14.1" T61 Screens Good Or Bad?

I've decided to return my 15.4" T61.

If Lenovo will eat the 15% restocking fee, I will order a 14.1" widescreen T61.

I prefer the standard screen form factor (4:3). However, it seems that these screens are only 150 nits and I've read many complaints about dimness/low screen quality, so I scratched this off the list. I'm also guessing these have a lower contrast ratio?

So that leaves the 14.1" Widescreens. My understanding is the WXGA is 180 nits and WXGA+ is 200 nits. Both have the same contrast ratio of 300. I lean towards the WXGA since I prefer larger text vs. more space. I'm hoping the WXGA at 180 nits would be bright enough. Again, I've heard many complaints about these screens, too.

Any 14.1" Widescreen WXGA owners out there with crisp text and vertical viewing angles that aren't too bad?

How about WXGA+ owners, how do you like your screen?

Crisper text is my main concern. If I can get crisper text on the WXGA+ this will convince me. Or if the vertical viewing angles are better this will convince me. Has anyone had both and compared these screens?

 

I have the one that you scratched off from your list, and will not change it what so ever. And it has the so called "bad" TMD screen, lol.

widescreen sucks, unless you plan to watch movies only ..

 

I have not compared those two resolutions but I did post pictures of the 14.1" WXGA Screen. It's in my sig. The brightness is very good. The text is crisp with Cleartype and the viewing angles are adequate.

 

So, you don't think the standard screen is too dim?

 

the standard screen is not really dim, it just has poor contrast and viewing angles, and its color reproduction is terrible

 

Having seen pretty much every type of Thinkpad screen, if you had a WSXGA+ 15.4", all the other screens probably wont be as good. The non-widescreen 14.1s are fairly terrible IMO. The contrast is horrible and the colors are just bad. The WXGA 14.1" I've seen was also quite dim and bad in general (could be worse than the 4:3). Not sure about the WXGA+..

 

Stock 14.1" WGXA+ (1440x900) looks pretty bad in my opinion. I have a Samsung LCD. The text was fairly grainy, vertical viewing angles were at the point that if you move ANY amount, it would change the image, contrast is average at best, and color reproduction is way too blue.

On the other hand, brightness is adequate, or even too bright.

Glossy modification, free color calibration software, and clear type tuner does amazing things to the quality of your image.

 

I have the T61 WXGA+ (Samsung I believe) and its great, text is excellent, bright enough, somewhat poor viewing angles but when I'm using my laptop I'm right in front of it, not 60 degrees to the side, so it makes absolutely no difference to me and I dont know why people complain about that so much.

 

What is the best 4:3 screen that you can get? I find the wide screen displays to be a waste since there is less usable desktop space.

 

That's exactly what I'm thinking! How come people complain about viewing angles on a personal business notebook? It's not like it's meant to be viewed from an angle. You're supposed to be able to look straight at it and have bright colors, clear text, good contrast, etc. I like the screens the way they are because they protect your screen from peeping eyes. They're made with business in mind, not multimedia. As long as everything is perfect straight on, then I have no complaints.

 

I have the 4:3 14.1 inch sxga+ screen and I find it more than adequate for my needs. Many times the max brightness running on battery is too straining for my eyes and find that 50% brightness is just right for extended viewing periods (2+hrs)

 

Same here, I have had the 4:3 14.1 SXGA+ (Samsung) for about two weeks now and although it is only 150 nits (per the specs) it seems very very bright to me. Much brighter than the screen on my T42p. It is so bright I've had to turn the brightness down quite a bit. I couldn't imagine anyone needing the screen to be brighter than it is capable of going.

Once I corrected the color by changing the color profile to another one that was already preloaded in the machine, I found the colors to be very vivid and saturated and not too blue.

The viewing angles are not bad for a laptop display. Again it is much better in this area than the display on my T42p. The only time I could see the viewing angles on this display being a problem is if two people were trying to watch a movie together. Then it wouldn't be ideal but probably wouldn't be too bad. Anyway, this hasn't bothered me at all so far.

The only complaint I have about this screen is that sometimes text appears somewhat pixellated and not as sharp as I would like. Sharp clear text is one of my main priorities. My T42p (same native resolution) was quite a bit better at displaying clear crisp text than this display on my new T61p. So it would be nice if this T61p screen was a little better in that department. I have recently discovered that lowering the brightness a bit more seems to help make this a bit less noticeable and less bothersome to me. I'm hoping I'll get used to it eventually.

 

well, personally I came from a Thinkpad with a flexview screen, so the difference is quite a bit. It becomes a little annoying when you are trying to show someone something on your screen and you have to keep tilting the screen back and forth to get the right angle so everyone can see etc. Also if you move a little bit, while working on the laptop (i.e. in bed) it becomes a pain to have to keep repositioning the screen. The laptop is good, the screen is ok, just wish we still could get the flexviews.

 

Pixellated text is what I have on my 15.4" wxga. If I move the screen back or forward by only an inch it looks washed out and the colors even change. Not used to that coming from a 4 yr old Dell. I hope I get lucky with the 14.1" and get a screen that doesn't do this.

LED's or some better screen technology should be available for T61.

 

good came with Vista Ultimate, formated to XP Pro now very very good. Really fast no start up delay.

 

I have no issue of dim.
I have T42p which has dim Samsung LCD however if you were accustomed to this screen you would like it.
For me dim is not issue but dead pixel is big issue.
Also I ordered 14" T61p in 11/30 and I am waiting for delivery!

 

I dont see any issue with the contrust of my screen. It just as good as my last computer which had BrightView (a compaq) and glossy screen.

 

If you wanted a computer in which you can show others your screen from different angles without adjustments, then how come you didn't buy a more appropriate notebook?

 

Im sure that he bought into the thinkpad brand for the same reasons we did, but I think hes saying that It would be more convenient if he ever runs into those situations.

 

Ah ok, then yea man, definitely. The screen is really the only thing that needs improvement on the ThinkPad series. Having a perfect screen would definitely be a major plus.

 

Needless to say, people have different preferences.

I'm a typical business user and I find the viewing angles of my X61 to be more than adequate (don't think it differs from the T61 screens). They cause no viewing challenges when I am presenting something to a business associate sitting next to me. In any event, most of the time when I present something, I use a projector anyway.

In fact, I would like the viewing angles to be less, as I am frequently on flights with people sitting next to me. It is not that I am paranoid, but often when I am on the go, I would like to work on documents containing sensitive/classified information. I am contemplating getting a privacy filter for this reason. I know many business people feel the same way.

And once again, like some other posters, I would like to remind people that these notebooks are not made for mainstream/multimedia users. ThinkPads are still targetted towards business users. That may change though with the very low US prices and the general affordability of notebooks today.

 

On my X61t the viewing angles were flexview like, I think they are worse on the regular X61's

 

Seems as if very few 14" T61 screens are without some sort of fault. Yes, these are business laptops, but again, I think Lenovo could do better. For example, there are very few complaints on the HP business model screens. They are more expensive, however.

 

As many of these screens seem to have issues, I am tempted to try the 4:3 version. I'm guessing the 4:3 model is deeper than the widescreen and thus has more room for resting your hands on the palmrest. Can anyone confirm this?

I find the typing experience better on a 15" standard than widescreen. There is more room to rest your hands. I have 4.5" of space on the 15" standard from keyboard to front edge. If someone could do a measurment on the 14.1" widescreen and 14.1" standard screen it would be ineteresting to compare.

 

You get 3.5" of palm rest on the 14.1" widescreen.

 

Interestingly enough that's the same as the 15.4" widescreen, exactly 3.5" from spacebar to front edge. The 15.4" widescreen is 10" deep vs 9.3" for the 14.1" widescreen, so it's interesting they kept the same spacing. Just missing the standard screen now.