My Review of my WUXGA Compared to My Bros LED... WTF! Returning...

My brother and I are both going off to college. Our family ordered two M1530s. I got the WUXGA cause I'm used the the large high def screen on my from using WSXGA+ all the time. My brother is used to using his desktop thats also WSXGA+, though unlike me, I got the WUXGA because of the pixel density and my bro got LED beacuse he was interested in the color reproduction and battery saving since he knew he would be on the go alot and wanted to save battery life. I didn't care about battery so I went with the WUXGA since I was going to be using it in the dorm most of the time.

We both opened up our packages, happy go lucky, drooling over the quality of the notebook. it was perfect, no problems of any kind. no dents, no bumps, no indentures. the dvd drive was silent, the hard drive quiet, its all swell. then comes windows vista booting up and holy ****.

GRAIN. it wasn't really noticable, but it was there. it is like looking through a piece of silk. if i tried to ignore it, i could kind of ignore it, but its there. the screen was bright, but after looking at my bros M1530 with LED... mine felt like it was dimly lit. if i hadnt seen his led screen, i swear i wouldve thought my screen was bright enough.

not only that, the font was small. i mean i can read it, but i have to be literally 1-1.5 feet in front of the screen. i remember with my wsxga even though it took some adjusting, i could read it by leaning slightly back about 4 feet from the screen. and before you say old and young eyes are different, IM GOING OFF TO COLLEGE IM YOUNG. I HAVE 20/20 eyesight. with contacts on. But still 20/20. Im sure I could get adjusted to it, but the font... is just way too small to sit anywhere farther than 1.5-2 feet for me. I literally have to lean in to read.

So, reading the forums I adjusted my font size and and DPI settings and it made it more legible, but it looked like crud. it looked practically IDENTICAL/close to 1440x900 resolution. I tried matching the font size with my WSXGA on my old laptop. I was able to successfully do it, but everything looked out of proportion and the resolution felt smaller than it actually was compared to my bros LED which looked crisp even though it was a lower resolution. It also didn't have the grainy/silky feel to it like mine did. after looking at my bros screen then looking back at mine, it really was crud. the whites werent as white. the colors weren't as vibrant as his.

whatever. I loaded up oblivion on my machine and he loaded it on his. After careful analysis, I could basically max everything out. He could too. Mine looked nice with the extra pixels, but his looked brighter and the colors were nicer. it was like... a whole ****load of a difference. Sure I had the pixels, but his vibrant colors and (doesnt look like im staring through silk screen/slight grains) made it feel so much cooler.

i swear i would never have known that my laptop had problems if i didn't look at my bros. i know people have their preferences, but im shipping my laptop back first thing tomorrow morning for an led. im very disappointed. if my bro didn't get the led screen and got a WUXGA like i did, i would have been an idiot thinking "its nice, all screens must be worse than mine". boy was i wrong.

i tried taking pictures, but my camera sucks and is only 3 MP so it was really blurry and it doesnt give the same effect as looking at the screens in person. im very VERY mad. i wanted to transfer all my files today, but now i have to wait another 10 fricking days to get a new one built for me. at least i got one out of the two "best" screens out right now.

 

I been LED from the beginning. 1440x900 is still 720p, and its just a better quality screen.

 

Willis, how much of a difference was the detail on your higher def. on oblivion vs. color?

 

He cant see through the grain to tell

Take a look at CNETs HD 101. They kind put down the extra pixel count saying the human eye needs to be highly trained to pickup the minute details from 720p to 1080p and that you cant tell the difference from 3-4 feet away

 

After extensive research I may just have to change my order, if my order has been in production for a few days can I call and just ask for change in screen from WUXGA to LED?

 

No, you will have to cancel and reorder.

 

Thanks for the heads up. I am most likely looking to get the M1530 or whatever replaces it and I think for sure I'll go with LED. The true HD seems tempting, but I am going to get a new monitor anyhow so I guess I don't really need it.

 

Could you take a picture of both notebooks for future comparisons?

thanks!

 

Well then, I officially have no regrets. I'm even happier that I went with an LED. Thank goodness!

Its easier than it sounds. All you do is call them, tell them you want to change your order, they transfer you to Order Modification hotline, where you tell them you want for example, the LED screen, then they cancel your order and reconfigure the order to match exactly with the exception of the LED screen. Then they read out all the options to make sure they have it right. Thats it. You don't have to literally tell them what you got, cause they've got it all there. You just have to tell them what you want to change.

 

You just have to go the back of a long line.

 

Are my discounts cancelled if I place a reorder? If so, screw this I'm sticking with WUXGA

 

Yeah if you got the 40% you'll probaly loose it. You wont know unless you call.

 

Nah, I called when I reordered and requested that discount still be applied. When they asked me the code, I said I dont have it at the top of my head, but he said dont worry about it, I'll manually apply the discount. He gave me a bonus 100 dollar discount after applying my original discount. Pretty sweet deal I'd say.

 

So I just call dell sales and ask to cancel WUXGA, order LED, and apply discount?

 

No, you say you want to change your order to have an LED display instead of WUXGA. Then the guy will say let me transfer you to order modification department. Then you tell the guy that you want to change from WUXGA to LED.

The guy will tell you that he will have to cancel and replace the order,you say yes. You wait for the guy to tell you the final price, 1,700 or above. Something expensive. Say that you had 40 percent off if you actually did from coupon code and if he asks you waht it is, say you dont have it at the top of your head. after waiting a while i the guy goes hmmm... wait to see if he says he'll manually apply the discount for you. if not, then tell him to as you ordered it because of the discount and say something like the sales rep screwed up, etc. its not your fault, etc. if you only had 25 percent off, say 25 percent. i dont remember there being 40 percent off anywhere besides end of april.

Regardless, he'll change it cause it is the Order Modification, not cancellation department. it should be fine.

 

lol now I can't stop second guessing myself. My brother has a 17'' WUXGA and tells me that games/multimedia will look like pixelated crap on a 1440x900. I can't help but see his reasoning when there are almost 1,000,000 additional pixels on WUXGA. Maybe i'll stick with it after all...

 

I have no idea why people care about pixel count in games and video. In those situations, the spatial resolution of the human visual system decreases dramatically. Games & video are the one place where I would expect the LED screen to be clearly superior.

WUXGA = lots of screen real-estate for static application content. e.g. Excel, Photoshop, and so forth. Things that don't move. Here, the resolution will shine, and the advantage of bright punchy colors isn't quite as compelling.

 

Definitely a must-read for those who make "LED vs WUXGA" threads on a daily basis.

The way the OP approached the issue, it sounded like a 'quantity vs quality' thing. Sure I got 1008000 more pixels than you, but who has the brighter pixels with better contrast? Something to that effect...

 

Pretty much.

Its a trade off basically. More Pixels or Better Contrast Ratio/Better Backlit screen

 

Hm with the LED screen- on the order it only gives you two choices for the screen: The 15.4" Widescreen WXGA+ or the Ultrasharp WSXGA+ screen it may be a newb question however i don't see an LED sign in any of these two screens- did Dell phase out these screens?

 

17'' yes WUXGA is perfect as WSXGA+ is perfect for 15.4''. If you want to be able to get good WUXGA, cancel your order and get the M1730. You get LED backlit WUXGA. For 15.4'', WXGA+ 1440 is seriously fine. Take a look at Macbook Pro 15.4'', they have 1440 native, you dont see all the photoshoppers and graphics designers complaining about low res. Its very popular as well though I would never buy one because its a mac, not windows.

Your brother just says it because he's used to 17'' notebooks. Higher resolutions like WUXGA is perfect for it. Tell him to use a WSXGA+ and I'm sure he couldnt go down. Though like I said, benefits outweigh the fact that there are fewer pixels.

 

Where do you buy a M1730 with WUXGA LED? The only option I see is a CCFL.

 

My bad, misconveyed LED lights with LED Backlighting.