Inspiron 1520 screen problem

My brother received his dell 1520 laptop yesterday. The screen is 1680x1050, it is brighter than my Gateway laptop (1200x800) and Inspiron 5100 (1400x1050). But the screen is very grainy, it not clear on any light color background(like white or gray background ie. blank page on browser or word doc.) My Gateway and Old Inspiron do not have that problem. Now he is thinking about return it. So did you guys notice that on your 1520 screen also?
I also ordered Vostro 1400 with WSGA+ (1440x900) and it is in production stage. So I guess the screen would be about the same as 1420 inspiron laptop. My question is how is the screen on 1420, is it grainy too?

 

i also have 1505 and i just couldnt stand the graininess of 1520 and stupid dell rep. yesterday told me to update the nvidia driver and it would fix the problem. do they actually think that consumers are that much stupid?
anyways, i talked to another rep today and he dispatched an LCD for me. he confirmed that dell has changed LCD when 1520 was introduced, replacing 1505. well, i'm just kinda hoping that the replacement LCD would look fine, otherwise, technician would report it to dell.

btw, i love my 1505 screen. i asked the rep if 1505 and 1520 screens could be used interchangeably so that i can put my 1505 screen into 1520 by myself, but he just said 'dell does not recommend doing that.'
WTH. just tell me if they are compatible.... does anybody know if i could do that?

also, the static noise is killing my ear. yes, 1520 is pretty and i love its specs/price but there are some disturbing features that make me disappointed..:/

 

So are you saying that they can swap the screen from 1505? My brother loves his laptop too but he doesn't like the screen at all. He want to return it because he paid almost $1300 for it. Does the 1420 screen have that problem too? Does anyone know?

 

is it a matte or glossy screen, ive heard a couple people w/matte screens have the graininess

 

Dell didnt tell me if i could swap it with 1505 LCD.
FYI:
My screens for both 1505 and 1520 are WSXGA+ glossy ones.

 

mine is grainy and i have wxsga glossy

 

how bad is the graininess, its is horrid?

 

it's kind of bad to me.

 

hm my 1420 1440x900 glossy looks fine...but now that you guys mention it, it looks "grainy" to me...or maybe i'm imagining it

 

its really bad on light backgrounds...especially white

 

im not sure either, my lcd on my desktop has a slight "graininess" when i look at it next to blacks.

 

I would say it is very bad compared to my 2002 Inspiron 5100 laptop. Even Gateway has better screens.

 

i posted in the other topic with regards to grainy screens for the new models:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=2178014&postcount=15

that's my explanation for the grainy screens - all the new models get it.

 

I really don't see what the number of colors has to do with it. I'm not sure more than 262k colors would be distinguishable on an LCD screen anyway. They probably just changed the specs to avoid a lawsuit like the one Apple dealt with recently... I forget the details about it, but they were claiming 16 million colors and some people showed it really wasn't.

Anyway, white should look white, whether you have 16 million colors or 262k colors.

 

the macbook lawsuit was precisely about "grainy screens". 6bit panels (262k colors) result in grainy screens. Apple advertised their displays as supporting "millions of colors" which led consumers to **assume** 16.7m colors (8bit panels) when in actual fact, 6bit panels were used (which with dithering, 16.2m colors are supported).

the fact that people are seeing these "graininess" in their new laptops show that more than 262k colors are "distinguisable"...

 

Well if pure white looks grainy then it doesn't matter how many colors the screen is capable of. I can certainly believe that a screen could have few colors and graininess simultaneously, without them being related. I could also believe that 262k colors with dithering could make some colors look grainier than a 16 million color screen.

I doubt if the screen on my old laptop can show more than 262k colors (or even that many) but it still looks clear and not grainy. I mean, the colors on it suck, and change as you move your head around, and the viewing angles aren't too good, but it's not grainy.

Edit: Well, what do you know... the owner's manual for my Inspiron 1150 (matte 14.1" XGA screen) does say 16.8 million colors in the specifications... I'm not sure if I believe it, but there it is.

 

16.7m colors lcd screens do exist, if that is what you meant by not sure if you believe it... if you look up some manufacturers websites, for example Samsung, you will find that different models state different color depths. 6bit panels are sometimes stated as 16.2m colors (262k dithered).

I reckon what happened in the past is that some people got unlucky and got grainy screens despite the specs, that is why there were "some" reports of grainy screens. But with the new models, it seems the reports on "grainy screens" seem pretty much consistent throughout...

So, in the past, if you get a grainy screen, you were unlucky. Now, if you don't get one, you are being tolerant...

 

you guys are making me really nervous about my new laptop, haven't even got it yet and I am almost afraid to look at the screen....almost....