Acer Screens, dim & muddy, wat u think?

I am surprised about one thing that no body mentions or discuss, even in forums and reviews. Acer has of course good name but what i have noted taht as compared to other common notebook brands( Dell, Toshiba, HP, i mean) it,s only Acer whose screens look significantly dim and rather muddy. For any average home user or student (using only net, office documents and light gaming) this is the most important thing, wat he will do with processor speed or other high tech componenets if he is not happy with the screen of the notebook.---Is it only my observation or yours also. Pls let us know ur opinion.thanks.By the way I like acer in all except its screen, really terrible.
PLS NOTE I AM TALKING ABOUT MAINLY TRAVEL MATE SERIES BUT I THINK SAME IS TRUE FOR ASPIRE N OTHER SERIES AND EVEN FOR HIGH PRICED FERARI( FERRARI IS COSLY CONTRARY TO ACER OTHER MODELS,may be u r paying just for name of ferrari!!!!) . :budget:

 

It's simple, just adjust your Acer LCD settings through Windows (ATI Control Panel in this case):

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=33507

 

Agreed, Acer's displays in general (there are exceptions) are dim and washed out. I certainly was not satisfied with mine when I had it.

 

Fujitsu glossy screens are the best in my opinion. For a matte I would choose the ThinkPad FlexView.

 

I've discovered a distinct difference between my TravelMate screen when it's plugged in vs when it' running on battery. In fact, until I ran it on battery a while I didn't understand any of the complaints about screen quality--it's very nice and clear when running on power, and frankly not all THAT bad on battery. Definite difference, though.

 

There's a bios setting that will dim it 50% when u unplug it. I think u can also adjust this in the eManager or whatever it's called. I just wish there was a way to set how much it dims when on battery. Otherwise, the screen's pretty good - my friend just got a Powerbook, and even he was jealous of my glossy wide screen.

 

This is absolutely not the case with the Ferrari which I think has a magnificent display. What I really like about the Ferrari display is how bright and sharp it is without being a reflective type display.

 

I'd have to say I am satisfied with mine. I do have a Crystalbrite screen, so that may be the difference. I haven't seen an Acer that has a standard screen.

 

Yes I brought back my Aspire , a beautifully well made budget unit, because without the CB option the screen was terrible for viewing DVDs. Surprisingly they had a fast 5400 rev. HD but a display from the early days of notebooks. You can upgrade RAM but not the screen. I have a Compaq with glossy which is more than adequate. From comparisons at the stores Toshiba looks the best.

 

Well I have a brand new travelmate 3220, with a 14" matte screen that I find terrific. I've had Compaqs and FujitsuSiemens before, and my new Acer is at least as sharp and bright as the old ones. However, I needed some tweaking via Acers ePower management to adjust the auto-dimming of the screen when unplugged, and also i used ATIs built-in tool for brightness and contrast fine tuning.

 

Acer Aspire 3023wlmi has a crystalbright widescreen and I personally find it very good. It does need tweaking via the display properties, but it does give good colour.

 

I find it quite average.. the high end ones like ferrari has nicer screen of course, but nothing that can be compared to Sony screen yet IMO. So there I voted for it

 

i'm not sure my 3 year old ACER Aspire 2001 has a much sharper/brighter screen than my 6 6month old HP. But then again It was some sort of a premium model back then and was more expensive(for me anyway). I know ACER has a lot of buget notebooks (current) and i have not seen them closely. But my point is maybe some manufacturers put less expensive LCD's on buget notebooks than they do in the more expensive ones.

I do like the picture/viewing angle if ACER's desktop LCDs

 

I've had my 8204 for 3 days now. After rebuilding it 3 times, I've stared at the screen for some time and have noticed that the edges are darker. Not so much that its darker but a very slight change in angle and it's not as bright. If I move my head to the corners, they are bright but the other side is darker. Staring at the center of the screen, it's like the sweet spot is an oval (egg laying side ways) on the screen.

May be it's because the screen is wider than my other laptops that I notice this effect. I do have to say its bothering me some, when I look down at the start menu it's darker than the center. I have a couple of vaios, HP omnibook, Dell D600, T23, T30, T42 and don't notice this effect "as much" on those.

 

And it is muddy ... I think it's what they call the screen door effect.

 

comparing my acer glossy screen to my sony desktop matte screen, I have to say the matte screen is better.

However, my acer screen is very very bright. Not dim at all. I like the quality a lot

 

I have an Acer CrystalBrite screen. and my brother who has a new ThinkPad is so jealous of it. But i'm jealous of his ice cold running unit.

 

I have an Acer crystalbrite wide screen and I think it looks very good. I like the glossy finish on it. Mine is a 1640 series which I'm sure is towards the budget end of their line so I'm pleased that the display is as good as it is.

 

I would say that Sony's screen come in first by far!! Well maybe not too far lol because Fujitsu's screens are second in my opinion... And are very nice and bright and with sharp color saturation. I found Sony's screens are soo bright sometimes they are better with the brightness dialed down a bit. Note-that iam talking about the best screens from these companies... they both also have some screens which are mediocre at best. Unfortunately the Sony screens are wasted on low resolution...

1. Sony
2. Fujitsu
3. After this i think its wide open!!!

 

I think Dell has the best ones. The 1920x1080 15.4" LCD in the Inspiron 8500 I had was the best screen I've ever seen in a laptop. Bright, sharp, very colourful and great viewing angle.

I had a Sony Z1 laptop which had a 1400x1050 14.1" LCD which was truly the worst screen I've had. Very very narrow viewing angle, washed out colours and diagonal interference lines which you would expect to be a fault but after trying 3 replacements Sony said this was a feature and they didnt expect many people to notice the shimmering lines!

Now I have an Acer 8204 but unfortunately I got an LCD (LTN154P1-L02 ) with the muddy and dithered screen and grey lines problem. See here http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?p=1774232&posted=1 for more info. Brightness was fine on it for me tho. Anyway I have returned it today to get it replaced with a different model of LCD as it was the grey lines that were driving me nuts. I believe 2 LCD models are shipping in the Travelmate 8204 - the inferior LTN154P1-L02 which is muddy, dithered, and grey lines horrizontally every 2nd row of pixels. And the QD15AL021 which I hear is fine like a proper display. I reckon that everyone complaining about teh 8204 screen has the LTN154P1-L02.

Find out which you have with this diagnostic tool:
http://www.lavalys.com/news.php?article=31&selcat=PR&lang=en

I do quite like the Glossy screens in the cheaper Acers and cheap Sonys, however they tend to me much lower res. I think 1280x768 is the highest I've seen in a glossy. I much prefer at least 1680x1050 in a 15" laptop.

 

I have the same screen as you, but mine is pretty bright, clear, and has vibrant colors, better than my Apple PowerBook (it's a predecessor of the problematic screens "last generation" G4 PowerBook). I have no problem with the "crankycat" image, but viewing the quadrants.gif image, I see 4 distinct boxes (whereas I see one solid image on my PowerBook), so perhaps I have "the lines problem," although I don't see any problem with use, even in heavy graphics use.

My question is: Has it been confirmed that our screen is inferior to the other that you mention? Has anyone seen them side-by-side? Has anyone gotten a screen replacement by Acer, and if so, did it make a dramatic difference?

My screen is flawless (no stuck/dead pixels, no "light leak," etc.) and I have no "buzzing noise," or any other problems that people have posted about their TravelMate 8204's, and I'm afraid of sending my 8204 in, and getting a new screen (or replacement notebook) back with problems that would bother me, you know?

 

I have the same situation. When I view the quadrants I also see 4 boxes but I don't see any real defect in my screen.

 

Someone posted this link that shows the "alternating lines problem" better, since it's a larger image - click on the image to enlarge, then, as you scroll up/down, the sides alternate in being lighter or darker (As a comparison, my Apple PowerBook shows a homogeneous image while scrolling).

Assuming everyone's 8204 shows the same, can anyone confirm lack of this with other "better" screens? (especially for anyone having the screen replaced by Acer with the "better" screen?)

 

I have an 8204 with the LTN154P1-L02, and I do not have any complains at all. I work with CS2 and others photography software and I need to have the screen calibrated, also I can watch DVDs with great image. The screen is sharp, bright, and the colors are vivid, of course, as I said my screen is calibrated with a customized color profile.

Concerning the 2/4 box image test, I can see almost the right and left box the same way, on a XBright laptop the image is like one box only. I did the same test on a couple of external monitors and other non-XBright laptops and the result was the same.

Bottom line, on my tests, all non-XBright monitors, external or not, has the same result.

 

NKND what about this pic?

http://www.keithstravels.com/travelog/photos/desktopsplit-loginscreen.jpg (in firefox make sure to click it so it enlarges to 100% otherwise the test won't work)

If one half of the pic is brighter than the other, and the alternate when you scroll then the screen is faulty.

 

Yes, I did that test, and one side is a little brighter than the other is, but this behavior is the same on all non-XBrighter monitors I tested (external and “internal”). On the other hand, all the monitors I tested are faulty, or this is a normal behavior on all non-XBrighter monitors.

In addition, I think only with this particular example will be difficult to justify with Acer a screen replacement. As I said on my other post, my screen is sharp, bright, and the colors are vivid, of course, as I said my screen is calibrated with a customized color profile.

 

The other monitor you tried it on didnt happen to be an Acer 8104 did it? Or perhaps a Powerbook G4 the one just before the switch to intel. Those both have the problem too. I guess its possible any Acer 1680x1050 lcd has the problem.

Try this picture (its a desktop background)
http://www.pixelgirlpresents.com/images/desktops/kenny/InnerWorkings_1280.jpg

look closely at the section I have circled

 

No, I tried on Sony, Dell, Samsung SyncMaster 171s, and the result was the same , a little difference between the right and left side.

I opened the wallpaper and looked on the marked area, what I am supposed to see or not see?

Please, find attached my Color Profile for my 8204. Note this profile is dependent on the external source of light, but you can try.

Copy the extracted file on c:\windows\system32\spool\drivers\color and set the profile on the Color Management for the DefaultMonitor.

 

This is what I see:


If you look towards the bottom of the pic you will see there are brighter lines than there should be.

 

i think acer lcds even though it might be having a good picture are not made of good materials.i dont recommend acer to anyone who wants to have a strong laptop.

 

I just got an Acer Aspire 5670 and the screen is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen... well you know. I've looked at other screens and this one is by far the best looking. People walk by, look and then stare in awe for a while.

 

What is the consensus on the 8204's shipping now? Has Acer switched over the panel suppliers? Is the brightness/sharpness issue with screens of a particular resolution?

I'm considering the 8204WMLi again (WSXGA+, 1650X1050), but I'm still somewhat intimidated by the prospect of having to deal with the hassle of return/exchange process.

 

Do Acer LCDs even compare to say ASUS or sony?

 

I'm very satisfied with mine

 

I'm not sure about other models of acer notebooks, but my new 5672 has a beautiful 15.4" screen. Comparing it to my dell e1505 with wsxga, I like the acer no doubt.

 

For me its fujitsu. My amilo a1630 had a matt screen ad it was practically perfect. Sony come a close second though as there screens are very bright and crisp.

 

all i know is that a macbook pro (17") at $2600 beside a $1000 acer was not a comparision.

the acer screen made the macbooks matte look repulsive...


as for my acer i love the screen, not to dim, no light leakage, and no dead pixals even after a year of use...

i will definatly buy a acer, over an apple, dell, leveno, etc.

 

I hate mine. And the only thing I can say about acer screens is RUBBISH! Too much light leakage. I took it to the warranty service but I am very pessimistic. Alomst every Acer screen is that terrible.

 

Personally I can't stand these glossy shiny screens most laptops have these days. Too reflective of ambiant light.

The screen I've got on my budget Aspire 1362WLMi is good enough for a desktop replacement laptop (i.e. you typically have the mains power connected most of the time, so it's bright). On battery it's not that great for brightness but on the other hand it's a better quality display than the budget Dells even if it's not bright. I'm not using this for travelling so it's no bother (I'd probably have got a Dell if I wanted one for that).

Muddy? Not sure what that refers to. Someone mentioned screen door, well that's just where you can see the pixel structure of the LCD. I don't really notice it on my Aspire unless I look close, but I have to say my desktop Dell Ultrasharp LCD is better in that regard. Also the Aspire's colours aren't as perfect as the Dell LCD. That is comparing to a desktop LCD though (and a good one at that).

MacBook's have nice quality displays but they are very expensive and unfortunately are the shiny glossy kind.


For the price, I'm happy with the Aspire's display given what I get with the laptop. For similar money at the time I would struggle to get anything even half the spec with Dell.

Oh, and if you think Acer warranty isn't worth spit, then check out Dell's "we cover nothing" warranty and worse their "we don't repair if it's out of warranty" policy even if you throw money at them. And at least our batteries don't catch fire! ;-)