Studio 15---really a "studio"?

I just received a Studio 15 with a 1920x1200 display. It looks low-contrast and the colors are not very saturated.

And the built-in speakers are terrible. Tinny and distorted.

This is weird. They advertise the studio as oriented to "artistic" types who want to do movies and music, and yet it's the worst display and sound I've ever had in a laptop.

At work I have a Compaq with a 15" 1920x1200 display and it looks great.

I also have an HP Pavillion, recently purchased, and the sound is fine.

So I know better things exist.

 

Sorry to hear that your display isn't up to expectations. The WUXGA display uses conventional CCFL backlighting. The standard WXGA (1280x800) and WXGA+ (1440x900) are LED-backlit. The WXGA+ on my Studio 15 is one of its best attributes. The Studio 17 is available with an optional LED-backlit WUXGA...maybe that will trickle down to the 15 soon.

As for the sound quality, try this (it worked on mine)-

Go to Start>Control Panel>System>
Choose the 'Hardware' tab, then 'Device Manager'
Under 'Sound, Video and Game Controllers' find the one named 'IDT..._'
Double click on the IDT entry, click the 'Driver' tab, then 'Uninstall'
(that uninstalls the Driver, not the Device)
Then return to the entry in Device Manager (IDT..)
Right click on it, choose 'Uninstall'
(that uninstalls the Device)
Reboot and Windows will see the uninstalled device and find the driver for you...

Here's the source of my info (and it worked great on my Studio 15)- Studio 15- Improving Sound Quality

 

The LED display on my Studio 15 is excellent. The speakers do suck, but I use headphones most of the time anyhow.

 

The whole speaker thing is a complete non-issue anyway - the 'artistic' types you speak of will use headphones or external speakers and even a decent external sound card like me. I have yet to come across a laptop with a good soundcard.

 

Lol I had the same problem with one HP Compaq 6730s!
Mistake with 2 of them!
The screen issue is very common issue.I don't know what cause some displays to be with bad super bright colors + they can irritate your eyes!
But I had some different notebooks with this problem - including Sony Vaio and Dell Vostro 17 (full extras)!
So this issue affect all marks - Dell,Hp,Sony....
I'm sorry for your problems.
I'm very happy too with my LED 1440x900, but I was very afraid when I got it!

For sound.I use headphones and the sound is great!After wireless driver update - the sound is near to crystal clear (HD Movies and....).
Speakers are good regular speakers with standard vista driver they are not that bad!

If you can return this notebook, and re-... it again new machine.
But I suggest you this time with LED screen!

Sorry my bad English

 

I don't agree that the speaker issue is a non-issue. It's true I would always use headphones for maximum quality (and an external USB soundcard too---I use the Headroom Bithead), but sometimes I have wanted to play music for a friend sitting nearby, or a group of people at a meeting. I would hope that a laptop called the "Studio" would at least have AVERAGE sound quality.

Apparently it's fixable via a driver. I will have to try.

-Mike

 

The one exception to the rule is the Lenovo IdeaPad Y530. It has four good quality speakers and a subwoofer. I was amazed by the sound, especially for a $700 laptop....

 

Have you tried that model with a set of headphones or external speakers to see what the noise floor was like?