(x200 Owners only!) On a scale of 1 to 10....

On a scale of 1 to 10....

How would you rate screen quality SPECIFICALLY related to Watching Videos or Movies.

Comments also welcome.

Thanks!

 

8.5

It's fairly good, but this is a subjective opinion. Since the screen isn't glossy, you won't see your reflection when watching dark movies. Color is average, though can be adjusted using the video player with proper settings.

 

I was a previous owner of the x200 normal.

I would rate it a 3.0, I was unsatisfied with contrast and color (especially in the dark gray and black range).

Conversely, the x200 Tablet is a 9.5 and only loses points to a very small amount of image persistence in fast motion video.

 

8.5 is way too high...

On 10 being PERFECT (which basically means unattainable for a laptop screen to me), I'd say bearable and about what Jon said at 3. But don't buy an x200 expecting amazing video experience. Buy it for doing work on the laptop.

 

Having used the laptop to watch a full movie several times i would say its no more than 6, maybe even a 5. Especially if you use the onboard speaker - volume is quite low on max setting, worse if you put the laptop down on a soft surface such as a bed vs a table, because it will muffle sound. The fact that its a mono speaker never bothered me, as you dont really hear the left/right speakers that much on a laptop anyway. I usually use headphones anyway.

Main annoyance was getting the screen perfectly positioned because of the bad viewing angle which is most noticable on videos when watching from over 4 feet away (vertical viewing angle isnt stellar)... especially if the video has dark scenes or high contrast.

But if you dont really care for video quality THAT much (or else you wouldnt be watching it on a 12" laptop), its decent enough not to be a problem. It does not bother me because i got it primarily for its size, and power/durability second (2.4ghz with 3gb ram packs quite a punch!).

If you must watch video indoors, i would suggest you hook it up to a projector or regular monitor/tv with video out using the onboard VGA or DisplayPort (via ultrabase).

 

8.5 may be high for you guys, but I'm coming from a tx2500z, quite possible one of the worst notebook screens you can get. It was very grainy, reflective, and had bad viewing angles despite being a tablet notebook.

Again, my score is fairly subjective. I don't claim to be a LCD connoisseur, just a bloke who thinks the screen is pretty good.

 

I'll rate it at 4. It's honestly not that bad compared to the old X6* series thinkpad screens.
Also, you may be wasting your time. Lenovo uses screens of many different brands. Depending on the screen you get, you may get completely different experiences.

 

I have a feeling that my screen was a part of the good batch. Anyone have a link to that program to check the manufacturer?

 

Using an x200 at the moment. I'd give it a 6/10. I've had no problems watching vids. Viewing angles are pretty weak. I've owned a Macbook, which has a fairly decent screen and the x200 screen isn't too far off from it.

 

Right now I have in front of me the following displays and rate them from best to worst:

(9) Lenovo L220x (22" S-PVA LCD)
(4) X200
(3) X61s (ultralight LCD)
(2) X60s (standard LCD)

Overall the X200 display is a very poor in comparison to a good quality display and is only very slightly better than previous x-series displays (which are very truly horrid). But this is par for the course in the notebook market. I will cry tears of joy when a notebook (non-tablet) with something other than a TN display is available.

 

Those numbers sound about right, although I'm a little bit surprised to hear that the x60s and x61s were even worse. For me the x200 display was a let down from my old T40 (XGA, unsure of manufacturer) for video despite being brighter. However, the Tablet display is fantastic for video (and everything else) because it is NOT TN.

 

Use everest:

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Info/Everest-Home-Edition.shtml

or PC Wizard:

http://www.softpedia.com/dyn-search.php

 

I'd give it a 6/10, due to the screen quality being slightly lower, but honestly since I used it only for movies, the web, etc it's perfect. If you want to use it for photoshop and web design don't think about it, it's not made for that.

 

Should I cross-post this as a new thread? Maybe it would be helpful?

I wish I had an X6x tablet, an X200 tablet, and an X200s (with LED backlight) for comparison, but I guess this is better than nothing! Jon, do you want to UPS me your tablet? I'm guessing that the tablet displays would be very similar to the S-PVA monitor that I've included so maybe the loss is not too great.

Note that the S-PVA panel is calibrated as per the settings on a panel review website. The three TN displays are at default calibrations because I have not found any settings posted nor do I have a calibration tool myself. With that in mind, the TN panels *may* be able to look better but they are strictly limited by the inherent weakness of TN technology. Regardless, calibrating an LCD is beyond the capabilities/knowledge of most users. Also, all three notebooks have CCFL bulbs which have been used for varying amounts of time and therefore some difference will be due to this fact. The X200 is only a week old whereas the X6x notebooks have an approximately equal (significant) amount of use on them.

Sharpness: I would say that the X200 LCD is slightly sharper than the X6x LCDs, both of which seem quite grainy at all times.

Colour: All of the TN LCDs are horrible. IMO it isn't even possible to rate them from best to worst because they are different shades of terrible. Judge for yourself. Especially note that in reality the photo has almost no blue sky in it - although the notebook displays would make you think that the sky in the background was a very bright blue.

Viewing Angles: all three of the TN LCDs are absolutely miserable compared to a good non-TN panel. Enough said.

White Levels: I'm not a videophile (self proclaimed or otherwise), but I know that the normal measure of a display is black levels. However, for the type of use that a notebook gets, I think white levels are more noticeable and potentially more useful to assess. The photo of the google homepage shows significant differences here: the S-PVA panel looks the truest white to me (and unfortunately my amateur photo skills do not truly get this across in the photo I've posted here so you'll just have to take my word for it). The X200 looks very cool (bluish) white, the X61s Ultralight looks very dim and yellow, and the X60s looks the closest to the S-PVA IMO.

Brightness: The X200 is the brightest of all the notebook displays by a noticeable margin. This is also partly due to the X200 bulbs being the newest by quite a bit.

Black Levels: Judge for yourself here - but in person the results are much more clear. All of the notebooks are terrible. The X200 is the worst and the old X60s with standard display is actually the least bad. The S-PVA panel shows just how bad the notebook displays are.

Overall: The TN panels are essentially useless for even casual photo editing; a user who insists on using them to edit photos will probably make the photo worse. I experienced this myself when a family member used the X61s to edit some photos. When I viewed them on my L220x display they looked alien. This is especially significant for less-experienced users who do not make a backup of the original (untouched) photo and are left with a ruined version.

Watching videos is similarly an exercise in frustration. I find myself constantly trying to adjust the viewing angle of the screen in futile attempt to try to get a descent picture. Watching black and white movies is so bad that I simply don't even consider trying. The contrast and black levels are so bad that I can barely make out what is going on in dark/shadowy scenes and must rely on audio to follow the plot. This is true even for b&w movies encoded at 720p. Totally unacceptable.

My rant: Notebook manufacturers absolutely must yank their heads out of the sand and stop pretending that notebook panels are of an adequate quality as well as perpetuating the false notion that LED backlighting has anything to do with picture quality. I believe users would pay more for notebooks with panels of a good quality if only they were presented with that option. However, this would also require consumers to educate themselves so that they can see just how bad their notebook display is compared to a high-quality non-TN panel. Consumers that write glowing reviews of their notebook's TN panel (I'm looking particularly in the Apple camp's direction here) are suffering from a bad case of cognitive dissonance and only serve to allow notebook manufacturers to scrimp on this hardware. OLED panels seem to be inevitable but are still far too distant to not present other panel options in the interim.

Large display: Lenovo L220x (22" S-PVA LCD)
Left to Right: X200 | X61s with Ultralight | X60s with standard LCD

Colours/Contrast



Horizontal Viewing Angles



White Levels/Brightness



Black Levels



Original Photo (for reference) Sugar Cane in Maui at Sunset

​

 

On PC Wizard, the monitor type on my x200 shows "B121EW03 V6"

Google search shows that it's manufactured by AOU. Also, the original photo posted above looks pretty close to the larger LCD, though slightly less vibrant.

Any clue guys?

 

AUO (not AOU) stands for AU Optronics, a fairly popular LCD manufacturer. I had the same screen in my laptop, it wasn't bad at all.

 

Wow, this was a great comparison. Thank you. It's a pity, you didn't have X200s there as well, I'd love to see it between those.
(some time ago I couldn't decide between X200 and X200s)

 

Well I've got a x200s and that's why I asked.

I was very disappointed with the video quality. Despite angles being poor, I find the picture quality (with videos) blurry. I took a movie file and did a frame by frame comparison with the x200s and my old Dell C640 and the 8 year old Dell had a clearer picture! I couldn't believe it.

So now I'm just asking other peoples experience and trying to find out with 12" laptop (e4200, x200, r500/600) has the best picture quality.

No definitive results yet. :-(

 

up, any news? I'm planning on getting an x200 as my primary on-the-go/office laptop and I'm hoping to be able to at least watch decent movies and view pictures normally with it.

I have a decent 22"inch lcd at home for my photo editing needs;

 

X200s and I'd rate the screen a 5. Terrible viewing angles, poor contrast but it's a work notebook and I can get work done.

 

If you're really serious about either of those on a 12.1" laptop I would recommend you consider modding an x200 with a 12.1" AFFS+ display pulled from a tablet ( see here). Note that this WILL VOID YOUR WARRANTY, so don't overspend on a good protection package.

This mod will give the x200 a very good screen (arguably even better than the SuperBright LED display on my x200 Tablet).

 

Agreed with the majority, the x200 screen gets a 5 at best for watching movies.

 

Thanks; but I don't have accessibility to get my hands on that kind of display. But I will first ask around at local stores.

 

4 or 5 at best

 

They are readily available on eBay for around $200


I wonder if those people that give a high score for the X200 screen have ever seen anything else but TN. Lol

 

There is no way you can rate this screen well. It's exceptionally poor unless you're sitting right behind it. I was watching some futurama last night on my bed and I leaned off my pillow the slightest bit and it became un-viewable.

 

Yes I know. The same here with my T61

According to Dell it's a feature...

 

I have a X200 and I am not thrilled with the screen as others have mentioned. The viewing angle is very small. I have a T61p also and I find that screen to be really good and the viewing angle is what I expected with a TN panel. But not so with the X200 screen. I find myself constantly adjusting the X200 screen so that the screen isn't washed out. I almost never had to do that with my T61p. On low brightness the X200 is tough to look at unless the room is very dark and it seems that setting it to higher brightness helps remedy a lot of the problems(maybe an illusion but the screen looks good on high brightness). So I low brightness I would give it a 5 and on high brightness I would give it a 7.

 

Just means we don't have to buy privacy filters .

 

That's nonsense, because the viewing angles are especially bad vertically. I don't know where the most obsessive eyes are.... on the ceiling and floor or to the left and right...?