

dordale

 

I've got the 1440x900 screen and I would say the viewing angle is narrow but manageable.

To put it in context, on my desk its great. On a plane or a train its a bit of a pain -> very big pain if someone reclines their seat! So it depends on your context.

I'm trying to get the dang thing calibrated. My viewsonic/sony/etc lcd look great but the CMO screen on the D630 makes everything look blue.

Battery life is good with 9-cell battery & 5400 RPM drive - haven't used it on a long flight yet.

 

Oops. Double post

 

You can see the specs in my sig. I get about 4.5 hours battery life with wifi off and the screen on half brightness. I have the CMO screen. It's got a good bit of light leakage, but I only notice it when it's a pure black screen. I haven't watched movies on my computer so I'm not sure what it would look like then.

 

Thanks for all the input guys. I really appreciate it.

dordale: it seems the WXGA screens from your post and the others I have read are much better then the WXGA+. Its too bad I really need the higher res for spreadsheets. You got some really good bat life w/ your Quadro.

dragonchi, jso, ge_off: The light leakage is the only thing holding me back from buying the laptop.

I watch a lot of media from my laptop so its rather a concern. It seems the CMO screens have not gotten as good a review as the AUO. I wonder if there is a way to get the AUO screen when I order.

I'll prolly go for the X3100 for battery life based on the input you guys have given me as well as the other reports I read.

If anyone else wants to chime in, please do. Thanks again!

 

omph--

I do a lot of spreadsheet work on my laptop as well...Excel is almost always open on my laptop. For my purposes, I find the 1280 x 800 resolution to work well. At 100%, the screen fits 19 columns and 36 rows. Zooming to 87% still provides a clear view and then I can fit 22 columns and 41 rows on the screen.

dordale