Does your screen pass this vertical viewing angles practical test?

Here's a neat way I found to test the vertical viewing angle, while surfing around on Google Finance. It's a simple yes/no test; no subjective judgment of how "vibrant" colors are or stuff like that. I discussed its real use (practical importance) here.

So, click the screenshot below:



Can you see the yellow background while looking straight at the screen from your normal working position? If not, try tilting the screen away from you.
UPDATE: turns out that with many screens on which the yellow is not visible by default, you only need to go to the graphics card properties and decrease the contrast or brightness, or increase the saturation, for much better viewing angles. Thanks bubzers for this tip. Note that this isn't the same as decreasing the display backlight level, which doesn't affect this. On the positive side, you can keep it cranked up to the maximum outside and still see the highlight if you adjust the software brightness from the graphics card control panel.

(How to get that screen online: go to google.com/finance, search for VASC, then click Option chain in the left panel. The page should display a bunch of option prices, some of which will have a yellow background. Click "Stacked" on the right. The yellow appears to be a 30% yellow fill, not 100%, which would be really yellow.)

I've started compiling results that people have posted below. If NBR had a wiki, you could just edit this page and add your laptop, but for now I have to keep copy/pasting and updating this post.

* For reference: NEC LCD 2490WUXi monitor (IPS panel) and Nexus One Android phone - can see clearly from any angle


Acer

* Acer 3820TG (6 bit TN) - yes straight on and about 45H / 30V -- report by crazycanuk

* Acer Aspire 5820TG-7537) - "Straight on it looks more like peach than yellow to me; it becomes yellow when I tilt the screen away from me though." -- report by jerg

* Acer 6935g - "yep i can see it easily" -- report by hamzie

* Acer H233H - "looks just fine straight on" -- report by vaio.phil


Alienware

* Alienware M17Xr2 (8 bit TN) - yes straight on and about 60H / 50 V -- report by crazycanuk


Apple

* Apple MacBookPro 15" (6 bit TN) - Yes straight on and about 50 H / 35V -- report by crazycanuk

* Apple MacBookPro 17" (6 bit TN) - Yes straight on and about 60 degrees horizontal, 40 vertical before distortion occurs -- report by crazycanuk


Asus

* ASUS EEE 1000HE (screen manufacturer: HannStar) - with the default settings can see the yellow from exactly straight on (looking at the screen perpendicularly to its middle), or below. A few degrees above (screen tilted away), the yellow becomes white. Only at about 25 degrees below I can see the yellow about clearly as on the NEC monitor. -- personal test
BUT, if I adjust the contrast down from 50 (default) to 40, or the brightness down from 0 (default) to -30, the angle is much better.


Dell

* Dell Inspiron 15R - with the default Windows 7 settings, I can not see the yellow from straight on. At about 25 degrees below the perpendicular plane, I see the yellow, but colors at the top get inverted pretty badly. -- personal test

* Dell Inspiron 1720 - "epic failure...wow this thing blows" -- report by KSD

* Dell Studio XPS 1640 with 1080p WLED - stock color profile, almost can not see the yellow. Calibrated, within normal viewing angle, can see the yellow, but from above, the yellow quickly becomes white. -- report by lee_what2004


Fujitsu

* Fujitsu T5010 with MVA LED screen - can see easily at all angles (horizontal and vertical tilt) -- report by Forever_Melody


Google

* Google Cr-48 - can see from a wide angle -- report by KnightZero


HP

* HP DV2000 (6 bit TN) - Yes, straight on and up to about 30 degrees horizontal and vertical. -- report by crazycanuk

* HP Elitebook 2540p and 8440p - " terrible. Had to angle the screen back drastically to see the yellow." -- report by KnightZero.

* HP EliteBook 6930p (WXGA+ CCFL screen) -- "can see the yellow straight on. It becomes indistinguishable from white pretty quickly as I tilt the screen towards me, though." report by Indrek

* HP Elitebook 8740W (IPS Screen) - Yes, 89 degrees from center in all directions -- report by crazycanuk

* HP Envy 14" without the Radiance screen - same, can not see the yellow from straight on -- personal test

* HP Envy 14 with Radiance screen -- "straight on it's more peach than yellow, farther back it's a darker yellow. too far forward and it is white." report by MagusDraco

* HP Envy 15 - not by default, but easily visible if contrast is adjusted from 100 to 70 or saturation from 100 to 140 -- report by bubzers

* HP HDX - "I can see the yellow from ~20 degrees above all the way down on my HDX, although its invisible when views more than 20 from the top." -- report by Blaze-Senpai

* HP tc4400: 12" 1024x768 Boe Hydis AFFS screen - "Vertically viewable at all angles. Sideways not so good, maybe 5-10 degrees less at extremes, yet I can still tell difference between white and yellow cells." -- report by KLF


Lenovo

* Lenovo ThinkPad T410s
- yellow visible all the way below the perpendicular, until the screen is parallel to the keyboard. Above the perpendicular, the yellow fades to white after a few degrees, unless calibration is on, in which case it takes a lot more degrees for that to happen. -- report by halobox
- "same experience as halobox, it's very hard to see at perpendicular and you really have to tilt back between 15 - 30 degrees to get the full highlighting yellow effect." -- Andrew via PM

* Thinkpad T500 WSXGA+ 1680x1050 CCFL screen - can see yellow background from all normal viewing angles. Yellow becomes increasingly pronounced as you view from the sides and from below. Yellow fades to white when viewing from above (or tilt screen closed). -- report by Midnightsun

ThinkPad X200t with Hydis HV121WX6-110 LED LCD. Looks yellow at all angles. There's a slight darkening of the screen at extreme angles, but nothing you're likely to use during operation. -- report by ZaZ, 26k+ posts


* Lenovo Thinkpad X201 - fail -- report by KnightZero



MSI

* MSI GX640: "A bit of a peachy color straight on, gets more yellow the further you tilt it back. fades to white fairly quickly when tilted forward." -- report by Tree_Burner


Panasonic

* Panasonic CF-30 (6 bit TN with digitizer) - Yes straight on and about 75H / 75V -- report by crazycanuk


Sony

Sony F 11 USA 16.4" screen 1080 glossy - "Very poor vertical viewing angle on my machine. One of the weakest features on the F. Starts to cut out at approx 25-30% angle." -- report by Fishon

* Sony TT 8 bit 100% NTSC TN display - all angles -- report by Rachel

* Sony VAIO S - "I clearly see the top few lines with yellow background, whereas the bottom 4 lines have more Peachy color..." -- report by Gracy123

* Sony VAIO Z - "I can see the bars/lines just fine straight on." -- report by vaio.phil; "Z1390X 1080p screen. Yes I see the yellow straight on. When I move to roughly 60 degrees above the perpendicular, the yellow turns light blue. If I start looking below the perpendicular, the pale yellow starts to turn intense like a highlighter yellow." -- xxGenericSNxx (can't link to the original report, as it got deleted by MidnightSun)

* Sony VGN-S660 - can see the yellow from basically any angle (70 deg above, all the way below). -- test by friend

* Sony VGN-Z26GN - "See the yellow straight on. 30 degrees above the perpendicular the yellow becomes white (identical to other rows). 60 degrees ish I see light blue instead. Below the perpendicular, a more pronounced yellow." - 5ushiMonster (can't link to the original report, as it got deleted by MidnightSun)


Other screens? I'm especially interested in the Dell Latitude E6410.

Please post back here. Thanks!

 

Yeah, I can see that from every angle, I have a DELL 2209WA (IPS panel), I'm quite sure these laptops can too:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...est-notebook-screens-currently-available.html

 

nice test.

BTW 2209WA was one of the best bang for the money monitor(yes it is e-IPS rather than IPS but at that price, what else one can ask for).

 

on my envy 15 at default settings, i can barely see the yellow straight on. however, if i open ccc and adjust the contrast from 100 (default) to 70, i can see it from almost any angle. adjusting the saturation from 100 (default) to 140 has the same effect.

 

yep i can see it easily on acer 6935g

 

HP Elitebook 8740W ( IPS Screen ) Yes from all angles horozontal and vertical. ( 89 degrees from center in all directions )

HP DV2000 ( 6 bit TN ) Yes straight on and up to about 30 degrees horozontal and vertical.

MBP 17" ( 6 bit TN ) Yes straight on and about 60 degrees horozontal, 40 vertical before distortion occurs
MBP 15" ( 6 bit TN ) Yes straight on and about 50 H / 35V

Acer 3820TG ( 6 bit TN ) yes straight on and about 45H / 30V

AW M17Xr2 ( 8 bit TN ) yes straight on and about 60H / 50 V
Panasonic CF-30 ( 6 bit TN with digitizer ) Yes straight on and about 75H / 75V

Eizo ColorEdge CG222W. all angles
Eizo ColorEdge CG303W. all angles

 

Straight on it looks more like peach than yellow to me; it becomes yellow when I tilt the screen away from me though.

 

Yes I see it easily on all angles in all directions(horizontal tilt and vertical tilt). Screen is a Fujitsu T5010 with mva LED screen.

 

Thinkpad T500 WSXGA+ 1680x1050 CCFL screen - can see yellow background from all normal viewing angles. Yellow becomes increasingly pronounced as you view from the sides and from below. Yellow fades to white when viewing from above (or tilt screen closed).

 

envy 14: I can see it fine from my normal angle.

straight on it's more peach than yellow, farther back it's a darker yellow.

too far forward and it is white. I'm using a nonstandard color profile since I have a radiance (getting rid of the blue tint, though newer radiances now have a red tint so whatever)

 

I clearly see the top few lines with yellow background, whereas the bottom 4 lines have more Peachy color...

Sony Vaio S

 

Dell M6500
LP171WU7 White LED 1920x1200 Ultrasharp TN LCD
Results:
Yellow high light is faint when viewing directly.
Horizontally degree it become more apparent and easy to see from either side.
Vertically you can only see it when looking from below. Top is indistinguishable from white due to harsh contrast shifts.

 

If the screen is adjusted so that I can see it clearly/properly, so what?

I don't use my screen as a presentation tool.

Interesting test to determine some of the base capabilities of the screen, but of what real use are the results?

 

The yellow bar on that page/picture looks approximately like "30% yellow fill" (using a test/color chart). It's not a 100% yellow fill which will be really yellow.
On the Sony Vaio Z, I can see the bars/lines just fine straight on.
Also looks just fine with an Acer H233H straight on.

 

All angles Sony TT 8 bit 100% NTSC TN display.

 

ThinkPad T410s for this post.

Yes, I can see the yellow easily straight on with calibration on or off. If I tilt the screen a few degrees towards me, the yellow disappears and fades to white with calibration turned off. I have to tilt the screen a lot more towards me with calibration turned on for that to happen.

If I tilt the screen away from me, the yellow is clearly visible all the way so the screen is flat and parallel with the keyboard. Pretty much the same result with or without calibration.

Good side viewing of the yellow, too. Calibration on is a little better.

I use the Spyder3Utility for flipping the calibration on and off. I calibrate my screens with the Datacolor Spyder3Elite 4.0.2 software and sensor.

 

Lenovo y460: I can see it just fine from my normal viewing angle but if I pull the screen down to shut it, it quickly turns to white. Gamma is .9 and Saturation is 17%. If I turn it back to default settings, it becomes hard to see. Saturation really helps in viewing it.(At least for me.)

 

This.


MSI gt627 samsung screen (forgot model number, if someone wants me to check I will).

 

Studio XPS 1640 with 1080p WLED,
stock colour profile, almost can not see the yellow..
calibrated, within normal viewing angle, can see the yellow, but from above, the yellow quickly become white...

 

Thinkpad X201 - opened picture and thought to myself "What yellow" as I titled screen toward me. Tilted screen back, went slightly past dead on and.....whoa.

Hehe.

Edit - tested with the two Elitebooks on my desk - 2540p and 8440p. Worse than the X201, had to angle the screen back drastically to see the yellow. Colors look ever so slightly better on the 8440p, but it's still terrible.

In all three cases, the viewing angle that allowed the view of the yellow without strain also inverted the colors at the top of the screen.

Edit 2 - One more, just tested my Cr-48, which happens to be with me today. Dead on, the yellow is clear as day. It is visible until the laptop screen is angled at a very aggressive angle toward me. Cheapest laptop of the bunch wins.

 

Some people do?

In this particular case (Google Finance option quotes), "yellow" means "in the money". That is important financial information, which may lead in certain conditions to financial loss or opportunity loss.

Google Finance options is just an example I found. There are other applications where not noticing yellow highlights may be detrimental in one way or another.

The point is that, in particular, yellow highlights are important (that's why they are highlights) and not seeing them is a problem. In general, there may be other colors (than white vs. yellow) that are distorted or otherwise indistinguishable from each other, which again can be a problem in certain contexts and applications.

 

Awesome. I'm happy you liked the test.

That's exactly the case with the Dell Inspiron 15R.

 

tried with my roomate inspiron 1720 and epic failure...wow this thing blows

 

I can see the yellow from ~20 degrees above all the way down on my HDX, although its invisible when views more than 20 from the top.

 

Google Cr-48: Can see from perpendicular viewpoint, fades when tilting screen towards me, cannot view at all at around 25 degrees towards me.

 

HP tc4400: 12" 1024x768 Boe Hydis AFFS screen.

Vertically viewable at all angles as far as I can see the screen itself.

Sideways not so good, maybe 5-10 degrees less at extremes, yet I can still tell difference between white and yellow cells. I'd guess the touch screen element causes that.

 

I run into this problem with poor choice of highlighted item color a lot, white background and pale yellow selection... Really?! Simply click mouse and drag down, and background color turns into selected item color. There's also a level of how much you want to cover, compare the two screens.

http://img156.imageshack.us/i/gpyl1.jpg
http://img830.imageshack.us/i/gpyl2.jpg

 

Er, the point of this is to test how well the screen built into your notebook can differentiate two very similar shades, not the actual choice of highlighted color. In point of fact, if they had chosen "better" highlighted colors, we wouldn't be using this to test the screens.

 

MSI GX640: A bit of a peachy color straight on, gets more yellow the further you tilt it back. fades to white fairly quickly when tilted forward.

 

UPDATE, especially for those with poor results: turns out that with many screens on which the yellow is not visible by default, you only need to go to the graphics card properties and decrease the contrast or brightness, or increase the saturation, for much better viewing angles. Thanks bubzers for this tip. Note that this isn't the same as decreasing the display backlight level, which doesn't affect this. On the positive side, you can keep it cranked up to the maximum outside and still see the highlight if you adjust the software brightness from the graphics card control panel.

 

no problem. your screen test did a great job helping me to dial in my color settings.

 

Yes by increasing Digital Vibrance from NVIDIA Control Panel>Display>Adjust Desktop Color Settings will help a lot... for those with nvidia video. But the quick work around it when you have limited or no access to video settings (at work) is still the old invert the whole screen method.

 

The problem with the fail screens is that you don't know if there's any highlight, and you're not going to invert the whole screen on any single page (assuming the operation is even possible in the app you're using).

 

ThinkPad X200t with Hydis HV121WX6-110 LED LCD. Looks yellow at all angles. There's a slight darkening of the screen at exteme anlges, but nothing you're likely to use during operation.

 

Sony F 11 USA 16.4" screen 1080 glossy. Very poor vertical viewing angle on my machine. One of the weakest features on the F. Starts to cut out at approx 25-30% angle. Attached is a very nice monitor tester. I hope this helps.