XPS 9550 4k UHD Display quality issues

I just purchased an XPS 9550 and as much as I'm loving it, there's something that's really bothering me. Compared to my Asus UX32VD 1080p display, I noticed "ghosting" almost right away. Dragging a window across the desktop leaves visible trails! I took some comparative pictures and am posting them below.

When viewing a pure white screen, there also seem to be some slightly darker spots in the middle of the screen. I also attached a picture of this, but it might not be visible. These spots become more obvious when moving a white window through this area.

Lastly, the colors are extremely saturated. It was really tiring out my eyes. I installed the notebookcheck calibrated color profile (link) for now and that warmed up the colors, but the saturation was the same. I had to turn down the saturation to -35 in the Intel HD Graphics color control for it to look more normal.

For people that have tried having their screens or systems replaced, did it get better? How are you guys finding the response time on your 4k screens? Try the UFO test below!

Response time test notes
-http:// www.testufo.com/#test=ghosting
-1/200 shutter speed on camera

Response time test XPS:



Response time test UX32VD (for comparison):



White screen test
Note darker blotches in the middle.


Black screen test
Pretty good for light leakage. Exposed to look close to what I perceived in real life.

 

Im not sure which 4k panel the 9550 uses ( you can check using HWinfo monitor tab) , but the reason they are super saturated is because of the display being high gamut, and since normal windows environment isn't color managed, everything looks super saturated. Windows just doesn't use the right LUTs for proper color space conversions.
As for the the motion blurs, FHD panels have faster refresh rates than 4k panels. There are better 4k panels out there, but most have very high refresh rates.

 

HWiNFO reports:

Monitor Name: Sharp [Unknown Model: SHP143E]
Monitor Name (Manuf): LQ156D1 [DELL P/N:7PHPT]

I'm not convinced Windows doesn't handle wide gamut displays correctly. I think it should, it supports color profiles. Are you saying FHD panels have faster response times than 4k in general or for the XPS 9550 in particular? For the XPS, the 4k is supposed to be a little better than the FHD.

 

It doesn't. And no matter what color profile you use, the LUT will be messed up. Because the Graphics card doesnt know what LUT to use to properly translate those color profiles.
4k is supposed to be better than FHD has, in picture quality and colors, which is it. But what you are doing is adding 4 times the more pixels, so it will inherently be slower.

Applications that have better support for proper color spaces and color profiles will work just fine, but the windows desktop will feel overly saturated.

 

Looks normal to me, if your panels got defects on a white screen ask for another as it doesn't show here.

 

Notebook check did a review on the FHD and the 4k panel version of the XPS 9550. The 4k panel had better response times, although both were considered bad (38ms and 52ms vs 50ms and 64ms for the 2 tests).

Scroll the picture I posted up and down. You should see shadows moving with the middle of the white background. I can even see it scrolling this thread on my phone.

 

The response time issue of the panel has been reported by a lot of forum members (including me) and it is this panels normal behavior.

Exchanging the panel will not help (sadly)... No other way than getting a different laptop if it bothers you.

 

Yea it really is a shame. I might be able to live with the response rate but the darker splotches on white is bothering me as I know they'll always be there. I talked to Dell and they're going to send out a technician to replace it. If they even wanna open up the lid I probably will just say forget it, I doubt they can put it back together perfect. If they replace the whole lid... that might work.

 

Wow you were right! I came across an image gallery and it seemed a little unsaturated. Turned the saturation back up and it looked amazing. You're right, most web content and even Windows apparently is sRGB and on a wide gamut display like ours (approaching Adobe RGB), it can look wrong without the proper corrections. Article explaining below. Looks like Firefox works well for correcting sRGB content while Chrome only displays colors correctly for pictures with an attached profile. Anyone know how to get Windows to look correct?

http://davidjohnstone.net/blog/2013/06/be-careful-when-buying-a-wide-gamut-monitor

 

Yeap, the windows image viewer however applies proper color corrections based on the color profile.

There are ways to force it in Chrome as well, but Firefox handles things automatically.

This is what the coverage for my panel after calibrating with a Spyder 5 (the Spyder 5 was calibrated itself using a Colormunki Display, since one is a colorimeter and the other is a spectrometer)


Try and see if you can find details likes this for your panel :

http://www.panelook.com/B173ZAN01.0_AUO_17.3_LCM_overview_25358.html

 

They will replace the lid, you don't split the 4k panels m8.

 

I would need to do a hardware calibration to get those numbers wouldn't I? I plan on doing that if I keep the laptop.

It's just beyond me how Windows 10 displays colors incorrectly for its own interface and apps. Is there no color management program that can make it do what FireFox does and correctly diplay sRGB/untagged sRGB content?

This problem alone might be a deal breaker. If I can't get certain apps/games to display color properly, what's the point of having a nice display!?

 

Wow, that are really bad numbers.

You should be able to get delta e below 2.

(Do you really mean the Colormunki Dispay http://www.xrite.com/colormunki-display?)

 

Oh lol no, the actuals are nothing close to that. Thats just a screenshot i had saved from one of my profiles.
These are the actuals from an extensive measurement report.

 

OK not sure about OP, but my screen is perfect, in fact it's the best 15" screen I've ever seen. Vivid colours, super crisp, just a fantastic screen.

The Sharp UHD panel is a big selling point of the 9550, and one of the reasons for this laptops premium price. If OP received a defective panel, I would recommend making a warranty claim, but bear in mind some ghosting is to be expected on a 4K panel (the refresh rates aren't as fast as a FHD TN panel).

 

I have put in a claim. I'm waiting for the technician to show up right now. I will update you guys as soon as it's done! No one is comparing this panel to a TN panel. The now 4 year old FHD IPS panel in my UX32VD has a much better response time (UFO test pictures in first post). Have you tried it? You can just take a picture with your phone, just make sure your panel is as bright as possible so the camera chooses a fast enough shutter speed to not induce its own blur. Would be nice to have a comparison shot posted here!

 

Well that was a f***ing waste of time. Worst case scenario. They sent a new screen without the hinge cover and of course taking the old (glued) one off and putting it on the new screen looks like ass. To top it all off he broke the bottom chassis underneath the hinge on both sides. Now he wants to change the palm rest (because of broken bottom chassis). Have to talk to Dell asap and see if I can get a new replacement. If I can't I'll be raging.

Sent from my Nexus 5

 

Typical quality of 3rd party engineers who have never seen the freely available service manual. Throw all this in Dell's face and demand a new build.

Remember your returns window still stands from the minute you made the service call so you can return it at ANY stage until the situations resolved.

So they have buggered up the hinge cover and palmrest, basically it's a write off.

 

I have tried. They say a replacement is not possible as it is 72 days old. I tried speaking to a manager, he said the same thing. They want me to send it in to the depot for repair. They definitely lost a customer, and possibly a lot more!

 

Feel free to quote me, 18 months in and I got a replacement. Threaten to start a credit card claim for a full refund. Just because you didn't spot the fault within 30 days doesn't entitle them to refuse a replacement. Why should you be without it for weeks due to an incompetent engineer?
Ask to go to the resolutions department, you then leave that department and they get investigated so they may decide to stop being dicks based on that.

most important

KEEP PUSHING!

 

Ok I'll keep trying. Here's the damage. You can see the hinge on either side through the new cooling vents...

 

Play on it a little more, tell them WiFi range is now next to nothing (of course when they try to connect for remote assistance go offline to prove a point) Mention it gets very hot then randomly turns off, stiff to open, the bodge job he did on the plastic looks ****.
Tell them never to send that idiot to your door again as well just to strengthen the case

He should have used a case splitter to remove that strip and Dell should provide adhesive but Dell don't know the machines they send parts for.

 

I tried for about an hour and half to two hours today. I got transferred about 10 times between different departments. I spoke to Custom Service, Technical Support, Premium Support, Customer Resolutions (Customer Care), Returns/Exchanges and who knows what else. They each say they can't do it but to speak to the next department. I didn't lie and say that things were broken when they aren't, but I did tell them the second mistake they made was to send the Repair Depot box to the wrong address (which I figured out with the first agent). They corrected that but still refused a replacement. Now I have to wait some more and send the system away. I'm not holding my breath for a good flawless system to be returned. Their entire support system seems to be based in India, and those poor people are just following "policy".

I will never buy a Dell product again, there's literally no one you can talk to that will own up and take care of their customers. Buyers beware! This is the kind of treatment that makes people switch to Apple.

 

Question. Does anybody see greenish lines close to the black colors here? http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/gradient.php#gradient-h.png

 

I had a problem with my laptop too. First was the WiFi, they sent an technician to repair the laptop which made it worse. The technician has no prior experience on 9550 and broke some parts. I had to send it to Repair Depot twice after they offered a Dell Outlet Refurbished NEW replacement to me. The whole process from first day contacting dell to getting a replacement took about 2.5 months. Good luck to everyone!