Installing 1080p Display panel on Inspiron 15 7000 4k

Hi all,

I've bought a 2015 Dell Inspiron 15 7000 with 4K touch display. Specs are,

4k Touch display,
i7 5500U,
16 GB Ram,
256 SSD

I'm getting very poor battery life on this thing and most of the online reviews are saying 4k display is the main reason for poor battery performance.

I'm a Web Developer and my webpage animations are not smooth on this as my other Acer Laptop which has a 1080p display with lower specs. I've compared animation-heavy websites in my Dell and Acer in Chrome, Acer performed much better than Dell.

Since this has a 1080p version, is it be possible to downgrade the 4k by installing a 1080p panel. Will it work? and will there be any other issues?

Thanks in advance.
Rushenn

 

The 4K screen is eDP and your 1080p screen mostly likely is LVDS.. 2 different standards and your Dell motherboard doesn't have a LVDS connector most likely so you can't fit the screen.. Return the Dell.. You should have like 30 days to do so since you got it..

 

Wouldn't it be better just to downscale to 1080p?
What are the specs of your Acer laptop?

 

4k LCD's consume more power and have scaling issues. I'd pick 1080p over 4k any day.

 

I'v tried that and I saw some performance increase but text and icon become blurrish. Also the colors become more satureted. Is there any way to scaledown without quality loss?

 

Unfortunately I've chosen the wrong one......

 

According to the local store policy, I can't returned back as I already used it. I do have a year of warrenty and I can claim for a new one or exchange only if my unit has any physical/hardware issues.

 

Which country is this? I find it a bit unreasonable that you can't return it...

 

No reason why he should be able to return it. People seem to have a warped view on their rights when it comes to these kinds of things. The seller can no longer sell it as "new" so they'd be taking a hit if he was to return it used.

 

Dubai

 

Ah this makes it a bit interesting.. @Matrix Leader6 being a Dubai resident any ideas about what OP could do to force them to accept the return?

 

Things in Dubai work differently. if a laptop doesn't work as expected outside the box......you have 2 choices:

1) if you bought it from a reputed retailer, like it's say a shop in Dubai Mall, Mall of the Emirates, City Center mall, etc. you have a 7day return policy and if for any reason the laptop isn't working as expected and they refuse to return it, you have two ways of doing this:

a) do it MY way, which is, be macho, shout, make a scene in the store, ask for the manager, he will be ashamed as to not making a scene at his store and he will comply. That's what I did with my first Alienware 18 that I bought from Virgin Electronics where the screen had screen bleeding and they wouldn't agree to return it and instead wanted me to send it for repair and wait! Not me! I don't buy new stuff to send for repair and wait!

b) contact consumers rights, they will send you a form on your email to fill up and send them the receipt and details of the incident. Their number is +971 600 545555 and their email is [email protected]

2) If you bought it from an unknown electronics shop thinking you would save a few bucks like from Computer Plaza with all their crap stock, then you are stock, once the laptop is opened, they don't know you and will tell you to seek help from the manufacturer.

Here, you have 2 ways again, sort it out with dell or contact Consumers Rights

I know the higher management of DELL but I wouldn't approach them for this as the laptop IS working fine. You picked a wrong screen, that is not their fault. No offense meant but who buys a laptop with a 4K screen? Even HD screens look too tiny on the native resolution and you'd have to do DPI scaling of at least 125% for things not to look too tiny. That's on my 18.4 screen in my Alienware 18 laptop, if it was a 15" laptop then God be with you, you'd need a 150% or 200% scaling to see things right with an HD resolution. Now 4K is just UNUSABLE at all on a 15 inch laptop. Also bear in mind that not all programs play nice with scaling and they might have cut off edges or hidden buttons so it is not advisable.

I don't know what to tell you at this point really, there is one solution, call Dell and tell them you want ot buy the HD screen and have it replaced, you will have to pay for it because your 4K screen is working. There are no issues, battery life? well that's obvious, the more pixels it has, the more energy it uses and thus more battery consumption. Not Dell`s fault.

 

Any retailer worth a salt has a return policy. Sometimes with a nominal restocking fee. I would never buy a laptop or anything moderately expensive from any place without a return policy.

 

I feel the same way, but honestly you'd be surprised. The company i work for, dixons retail, would straight up reject this return. Anything used, they don't refund unless faulty.

They're one of the largest consumer electronics retailers in europe too (biggest in the uk where i live).

 

They do that if you buy in store and even online, their return policy is not the best.. I get my stuff from amazon as a result..

 

Thanks for the detail reply. As you said, It's my mistake that I chosen the wrong display without referring to any reviews. I bought this from E-Max and already contacted the customer care. They told me there is no way to return it unless there is hardware/software issue. I'll try again calling Dell support at least to get the Full HD version.

 

I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news man, but neither Emax nor Dell are obliged to help you on this because as mentioned, the screen is working fine. They will not replace it because you want another screen model.

 

After some Googling, I've enabled the discrete GPU for all the applications and I've set the maximum performance option. Now thinks are looking better and I can see a clear performance change.

 

That's great to hear! let us know if there is anything else you are concerned about