Notebooks with IPS or PVA panels

[semo]

Anyone know of laptops that have anything BUT displays with awful viewing angles? not interested in fruits...

 

[TheStu]

The HP Envy series (maybe), the Dell Studio series (maybe).

 

[Doublejr]

Some HP elitebooks have the option for a dreamcolor display, which iirc is an IPS panel.

 

[Emulex]

the dreamcolor for laptop is nothing like dreamcolor lcd's. laptops just have a whole (lower) quality of standard for screen compared to their desktop counterpart.

keep in mind your average monitor which isn't worth a boat anchor probably wipes the best lcd's butt in performance.

go bust out that ole princeton 21" and calibrate it against your (ips/mva/pva) and see how it stacks up (input lag, color accuracy, black levels). in most lcd's that we can afford the $10/monitor sitting on the side of the street will put to shame most desktop lcd's. and laptop lcd's are a notch even lower.

the elitebook 8730w dreamcolor is nothing great. maybe as good as the older macbook screens before they went cheap.

definitely nowhere near the lp2480zx i have which is a decent 30-bit (with LUT's)..

 

[jihe]

Anyone know of laptops that have anything BUT displays with awful viewing angles? not interested in fruits...

tablet displays are usually ips.

 

[jihe]

the dreamcolor for laptop is nothing like dreamcolor lcd's. laptops just have a whole (lower) quality of standard for screen compared to their desktop counterpart.

keep in mind your average monitor which isn't worth a boat anchor probably wipes the best lcd's butt in performance.

go bust out that ole princeton 21" and calibrate it against your (ips/mva/pva) and see how it stacks up (input lag, color accuracy, black levels). in most lcd's that we can afford the $10/monitor sitting on the side of the street will put to shame most desktop lcd's. and laptop lcd's are a notch even lower.

the elitebook 8730w dreamcolor is nothing great. maybe as good as the older macbook screens before they went cheap.

definitely nowhere near the lp2480zx i have which is a decent 30-bit (with LUT's)..

Not to mention that old princeton 21" is firing beta rays at your head from a short range.

 

[CurseTheSky]

The HP Envy series DOES NOT have an IPS or PVA / MVA panel. It does, however, have a much higher quality TN panel that has respectable viewing angles. Make sure you go with the "Radiance display," though.

In all honesty, a good quality TN panel isn't that much worse than an entry level IPS panel. The differences between my EA231WMi and my Envy 14's screen aren't drastic in terms of color, contrast, and viewing angles. The EA231WMi does edge it out, but I wouldn't object to using the Envy 14 for anything other than serious photo work.

 

[semo]

The HP Envy series DOES NOT have an IPS or PVA / MVA panel. It does, however, have a much higher quality TN panel that has respectable viewing angles. Make sure you go with the "Radiance display," though.

In all honesty, a good quality TN panel isn't that much worse than an entry level IPS panel. The differences between my EA231WMi and my Envy 14's screen aren't drastic in terms of color, contrast, and viewing angles. The EA231WMi does edge it out, but I wouldn't object to using the Envy 14 for anything other than serious photo work.

I know some TNs are fine that's why I'm looking for "anything BUT displays with awful viewing angles". It doesn't have to be anything fancy but I'm using a Dell 1557 which is only about 8 months old and is absolutely atrocious for watching movies (don't even think about moving a muscle or you loose all detail). As Emulex said "laptops just have a whole (lower) quality of standard for screen compared to their desktop counterpart" and I can agree with that. The problem is they throw out all these brand names that mean absolutely nothing because the actual displays vary from one model to the next.

I was trying to fix my gf's dead c2d+nvidia HP but only revived it for a few hours (took me ages to install that copper shim!). I know HP were not the only ones with crappy nvidia gpus but generally speaking from professional experience (we have mainly HP printers at work and a few laptops), I'm not very impressed with their support. Anyway, that's my opinion on HP and since I've had problems with every single laptop I've come across, technical support is an area most important to me nowadays.

 

[Winterpool]

As far as I know there are no current consumer notebooks that offer anything other than TN panels (with all their limitations...). Apple and ThinkPad did once offer IPS panels in their better notebooks, but I think that's years past now (a gen or two ago ThinkPads may have been the last).

That said, there is considerable range of quality amongst notebook displays. Apple MacBook Pros certainly have better than your usual notebook panel, but there are quite a few models with screens better than Apple (the more expensive Dells, for instance, heh).

Apple has long used IPS panels in their high-end desktop products, but recently they've begun publicly proclaiming it (they're probably one of the first major brands to report IPS panel as a product feature) in their iMacs, etc. They've extended this to the iPad and iPhone 4. I very much hope this means Apple will re-introduce (and likely brag about) IPS panels in their notebooks soon.

 

[corkyg]

Just got a Lenovo T510 with Nvidia graphics and a "HD+" LED backlit screen. A good example of OEM jargon. But, in practical terms, the screen is viewable at extreeme angles. Here is a photo I took yesterday of the screen at abpout a 75 degree angle to the side.

I some respects, this can be a bad thing. Now I have to be aware that folks to the side can see what is on my screen when travelling by air. I guess one of those filter screens may be necessary.

 

[Winterpool]

The screen image looks a bit washed out, but it's hard to tell since we don't have a 'straight on' pic to compare. The colours don't seem to have inverted though, heh. Definitely superior to your average Dell Inspiron screen.

Corky, what is that great big piece of analogue kit next door? Something to do with audio?

 

[Winterpool]

Oh, I assisted a user with a ThinkPad T43 today. I forgot that it was one of the last ThinkPads with an IPS-panel option, so I didn't think to check, but I do recall sitting at an angle from the notebook at my workstation and being able to see everything pretty darn well. Bring back notebook IPS!

 

[corkyg]

Corky, what is that great big piece of analogue kit next door? Something to do with audio?

Oh, that is part of my digital conversion studio. That is an Akai quadraphonic tape deck (reel-to-reel - GX-270D-SS.) I use it to convert gazillions of reel-to-reel tapes to CDs.

This has a good view of it. Mine is not for sale.

http://www.classicaudio.com/forsale/akaiGX270.html

 

[IlllI]

dell studio 16 with the rgb option was suppose to be pretty good. not sure if that is still offered as an option now however. http://www.anandtech.com/show/2746

lenovo w510 is suppose to be fairly decent as well
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5573&review=lenovo+thinkpad+w510