SEC4457 screen. Awful light leak. How should I get an LG?

As you can see in the image, my Inspiron 1420 screen has pretty bad light leak at the bottom. You can see it spreading to the movie frame, its just so annoying. I thought all laptop screens were like this but now I know thats not the case.

Its been 5 months since I bought my Dell Inspiron 1420 with WXGA+ glossy screen. So I cant ask them to replace it anymore. I'm willing to buy an LG (LPL0000 or something). People are saying LG is lot better than Samsung. I know it from experience myself but that was not with LCDs.

Samsung sucks at everything. The digital camera, this laptop screen, and my desktop CRT monitor all are Samsung and all have big problems.

So, question is how do I get an LG? Aren't Dell responsible for the defective screen? Even if I have to buy one how do I do that? Where do I go? Please help!

 

well its not defective, its just not up to your standards. Its not too bad, if you think it is, lower the brightness a notch, or hit up ebay.

 

It doesn't really look that bad at all.

You can always ask I Dell I for a replacement, but you just might end up with worst one. Give it a try.

 

You guys honestly thing it looks ok? I don't have previous experience with laptop screens but this looks pretty bad to me.

The screen is not even at full brightness mind you.

The way it spreads onto the movie frame makes watching movies quite frustrating. I'm aware if the leak all the time. If i lower my head to make the lower half look better the top half gets dark and becomes like negative film. The sweet spot is just about a narrow 3 inch horizontal band.

BTW, anyone know why desktop LCDs are so much better than laptop ones?

 

I'm not saying it looks great, but I've seen worst was what I was trying to say.

Imagine half the screen like that on a 17" screen.

 

I see you have 1330 and 1730. Could you please let me know if the screens on those look the same while watching movies? Do you have an LED screen? Are they much better?

 

LED is great, but my first system came with CMO screen w/ stuck pixels. Toshiba LED (replaced system) is better in my experience, but it may be just me. I don't know what to say about LED screen being better than the CCFL though, but my wife says my M1730's screen looks better than the M1330's LED (I think they are about same though)

I thought my M90's LG WXGA (non glossy) was decent until I compared it to my M1730's LG WUXGA (glossy). If I compare 2 side by side, M90's just looks horrible/washed out big time.

I also have experience with Sharp 17" WUXGA, and it was okay.

Samsung's leak is there for a reason though. Anything other than black looks great on Samsung IMO.

 

This is may be not related to the topic but just FYI

I just got a new lot of HP Compaq 6710B. I have couple of them pulled out from the boxes and look at the screens. The hardware IDs on both of them show SEC4C45, and I compare my M1530 with WXGA side by side. I have to admit that Samsung screens (matte) are equally good as my LG (truelife). I am very surprise by the comparison.

Any comments are welcome.

 

I have the LPL0000 matte screen on my D630. I don't really like it very much. Light leakage is not too bad, but the viewing angles are pretty bad... especially the vertical viewing angles. If I lean in too closely, the top third or so of the screen looks dim due to the viewing angle thing. I was wondering if I should ask for a Samsung or something... but I'm starting to sort of get used to it though. However, it would probably be ok for movies, where I could lean back a little farther and the viewing angles might not bother me as much. I have to say the screen is nice in every other respect... it's clear enough, bright enough, not grainy, and only minor light leakage.

 

Thanks for this. Glossy screens are suppose to be more vibrant but I wasn't very sure until now. Your comparison proves that then.

I like my SEC screen for normal use or photo editing though. It has very good colour and contrast but doesnt go very bright like matte screens. Only problem is with black or anything dark during movies.

Thats good to know! I guess everyone make decent matte screens.

Looks like LGs have some angle problems then. Could you show me a photo similar to the ones I posted above? It would help me a lot in comparing what kind of light leakage you are talking about and if its more or less similar to mine. You could look at my photos and compare yourself too. I would appreciate the help very much!

 

Why was I thinking you had a matte screen? You did say it was glossy. Anyway, yeah, glossy is better in every way except glare, so if reflections aren't bothering you too much, then stick with glossy.

Umm... unfortunately, I lost my camera and I haven't gotten a new one yet... sorry. However, the viewing angle thing I mentioned looks like it's mostly an issue with the matte coating, so if you got a glossy screen, I doubt it would be a problem. Glossy screens usually have better viewing angles than matte screens anyway.

 

Hey no worries about the photo.

I notice the narrow angle problem only when watching movies. If this is better than matte screen then matte is just bad i guess.

I was hoping there is a better screen out there than what I have. So far no one has expressed any kind of shock at the light leakage seen in the attached photos. I guess its not so bad then!

 

My SEC was about that bad, then I got a LG LPL00E9 screen - that was horrid!

so then dell FORCED me to send in my laptop this time instead of sending me a screen replacemnet, and I ended up with a SEC3157 WXGA matte screen (not the wxga+ screen i originally paid for). I'm so happy with it I think I'll just keep it and make Dell give me compensation!

The screen IS matte, but the anti-glare is awfully nice! I now prefer it over glossy

 

So what kind of screen do Apple use on Macbook Pro? Can those be used in Dell lappies?

 

That screen looks average to me, I agree it has a considerable amount of light leak, but I’ve seen worse.

 

How can I tell what kind of screen I have? Mine looks okay, but just curious.

 

Go to control panel > device manager > monitor >
Then right click on whatever is in the monitor list then click Properties
Then go to the Details tab and find Hardware ID field in the drop down menu. Check the other ones too.

 

I got the LG and returned it.... it was the 14.1" WXGA+

it was no better than my SEC and the LG had grain, my SEC does not.

Not all LG screens are good.

There are couple other people who also kept the SEC over the LG one.

 

Sweet, thanks. I have a Samsung. Is that generally the decent ones?

 

Generally LG makes better displays than Samsung. But as the recent posts mention, sometimes LG sucks too. I guess if you like yours then you got a good one no matter who made it.

 

I hear ya brother! All my Samsung stuff has sucked too. My LPL0000 screen isn't too bad, but it still has some degree of backlight bleed and up/down viewing angle crappiness...

 

I'm still using my SEC3157 WXGA MATTE display that Dell accidentally shipped me.

While the colors aren't as vibrant, the anti-glare is REALLY nice, and light leakage is far worse than the SEC4457.

It's just really hard living with a 1280x800 resolution. 1440x900 is just sweetness....

 

My XPS M1530 WXGA screen looks exactly like this. I don't think it's backlight bleed as such but more of a poor vertical viewing angle associated with the glossy screen, it's almost like a polarising effect. There's defintely a sweet spot in the centre and I'm constantly moving my screen back and forth, depending on what I'm doing.

I rang Dell TS and the guy said that this is a feature of the XPS screens as the backlight tube is at the bottom anyway so it will be slightly lighter toward the bottom edge, although I'd take that with a pinch of salt.

I think I'm going to keep mine as I don't suffer from graininess and the brightness is OK, I don't want to end up with something worse. BTW I can't find who the manufacturer is, despite trying looking at the Hardware Id in the Control Panel and lookig on the Dell website.

 

Hmm, from the TS guy's explanation it sounds like he might be right. The light does seem to be coming from the bottom because the top of the screen is darkest. I'm thinking they put the light at the bottom as a way to diffuse it.

In that case, I don't think this screen can be called faulty. Just wish the technology was better than it is.