How do the screens of the T60p and Z61m compare?

How does the 16:10 1680:1050 screen of the Z61m compare to the 4:3 1600*1200 Flexview IPS screen of the T60p. I've heard only glowing reviews of the Flexview/FFS IPS screens, but I'm tempted by the wide aspect of the Z61m and also the reduced strain on the graphics card for gaming that entails, but as this laptop's going to be for work too, which involves hours and hours of staring at text/reading every day, the wide angle, high contrast, and quality I know the T60p display has are important.

Have any of you seen them side by side? How good is the Z61m screen in general? How does it compare to the T60p's display? Any thoughts or opinions? I eagerly away and greatly appreciate any input you all have to offer!

 

I have note seen the UXGA FlexView, but the screen on my IPS T42 was better than the Z61m though I personally thought the Z's screen was very good, better than average.

 

Aaah, I saw your review, and didn't realize the T42 had the flexview screen too. That's most helpful! How is the Z41m screen when viewed askew, from and angle that is?

 

Another key consideration is the resolution... I think UXGA is way too small on that T60p

The T60p screens measure exactly 12" x 9" = 108 sq inches (15-inch diag).
Therefore on the T43, SXGA+ resolution (1400x1050) is 13611 pixels / sq inch... UXGA is 17778 pixels/sq.in (ouch!)

I think the z61m is 13.06" x 8.16" = 106.57 sq inches --> 16552.5 pixels / sq. inch.
That's way too small for me.

Me, I'd not go finer than SXGA+ (i think SXGA is perfect... that's 12136 pixels/sq inch. I think anything over 13k you start squinting and straining your eyes, on websites like this one which aren't responsive to changing the text size in the browser (yes i know you can change the display DPI etc but that detracts from some other apps)

So i'd pick the T60 with SXGA+ in FlexView. For sure!

 

I dunno about any Z41M but the Z61T screen doesn't look anywhere near as good as the T43/T60 flexviews when viewed from an angle (side-by-side, as i have examined). Even the color is different viewed head on.

 

It is not as good off center. All 15" T42s SXGA+ and UXGA+ are IPS.

 

Z61t screens are definitely not the best that they have. They're quite good and perfectly fine, but they're definitely not in the same league as Flexview or glossy screens from other manufacturers.

 

Has anyone got any opinions about the Z screen to the (non-flexview) T screens?? (such as on all the 14.1" T60's)

I kinda like the Z61t's resolution (wxga)... it looks like its inbetween the resolution of the 14.1" T60's xga (too big) and sxga+ (too small).

 

Here is a link on ThinkWiki about which TFT displays are in which laptops: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/TFT_display It might help a bit. [Ed. or confuse issues, as it seems the they use more than one make of flat panel interchangeably in the same models for the widescreens at that resolution]

As for resolutions being too small... Honestly I prefer a resolution that is too small to be viewed comfortably at normal font dpi, because you can increase the font dpi setting, and in the end have characters just as big as you want, but crisper, and much smoother. It's very nice for reading PDFs or other digital documents hour after hour, really.

 

Oh yeah the higher resolution is far superior for rendering digital documents and PDF's... but dont you find it worse for use on the web because so many sites are unresponsive to larger text settings. With UXGA, i dont think i would be able to read what i am typing into this site's reply box as the type would be so small.

By the way if you read some reviews in laptop logic, they make passing comparisons between the Z displays (which they say are good) and T flexview displays (which they say are better), albeit not in the resolutions you asked about initially.

 

Thanks, I'll take a look. The more information, the better! (Especially considering how much I'm going to plonk down for this new toy!) Plus, if I keep dragging my heels researching the purchase, the Core 2 Duo's will be here before I know...

 

yeah, or the core duo based laptops will be cheaper (that seems to be happening already and intel cut its price too for core duos - especially the faster ones)

 

I finally made the leap and purchased a T60p ( Model 200793U ), and I am quite, quite pleased with the 15" Flexview screen. The brightness and resolution are perfect, colors are saturated, and accurate, and contrast is better than I expected. It's absolutely gorgeous for a laptop LCD. The wider viewing angle really catches the eye too. I'm very happy with the purchase, at least so far!

 

Congratulations, i love that screen too... but i vascillate because of the portability issue.

I have never BOUGHT a laptop.... ibm gave me a new one every year.... so i had no choice (but they always gave me fairly high end and sometimes a choice of 2)

If only i wasn't gonna carry the darn thing around all the time I'd get the 15", because the 14" screen kinda stinks in comparison. But the 15" is a lot heftier. When I got my first 1" think T40 from work, it was so darn nice for its portability especially compared to my oldest A-series thinkpads. I never expected to go backwards on the portability issue. Hmmm.

 

I hear you there. I'm not lugging it around that much, thankfully. Were I on the move regularly again, it'd definitely be a 14" or even 13.3". (Of course it's replacing an old Dell Inspiron 7500, which weighed oh. 10.5lbs, but still, I'd look for something in the 4-5lbs range rather than the 6-6.5lbs range if I had to lug it regularly!). It really is a shame that there is no 14" flexview offering.