Dell XPS 17 buyers beware - Extremely poor screen quality :( .

I received my Dell XPS 17 laptop a few days ago and I just wanted to let people know that the screen is extremely poor quality. Device manager states that I have the LGD021D screen.

I found the following main problems with it…
• Extremely poor viewing angles (both vertical and horizontal). This is so bad that it even becomes an issue when sitting straight in front of the screen, with the laptop on your lap.
• Extremely poor, unnatural looking colours, despite me spending a lot of time changing the settings. No matter what I did, the colours remained very bad.

The screen resolution was perfect for me at 1600 * 900 (I did not want a 1080p 17.3 inch laptop as then the text, icons, etc would be too small to read easily, and increasing the DPI creates other problems).

I am very surprised Dell have included such a poor quality screen in a "premium" laptop . If I had to rate the screen out of 10, I would give it 0, it is that bad!. Considering the screen is a major part of a laptop, I feel it is not fit for purpose, and needless to say I will be returning the laptop straight back to Dell for a refund .

 

I'm (barely) running a Dell D820 right now... I hope it's at least as good as the screen on this thing. I just ordered my XPS 17 on the 11th... and it wasn't cheap.

Ordered Nov 11th:
-----------------
XPS 17 (L701X)
Intel Core i7-840QM
12GB (DDR3)
2 x 500GB 7.2k HDD
NVIDIA GeForce GT 445M
Backlit Keyboard
Blu-ray Combo
Win7 Ult. 64
Bluetooth 3.0
Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200 wireless

 

The previous poster was right in that if you increase the DPI in Windows 7, then the rest of the page doesn't square up properly. It's far better than XP but still not perfect by any means.

So what's to learn?

 

Any pictures regarding the viewing angles of the xps 17. i am loving the pc, but what i read here is making me think other wise..

some pictures will really be of help to me!!!

apart from that, can you change the hue to blue? see if that works..

 

While I have seen the viewing angle issues I have to say the screen looks fine to me. I am not picky about my screens though.

Just wanted to throw another opinion out there so people wouldnt think that everyone feels the screen is horrible. I love this laptop and would buy it over again in a heartbeat.

However if you are picky about displays you might want to go with the 15" 1080p display.

 

That is some verdict. 0 out of 10? So are you trying to say this is the worst screen ever made?

I think you're over reacting. Having had different screens in the past I must agree with you on the fact that the viewing angles are not very good, but the screen is definately not a 0 out of 10.

If you're rating it honestly, taking all points into account, can you really say it gets 0 points?

Brightness: 0/10
Contrast: 0/10
Colour accuracy: 0/10
Horizontal viewing angle: 0/10
Vertical viewing angle: 0/10

Sorry, but I just cannot take this seriously. You would imply that blue looks red and red looks green. You can only look at it from a straight 90 degree angle, it has no contrast at all, and also no brightness. Did you even turn it on ?

I think you're scaring people away with these statements, and they cannot be correct.

I agree with barnett. The screen is not that horrible.

 

I think this thread will serve is to frighten prospective buyers or those who are waiting for their laptop arrives..

 

All this worst screen ever talk has certainly scared me!

I had fully convinced myself to pick up an XPS 17, but I think I'll hold off an extra week until a few more people chime in on with their opinions on the screen quality.

 

As someone who has been greatly worrying about the screen since ordering it (coming from a awesome WUXGA Truelife (1920 x 1200) screen on my m1710) this has only increased my concern! Could someone please possibly give a less hystrerical review?

 

My review posted yesterday was not hysterical in the slightest. I was beyond disappointed in the screen on this expensive laptop! OP is absolutely correct in stating the viewing angle is horrible, and I warned people who were intending to use this for presentation purposes.

The main reason my XPS 17 is at this very moment on its way back to Tennessee is that the game I play, Everquest 2, does not support the native 1600x900 resolution. So, in order to make the graphics look anywhere near decent, I had to lower the resolution, which made the game unplayable for me.

Dell was very nice! They completely understood that the screen for me was the most important part of my purchase, and I am not being required to pay a restocking fee.

My trusty XPS M1730 with its stunning 1900x1200 screen is looking more beautiful every day and I am extending the warranty on it.

I personally believe that Dell will eventually offer the 1900x1080 screen on the XPS 17. It is sorely needed!

 

I take it that it is the same screen (17.3" HD+ WLED 1600x900) that is in the Dell Inspiron 17R, and looking around at the reviews for it, many give the screen a good score (despite one saying it had not to fantastic viewing angles). Hopefully ypu are just used to a v. good screen.

 

Hello,
I received my DELL XPS 15 L501X a couple of days ago. I have made the same experience with the screen. The 1366 x 768 screen extremly poor quality compared to other laptop screens I've used.

• The vertical viewing angles of the screen are THAT bad I can't sit in front of the laptop without having the colours distorted either on top or on the buttom of the screen.
• The Black is rather grey. In every brightness setting the sceen has a very low contrast because auf the greyish black values. This is THAT bad I can't have any Windows 7 backgrund picture set without seing all the darkest parts as grey.
• Besides that the screen is awfully buish.

I'm suspect DELL is giving these laptops to reviewrs with other screens installed. Otherwise some reviewers who did have a 1366 x 768 screen should have mentioned this issue.

 

That's why I sent my old Studio 15 with the standard panel straight back to Dell. My ordered XPS 15 will arrive with the B+RG screen installed and for what I've heard so far it's worth every single penny..

 

When mine arrives I'll let you know what I think. My current Dell laptop is an old D820, but it's docked most of the time connected to a 19 inch 1440 x 900 display... All this talk of "worst screen ever" has made me even more anxious about my new system.

 

All the new buyers please let us know your experiences, and please some pictures will do wonders for us who are still a bit tentative about it!

 

I will post with pictures. I just hope it ships soon. Still just states processing on the order status line. What is the next step after that. Does that mean building hasn't even started yet? Thanks.

 

I have the XPS 17 and i think the screen is fine. It's not the best but for the price u pay (under 1.000 euros) one can't complain or compare it to 1.500 euro laptops with 1080p screen. Many people are happy with their 900p LG screen on the XPS 17.

 

The fact that you have a XPS M1730 to compare the new XPS 17 with makes your views very accurate. By the way who made your 1730 screen?

We went through this same thing with the screens on the XPS M1730 and if you do a search you will see what I mean. There were 3 different screens on the 1730 made by different manufacturers...........LG......Samsung and Sharp.
The LG screen did not have a very good picture.........could not adjust colors etc. The Samsung had the best all around picture. The problem was that to get the screen you wanted since it was a lottery you had to just order and check it when you got it and if it was the wrong one send it back.

I know this because I went through many 1730s before I got the one I have now which has the Samsung screen. It has a beautiful picture.......even better than my Studio 17 RGB LED screen.

So I would be curious from people if they check who manufactured their screen and see if the same thing is going on.

 

I had a talk with Dells tech support hotline today concerning the poor screen quality. They told me that Dell has "different suppliers for the same type of screen". This explains the good reviews and my bad experience with the screen.
BTW: Dell is going to send a technician to me with a screen replaycement free of charge.

 

Not related to this laptop model but, from my recent experience w/ my Precision this is probably just a bad screen. I got a replacement due to dead pixels and my first replacement had similar issues. My Latitude e6400 has a similarly poor screen. Picture and more information in my thread over here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...ion/532520-m4400-replacement-lcd-quality.html

Both the original I had and this replacement were the exact same model. One was the best laptop display I'd had (except for dead pixels) and this was the worst.