IPS Screens question

Okay, so the last big IPS screen I remember being in love with was the gorgeous RGB panel on the M17x R2 that I used a while back.

Am I in for a surprise if I think the next IPS screen laptop is going to be that good? Anything I should know regarding such a panel? I'm legitimately confused since the reintroduction of such screens. @_@

 

Hello @imglidinhere.
The M17x R2 didn't come with an IPS screen.
With that said, there are quite a few laptops out there now, that sport an IPS panel.
It all depends on what kind of laptop you're looking for.

 

All IPS does is improve viewing angles, and increase response time (lag...). I have no idea why they are popular all of a sudden, nothing approaches the color accuracy of the M17x R2 RGB LED screen.

 

Color accuracy has more to do with calibration than anything else. Wider viewing angles are a godsend.

 

With the calibration in the world, you will never approach the same color accuracy with a RGB display with a WLED display. Good viewing angle TN panels exist (ala M17x/M18x), without input lag that you would fine on pretty much all IPS panels.

 

Uh high pixel response time manifests itself as ghosting/streaking/blur during fast motion, not input lag

 

^sorry, that is the correct response.

 

The thing with IPS panels is this: you rarely find a bad IPS panel. On the other hand, there are TONS of very, very bad TN panels. Not saying there aren't bad IPS panels mind you, but they are far less common than bad TN panels. It's just that the panel manufacturers typically pour more resources into making a good IPS panel than a good TN panel. So if you happen upon a TN panel, odds are it's bad. If you happen upon a IPS panel, odds are it's a good one.

Manufacturers know most people are willing to pay a premium for IPS panels, so they tend to make them better. On the other hand, all cheapo laptops come with a TN panel, so I guess there's this mentality with manufacturers that TN = cheap/bad, IPS = good. Also, IPS panels typically only come on the more expensive machines, so the cost is more easily absorbed than trying to fit an expensive, high-quality IPS panel on a low-end laptop.

I've had some very good TN panels (the panel on my old Dell Inspiron 17R SE was amazing, with viewing angles that rivaled good IPS panels). But that was the exception, not the rule.

Also, there's only two models of IPS panels for 17" laptops, both made by LG. The Acer V Nitro, Alienware 17 R2, ASUS ROG G751 and Lenovo Y70 come with this panel. It's nice (in my mind), but not the best I've ever seen.

As has been mentioned here, you can get some high-quality TN panels with better contrast/colour accuracy/brightness than even good IPS panels.

 

I don't understand why wide view angles are a benefit in a laptop. If anything, I do not want people standing wide next to me to me or passing by to be able to view what I am doing. A laptop is a personal piece of equipment.

If you are in a meeting and you want to show something to a big group of people, there will usually exist some projector in the room for presentation purposes. At least I haven't found myself in the last 8-10 or so saying something like "hey you 10-20 people come check this on my laptop."

 

It isn't input lag, but response time. I bought a new IPS desktop monitor in January and response time is good enough to not be detectable. I have some older TN panels whose response time is great enough to show detectable motion blur.

I'm not saying TN panels are bad and IPS panels are good, but don't kid yourself into thinking that an RGB LED provides a magically superior color gamut to WLED. It can be better, but not necessarily. There is also no way that a good RGB TN panel can have better color reproduction than a good WLED IPS display. It simply isn't possible.

I've also never seen any panel that provided a high accuracy of color reproduction without being calibrated. I have yet to calibrate my desktop IPS display and I find the color reproduction too vivid and annoying compared to my calibrated laptop TN display. No amount of playing with settings can help that.

Watching a movie or TV show in bed with a significant other is important for me. Also when I am alone and at my desk, using my laptop in bed, or somewhere else, the wide viewing angles of IPS are still at play since I don't need to always keep my head and laptop screen in perfect alignment. Wide viewing angles ensure that no matter which way I look at the display, the colors remain the same. It also isn't like low viewing angles of TN panels help at all with privacy. People can still see everything, just the colors are washed out or inverted.

 

Yeah, lower response time and less motion blur is a good thing; unfortunately, the "response time" number listed for each display is... less than reliable. I have seen TN displays with supposedly <10ms response times exhibit greater motion blur than IPS displays with a listed response times of 25ms. The best TN displays will have less motion blur than good IPS displays, but you can't just go by the number given for each display.

 

It's very easy to understand. With a desktop monitor, you're always sitting in the exact same position, so it's easy to adjust your TN panel to just the right angle to get no colour-shifting. In addition, desktop TN panels don't exhibit colour-shifting as severe as laptop TN panels.

Laptop TN panels tend to have very severe colour-shifting with even a slight tilt of your head. Now, if you all ever do on your laptop involves light-coloured backgrounds (Word, Excel, etc.) you probably won't notice the colour-shifting. But any dark-coloured images will be affected.

Also, colour-shifting occurs mostly on the vertical angles, more specifically when looking "up" at the panel from below it (i.e when you push your screen away from you). Horizontal viewing angles tend to be decent. So you probably would't notice it in most cases.

But any gamer (or graphics professional) will be affected, as even a slight tilt of your head will cause darker colours to shift, even invert. And I'm pretty sure that inverted colours are a big deal. This is partly why gaming laptops and "multimedia laptops" often have panels with better viewing angles than standard business laptops. A typical business user sends emails, uses Excel and Word, maybe some PowerPoint. In other words, applications/uses where bad viewing angles won't really be noticed. But any gamer or graphics/design professional will definitely notice the colour shifting. I'm often amazed at how bad the display panels are on typical business-class laptops. But that's because typical business-users probably don't care. Word and Outlook look the same on almost all display panels.

Hence, why wide viewing angles are important on a laptop. Well, gaming/multimedia laptops, anyway.

 

You make some valid points, which I understand. I never did any graphics/design in a laptop to notice any difference.

Perhaps some business-class laptops have pale displays, because if you work on a document or program in some IDE 8-10 hours straight, it is easier for the eyes. Staring focused at something with vivid colors and high contrast for very long might wear down the eyes.

 

In my experience - one of a person with less-than-perfect eyesight - the bad viewing angles and poor contrast of low-end TN panels make them difficult to view for an extended period of time. I'd also say that modern LED-lit panels cause more eye fatigue than the old CCFL ones did.

My $0.02 only...

 

Business users care, trust me. It's all about cost. Dropping the price of a laptop by $15-20 that you're buying 2000 of due to cheaper display is an attractive proposition for a business but not for its users. Same reason why business laptops don't usually come with SSD's. Companies don't care about comfort of their employees, just that they have *a* tool to do their job, not the *best* tool.

I hate my 1366x768 TN display on my "business class" Dell that I have to use for work. I bought my own monitors to use at work and an external to take with me when I'm not in the office, the LCD is that bad.

 

Funny, I've been looking at used Dell Latitudes, you can find some good deals on those. But man, they almost all come with a 1366x768 panel. Insane.

I've found one with a 1600x900 panel, but it took a lot of digging. I'm ok with 1600x900 on a 14" screen, though the colour and viewing angles won't be that great.

Odd that a company will pay top dollar for a premium, business-grade laptop, then cheap out on SSDs and display panels.

 

I must ask, does anyone have any experience with the XPS 17 L701X?

I found out that THAT particular screen has the same connector spots as my Qosmio and I'm really itching to try and swap it out. I've seen other threads where people have done it with little effort... but I don't know if it's really worth the cost. Especially if the screen isn't that much better. :/

Then again, it's an XPS model. I don't know of an XPS model that doesn't have a good screen.

 

Looking at our office here, all but one using laptop is actually using dual monitors (24" 1920x1200) on a docking station. Resolution on the laptop display is irrelevant. That one guy has no permanent desk and a laptop that doesn't fit any of our docking stations. He's also called the boss

 

What's the point of laptops if they're always hooked up to monitors? For those that actually need to use their laptops when travelling, such display panels are awful.

 

That's just the reason why there is so much used business laptops with low grade displays around. Pretty much same reason why those do not have ssd discs either Price comes first when computers like that are bought in hundreds or thousands at once.

 

Makes sense.

It's a shame though, I'm a big fan of the build quality, durability, ease of upgrade and longevity of those business-class laptops.

It's just a shame they often come with crappy displays, since I don't use an external monitor.

 

And everyone ignores my question... thanks guys.

 

I don't think people are ignoring your question. It's just that nobody who has read this thread can answer it.

 

You're probably better off asking that in the Dell forum.

 

Agreed.. It's more likely that someone over there has this notebook then here...

 

Instead of targeting screen from a certain notebook, search for the exact panel model.