Highest quality display on a T400 or T500?

What's the highest quality display option for a T400 or T500? To me highest quality is best color accuracy, uniform brightness, and crispness of the image. They all appear to have sufficient brightness for me.

Is it the T500 with the CCFL WSXGA+ display, the T400 with the WXGA+ LED Backlight display or something else?

 

If you want a high quality screen you want to avoid Lenovo. That beeing said the WXGA+ LED screen in the T400 will be the best option Lenovo offers actually.

 

Why? What's wrong with them? What brand/model has a better screen and why?

Which brand (and model?) with a LED backlight is rated highly for the screen?

I would have thought top five (in no order):
Sony
Lenovo
Dell
HP (maybe?)
Apple?

I would like to know which are the highest in terms of quality (that include Centrino 2 CPU ...in other words, of the newest generation of notebooks).

 

LEDs are brighter, lighter and have better battery life, but do not enhance image quality. If you want a quality display I might suggest a T60 with IPS display. You'd be limited to a Merom Core 2 Duo and 3GB of memory, which really isn't much of a drop-off unless you have a specific need, but the screen in terms of viewing angles, color consistency and image quality will be markedly superior to anything you'll find in the T400 or T500.

 

Lenovo is currently using relatively low quality TN panels on most of its laptops. Many of these are very bright, but they have horrible viewing angles (especially on the vertical axis). TN panels are almost universal in the laptop industry, but Lenovo seems to be using a lower grade than some (although they do offer brighter/higher resolution screens than most).

The best displays are on the T60P Flexview and the X series tablets. The T60P uses an IPS screen, and the tablets uses FFS/ AFFS+ screens. These have superb viewing angles and color stability, and in the case of the x200 Tablet exceptional outdoor usability. The w700 may also have a better display (although still TN), but I have not seen it in person.

 

jon
D you know which panel does the X61 tablet use? is it similar on the X200t?

 

The x61 tablet uses an FFS CCFL backlit display. It is comparable in quality to the x200 tablet (although not as bright) and was even available in SXGA+ (1400x1050) although I think this one is discontinued.

 

Do they still make T60 and/or T60Ps? I could not find them on the Lenovo website.

 

No they do not. You'd have to find it some other way.

 

The marketplace forum on ThinkPads.com is a good place to look for them. I think there's a couple on there right now.

 

Well I think this is all too general. What I found myself during my course of research for my next laptop is this:

- The current 15,4" WXGA+ LED displays used on the Dells are the same LG LP154WP1 panels which have been used on the previous gen MacBook Pro

- The new generation MacBook Pro WXGA+ screen is the LG LP154WP2 which is with 330 nits indeed superior to others (regarding brightness). However, the MacBook Pro panels are glossy, so thir outdoor usability is then again very limited. From my perspective this nullifies their advantage in brightness.

- The 15,4" WSXGA+ LG LP154WE2 is in fact used on both the Dells and Lenovos.

- I don't know about particular Samsung models, but besides HP I think Dell, Lenovo and possibly others have some kind of lottery. Which panel you get is luck of the draw. And there have been comparisons between LG and Samsung. the LG panels are perceived as slightly better by many in direct comparison. But comparisons done by people here also showed that the new panels are very close in terms of quality - one panel having advantage here, the other panel there.

- Dell has WUXGA panels with two CCFL backlights as well as a RGB LED backlight option. These are probably both better in terms of brightness when compared to Lenovo panels. But the RGB LED display is glossy (for me a reason not to buy them), and the 2CCFL draws a lot of power. These displays are both brighter than the WUXGAs on the Lenovos, but they have also their disadvantages according to the feedback I read on the Dell forum. The 2CCFL screen seems also to have some quality issues with light distribution and the feedback is not all positive.

- Sony has some dim screens as well, and some of their single lamp panels are said to be inferior to competition in terms of brightness and quality. Their 2CCFL dual lamp / LED screens however seem to be superior. Nevertheless these dual lamp panels come also at the expense of power consumption. According to the feedback I read in the Sony forum they have also some problem with dark backgrounds being a bit on the bright side.

Conclusion:
==> In the end there is no clear winner. If you work indoor most of the day, WSXGA+ screens from either Lenovo, Dell and probably others may be good and bright enough for just anything - however, deviation in panel type and quality seems to be the case for most notebook vendors.
==> When it comes to WUXGA you have to set your preferences: Image quality, glossy/non-glossy display, light distribution, brightness
==> The current available 15,4" WXGA+ LG LED screens seem to be very fine. However, I would go for a WXGA+ screen on a 14" notebook but on a 15" my preference is WSXGA+. So that's again up to your decision.

 

I think where I am, it would just be too much trouble to find/locate an affordable T60p and it won't be as powerful but almost as expensive.

I think it is probably easier to find/configure either:

*Dell
*Lenovo
*Sony Vaio

I am guessing the Mac Pro and Thinkpad T60p are the favourites for screen quality but both are either out of my price range or one is and the other will be a hassle to locate/find.

I am probably leaning towards narrowing it down to the three just mentioned but I don't know which model. I thought going for DDR3 RAM and the LED backlight screen would be future-proof to an extent but also help with battery life. The screen is probably good enough for movie watching but I am not sure which brand yet.

Thanks for these comments and analysis though. Very helpful! The T400 and T500 sound intriguing so I am trying to compare to similar Dell and Sony models.

 

The only real problem of the screen on the T400 is viewing angles, and color stability at off angles (this is where the T60P shines). I think you will be satisfied with the WXGA+ LED on the T400 ( this reviewer even preferred it to the T60P flexview [they are shown side by side]).

General consensus is that the LG panel is superior to the Samsung one on the T400. However, this seems to be a bit of a lottery.

 

So they are dual sourcing the backlit LED screens, bummer. Are they dual sourcing the 15.4" WSXGA+ screens from LG and Samsung as well?

Lenovo should have some way of charging a bit extra for folks that want a particular brand screen.

It's ironic that LG makes a higher quality computer display but Samsung makes a much better HDTV. I wonder why this is?

 

Yes, they do use different vendors for WSXGA+ screens, see my post above. And I wouldn't be all so sure to generalize LG>Samsung, even though most people say so here. From the side by side comparison done by some guys here, the Samsung is also very fine and has some advantages colour stability from different angles, whereas the LG has more even lightning and is perceived as more colour accurate when not calibrated (the Samsung seems to have a bit blueish whites, but this changes to the better when you calibrate the screen).

I think TVs and notebooks screens differ quite a lot, as there is much more space in TV housings for backlight and whatnot that can't be used 1:1 in a laptop. So it's probably comparing apples with pies.

 

Lenovo (and IBM before them) always tries to secure 2 or 3 sources for every part (for example your keyboard can be ALPS, NMB, or Chicony). This is relatively standard practice and helps prevent inventory shortfalls. By comparison, I think the SXGA+ IPS screen for the x60 Tablet was single sourced (only 1 company would make them) and Lenovo had serious trouble fulfilling orders in a timely manner.

I don't know about your experience with Samsung and LG televisions, but I am extremely satisfied with my 37LG50. It has a great picture, superb color stability, good viewing angles, very fine calibration settings, a matte screen, and looked superior to all the other brands (Samsung included).

 

I don't know if there is anything wrong with them per se. It's all relatively speaking. I think that since they're regarded as a business machine and not something generally used for entertainment/multimedia purposes, the screens aren't as bright relative to other brands.

 

And Dell screens are? Are the Dell WSXGA+ LED screens good?

Many of the Dell displays seem to get decent reviews. If the Dells had DDR3 RAM, I would probably choose a notebook already since the Sony Vaio Z series so expensive and don't offer the Intel wifi 5300.

There's always something missing in the configuration I want.

 

Actually, Dell offers very very good RGB LED WUXGA screens on the Precision line. Here is a comparison of the Dell RGB LED screen vs a MacBook Pro LED screen that is lit by white LEDs:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=4311761&postcount=8

Keep in mind that the MacBook Pro has a much better screen than most laptops. The contrast on the RGB LED screen is really outstanding.

So anyway to answer your question, Dell doesn't offer a 15.4 WSXGA+ LED screen (nobody does right now) but they do one better and offer a WUXGA RGB LED screen. I would say that the WUXGA RGB LED screen is the best you can get at the moment. You might want to look into the Precision series. They are similar to the W series but have vastly improved screens.

 

Great post Ernst. It's good to see someone taking this material serious.

Actually Apple has a panel lottery too. Some MBP's come with LG, some with Chi Mei. (N154C6-L04). According to the measurements the Chi Mei panel is a very good panel. I don't recall seeing a higher measured contrast rate:
Maximum 331 cd/m²
Average 294 cd/m²
Black 0.34 cd/m²
Contrast 974:1
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Update-Apple-MacBook-Pro-5-1-Unibody-9600M-GT-9400M.12518.0.html

For comparison, this would be the LG panel I reckon:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Apple-MacBook-Pro-15-v5-2008-Unibody-9600M-GT-9400M.11973.0.html

Some MBP owners who have seen both screens say the LG looks better, while other say the Chi Mei looks better.

 

That Dell display does look nice. The good thing about the IPS here is it looks the same no matter the angle.

 

The Precision M4400 looks really decent! Is that the one you're referring to for the most part? I am not sure what to think of the higher resolution on a 15.4" screen, though. I guess it is better than the standard in which you can't change it much? At least, it's easier to increase the size of icons and text than change to a higher res when you don't have the option. Right?

I already assumed the MacBook Pro has one of the best screens but it's too expensive and difficult for me to justify trying to include it in my budget. Even the Precision M4400 is pushing it but I thought that I would install Linux on it and at least save on the software costs! I think the Mac OS is superior to Vista but a bare bones, standard defaults order on a MacBook Pro is over 2K especially when you include tax. As good as the screen is, it's probably overboard for me. Unforunately.

I thought the Sony Vaio Z (since it seems to be the only other WSXGA+ screen with LED) and one of those Dells (sounds like Precision series?) were the best compromises.

I think the Dell should be a serious contender. I wish it had an option of DDR3 RAM but I guess that will be in future lines.

Thanks for all the info. It helps narrow it down a bit more. I don't have a brand favourite, btw. I just want to choose one that has most of my preferences and have it still be half-way decent in terms of quality.

Unless Lenovo is planning on introducing another Thinkpad with the WSXGA+ LED screen and/or WUXGA LED screen, I guess I have to look at Dell and Sony first.