K50ID--possible screen issues; any thoughs or suggestions?

I have a K50ID I purchased a couple of years ago for web usage, movies, and some gaming (mostly older games, indie games etc--stuff that isn't too demanding). The K50ID has a 15.6" screen, glossy, 1366x768.

Over time (particularly in the last 6-8 months), it has seemed like the screen may not be as good on this laptop as it used to be. This is something I can't fully put a finger on, so hoping other laptop users might have an idea.

It seems like the image quality on the laptop screen has decreased over time, but only in dark images. In bright scenes, at the desktop etc, it looks fine. But over time, it seems like dark scenes in movies and games have gotten worse. The dark colors look flatter, with less of the subtle detail you normally see in dark screens, and I find my eyes are straining more (I get a headache more easily).

This was particularly brought to my attention this summer when I was trying to play a hidden object game on the laptop. I got only a short distance into the game when I encountered a graphic glitch I was unable to work around (unrelated to the other stuff I was talking about, I think it was the game that was at fault there). As part of my troubleshooting, I installed the game on my desktop computer, which has a nice IPS screen. The graphic glitch was not present, so I started replaying the hidden object game on the desktop. Well, since I had to do over some scenes, I noticed that there were things I was seeing on the desktop computer, that I never saw on the laptop, due to the washed-outedness of the images.

I do not expect a laptop, especially a budget laptop to have as good an image quality as my desktop monitor. However, there is a difference between "not as good an image" and "looks like I've been rubbing my fists in my eyes".

I have tried altering the brightness and in-game gamma on the laptop. That just makes the image more washed-out. I've tried using the Splendid monitor tone tool. That just makes it look distorted if I use anything other than Normal or Soft.

I've even gone back in and re-opened some dark games I played in the past on this laptop, and they look worse than I remember.

So... any thoughts or ideas? Maybe my eyes are just getting worse (but I don't have this problem on a TV or my desktop, just this laptop). Maybe I'm misremembering how it used to look (but I don't think so? Some games that look borderline unplayable now were playable in the past). I don't know.

Even though the laptop is glossy, it isn't glare causing this--I can play in a room with the blinds closed and overhead light off, and still not see very well in dark games.

On a related note, does anyone else play dark games on a laptop and actually be able to see wall textures, objects such as torch sconces hanging on the wall, etc? Example games that tried to run on the laptop and are dark are Penumbra:Overture, Arx Fatalis, Legend of Grimrock.

 

Well I think I've answered my own question.

After doing some more research, I've come to the conclusion that this is probably a screen limitation due to this being a fairly cheap panel ($600 laptop when new) and that it has always been there. On the other hand, over time I've become more sensitive to it, become pickier, or something and started noticing it. Also I when I first got the laptop, I was all "Yay laptop! Now I can use the web/game/movies in rooms I couldn't before!" so I wasn't paying attention to things that later started to pick at me (sorta like the way some dates go, I guess )

So the only way I could avoid this is just getting a higher quality panel. I'm looking into upgrading; this laptop is getting too slow for some things I want to use it for anyway.