How good/bad are the Thinkpad screens?

Hey everyone,

I just registered recently, but I have been browsing these forums for a while and learning about Thinkpads. I've been thinking of getting a new laptop as my current one (Acer Travelmate 8200) is now four years old and is a bit slower and gets hotter than I would like. I've been impressed with what I've heard about Thinkpad build quality, good keyboard, low heat/noise, etc. The Thinkpad T510 seemed to tick all the right boxes, except for one - the screen (I'm talking about the usual, non-FHD screens). From what I've read on here, some say that it's pretty decent, while others rail on about how bad it is.

Here's what I'm used to with regard to brightness. I have a desktop with a 24" monitor ( Asus VH242H) which has a listed brightness of 300 nits and contrast of 1000:1, and I really like it. My Acer laptop, whose brightness I feel is significantly lacking, supposedly has a brightness of 186 nits ( LINK), and I can find no information on its contrast. According to Notebookcheck's T510 review, the non-FHD screen on the T510 has an average brightness of 202 nits. However, its contrast is supposedly high at 569:1.

Basically, I'm wondering whether the screen on the T510 will be good enough for me to use, or whether I'll likely be straining to see stuff. I plan to use it for a significant amount of programming and web browsing, and maybe playing some HD video. Basically the ability to read text easily from a relatively distant position is paramount - I'd rather not be crouching over my laptop with my nose 6 inches from it trying to read. I have noticed that videos appear relatively dark on my Acer laptop, and objects in dark scenes can be somewhat difficult to distinguish. Does the contrast have as much to do with the reduced viewing experience as the brightness?

I'd rather not get the FHD screen, both for reasons of cost and because I feel it'll make text too small to read comfortably. Before you tell me to increase the DPI, I find that doing so only increases text size for icons and menus, and leaves web pages severely lacking. One can zoom, but the pages still look worse than they would at a lower resolution.

Finally, I read on this forum about the gridlines on the HD screen for the T510. However, the thread didn't go on long enough to state whether this was just an isolated case or whether most/all HD screens on the T510 have this problem. Can anyone shed some light on this?

Thanks in advance for the good advice.

 

Depends, if your Acer Travelmate 8200 had a CCFL screen then you could probably say the ThinkPad T510 would be a big improvement in terms of screen brightness due to the LED backlight technology that most laptop manufacturers implement these days. They tend to output more consistant lighting compared to the tube technology of CCFLs. I don't think you need to worry on the brightness in my opinion as LEDs are generally bright enough for most users, I don't think I can manage full brightness on a LED screen for more than 5 minutes (it would burn my eyes out!)

However most ThinkPads of new (well actually most manufacturers today) use standard TFT technology (TN panels) to cut production costs, so viewing angles are not as great compared to an IPS (In-plane switching) panel. Basically this means color reproduction on some angles for a standard panel would not be as accurate (or in certain cases be "washed out"). If your work is heavily based on content creation (photo editing, 3D modelling etc.) then you would be better off with the FHD screens with high color gamut or even other brand offerings (such as the HP Elitebooks with Dreamcolor technology).

But since you said programming and general web browsing, the T510 standard panel should suffice for your general needs. It's certainly not horrible to use and perfectly usable for everyday computing. But it isn't class leading especially when compared to the IPS offerings on the market.

 

Acer LCD are pretty low rent so Thinkpad screen would be a slight improvement over that.

 

I didn't think the Samsung screen in my X200 was all that bad. Most laptop screens compare to a desktop LCD.

 

If you are comfortable / skilled in software configuration, and you are not dependent on specific software that is poorly engineered in relation to HD screens, then the more pixels the better. The Thinkpad HD screens are just wonderful - but like all HD screens, need a bit of tweaking with software. if you don't like altering stock settings, and want to see web sites like most people do (on LD screens), then stay with lower resolutions. They cannot give the exceptional results in image clarity that a well-tuned HD screens does, but then you they will just do the job that is asked of them, without tuning.

 

Thanks for the info so far.

Hearst555, my Acer has a 15.4" TFT LCD. Going by how old my laptop is and how recent I believe LED screens are, I think it's fair to say my laptop has a CCFL screen. If there is such a difference in brightness, as you say, why is the difference between my laptop and the T510 just around 20 nits? Shouldn't it be higher? I'm not trying to dispute your point, just trying to understand the situation better.

Antskip, I assume you're talking about the FHD screen when you say "the Thinkpad HD screen". Specifically what kind of software tweaking were you referring to?

Also, any info about how common the gridlines on the T510 are? Thanks!