Just got my M17 and not impressed

I have just recieved my new laptop. 6970m, 1080p screen, 2720 processor, 8g ram and every game i play, it seems like there is a layer of mist coating the screen,, the saturation of color is horrible. The detals and textures look great but it just doesnt have that "umpf" that I was expecting. I have tried to adjust settings but nothing seems to help. Is this normal for a laptop? My 4 year ol gaming PC with 8800 gt's looks way better........

 

I'll admit, against strong lighting, the glass does seem hazy.

 

Its in any lighting. The IT department at work said that after seeing one, they wouldnt buy one. They loved the design of the laptop but not the display.

 

You can bump saturation up in the CCC however...it sounds like you might have something faulty, take a picture with a camera so we can see what you are talking about.

 

Its not faulty the R3 for sure is hazier than most glossy laptop screens I've seen. Its not really a problem when the device is on.

 

Comparing to a MBP, I see no real difference...

 

I'll take a picture of it when I dig up my camera. I'll have another screen to compare to when my replacement gets here to see if its a defect or not.

 

Yea, maybe I just dont see it...

 

Which screen do you have? I had one that had that problem.. I sent a pic to support and they confirmed it wasnt normal and are going to fix it.

 

The 60hz screen was much less bright compared to the 3d 120hz screen I had. Even on full brightness the white from webpages looked dirty grey/pinkish. That bothered me so much I sold the 6970 r3. I recently picked up an RGB R2 and wow I should say the 60hz screen on the r3 is pathetic. Even co workers walking by saw my R2 Friday for the first time were like your screen is so bright and colorful.. is that a new pc? I think it says alot when people who know or care nothing for laptops make a comment like that. I do have an R3 coming with 120hz again so I'll have to put them side by side again to see which one I like better. As much as I want the 120hz and sandy bridge performance .. The 1080p still bothers me.

 

Sadly, this is something we all eventually have to accept ... :-(

It seems like the industry is forcing us to go with the 16:9 vs 16:10. It's too bad because the extra real estate, while seemingly small is really noticeable.

 

The 120hz panel is 100nits brighter than the 60hz panel and the gamut is rated higher. I also bump up digital vibrance to 100% when I set this up so the colors look great, going to attempt calibration at some point but I am 100% happy with the panel.

The Clevo's 120hz panel has a 92% gamut rating which seems unreal

 

A 120Hz screen needs a brighter backlight, since the 3D goggles are rather opaque when fully active.

 

For a few days I had a R3(replacement) with the 60hz screen & 6970M. I also was not impressed. The colours seemed bland and the brightness was subpar coming from a RGB LED screen. Soon I will receive a maxed out M18x, I hope the screen fairs better than the 60hz R3.

I have seen the 120hz screen for the R3. It handles colour and brightness much better than the 60hz R3 offering.

 

Indeed we probably have to deal with it. I have serious issues with the webpages being so stubby. I have to scroll and scroll and scroll...

 

The 18x will not be much better =(

Most of Dell's panels are <72% gamut so you will not see much in that respect.

 

You are absoluetly right. I received my M18x today. The screen is just as unimpressive as the R3...maybe a little worse because of the 1920 x 1080 res on a 18.4 inch screen. I'm sure I'll get use to it. At least I still have my R2.

 

get saturation up and you will enjoy your screens !!! I think that solved problem for me. now its really colorful and bright

 

Yeah i have no issue with my screen and i am fairly picky .

Wonder if there are some different model number 60hz screens out there ?. Mines an LG and as usual cranking up the Saturation makes a world of difference.

I like the screen alot also because there not a single iota of bleeding anywhere and the panel is 100% perfectly even throughout .

Clarity is good and brightness is good as well .

Cant say i am shocked though because every Alienware i have owned the screens are always a huge debate .

 

Hey Le0, you change this settings in CCC under Video color right?

How much brightness & contrast did you set on ur screen?

 

yes i belive so.
well actually it depends on how much do you want to dig? because there is also video> video color > advanced video color
^I believe there is something of interest too

 

Bump saturation up.

 

I already tried that.

 

Must be low gamut from the factory then

That sucks!

Not many options when swapping to an aftermarket 18" screen unfortunately =/

 

Is that a characteristic of the model of the screen, or each individual screen?

 

While a good 1080p screen is nothing to sneer at, I just don't see any way possible that a 1080p LCD (whether 60 or 120Hz) can come close to equaling the visual quality of the 1200p RGB LED. It's like comparing apples and oranges. It's really very unfortunate that Alienware is not offering the same screen quality on the R3 and M18x as it did on the top shelf R2. They (Alienware) really created issues for themselves by allowing the R2 to set the bar too high for its successors to meet all of our expectations.

 

You're right. It's not as bad as some other 1080p screens I've seen, but certainly no where near the RGB LED.

 

Dang OP, this is sad to hear, cuz this is the best computer display I've ever seen in my entire life (aside from twice-as-much-costing mapples that is )

 

dookie - it's all relative to frame of reference, my friend. Had I never owned a Dell Tru-Brite 1900x1200 (on my old XPS M1730) or this R2's RGB, I am pretty sure the 1080p display on the R3 would be "da bomb" to me and everyone else. The displays available on the R3 and M18x certainly are top shelf in the industry.

The situation only sucks because Alienware took a couple of steps backward by not offering the 1200p RGB for the R3 and M18x. I don't know what the heck they were thinking by not offering the 1200p. It was a feature that distinguished the M17x R2 from all of the competitors. Perhaps the manufacturer can no longer supply it... wish I knew why. Unless it's something like lack of availability, they would be utter morons for not making it available.

 

I haven't checked, but does the 18x have the 1200p or RGB display? Also, does the 15x have any of those premium displays? Cuz if the 15x doesnt, then it sorta makes sense if the R3 doesn't, cuz I think I read somewhere that our R3s are the "new" 15x, while the 18x is the 17x's replacement.

 

No, the M18x does not have the 1200p RGB display. (I alluded to this in my last post.) It seems 1080p is pretty much the defacto standard on high-end laptops any more. Sad, but true. The only display option available on the M18x is 18.4” Wide Full HD 1920 x 1080 WLED display (1080p). There's nothing shabby about 1080p, but it's not the best of the best.

For most people it is probably not all that relevant. Anyone that has never had a 1080p display before is going to feel like they have died and gone to heaven when they get one because it is vastly superior to lower resolution displays. Not all games support 1200p (16:10), but most newer games do support 1080p (16:9) displays. The lower resolution is probably even good for a few extra FPS.

 

Seriously, I was waiting for the m17xr2 Sandy Bridge refresh before jumping onto a large single laptop replacing all my needs. I didn't really need dual GPU, but it would of gotten decent enough performance for me to sell off my desktop; However, the display was the single largest factor! After testing out a buddy's m17xr2's RGBLED screen compared to my U2311h, I was willing to leave behind my i7 930/HD5870CF desktop for the next m17x... but instead, Dell saddles us with this... junk. Seriously. They probably could of fit the m17xr3 as it is down to m16x size (iirc, there is a 16" RGBLED screen) Allowed the m18x to be m17x size with a nice RGBLED screen, but nooooooo...... Dell just had to screw a good thing up, and screw it up badly

oh, well. Now I have a 2600k/GTX580/U2711, lol.... further entrentched into the desktop world, even as I am ever less willing to have a large desktop. Now Dell has managed to seeminly screw up the m14x in every possible way, so I cannot even abandon my m11xr2 in that direction Oh, well.... I don't like Sony, Acer seems to be skirting any possible decent laptop of 13" size, ASUS doesn't care, Clevo doesn't either, MSI is too focused on their 15" line, and as a direct result, there is no real choice I like right now

Maybe I'll forget about Sony's failure with my 3(!!!) PS3s and get a refreshed Sony Z (if Sony drops their strange hybrid GPU in favor of Optimus).

 

I don't think you all understand, all LCD's are RGB. The only other option is CMYK, which is not really possible. LED is the backlighting...What really needs to be known is the gamut % on the "RGB LED" screen that is being referred to on the R2's. It has nothing to do with the resolution, get the gamut % and find a comparable screen.

So far the Clevo is the highest 120hz panel I've seen coming in at 92% gamut.

 

... What did you think I was refering to? I never mentioned RGBLED without... well, the LED portion Anyhow, normal "LED" backlights are WLED, which are really blue LEDs with a yellow phospher coating, so they never produce anywhere near full gamut backlighting as it is... RGBLED arrays really help produce more of a "full" and "wide" gamut of color

I saw the TN panel, RGBLED m17xR2 display as an acceptable replacement for my eIPS, CCFL U2311h, nothing more, nothing less

 

The RGB LED screen on the R2 is the first screen where I find myself utilizing only 70% of brightness because it's that good!!! My M18x screen is at 100% and I find it not bright enough at times.....The difference in colour/resolution is obvious to me. I read some post where people say that the difference between the R2 & R3/M18x screen is negligible.....lol. They must be trying to justify their purchase. Since I didn't have to pay for my M18x I believe my opinion is unbiased.

 

That's such a narrow point of view. They could also be blind or just don't have any idea.

 

Was just curious about all this but if you look at the parts list there are two FHD LCDs listed. Any idea on why and any one able to compare?

H8D3K 17.3FHD, WLED, LVDS, AUO
MGNC7 17.3FHD, WLED, LVDS, LGD

 

Well I guess as long as no one walks around me with an R2 I should not feel to remorseful for having just bought an R3 3 days ago...

This screen will def beat my HP dv5s screen so I should be in the clear, and I have only ever seen 1 or 2 people with alienware laptops..... soooo....

 

Ironically after I got my AW a guy brought an AW M15x R2 into our shop to replace the graphics card with a 460M and a new HD.

We wouldn't even have bothered with it had I not owned one and already knew how to swap the retention bracket, etc.

 

Lol so what your saying is I should stay away from all computer related stores that might offer support for alienware computers, in order to save myself from chancing an encounter with an R2? Ok I think I can do that! lol

 

Dell really did drop the ball on the screens this year! IDK what the problem with the RGBLED was for them to drop it for the WLED's? They still should have offered it as a premium option. I mean They must have sold a ton of RGBLED's.

 

panel manufacturers stopped making them? All I can assume...

It's REALLY hard to find the RGBLED screens at ALL anymore. They can't even replace the panels because there is no stock.

 

Maybe they had some sort of radioactive defect that will cause mutations in people using them.

^^ That sounds good to me, and will let me sleep better at night know my screen isnt as good, because they were looking out for my safety, and the safety of my future children =P

 

I was in your same shoe but I returned it and got MacBook Pro in weeks ago.

 

Pretty sure the RGBLED was a custom run manufacture of a standard panel with a customer specified backlight. The run probably ended with X number produced and thus can't get them anymore.

If the M18x came with RGBLED already, I'd probably own one. It'll probably come again. For me this is something worth waiting it out. I was finally showed one of the screens on a M6500 and all I can say is "wow". Worth waiting for.

 

I could never justify paying more for a Mac than say a pack of bubble gum, so its not even an option for me lol.

 

Me neither.....

 

All great points! I gotta say if the M18x had the RGBLED I would probably jump on one as well. Until then I am happy with my R2.

 

Lol im glad someone agrees!

 

In all honesty though, I am coming from a HP Dv5 ive had for 3 weeks, with my previous laptop being a walmart bought HP from 2008. Im almost positive the my R3 will blow me away. Amazing screen or not, so I wont have the laptop snobbishness untill my next laptop purchase.

Though I am heavily considering selling my R3 right when I get it so I can then get another with a better graphics card specifically the 6970, unless I decide to just buy one off ebay for $420.