Dell Studio XPS 16 Screen vs. Desktop Screen

Hello again,

Long ago (A year ago lol) I bought the Gateway FX gaming notebook. It was a great PC and could not beat the price with the hardware and performance it offered, however the screen was really bad. At first glance it wasn’t, 1080p res and good brightness level, but when I plugged in my old external LCD monitor to dual screen, I was floored. My 4 year old desktop LCD screen was almost better in every single way. The Gateway’s colors were dull, muddy, and dark, no matter how much I recalibrated the screen, I could not get it to look anywhere as good when compared to my Samsung screen on my desk. I later returned the FX a few days later.

So it’s a year later, and Dell has released the Studio XPS 16 with an RGB (Which according to my talented artist friend are awesome for doing digital art and photography like I do) full 1080 LED screen. Sounds nice, but after the bad experience with previous laptop screens I have been shying away.

I was thinking of getting the Sager NP8690, BUT then I read it was a 6-bit color screen, so massive tire screech halt and throw into reverse. Below are the Specs of my current LCD screen:

Samsung SyncMaster 930b, a standard 1280 by 1204 5:4 res (Square box here guys >.<)
24-bit color TFT panel
700:1 Contrast
300 cd/m2 Brightness
75 hertz refresh
8 MS response time

It’s a great first time LCD Screen and I’m very happy I bought it. However, it’s obviously starting to show its age. Its not widescreen, 1080 res, LED, and RGB like the Studio XPS 16 screen is. I know both screens have 8 MS response time so that’s not a problem, it’s plenty fast enough for FPS gaming. However the Dells screen only has 500:1 Contrast, and I cant find any info on the refresh or bit color.

So heres my main question finally after my soap box; If I get this notebook, will the screen be a noticeable downgrade compared to my desktop monitor? I’ve constantly bothered Dell reps on their website asking what color bit the screen is, but none knew what it was, only that this is one of the best quality laptop screens they offer which I bet it is. I need a really good screen for photo editing and digital artwork.

Yeah it’s sad the XPS screen comes only in glossy, but I guess that’s supposed to help more. Plus I plan to use it inside anyways. Some feed back from current RGB screen owners would be nice as well, maybe if you have compared desktop screens vs. the XPS one.

 

rgb led was released in late 2008, the 1st dell computer to have it was dell presicion m6400 in last November.

 

You can't even compare the laptop's display to that (sorry but true) POS you are using... That is very blunt, but it's a fact.

The S XPS 16 is just plain amazing. Very bright, very clear, no ghosting, amazing colors, no bleed through. In fact it rivals my very expensive desktop monitors.

 

RGB LED is absolutely the best screen i have ever seen on a laptop Colors are absolutely vibrant and stunning everyone of my friends see it and are like wow thats an amazing looking laptop screen

 

Thanks to all who have replied, it really makes me feel more confident buying this comp now My only worry now it’s the ATI 4670, even though it’s a great GPU and is way better than the 9600 in the Macbook Pro’s, I’m just worried at its gaming power. I guess great screens have yet to be combined with great gaming power. >.<

 

The 4670 is a great card. Very good for gaming, onboard HDMI with 7.1 audio chip, ATI Stream, BlueRay decoding and good power management when needed.

I play all my games maxed out on 1680x1050 and some on 1980x1020...