Viewing angles & tech specs on laptop displays

Hello!
I post here about a piece of data that often lacks, even in detailed technical description of laptops: the viewing angles of the display, either measured by standards or just expressed by pictures taken from the side of the screen.
For example, my last laptop - which is almost dead now due to a malfunction of the GPU -, a Latitude D830, 3 year old, had an awesome 1680x1050 16:10 screen, with viewing angles close to 180° in horizontal (90/90), and I would say 45/30 in vertical (from up/from down). Don't really know if it's IPS (would have been more expensive I think) or just well corrected TN or anything else, but it's great!

Now, I was searching for a new latpop, and although screen resolution is almost always easy to find for any model documented on the net, the method for backlight is already more difficult to find (WLED/RGBLED/Else), as is the anti glare/true life caracteristic, but the information really impossible to find, in most cases, are the viewing angles, and the technology (TN/IPS/Other), because, as often, laptop means "don't try to know what is inside, let us take care of that for you". Especially great when you buy from the net and cannot see the model for yourself before purchasing it, like for dell computers.

For example, the best of the best screens I found is the Precision M4600 screen: a 1920x1080 RGBLED IPS anti-glare screen on a 15-inch laptop. Unfortunately with this you have to buy a quadro 2000M instead of the Firepro M5950, almost 200€ for less calculating power and some cloudy "stability optimization" you don't know anything of, and beyond that the laptop itself is very expensive.

Another model that attracted my attention was the XPS 15 L502X (already had to go through all the tech specs to have the precise model name): this time also a RGBLED FullHD screen, but obviously without IPS and with truelife and all its glares (I often take the train, in the evenings the sunlight comes right to the screen!), and with alarming viewing angles (40/40 in lateral, 15/30 in vertical). The good point of this model, is that in France you have a big student discount of about 40% if you are lucky, so for 1100€ I have a i7 2760QM, a GT540M (could do better but still it's not that bad!), good connectivity with 2 USB3.0, e-sata/usb2, HDMI 1.4 and minidisplayport, 4 years premium waranty, 2x90 Wh batteries, 750Go 7200 rpm hard disk and so on. All good, if only I could add 200€ and have the screen of the M4600...or that of the Hp Elitebook 8740w...

So here I am of my search!

Now, I would love to find someone who has a list of laptops with High-end displays, or with displays that actually perform very good when it comes to viewing angles and glares (like, a link to somewhere where people have posted pictures, taken from different angles relative to their laptop display). Other information, like what laptops have RGBLED, IPS, TN (with corrections, like wider viewing angles than standard, or not), HD+ or FullHD resolution, would be great. Especially if all these parameters can be specified at the same time or separately to do a research! In one word, an organized database, about laptop displays detailed specs, and what laptop model has them.

The best would be to find such screens on not so high-end laptops: simply powerful (good proc/acceptable GPU, the RAM and SSD I will add myself), at least a little durable, and the display of my dreams! No design/weird professional expensive hardware or standards, just enough raw power and certified, tested good screen. So it could be not too expensive, say not over 1300€.

If people read this and would say "then go buy yourself an external display for 200€, it will beat any laptop display", I thought of that, but for a standalone display I am very demanding too: effective 120Hz IPS at least! And even with the GT540M and displayport of the XPS L502X, I am not sure I will achieve 120 Hz on an external monitor! But sure thing, if I find nothing better than the XPS I will still buy it and have an external display for home use, although I actually travel a lot. Maybe I will also have a PC or "HTPC" at that time, too...this is why I still search for a good display on a laptop!

By the way, did I miss THE thread about laptop displays in general? I could not find it...if there is no such thread, this one could be a good start!

 

A lot of good info here (though more for desktops):

Monitor Specifications

There are a few threads floating around that talked about the laptops with the best panels, though not many have the technical info you are looking for all compiled into one thread.

 

Side to side are usually good, but up/down have a lot to be desired these days. IPS would be pretty much nearly 90 up/down as well. I have an IPS desktop display and you can see it from pretty much any angle without distortion or discoloration.

In any case I'd prefer great up/down viewing angles over side to side because well, you're more likely to adjust your viewing angle vertically by standing, sitting, slouching, whatever, than horizontally. I know you can adjust your screen, but that's quite annoying.

 

The most consistently useful site I've seen for reviews of laptop displays is notebookcheck.net. Unlike all the useless "reviews" that just paraphrase the manufacturer's marketing, notebookcheck actually gives quantitative measurements of display performance, and pictures of viewing angles. Unfortunately searching is a bit problematic, so you'll have to already know the model of laptop you're interested in. They also may not always have the highest display options available on a given model; for instance, they didn't have the IPS screen on the M4600.

In general, these do seem to be the dark ages for quality laptop screens, especially since we've lost the 16:10 aspect ratio everywhere except for the stalwart Macbooks.

 

I understand the need for a high quality screen. I think you'll be quite satisfied with the Dell.

I don't understand the need for large viewing angles when you're using your laptop alone.

 

In general, I agree with you. Once you get a laptop display with viewing angles that are "good enough", then anything beyond that tends to be overkill.

However, some laptop displays are below that "good enough" level of quality, such as the display in an Alienware M11x. The vertical viewing angles are so bad on that display, that I can see color shift differences between the top and bottom of the screen. And once you move your head at all (e.g. sitting up, leaning forward/back), you notice the color shift right away.

I love my Alienware M11x. But I learned my lesson from that. I will never again buy a laptop that has a poor quality display, because it has such an impact on your usage experience of that laptop.

 

Wow, thanks for all these answers! I was starting to get used to french forums where few people reply, if any at all...
I agree with Kent1146, usually a laptop display is good enough and you don't even bother about that, but sometimes it can be really painfull, and as it is very difficult to change the screen afterwards, I prefer beeing sure of what I buy, and as I said, if you don't see at least pictures (if not viewing it yourself, which is the best of course), of the laptop you want to buy, mere words and marketing won't help at all. And for dell this is precisely what you have unless you search thoroughly to find your precise model tested or documented on the net.
And besides, when watching movies (which happen, and in different locations), I am frequently not alone, and we already had the problem of the "best compromise" for everyone to see at best!

actually you're right, but sometimes I experienced the problem of poor horizontal angles: the smaller the screen, the closer you are to it, and as 2 people always need the same horizontal space, a little geometry and you understand how you can be watching the screen at say 30 or 40 degrees angle in some cases...so it is important too!
And apart from that, it is when I noticed what my old screen was capable of, in horizontal angles, that I said to myself: wow, maybe I could get such a good screen again! The performance itself is impressive!
So you're right, IPS display is the best, but damn so expensive...

Ok then, I will try notebook check's display section and tftcentral! And see what I find there...if anyone has a suggestion of cheap IPS or other good viewing angles or simply outstanding screen quality at affordable medium-high prices, just in today's market and say 4-5 models, then please go ahead, I'm always open to suggestions, and experiences you may have had!

 

Sony SE has a very decent matte 1920x1080 screen in a 2kg 15" laptop for less than 1000 euros.
http://www.notebookjournal.de/tests/laptop-review-sony-vaio-vpc-se1e1e-s-full-hd-nkdw-1595

I read the reds needs some calibration though. The gamut on the Dell RGB screen is better (needs calibration too).

Agreed. Dell RGB LED is certainly not one of them, which is the display the OP was worried about..

 

About the model you are talking about, I could not find it in France, instead it is the VPCSE1C5E, which I upgraded to what I wanted. It ended up around 1500€, with decent graphics (the standard was class 3 on notebookcheck),and decent proc (the original one was i3!), and decent hard drive (original one was 5400 rpm, SSD is very expensive here). The screen and design are good, yes. But without discount...sony does not have student discount in france, only for certain models...
EDIT 2: on the other hand, I just reviewed the VPC-F23C5E, seems not bad at all...it talk about some kind of "anti-glare" but do not precisely state "matte" screen...the premium screen option is cheap, are "premium" screens good? All together, it adds up at 1073€ with 4 year warranty! no ssd (500gb 7200rpm instead), i5 and GT540m, but still!

And about the RGB led of the M4600, any news about compatibility, bad support of the 10-bit IPS colors? Or huge power consumption?

Thanks!

EDIT: I finally went for the M4600 and non-IPS screen, good enough, as was said. Will post some comments when I receive it. The point is to spend enough time. Maybe one day there will be the crowd-sourced easy-browsable weird specs database of my dreams but till then I will just read enough posts and get the info I need!