Finally got an LG screen!!! Was it worth the hassle?

So I got my fourth replacement XPS M1530 notebook in 3 months today, and lo and behold, this one finally came with the coveted LG, LPLDFD00 display.
I have to say however, now that I'm looking at it as I type this, I don't really get what all the fuss is about. I mean it's a great screen and probably the best one I've had, but is it so much better than the ones that came before, which I worked so feverishly to replace? I'm not so sure.

Okay, so I never did have the misfortune of peering upon the infamous SEC3350. I did have, in order of ownership, a SEC3157 WXGA+, SEC3355 WUXGA, AUO2077 WXGA+, and this, LPLDFD00 WXGA+.

Very quick overview:
The SEC/Samsung screens had (very) slightly poorer or duller color reproduction. Pictures were very slightly pallid compared to an external Sony monitor I referenced. And solid white backgrounds had this scintillating sheen, which on first viewing might look like a coating of dust. Not great, but if I never did a comparison with anything better, I wouldn't suspect anything's off. The 3350 WUXGA had these issues to a lesser degree, and was actually pretty nice.

The AUO had the best solid white reproduction out of all of them, the LG included. It was just solid, snowy and bright. The only issue I can nitpick is that reproduction of other colors is not as good as the SEC 3355, especially in videos. But it was not grainy and was a perfectly good quality display in its own right.

And now the LG: Colors are the most vivid, most nuanced, and lifelike. But the difference isn't night and day. And the whites have that same iridescent sheen that the Samsungs have, albeit to a lesser degree. There also isn’t the light bleeding at the bottom that the others have.

It’s possible I got some good non-grainy Samsungs/AUO, but again, if I never knew of the LG disparity I probably wouldn’t have gone through the trouble shooting for one all this time. So my advice is, like many others have spoken, if yours does not have an obvious problem, just leave well enough alone.

***
Another issue of note is the response of the Alps touchpad, or lack thereof. There's a lot of slippage with the surface material which causes random misfires or hiccups in the pointer movement and an overall feeling of sluggishness. I had this same problem with the other M1530 touchpads and I thought it was due to bad drivers or just poor design. But after 4 different computers with the same model, and at least that many driver versions, Alps and Synaptics both, yielding the same results, I now think the cause is the physical material. It's sort of rough and sandpapery, especially when new. That and my dry fingers probably contribute to the unresponsiveness and slippage. I'm hoping with further use and smoothing over on the pad, response will improve.

 

Well seeing as Samsung makes all of the LCDs for other big companies like Sony, they are definitely capable of making very nice displays, but I guess what Dell wanted from them wasn't of the same spec as the LGs...

Even so, it's nice to hear that you at least like it BETTER.

 

I think your thread is very important to all owners because it's the first one I've seen from someone who has actually observed many of the different monitors. Now we're finally getting somewhere!

The scintillating sheen you describe in the LG and the Samsungs IS the slight grainyness.

I don't know personally about the AUO monitor in the M1530 but I have an AUO 12" monitor in my M1210 (bought 2 years ago) and that monitor has absolutely no grainyness with white backgrounds, which is consistent with your observations.

 

Congrat's on getting the LG Screen....That's a good thing...The LG's are awesome screens for sure! I got lucky and got one myself when I got my 1530 almost 9 months ago.


**And, if everyone did a proper seach on the screens, issues regarding that for the 1530 here on the *forum*..You would find a good amount of threads have been started on this!!!

This *sticky* for instance has a wealth of information on the 1530:
Top 10 (now 20) questions about the M1530 (by Rhodan)
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=238640

and, from within the thread if you go this question:
2. What’s that grainy screen everybody is talking about?
Lithus wrote the Grainy Screen FAQ and he explains it better than I could.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=215137&highlight=grainy+screen+FAQ
There's also the How do I fix my m1530 Grainy Screen? thread which is quite lengthy to read. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=206527


Either way it's a good thing you got the LG screen ~ and enjoy!


Cin

 

Cin, yeah but the other threads seem like they were started by teenagers who just voice complaints about grainyness without adequately describing what they're seeing. The many photos in those threads are useless.

Killerecho's descriptions here are more precise, using simple descriptive language. I'm able to make more strong inferences based on his comparative observations combined with mine.

All those other threads fail to adequately define what exactly is "grainyness." One final issue, though: Is it spelled with an "i" or "y"?

 

Yes, some of the posts may look like that....but that is why those threads for the *graininess issue's* were contained to those threads. As, there were number of threads started on the grainyness issue, and it was overflooding the forum at one point..so therefore they were all blended! (Don't let Lithus hear you call him a teenager...LOL) lulz

And, yes Killerecho's descriptions are very useful, precise....etc.

Oh...its proper spelled with a *Y*...but I gave up on that a while ago, as my friends decided to use it with the *I*....and they wouldn't stop so I just let it be...The only ones to this day that spell it with the proper *Y* are my parents, and such! LOL.....Ah the abomination..eh?? LMAO


Cin

 

Funny, I've always really liked my Samsung LCD. Here in Australia, its the only choice though. I think if no one had seen an LG screen, they would have been perfectly happy with it

But I will admit the light bleed from the bottom isn't the best, but oh well.

 

Thanks for all the positive feedback. All that lavish praise had me blushing there for a while.

So I did some side-by-side comparisons today with the LG and the AUO2077 machine (which is getting shipped back to Dell tomorrow). After looking at various wallpapers, text, all-white, all-black and webpages, the one thing that stood out about the AUO is that it is definitely slightly on the red side in terms of color balance. The effect is that objects would appear "warmer" than they are. It also makes orange hues appear slightly "pinkish". This can probably be easily corrected with color calibration programs, like the one from NVodia.

From memory, I don't think either of the Samsungs had this issue, but for whatever reason their colors were still not quite as vivid or saturated as the LG. The 1920 x 1200 UXGA SEC 3255 comes as close as any of them though. Unfortunately that resolution is just too small for me to get used to.

Solid blacks are similar between the AUO and LG. With black and darker backgrounds, it's more obvious that there's more light bleeding near bottom center on the AUO.

Brightness is similar at all 8 "notches".

The lower left and right corners in both displays-actually, in every Dell notebook I've used in recent memory-show some darkening/discoloration. Don't know why that is. Anyone else notice this on theirs?

So again, for the 87th time, these differences are minute and shouldn't be considered dealbreakers, but I gotta say, once you get into the mindset of obsessing over it, there's no heading back. My theory (unscientific, unprofessional, unsubstantiated) is that there are, or were a few bad batches of grainy LCD's that went out on some Dells, and perhaps a majority of them were SEC 3350's. But when the bad press got out all over the forums, it made a lot us, especially Samsung owners, look way too closely at our own displays, and either perceived flaws which weren't really there or inflated the superiority of the LG into legendary proportions. I should know; I was one of them.

That said, the display is easily the most important component on a laptop. On what is supposed to be Dell's premium line, we do have a right to be a little obsessive on the quality. So Dell does deserve at least some part of the blame for having inconsistencies in that quality.

 

There you have it in precise, no uncertain terms from Killerecho: Even though the LG screen was absolutely not worth the hassle, it was definitely worth the hassle.

 

Heh, that did sound kind of contradictory didn't it?

The point of that was yes, in no uncertain terms, LG is better, but whether the difference warrants the hassle is a matter of personal preference, which in retrospect it isn't in my case.

But some do decide that it's worth it, and they've absolutely every right and reason to demand the best they can get, as discerning consumers of a premium product. I'm not saying they shouldn't - I did; so I empathize 100%.

But they ought to have some idea of what they're shooting for, what the differences are, and to what extent is it better. And so I shared this information in the hopes that it will help with that idea.

The likelihood is that they might be sitting on a perfectly good display but which they think is crap, and will do anything to get an LG, whose improvements, though present, are only evident in a direct side-to-side comparison, and it hits you that the others were never quite that bad to begin with and if not for all the hype I would have been satisified with any of them.

But, ---fill in 3rd paragraph here---

Regardless of everything I've said, some want the best, so that's enough to make this worth pursuing. More power to them I say, so long as they're properly informed.

 

Thanks for the clarification, Killerecho.

Now we got the message even more clearly than ever before from Killerecho himself: Even though the LG screen was absolutely not worth the hassle, it was definitely worth the hassle.

 

Y'know, if instead of "LG screen", you subbed in the word "mistress", I'd agree with that notion wholeheartedly!!

 

There are 2 different forms of the word depending on the way it is used.
It can either be "grainy" or "graininess"

Graininess is defined as "as a photograph having granular appearance"

Grainyness???

 

OMG! I'm soo bad..a misspell! Thank you so much for catching that..and pointing that out for me!! I guess I like my Y's better than my I's : )

Anyway,
Killerecho...thank you for providing further information to everyone!

Cin )

 

Oh yes I like Y's better too