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Thinkpad T42p: the display sucks

A

arcas

Platinum Member
It was upgrade time at work so I chose to replace one of my older desktops with a new Thinkpad T42p. 2ghz, 2MB cache, 1400x1050 display. This is the first laptop I've used in about 8 years but it's not a bad machine compared to what it replaced.

I do take issue with the LCD panel itself, though. It seems to have an awfully small viewing angle. Horizontally, any viewing angle more than, say, 30 degrees really degrades the image. At around 45 degrees, things start to look like they're in reverse video. At 60 degrees, it's pretty much reverse video (dark areas are light, light areas are dark). Vertically, the reverse video effect isn't so much a problem as is inconsistent lighting/contrast. It seems to be hard to get the panel tilted such that the display is uniform. If you're not looking at the panel dead-on, either the top or the bottom will have too much contrast and the opposite side will have too little.

I've compared it with other T42p machines that came in and they have similar issues. Granted, I've used nothing but large diamondtron CRTs for the last 6-7 years both at work and home but I didn't expect the LCD differences to be so noticible. Is this just a function of the type of LCD panel IBM chose to use for this model?

 
They must be the non-Flexview screens. I'm on my 15" Flexview T42 right now and I can see the screen fine at almost 90 degrees (well, colors anyway, I can't read text at that angle).
 
Originally posted by: arcas
It was upgrade time at work so I chose to replace one of my older desktops with a new Thinkpad T42p. 2ghz, 2MB cache, 1400x1050 display. This is the first laptop I've used in about 8 years but it's not a bad machine compared to what it replaced.

I do take issue with the LCD panel itself, though. It seems to have an awfully small viewing angle. Horizontally, any viewing angle more than, say, 30 degrees really degrades the image. At around 45 degrees, things start to look like they're in reverse video. At 60 degrees, it's pretty much reverse video (dark areas are light, light areas are dark). Vertically, the reverse video effect isn't so much a problem as is inconsistent lighting/contrast. It seems to be hard to get the panel tilted such that the display is uniform. If you're not looking at the panel dead-on, either the top or the bottom will have too much contrast and the opposite side will have too little.

I've compared it with other T42p machines that came in and they have similar issues. Granted, I've used nothing but large diamondtron CRTs for the last 6-7 years both at work and home but I didn't expect the LCD differences to be so noticible. Is this just a function of the type of LCD panel IBM chose to use for this model?
Click to expand...
I'm assuming this is a 14"? The 14" screens don't have Flexview, which allows for a brighter screen with an unbeatable viewing angle.

I've not used the 14" T42, but the screen on the 14" T43 isn't that bad. I heard they did upgrade the screens from T42 to T43, specifically i know the brightness is better. Maybe you can exchange it for a T43 or 15" T42? If you want a Flexview display they are only available on 15" SXGA+ & UXGA.
 
Yeah, I should have mentioned that this is the 14" screen. Unfortunately, an exchange is out of the question as this configuration was the only one offered. Thanks for confirming my suspicions.

 
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