Surprised by HD+ Display

I ordered a replacement FHD (1920X1080) screen for my M15X from an ebay seller in the U.S. A couple of weeks later, I got the panel but immediately noticed from the label that it was the HD+ 1600x900 panel and not the FHD that I ordered.

I started a return process with e-bay but the seller was unresponsive and would not confirm that he would cover return shipping from Europe (at least 45USD according to my post office). E-bay support just told me to ship it and the seller would be responsible for reimbursing. I was skeptical about this and got really tired of waiting longer to get my M15X back up and running so I decided to try the display and see how it looks.

I was used to the 1080p display since I bought the laptop in 2010 so I was expecting to be disappointed with the 900p panel. I was pleasantly surprised. This is a high quality panel. The colors are vibrant, the blacks are actually black, and the contrast and brightness seem perfect. The panel had no dead/stuck pixels and was brand new and completely mint. I have to scroll a bit more horizontally when I have side by side windows, but that's about the only downside to this lower res display. Then again I would often scale up my DPI on the 1080p panel because text was too small for my eyes. The 1080p panel was also a gorgeous display, but except for the lower res, the 900p panel I think is on the same level as far as image quality is concerned.

Just wanted to throw this out there for 900p owners who are thinking about upgrading to 1080p. I can honestly say that I don't miss my 1080p panel. 1600x900 seems like a sweet spot for this screen size.

 

Should get you a few more FPS in games too! And make those 2GB VRAM last longer (unless you have 6GB VRAM on a GTX 970M )

 

I'm afraid only 1.5 . I'm still rocking an old school GTX 460M.

 

Wow time to upgrade Joking I know you don't need a more powerful GPU.

 

Mine was only supposed to come with the 900P panel but I was suprised by a 1080p panel for whatever reason, not complaining though.

 

@kosti did your new 900p panel come with a bezel and glass screen? Or did you have to put the panel inside your old bezel and glossy glass screen?
I'm looking for a new glass screen for my m15x as mine is scratched like a ******

 

It was the complete assembly. It included the glass cover (actually some sort of plastic like plexiglass or polycarbonate), the LCD panel itself, the webcam, and the wiring harnesses already attached.

Unfortunately, the screen cover scratches easily, especially if you lose the rubber trackpad cushions. To remove those scratches can be tricky or impossible. You may be able to use a rubbing compound and then a polishing compound to reduce the scratches if they are fine enough. If they are deep scratches, you will not be able to repair them.

Now as far as replacing the cover, here's the problem. The LCD panel is enclosed inside a plastic cage. The glass cover is held on to this plastic cage with strong double sided tape. In order to replace just the plastic cover, you need to soften the double sided tape with a heat source, then slowly pry the clear cover off. To replace this cover with a new one, new tape will most likely be needed. The problem here is that when you are replacing the cover, you are most likely going to introduce dust and debris on the inside of the cover and LCD panel which will drive you crazy.

Dell designed the screen to be replaced as an entire assembly with the cover already attached. This also applies to the other models that have screen covers. The M11X for example is designed so that you if you need to replace the LCD panel, you need the entire assembly with the screen, screen bezel, back cover and hinges.

I would only recommend replacing the entire assembly as one piece together with the clear cover.

 

The screen is the worst part about the M15x. The most horrible thing to take apart and upgrade.

I never succeeded in properly taking it apart AND putting it back together without it looking not so great afterwards...

What Kosti says is very true and unfortunate. If we actually want to upgrade the panel to something better it is difficult to say the least.

 

I have the 900p in one of my M15x machines. It really is pretty nice.

 

"one of my M15x machines" love it!

I take it you are a fan

 

Yes I am. It is just a really cool machine. The 1080p one is on it's way to my daughter as a Christmas gift. She currently has a laptop with just and IGP and it just doesn't cut it for WoW and a few other games she plays. I am getting 80+ fps on ultra settings with the GTX 970M. I think she will be quite pleased.

Yes, I gave her the one that has the 1080p screen and is in overall better condition. Both machines have working DVD drives, which seems to be uncommon.

I have more in this machine than a new one would cost. I upgraded the GPU, CPU, RAM, HDD to SSD, WiFi, battery, power supply and bought Win 8.1 for it (her preference).

 

I've almost spent the same on upgrading my M15x than it cost originally! Upgradeability is an amazing thing! We've clearly all got upgrade fever!

 

Lucky lady! You are spoiling her

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She has no idea it's coming. She lives in Maryland and I live in Tennessee. She has no idea about anything when it comes to computer hardware. Her boyfriend gives me hope. He understands what it means to modify and INF file. Otherwise, she wouldn't be getting this! Long distance support sucks. haha

 

partial refund and warn him about feedback

 

Let's keep it going I am amazed that the M15X threads are lively after all these years. Just shows you how awesome these machines are, especially for enthusiasts, not just gamers.

 

I am in the process of upgrading the 900p machine now.

So far I have on order:
16GB RAM (2x 8GB)
A new palmrest (not used)
I have a 256GB SSD from a previous upgrade, so the 128GB goes bye bye.
I will probably put Win 7 on this one since I already have it. I would have to buy Win 8.1.
I am leaning towards another GTX 970M as well.
That should be it. The DVD drive works on this one too.
I have already upgraded to 7260AC wireless.

 

Usb 3.0 is quite useful too for the expresscard slot. It can push data through it 5 times faster than usb 2.0 and cheap upgrade. Perhaps buy 2 and then you have presents for the family

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Be warned though, try to avoid any that use Asmedia 104x USB3.0 Host Controller as its flaky as hell and doesn't provide anywhere near enough power to even a usb 3 flash drive!

 

I got myself a cheap generic USB 3.0 card with two ports and a power port in the middle for devices needing extra power. Transfer rates compared to USB 2.0 are significantly higher but still not native USB 3.0. Best part about the card is adding two extra USB ports. I payed under $10 shipped for the card.

 

I think iam using asmedia but power delivery isnt too bad. I have been able to run most if not all devices from it.

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I got one off eBay and I have to plug in the device, disable the USB card then re-enable it to get it to work. If I just plug in a device it doesn't work.

Do you have a recommendation for a specific model?

Sent from my overpriced Galaxy S6 Edge +

 

I got a one port targus card that works well and is faster than other expresscard USB 3

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I would much rather have 1 port that works than 3 that are a pain in the butt. Thanks!

Sent from my overpriced Galaxy S6 Edge +

 

I just bought the same card, where did you get the driver for it?

 

What chipset does it have? It should tell you by the name of the bus host do dar in device manager.

 

Not sure haven't got it in the mail yet, lol.

 

It came on a small CD along with the card. There were a bunch of different drivers for different cards on that CD but the one that matches my card is the "Asmedia ASM104x USB 3.0 Host Controller." Not sure if yours uses the same chipset but you may want to try that driver first.

This is the card I got:

 

I have the same.

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i don t understand this point,indipendentely by the resolution used in games a lower or higher resolution monitor will influence the fps in game ?

for exmple if i will use 1024x768 on a FHD monitor and on UHD 4k monitor in any case i will have more fps on the FHD monitor ?


thank you

 

Hope Deadsmiley doesn't mind me answering

When you run a game at the panel's native resolution it always looks better. Therefore if you have say a 1080p panel, the games will look best when run at 1080p, and with a 900p panel they will look best at 900p, etc. As the resolution increases so does the pixel count, which means more work for the graphics card (more stress on the core, more VRAM usage). Therefore with the same graphics card, a lower resolution will mean less work for the card vs. a higher resolution which translates to higher FPS.

You can always lower the resolution (lower than the panel's native resolution) if your graphics card struggles to achieve the FPS you want, but the game will not look as good or as crisp as it would when run at the panel's native resolution.

Therefore for someone with a mid-range or older graphics card, it is actually beneficial to have a lower resolution panel in terms of gaming performance unless you don't mind running at lower resolutions which will not look as good.

 

thank you

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