A8Jp ... worst screen I've seen in my life

I received my A8jp for about 2 days now, I can bear the fact that the touchpad is virtually unuseable, and I can stand the constant fan noise, even the headphone jack that transmits internal sounds (amplifies the hard drive like crazy) on some my headphones...

But god the screen is just about the worst I've seen in my life.

Vertical viewing angle is ... 0, or worse. There is NO position you can view it and have even lighting,
Horizontal is better, but still pretty bad. There is a film of sparkles behind the screen, which dirties all the whites and lighter colors. The Brightness is not bright enough, I had to go through CCC to brighten it.

Now I know why its so cheap, because what they don't tell you is that the screen your getting is about $200 cheaper than the competitors.

I might keep it, I might not. But I'm definately not buying an Asus again. I should have listened to the bad reviews on this screen... to the people who gave the A8jp's display a good review .. no offense but you guys are either blind or have never had even an average LCD (Desktop or Laptop).

 

Personally I don't mind the trackpad and the headphone jack is just like any other I've used, but I agree about the screen. I think it's plenty bright, but the sparkles and viewing angle and colors ... ugh.

 

IMO, Beefdonkey's review is absolutely deceiving... no mention of any of the screen flaws! And if the A8Js screens are the same as these... then holy christ that reviewer who said it was the best screen hes ever seen just because the resolution was higher???

Maybe we should think twice before trusting reviews on items that can't be returned...

 

Well, it seems that not all of us have the screen flaws that others seem to have. My screen has no graininess or sparkle flaws. As far as viewing angle, I wouldn't expect to have a wide viewing angle from a 14.1" screen. I'm able to view my screen from several angles straight on.

I did find that disabling Power4Gear, setting Splendid to the "vivid" setting, setting resolution to 1440 x 900, disabling ATI Catalyst, and manually adjusting the brightness gave me the best results.

You mention "items that can't be returned". Not sure what you mean by that, but ASUS has a 2-year parts warranty. If you contact Asus support, you should be able to RMA it.

Are there better quality screens? Probably. But this compares favorably with other LCD monitors I've used.

 

i beg to differ.
The touchpad is fantastic for me. Dead serious.
My A8JP's fan is silent when at power saving mode. And quite silent at max blast. The only fan noise that comes from the notebook is my notebook cooler.
My earphone jack never amplified any sort of sounds, not including the hard drive's spinning.
My screen is ok. Viewing angle, brightness, etc are good. but viewing from the side is a bit difficult.

I'm thinking yours may be a defect or a fake o.0?

 

Does the ASUS A8JS have a better quality screen?

 

Maybe you could post pictures of your screen angles. Who knows, it could be a defect. Also, try out sanpabloguy's settings; I'm kind of interested in that Asus Splendid software, myself. It didn't come with my notebook, though.

 

Fan noise can be reduced installing Notebook hardware control and these settings files. I also had the same issues with the fan noise. It's a matter of sensitivity to noise, and it varies from user to user (i've seen users not complaining at all). The problem with NHC is that it's only available for WinXP. The programmer is working on the latest version that is Vista compatible, but it's taking too long. In WinXp with NHC installer I can hardly hear the fan when it's working at 2333 rpm. The temp increases a bit compared to the default setting (lower rpm higher temp) but just 2º/3º when in idle. I have a A8Js

 

the screen looks great. the viewing angle is one of the worst ive seen.

If you use it for a while you will have a different opinion most likely.

There are no small screens that look better.

 

To add to this discussion -- was fortunate enough to be able to sit my AJ8P next to 2 Dell Inspiron laptops--didn't get the model numbers, but one was an older 12" and another 15.4", just to compare screens.

My conclusion was -- the A8JP screen was just as good as the Dells, except for the vertical viewing angles.

 

Except what you said is impossible. If the vertical viewing is as bad as mine, then that is a 0 to NEGATIVE, that means NO LIGHT UNIFORMITY. Basically viewing it at any angle whatsoever results in some parts of the screen being dimmer or lacking contrast than the others. I've never had a Dell that did this, and I've had just about every Dell model out there.

As far as the fan noise, I'm running Vista so I can't use NHC yet. Its not big of a deal for me. For the person who said it didn't amplify anything but the HD.. um Hello?

I'm quite sure this screen is not defective. That's just the way these screens are, I'm pretty sure if I got it RMAed I would just get back a new screen that looks identical to this one.

 

This sounds exactly like when Asus warranty replaced my screen with a wrong one. These are screen shots what I was talking about. I think that type of screen is just like that. Almost zero vertical viewing angle.

Viewed from 90 degree
Viewed from 135 degree
Viewed from 160 degree

 

I hear ya...although I don't think my screen is as bad as yours because I can tilt up and down a few degrees and view comfortably (whereas the Dell viewing angles are absolutely stellar).

My only thought is-- try tweaking the screen using Splendid like sanpabloguy mentions. I haven't done it myself, but maybe tweaking Brightness up to max and then playing around with CCC might help?

 

i'm not really sure where MelchiorZ is coming from. the touchpad is slightly annoying at best but i suppose that is really personal preference. it really does seem like you may have a defective unit in more than one way. i have no problem with my earphone or fan noise whatsoever. it runs normally from what i can tell, it doesnt sound extraordinarily wrong..? i thought it was actually more quiet compared to all the complaints that this unit seems to get about the fan noise.

lastly the screen issue (graininess) seems to apply to a certain percentage of a8jp's because mine does not have any of that at all. the viewing angle is not stellar but it is what i would say is acceptable.

for those that purchased this notebook thru newegg.com we really got a bargain price here. i know it's still a lot of money to most people however for the price you paid you are getting ur monies worth in hardware. i believe the touchpad, viewing angle, and fan noise? that people are having problems with are negligible but then again i dont have any of those issues. just throwing my 2cents around

 

Like I said, the touchpad and fan noise are bearable. The amplified headphone jack noise is only on select headphones, (it depends on the headphone circuitry as well).

But what you said about the screen ranks from Improbable to Impossible, Asus would have some screens different from others. From what I've seen on these forums, everyone has the same CMO.

Anyway, I could understand people who tolerate the viewing angle, but like I've said before, it IS the worst it can possibly get. If you can tolerate that, well, nothing left to say.

So basically I paid $1250 but I probably could have gotten an more expensive machine with a better screen and the price/performance ratio would still be exactly the same. You are just cheaping out on the screen, which is very much apart of the performance a system.

 

whats the brand of your screen?

my a8h has a chimei LCD...

 

CMO.. which is Chi Mei right?

 

Yes, Chi Mei Optoelectronics

 

where'd you guys see CMO?

i wanna know because i had to download and install Everest just to find out what chipset and LCD screen the laptop had.

 

Since the screen is so bad, I'd suggest that you RMA it to Asus and ask them to replace it. Unless you've personally seen several A8Jp screens, there's no real way for you to know if your screen is "the way they all are" which you seem to think, or if it's just defective.

 

Wow it seems like this forum has turned into an a8j bash-fest lately. My screen is bad, so is MelchiorZ's, and a few others. I assume its because CMO let out a bad batch or changed their formulas or something.

My a8jp is a great computer other than the sub-par screen, but I've seen a number of other computers with a similar-looking LCDs.

 

given the obvious. we never sold a8jp. i have never seen a8jp. we sold hundreds of a8js. not a single return. this leads me to deduce the screen on the a8js is good or just better. as for the touchpad. i must admit i am not feeling it my self but people lets get real. there is such a thing as a touchpad skin. Put a touchpad skin on and your troubles are gone. a8js is a low noise machine. if the fans are bothering you then you are very very very sensetive.

 

Well they are either AUO or CMOs... and based on the A8js posts (owners lounge), the A8js screens are just as bad.

 

That is all in the eye of the beholder. I had very good feedback on the screen of the a8js and i feel it is a good quality screen. I dont really care what people say in the lounge. some may not have the a8js. some may be talking about the a8jm. one may not like it. A8jm had a sup par display. a8jp possibly. a8js has a good display end of story

 

I think that most users don't realize that higher-resolution displays invariably sacrifice screen brightness and demand more power in the quest for more screen real estate. Unfortunately that's the trade-off for the use of this pioneering 1440x900 resolution.

 

The screen on the a8jp should be the best 1440 x 900 14.1 inch lcd on planet earth.

I havent seen it myself either but it should be, it is the latest thing to market asus switched from the auo screen ( which was the best and latest on the market on planet earth) so it stands to reason.

So someone who says theyve seen a better one has his head up his ... You can literally ignore what hes saying, seriously doubt hes even a real person and stop trying to give him tech support.

Its getting old

 

I can belive someone saying "a8jm screen sucks". it had this quality called "sparkly display". dont bother me a bit but i can see it bothering others. A8js all versions of it had good displays. i never saw an a8jp. The vast majority of the people who complain point out such things as vertical view angles and light leekage. They clearly do not have the proper means to judge the screen because it can ONLy be compared to other 14" wxga+ displays. The people that complained are probably using their old 14" xga or other size all together. does the a8js screen suck in comparison to lets say a g1 display which is 15.4 wsxga+? it sure does if i used the g1 for a year then upgrade to the a8js. whatever its getting old. if a8js display is sooooo bad why arent these people returning them and buying a dell or something?

 

i think wxga+ screens seem sub par across the board. the dell d620 and hp nc6400 with the wxga+ have both had a lot of complaints.

 

Yes they do, they have worse screens than the a8js or a8jp, they use older lg screens. Owners of those machines try to upgrade theirs to the ones used on the a8j, as they are the best ones used on planet earth.

If the best ones on planet earth arent good enough then you really just didnt think about your purchase well enough.
nbr let you down by not explaining what an lcd is and what its going to be like.

I think some people look at the lg screen and have the opinion that its better because it does have a better vertical viewing angle although still bad.

Some people who judge the lcd quality of their new lcd by viewing angle are going to say the a8j screen is the worst. Most people wont.

However anyone who does judge a lcd by the vertical viewing angle, and they bought an a8js or a8jp, they are a complete idiot and dont deserve any sympathy. How did that catch you by suprise again?

The a8js screen has a bad vertical viewing angle. You have to read more.

 

Today I replaced the CMO screen in my a8jp with an LG lp141wp1-tla2 (which is different from the ones used in Dells).

Is color better? Yes.
Is it brighter? It looks a bit brighter, but I was fine with the brightness before.
Is viewing angle better? Same, but I have no issue with it.
Is it less "sparkly"? Yes. There is still a little bit (I'm picky), but it is much, much better.