New E1705...

Well, I got my E1705 (and first ever laptop) yesterday. I did the re-format routine, installed all the Dell drivers (I used the Tweaks'R'Us video driver), tweaked windows a little bit, and have my personal prog.'s installed now.

Performance wise, I am pleased. However, it is the screen I am concerned with. My laptop has the LG-Philips screen, and something about it doesn't seem right to me. There are no dead or half-lit pixels thankfully, but the color/lighting seems off to me. I'm not a stranger to LCD monitors, as I have spent a lot of time on a 8ms 19" Hyundai LCD for the past year on my old desktop system, but the colors and everything else seem alot better to me on the Hyundai. I've messed with the brightness/contrast/gamma a bit, which has helped somewhat, but I'm not happy yet. It appears darker or lighter in different areas of the screen depending on what angle I'm looking at it. Today I've also gotten a slight headache from looking at it, which isn't normal for me. Is this a bad sign?

 

So the viewing angle isn't very good on the wxga+ screen?

Why is notebook shopping so hard! Every time I think I am ready to order, something new pops up and disturbs me about the reliability/quality of these things! Seems like every thread in this forum has to do with poor display quality on Dells! I've been using the same desktop LCD for 4 years and it has remained absolutely perfect the entire time. Is poor screen quality just something you have to deal with on notebooks?

So do you think there is a problem with the screen that can be repaired? Or will you have to upgrade to the WUXGA for a quality screen?

 

I hate to break your spirit like that WheelieMan.
I don't have in-person experience with Dell's WUXGA screens, but I've read about their fair share of problems as well. I don't know what res. you have your current screen set to, but going from 1280x1024 to 1440x900 (WXGA+) has been a big enough change as it is for me. I'd probably go crazy with a WUXGA's 1900xwhatever resolution. As far as repairs go, I suppose that could be an option. The LG's are supposed to be Dell's best, so I don't think there's much I can do there.

Anyways, I've had to go back to my desktop for now, because I was getting a sick feeling from looking at my E1705's screen. I'll give it another day or two, but if it doesn't shape up I think I'll be done with laptops. It's a shame too, because for an under $2K laptop that would work well for gaming, this was really my only option. There are other notebooks with spectacular screens, but they cost alot more then what I paid for the Dell or they don't have a powerful enough GPU.

 

Looks like I just bought the same thing you did! I bought just the minimum RAM as I plan to upgrade to 2GB aftermarket. Sorry to hear about the screen. I actually have a 17" Inspiron 9300 and I think it has the same screen. It is a tad dark maybe but the matte screen isn't bad with glare like the shiny screens are. I haven't noticed a big disparity in bright and dark areas depending on the angle and it has certainly never made me sick, even with hundreds of hours of gaming done on it. I hope my new E1705's screen doesn't have the same problems as the ones you listed. I should get it in about a week. If I do, I'll post on here and let you know.

 

Hey, I hope your 1705 turns out nice for ya.

It's been suggested to me that I try elevating my laptop so that it sits directly at eye-level with me, get a keyboard and mouse, and some LCD calibration software to remedy the problems. It seems like I should've gotten a desktop in the first place.

 

My laptop has the LG-Philips screen, and something about it doesn't seem right to me.

My first 1705 came with Samsung version as yours. The worst laptop screen i've used to date.

My second 1705 has the Truelife. Much better viewing angles but way too much resolution. Most websites, as this one, cannot scale some of the Web elements so they look distorted or blocky. Dell's site looks like poop as well! Dell needs to address this as I cannot recommend the 17" Dell's except for the price/performance.

We do have the option of replacing the screen with a third party one mentioned elswhere on this forum but that brings you up to the Toshiba with the 7900GS running about $1900. The Toshiba has a lower Rez screen.

For now I can live with truelife but if i find a deal on a quality lower rez screen...

 

WUXGA offers the absolute highest and crispest, clearest resolution currently available on a notebook LCD. if things look blocky, make sure you didn't leave your DPI settings at 120 (which is what dell ships it at) and you change it back to 96 DPI to get the crispness.

i have a WUXGA 15.4" and nothing compares to it in terms of crispness and clarity.

 

Not the same screen!

This 17" 1920x1200 screen at 96 dpi is a joke!

And..it amazes me how people can defend a screen that makes 12 point text look like 6 point. Now just why would Dell set the screen to 120 DPI? Surly not because so many people complain?

Low rez video, er, DVD, is pixel doubled to death to fit the screen. Unless I pipe in a high bandwidth video signal, most of my DVD’s look a little nutty. The Media Center set up video looks good!

Now for displaying my 8meg J-pegs I have no complaint.

As long as users have excellent vision, not me, then they will love this screen. What has been repeated to death, as matter of choice, go for it. My beef is that Dell DOES NOT offer a quality lower resolution screen for whiners like me with less than stellar vision.

This is of course my opinion and my opinionated opinion only

 

i'm a little lost on your post.

are you saying that you did set it back to 96 and it's still blocky? or that you left it at 120 and it's blocky?

 

After having spent some time trying out more laptops in person today (to compare with my own), I'm probably going to return my Dell. I've learned alot about notebooks thanks to this site, but after much thought I've come to the conclusion they're just not for me yet. I think I expected my E1705 to be way more of a "desktop replacement" then it really is, and it was stupid of me to do so. I should've bought a desktop to begin with!

Hydra, I wish you good luck finding that right screen, and Wheelieman, my advice to you would be to check out these laptops in person if you can; maybe it'll help spare you the trouble that I've had.

 

Well, let me know how the return process goes. If it weren't for the restocking fee I would probably just order one myself, and if I ended up not liking it, I would just send it back. The e1705 is just so dang appealing for what you get. I've found that the e1705 is only about $300 more than a desktop with a comparable graphics card! But it's a shame that the next closest notebook in price with similar specs is almost twice as much! Let me know what you end up doing.

 

At 96 it's just as you said, very sharp and clear. I keep mine at 120, to avoid eye bleed, which is also very good with Clear Type and True Type. The problem is that Web sites used fixed graphic buttons and icons that look like Doom 2 sprites on the ultra rez screens when using the 120 settings

 

OK, maybe I am missing something here, but why can't you just lower the resolution in the settings for text- and Web-based usage? Nothing says you have to use the maximum resolution, right? I mean my desktop CRT can go 2048x1536, but I set it at 1024x768 for everyday use and only use the higher resolutions for hi-def stuff like gaming.

What lower resolution settings are offered in the Display control panel with the E1705?

I couldn't fiddle with that on the Dell Direct Store E1705 demo model, since they crippled the demo models' access privileges.

 

Once you move your LCD off it's NATIVE resolution you end up with a blurry mess with normal desktop items. One exception would be 3D games such as F.E.A.R. which looks very good at lower non-native resolutions.

In my dreams I wish an LCD could scale like a CRT but the technology is totally different in drawing the screen.

Until software and web sites update for high resolution screens, my advice is to look before you leap, but this is difficult for a mail order operation.

In the default 96 dpi settings all the above problems go away if you can deal with 12 point text displayed as 6 point.