Conclusive Comparison Between M1330's LED V CCFL

Hello, you have been a large help to me I think I need to put something back in. And now I am in the possession of two XPS M1330's because I am an idiot and decided to order another one as I got impatient. Anyway, one has a CCFL and one an LED, I am probably in the minority when I say I can compare the two side by side.

I have taken pictures to show the differences:



Obviously the red one is the LED and the black one the CCFL.

The difference in some pictures looks huge but it isn't actually that large.

Also, can I ask, I believe I may have CPU whine on the LED Red one, it isn't constantly there but most of the time is, may this eventually dissapear?

 

After seeing those I'm kinda glad I went with the WLED display. Is there any major weight difference between the two? Can you post up some pics of both displays operating at full brightness, different angles, etc? Thx.

I believe the CPU whine is very common with the santa-rosa chips, even my M1330 does it. Not even that loud so I'm not sure why people fuss over it so much. I don't think it will go away without disabling C1 state in your bios, or so I've heard.

 

WLED should be lighter (200+ grams?)

 

After seeing that comparison, I'm glad I didn't go with the LED screen. For me, that small difference didn't warrant the extra $150.

 

The LED should probably have a longer useful life than the CCFL as well. I would also think that the LED would not have a warm up period like CCFLs do (when the screen comes on and it takes a little bit to get to optimal brightness). I don't know if I would pay the extra $150 unless I was planning on keeping it for a LONG time, just bringing up the idea that there are probably other operational differences aside from brightness and weight.

 

I went with the CCFL still because I still don't last long with laptops...I always get the next model when it comes out...

 

of course by choosing LED you get better image quality, better battery life, lower power consumption, lighter weight, etc.

personnaly of course i will choose it over the standard CCFL one.

though if i'm not mistaken the LED one actually got less lifetime?

and i still don't get why the Original Poster buy 2 laptop.

and if the OP can provide the shot of the screen and its opinion it would be great

 

Valid points for why someone would choose the LED screen......however for my purposes, I couldn't justify the extra cost.

I'm also like Duran, I tend to keep my computer equipment updated and odds are I will get rid of my m1330 LONG before it's ever going to wear out.

 

Let's see them turned on with the same images and viewing angles.

 

I have one question......well how better is the LED with battery life?

 

It's not just for the slight decrease in thickness. This LED screen is bright! And the colors displayed on the screen is very nicely saturated. When I first got the Vostro1400, I thought the screen is quite nice. Now, sitting next to the XPS M1330, the Vostro colors look slightly washed out.

To give you an idea how much brighter the LED is, at 6/7 it is slightly brighter than the Vostro1400 at 7/7.

Another thing, the LED screen goes to full brightness as soon as you turn it on. CCFL on the other hand, takes a little bit of "warming up" before it reaches full brightness.

 

*shrug* Still doesn't justify the cost for me.

 

ahhahah well, people got different needs opinion and value. so thats allright

 

What about the colour?
Comparing my D610 with CCFL vs M1330 with WLED the difference is huge.
Now the D610 looks like a piece of parchment to me - so yellow compared to the whites on the M1330

 

Exactly.....and for those that want the LED screen.....cough up $150!

 

the amount of battery life saved is questionable but the brightness is noticable

 

So where is a pic showing a side by side comparison of picture on the screen? Whats the use of comparing them without that? I think we're all aware that one is thicker than the other

 

Ok, I have taken some pictures but they are not great, I can't really tell the difference on the pictures:

CCFL =

LED =

Side by Side:

By the way, left = CCFL and right = LED

On the pictures you cannot really tell the difference in my view.

But personally to me, the blacks looked quite alot blacker on the LED (whale's tail) but the general brightnes may be a tad bit better on the LED.

To the casual user though I severly doubt you would see a difference.

 

nice comparison ! rep++

at times i feel my CCFL is too bright at full, and at times i feel i could go brighter. it really depends on your regional lighting conditions

 

Yes, thanks for the excellent comparison pictures! This could really help someone trying to choose between the two. I think both screens look very good.

 

I know this has been discussed before. I forgot where I read it before.
I just received my m1330 yesterday and how do I know if my screen is WLED or CCFL.
Thanks in advance.

 

yes the difference is clearly noticable. the colour are a lot truer. the backlight is very evenly distributed. black are blacker, white are whiter. all this can lead to significant decrease in eye fatigue.

 

look in the DELL order form/receipt.

 

I'd like to know what the battery life advantage is between the LCD vs. LED

What someone needs to do is:

1. find two m1330's, one of each kind, LCD and LED at 100% battery life
2. boot them both up at the same time, ON BATTERY POWER
3. put their mouse over the "battery meter" in the far right hand bottom corner
4. post what the life-span of the HOURS AND MINUTES for the LCD and the LED

this would give us all a "good idea" what kind of advantage on battery life the LED has over the LCD m1330.


Now the hard part is... anyone have access to both???


- long time listner, first time caller

 

Really good comparison between the two screens by ‘Cheap-Information’ – thanks…

After lots of research, I have come to the following conclusions about WLED and CCFL: (correct me if I’m wrong).

1. CCFL will take more time to warm up, but is mostly unnoticed unless you’re a graphic designer

2. LEDs will probably outlast CCFL – but 98% of users will never keep a notebook that long anyway

3. The WLED screen is thinner than the CCFL (2.21 to 3.38cm thickness of the whole notebook with WLED, starting from the front to the back - 2.46 to 3.63cm thickness with CCFL).

4. The whites are noticeably whiter and the blacks are noticeably blacker with the WLED (i.e, better contrast).

5. Traditionally, LEDs are more power efficient, but the large number of LEDs used in the XPS M1330 screen (32 LEDs) sort of negates that point. Therefore, not much difference in power consumption between the CCFL and WLED screens.

6. The difference in weight will be hardly anything; 200 grams.

7. The WLED will be slightly brighter, but it’s not something that’s a deal-breaker, especially for someone like me who doesn’t like to run a normal CCFL screen at full brightness anyway. Besides, it also depends on the amount of light you have around you.

8. The latest CCFL’s can easily rival LEDs when it comes to color reproduction – this is fairly evident in the side-by-side photos of the screens taken by ‘Cheap-Information’.

9. There are still supply problems with the WLED screen (which will delay your ship date) and all the panel gaps near the webcam that users have been reporting have been with the WLED screen.

10. Has anyone noticed that the WLED screen has become a US $ 300 option instead of a US $ 150 option? In India, that means that the WLED option has gone up from INR 5500 to 11600!!! This is reflecting on the Dell US site too! Does anyone know if that’s temporary? And the reason behind this price revision?

 

To Khris...

There is no price difference between the LED and CCFL in Canada as the LED w/o cam is a free upgrade and has been for sometime.

 

Can you see any difference in the overall look of the display? Any sign of a "screen" or "veil" effect on the LED screen?

I have recently taken delivery of a M1330 with white-LED display & it looks like there are very faint, broken grey lines running horizontally across the screen. On closer inspection it looks like some pixels are very white & some are a bit grey in comparison. Where there a number of grey pixels close together it looks like a thin grey line. There is also a bit of a "grainy" effect caused by the random scattering of the grey pixels. The effect is more noticeable when looking at the screen from slightly below the centre & a less noticeable when looking down from above, but it is definitely there.

I am wondering if all this is due to uneven illumination or perhaps uneven contact between the various layers or coatings which make up the screen.

I would appreciate your comments about these "features".

 

I received my led m1330 at the weekend and have been very impressed with the screen. However, when booting into windows (when the majority of the screen is black), I have noticed quite a lot of light leakage around the top and bottom of the screen. Is this standard for these screens or should I be considering a replacement?

 

blargh, now I feel like an idiot for getting a CCFL screen.

 

Are you looking at a cached page? I have checked this a few times over last couple weeks and I have yet to see that option again.

I saw it briefly awhile ago, but then it was pulled from Dell.ca and I haven't seen it since.

 

You don't need to feel like an idiot......there's nothing wrong with the CCFL screens.

 

Maybe not, but considering what I personally prefer and seeing the differences with reviews and pictures on this site, seems like I really should have gone with the LED. And now it's $250 instead of $150...

 

Hello
What about eye strain? (flickering or other effects)
Don't you mind the lower WLED resolution?

 

I don't have any problem with eye strain using the WLED screen. There is no flickering in the sense that you get flickering with a traditional CRT screen when the refresh rate is set too low. I believe that is just one of the advantages of LCD screens in general.

As far as I know there is no difference in resolution between the 2 screen options for the M1330 - they both have a resolution of 1280 x 800 with TrueLife.

I am very impressed by the bright & even lighting all over the screen area. I can't vouch for the M1330 CCFL screen as I have not seen it, but my previous Sony VAIO which had a 13.3" CCFL screen was noticeably darker along the short sides & corners.

 

And how do they compare on moving images? (shadows)

 

I believe that the response time of these screens is in the order of 25 ms which is not great by external monitor standards. Nevertheless I have not had any noticeable problems with shadows/ghosting/after images with the M1330 so far, although I have not been viewing anything really action-packed - just your average movies & flight sim game.

I don't have the Sony available any more to compare, but I seem to recall that it was also okay for my purposes.

 

The price of the LED screen has recently dropped back to $150

 

Sorry, but I still can't have a good feedback, neither here nor in Dell's Forum, about difference in viewing angles and grainy problem.
The first time I have read about LED was about a guy with grainy Led screen, so I thought LED were worst.
Now I see it is not so.
I also see someone say that viewing angles are better in LED, but I saw one saying they are worst.
So, there is not yet thenumber of opinion about that to make a real comparison.
Could somone more give his/her experience about viewing angles difference between LED and CCFL?
Finally, should be possible to mount a LED 15.4" screen on a Latitude D830 only offered with CCFL? I understand that LED come with thinner chassis, so the reverse is impossible, but I guess it should be possible to mount a LED on a CCFL chassis... Right?

 

I think with the M1330 the CMO LED screens were probably brighter and had wider viewing angles and the Toshiba LED screens (I have) have similar viewing angle and brightness to CCFL screens (possibly making them use less power than CMO) and perhaps were better quality than CMO in other ways.
Anyway - I am very happy with my screen.

As for all the talk of light leakage and graininess - I am not convinced that this is blown out of proportion. I have never seen a screen that disturbed me in those respects. Sure - if I look at my M1330 from a large side angle I can see some light leakage - but so what - the light looks even when I am using it. I hate to think what additional costs to Dell come from people getting together on these forums and being taught to look for microscopic defects and then starting to request replacement machines. It is us who pay in the end.

 

I understand your point of view and for many cases I can agree, but I am directly involved in the SEC3350 "watergate"...
It is really a terrible screen with a terrible antireflective coating which has got really the sandy, oily, dirty, yellowish, grainy aspect. I wouldn't lie. I have it matte, on a Latitutde D830. Most people complain about the glossy one. If even glossy people find it terrible, imagine with the addiction of the antireflective bad quality panel.
My eyes really hurts after a while, phisically, and I fear that I will have health damages over time...
I posted some pictures in the page 35 of Rage's thread about grainy SEC3350 changed for a LG with perfects results.
So, possibly there is some exageration in some things, and I guess there should be more litrerature on the objective limitations of each technology to let people know what is normal, what is very common, what is a good argument for a replacement...
Yes, all what Dell loose, we pay it, of course, but also Dell must understand that all what it give to us with bad quality, it will converti in a money and image loss for Dell...

 

God there is a big difference between the screens, if you look at the bottom pic the one on the right, you can see alot more detail, like the waves in the ocean, and the spray coming of the tail of the whale, and it is alot brighter too!!

Obviously it would look alot different if you were there in person as you eyes are alot better than the digital camera is, it would look amazing, + all the other benefits of LED, Im sold!!!

 

I have had the same issue, First machine i bought had this issue i was to get a refund but DELL offered to change the screen and then I was OK.

But the Dell machine decided to have other issues and then I got a whole new replaced Machine with a perfect screen.

This machine's screen then died its backlight failed. The replacement came and this had the GREY horizontal lines? not nice.!!!
There must be batches with these issues. I am glad i am not the only one seeing this problem with grey lines on the screen, shows there is some issue with some of these LED screens.

 

The first post is really good info for potential buyers who think the LED vs CCFL is a really small difference. It really isn't in terms of appearance at least.

 

Thanks, I think I'll stick with the CCFL if I get an XPS. I like that the LED is thinner but that's not worth $150 to me. I also think the differences in image quality are negligible, and any differences people are seeing are likely due to the way they were photographed (you're not looking at them from the same angle).

 

I am sort of baffled how much we all seem to stress over the displays that come attached to these laptops . . . I never really hear this same thing getting discussed on desktop forums.

I believe that the problems that some of us are mentioning, eye fatigue, poor or inconsistent qualities in the screens, are totally related to the environment we happen to use them in, coupled to the expectations / hype that we have over how the product should work. My glossy screen, while obviously compromising a lot in order to hit that "photo realistic" appearance, seems to look best when there some ambient or just a touch of daylight in the room with me. Too much light, and its clean but dim, too little, and it is sparkly and it gets sort of hard to 'optimize'. Never do I feel like throwing it out the window however. Its generally pretty sweet.

I do not deny that a lot of Dell's screens are not perfect, but then again I understand that sticking a film over a panel may improve the image here, but degrade it there. Its the uneven back lighting and poor viewing angles that frustrate me the most. My work laptop kills my eyes when I use it all day, and it is a matte screen, pretty basic with a "realistic" resolution which does not shrink text all to hell, like my sweet home laptop does. Solution? Use the external output to a huge, bright, easy on the eyes screen at work! Has helped me out a lot.