Vostro 1500 (& Inspiron 1520) - Screen Resolution + Colour Depth Question

Hi,

I have ordered a Vostro 1500 from Dell, and was looking at the specifications in the online manual when I noticed the following for the LCD screen panel:

After I have read around and done some research, it seemed that the Vostro (and new Inspirons) use a 6-bit LCD panel, so can physically show only 262K colours (262144 to be exact), and uses dithering techniques to effectively display 16.7 million colours. At first, this worried me - but, again Googling for info, it seems like a *lot* of (perhaps even *most*) laptops (except the very expensive ones) now use 6-bit display panels (even the MacBook and MacBook Pro).

My question is: can I still select a "16.7 million colour" screen resolution / colour depth in Windows? (Obviously it would use dithering to give a very good "illusion" of 16.7 million colours). I'm worried about this as the manual specifically states a max of 262K colours (and I want to do some graphics work from time-to-time), so I'm concerned that even the "pseudo-16.7 million" colour depth modes are not available on these PCs. Can someone who has a Vostro 1500 or Inspiron 1520 check if possible? Many thanks!

Of course, I can always connect to an external monitor if I need to do any *really* colour-sensitive work I guess.

See here for web articles on LCD display colour depths:

http://compreviews.about.com/od/multimedia/a/LCDColor.htm

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/articles/6bit_8bit.htm

In addition, if anything I have mentioned above is wrong please feel free to correct me!

 

i dabble in photography with photoshop/raw stuff and I'm a 2d/3d graphics programmer.

unless you're doing some pixel perfect professional stuff to be printed in a magazine or something, it won't matter. you'll never notice. the examples on the 2nd webpage are purposely exaggerated to show you how it works.

 

Hi,

Thanks for the info - I think I can now accept that the 6-bit (262K colour) LCD screens are ok now - they do an effective job of providing a "pseudo" 16.7 million colour palette by means of clever dithering techniques, so I'm not *too* bothered about that now (I think!).

However, I still would like to know if you can select a "16.7 million colour" screen mode in Windows on the Inspiron 1520 / Vostro 1500 (which are, in effect, virtually the same laptop). I was just worried that the online Dell User's Manual, in the specifications section, states all the resolutions have a maximum of 262K colours - see:

http://support.euro.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/vos1500/en/om_en/html/specs.htm#wp1102222

(Scroll down to the "Display" section - this is the Vostro 1500 manual, but the Inspiron 1520 manual states exactly the same figures).

Does the "262 K colors" refer to the "physical"/actual maximum number of colours on the screen at that resolution, or the max. colour depth that Windows will allow? (If you see what I mean?). In other words, will Windows allow me to select a screen resolution with a colour depth of 16.7 million colors (even though the LCD display is really using 262K colors in combination with clever dithering techniques to give the illusion of 16.7 million colours)

(Confusing aint it?! )

Thanks...

 

Yes, you can still select 16.7million colors

i have 32 bit on

 

Fantastic - that's great news!

Many thanks...

 

WRONG WRONG WRONG!!!
Don't be fooled, you will notice the diference, color dithering does not work. I bought this same computer and I am very disappointed in the color depth. All my photos look as though they are displayed in 16 bit color. The greens and browns seem to have the strangest affect on them. In fact, I changed the display setting to 16 bit and it looked exactly the same, so color dithering obviously does nothing. Yes, the colors still look perfect on my trusty ol CRT at home when plugged into the laptop. It's true, the image still looks nice and sharp, but just not true to life. I am not a professional photographer, I am an Engineer, but I am an ammateur photographer who just likes good pictures of my family and such.