IPS Eye strain on X230 .... other options ?

I bought a brand new X230 about 1 month ago ... unfortunately I cannot look at the IPS screen ... within minutes I get eye strain, although from what I read it should in fact be better than the traditional panels. In fact when I close windows I see it close the window, as in my eyes pick it up .. how it closes in bits. Also when looking at some even colours like a grey I see striations in it. Apart from the eye strain it is a beautiful machine... I guess there is IPS and then there is IPS, and Lenovo does not have prime quality ? One of the worst ones to look at till now ...

So I may have to give this machine to someone, and be back in market for a new one. To be on safe side I may just get a T430, also to safe a bit of money. Now I am not very tech-minded: my Samsung N150 netbook has the perfect letter size for me on the 1024 x 600 or whatever the screen is (10.1 inches). Now on the T430 I guess the 1366 x 768 on a 14 inch screen would make letters bigger than the ones on my netbook ? So then I would be looking at 1440 x 900 ? Or would that be small again.

Ok from the list below which one has the best (high nits) TN panel? Also I need a QUIET machine.

T430 (1366 x 768)
T430 (1440 x 900)
T430u (1366 x 768)

I will probably also get the Thinkpad Tablet 2 ... I am guessing the IPS is better than the one on X230 ?

Thanks

 

try to reduce the contrast/brightness. Search for "color calibration" in the search menu,

 

You'll face a different kind of bad screen when using a T430 with 1366x768. And a T430 is possibly noisy.

Expand your search beyond ThinkPads. Get a broader base of suggestions by posting your needs/preferences/budget at the "What Notebook Should I Buy?" forum.

 

Is your screen refresh set to 50 or 60 hz? Changing that setting might help.

 

You'll be hard-pressed to find a Thinkpad that will give you less eye strain if brightness, display quality, and text size are issues with the X230. The T-series have middling TN displays across the board other than the T530's FHD panel, but that option will come with small text unless you use a high DPI setting.

There hasn't been many reviews of the Thinkpad Tablet 2, but I wouldn't expect its display to be leaps and bounds over the X230's.

What displays have you used that give you no eye strain? If you're able to name some, perhaps others can recommend you some qualitatively-similar displays.

 

I have to say, having recently picked up an X230 w/IPS...I do believe my eyes get tired faster with it vs. my T520. I do have the FHD screen in my T520, but damn if my eyes don't seem to get as fatigued with it vs. the X230.

Could it be the lower resolution at play? Lower pixel density? It's strange, but not a deal-breaker at all. The IPS screen is beautiful, but the FHD screen is still better, IMO.

 

I find the X301 screen allot more pleasant to look at, however only if it has been calibrated. The texture of the screen is too matte, hence making it very eye friendly.

The X220's slightly glossier screen is better for colors though.

 

Your problem it's called PWM, to reduce part of this effect, try set brightness to max. It's not a solution as the panel will still have PWM, but at least the effect will be reduced.

I really hope some1 with a little brain introduce quallity panels on next laptop gen, this is madness, I've lost eye precission because of this .

 

There is no T430 with a 1440x900 LCD. The correct resolution would be 1600x900.

 

Did the calibrating stuff but no help ... yes it seems more when not on full brightness ... So maybe that effect, it seems my eyes pick up what I would define as a flicker ? But thought that IPS did not have that. The best screen ever used is a small 10.1 inch on a Samsung netbook N150. No clue how Samsung got this so nice ... and my eyes love it, but too small a screen & need far more power. I have noticed that the Samsung TN panels seem to be brighter and colour OK. Tried the IPS again on the X230, can't look at it for long .. instant eye soreness

 

When I look at the IPS I can instantly see there is a certain "effect" to it, however I can't describe it.

The contrast is extremely high, dark colors especially grey and dark grey are actually shown to dark because the gamma value is off.

This profile corrects that value and makes the IPS easier to look at: Color profile for lenovo thinkpad X220

Also, under Windows I increased the red gamma value from 1.0 to 1.2 in the Intel control center, made the screen more eye-friendly too.

 

Well actually it's not matter of the panel type but the manufacturers mind. I still remember when the LCD appears on scene, and they tought that 60hz/fps were more than enought for most eyes, the problem is that this is not true. Any one can clearly diferenciate from a 60hz image to a 120hz image. With this in mind, manufactures also tought a PWM in the hz spectre was enought and people will not notice it. And again they were wrong, any eye can diferenciate a PWM in the hz spectre from a Khz spectre.

Basically manufactures use cheap panels to earn more money and our eyes, instead of not playing with people eye healthy. For them we are meat. Problem of this is that thankfully not all people are blind and they are now noticing this two effects, most of them will describe as eye strain and will not know what is actually happen. To see what is actually happen, just use any camera and record your pannel, what you see there is what your eyes are constantly correcting and what is making your eye strain.

This is changing slowly, first because not all people demands 120hz pannels (this should be the standart instead of the 60hz) and second because most people just don't care. The funny thing is that this people are the ones that will complain about eye strain after some years of use of this pannels (I notice this the first day an LCD come to my home, probably because I had a very nice 100hz CRT at that time).

 

You're on the right track, but keep in mind the pixel refresh rate is completely separate from the backlight duty cycle. You can make a monitor with a 60Hz image refresh rate and a 2000Hz duty cycle, and you can also make a monitor with a 120Hz image refresh rate and a 100Hz duty cycle. TFT Central has a very detailed explanation here: Pulse Width Modulation

Either way, manufacturers do nothing about the issue because 99% of people don't (or maybe they can't?) notice it. PWM has been around since the earliest days of LCD technology. LED backlighting, which was introduced several years ago, made it more noticeable, but even then how many instances of complaints about PWM have you noticed versus all the other computer issues people have?