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D600 - display quality?
Hi there,
I am considering buying a D600, but in a german review on zdnet.de, I read that the display quality is rather disappointing and below the overall quality of the notebook. They reviewed a unit with XGA resolution, so I wonder what exactly they meant: Disappointing because of XGA resolution, or is there another issue with the display? Poor brightness/contrast, big viewing angle dependance, ...?
To all D600 users out there: Is there really an issue with the display? Btw: I'm considering buying the SXGA+ version.
Kaspar
heavenfish
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Posted May 30th, 2003 15:00
John is right, SXGA+ is not always the best choice depending on what do you do with your laptop. SXGA+ give you 1400x1050 native resolution and XGA give you 1024x768 native resolution.
If you do a lot of web browsing, get regular XGA. You will get much smaller font size on many web pages no matter how do you setup your display dpi(such as 120dpi) setting or fonts size on your browser with SXGA+. I used to have SXGA+ on Inspiron 5100's 15'' LCD, fonts are too small to read comfortably sometimes, such as www.hotmail.com. D600 is using even smaller size LCD 14'', make it even worse. If you lower your resolution from 1400x1050 from SXGA+, since it's not native resolution, you will get blurry fonts.
Bottom line, get XGA if you do a lot of web surfing and regular daily applications. Choose SXGA+ if you use your laptop mainly for graphic design and gaming.
Just my 2 cents.heavenfish
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Posted May 31st, 2003 12:00
There is no question about it: SXGA+ is more clear than XGA.
Yes, you can increase the fonts size of desktop display by increasing the dpi size, such as 125% 120 dpi. And IE 6 supports fonts size scale depends on the dpi size.
However, they don't work on certain web pages that use certain stylesheet which enforce the original font size. I have seen the number of web sites use this kind of web design technique increasing dramatically.
End users like us have to make a cut in between choosing either better quality of display or normal size font for much easier reading experience.
Yes...however you can increase the font size on both your desktop and in your browser (at least you can in internet explorer, not sure about netscape). The sxga+ display is much crisper, and you get a fair deal more desktop space than with xga.
My D600 has the sxga+ screen, and I think the display quality is outstanding! I don't know what that magazine article could have been thinking...maybe they got a bad display?
- I think resolution is a personal preference, and higher resolutions arent easier to read necessarily, especially with cleartype. I don't really have a need for higher resolution, and if im doing graphics work it's usually on my desktop, and i can still hook up an old monitor to that for duals if i neeed to.
- I don't own D600 (the reason will be obvious when you finish this thread) but I had I4100 and I4150 with SXGA+ LCD before. I must warn you that the I4xxx series 14" SXGA+ LCD quality is inferior to IBM and Sony LCD. The Dell I4xxx LCD is grainy (look like there is crystal-like sheet cover the LCD) and display white color more like grayish tone color. For many people who'd never seen a better LCD (no offense but this is very true even for our computer geeks in my department, it is a perception thing), they will never know until someone point it out or show them a good LCD. I don't know if Dell still use the same MFG for the 14" SXGA+ LCD or not but if they do, then the quality of the SXGA+ LCD is not so good IMO. The best 14" SXGA+ LCD IMO is what IBM use in the IBM T40 series laptop. The second best is the one on the Sony Z1 series. We have many laptops (various brands) and for all of the 14" SXGA+ LCD, IBM T40 is simply the best in term of clarity. The best LCD I've ever seen in a laptop is the 16" UXGA on the Sony GRX series. The LCD quality of the 14" SXGA+ of Dell laptop bother me so much that I decide to get the IBM T40 instead of D600 (note that I paid much more for the IBM though).
Mocca Dell uses several different manufacturers for their laptops screens, so you can't make a judgement based one one model. As a matter of fact, my I8000 screen went bad (a sanyo screen, I think), and they replaced it with a IBM (tech said it was a better screen than the original, but I can't really see the difference).
I have owned 4 Dell laptops, and other than that failure, the screens have always been excellent.
- I didn't based my judgement on a single Dell laptop. In fact, we have 6 Dell laptops with 14" SXGA+ LCD. All of them are I4xxx series just for the record. They all (ordered at different time and some of them are I4150 while some are I4100) have inferior LCD compared to the one on the IBM T40 and Sony Z1 (we have four IBM T40 here and a Sony Z1). Even counting the probability into it, I find it hard to believe that some Dell SXGA+ will be equal or better than that of IBM T40. Also the LCD that Dell use is the same (or come from the same mfg) as that of Compaq Evo N610c and N620c. They are grainy and have crystal-like pattern which make the white color look grayish. You can try to find an IBM T40 with SXGA+ LCD and look at its LCD compared with that of Dell D600 (again I don't have D600 so I don't know for sure, just my 2c). These may also depend on your eyes as well since different people have different eyes. For me, the best 14" SXGA+ is the one on the IBM T40. It might true that the new D600 have a better LCD or Dell might use a new LCD MFG but until I recieve or see the D600 SXGA+ LCD, I trust on my experiences. Most of the time, OEM just use the same LCD MFG or suppliers.
Mocca heavenfish
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Posted June 2nd, 2003 02:00
Dell doesn't make any LCD screen, they use various LCD's from many different companies from time to time. As matter of fact, most recent Inspiron laptops are shipped with IBM LCD's.
JohnM025
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Posted May 30th, 2003 11:00
I have seen any post here related to problems with the lcd on the D600.
Depending on what you do I would recommend the SXGA+ over the XGA, just remember the better the lcd the smaller the font, hwich is sometimes a problem for some users.
Thank you for choosing Dell.