Just bought an HP Envy 15-1066nr Refurb - Screen seems dim?!?!

I dont have anything to compare this thing to since I bought it online, but the seem is NOT as bright as I thought it would be. The brightness is all the way up on the hardware as well as on the catalyst control panel. This is the system with the 4830. How can I tell if it's bright as it's supposed to be or not??

 

What LCD is it? The standard BV 720p?, the Ultra BV 1080p?, the Anti-Glare 1080p?

I did realize that the standard 720p BV on my old Envy 15 was not as bright as it should be. When I upgraded to an AG Matte 1080p that was also sourced from HP for the Envy 15, I saw a huge improvement in brightness. My experience though and I had a 1100 CTO (2nd Gen).

Tell me the LCD option you got and maybe I can reach an answer.

 

Full High Definition LED HP Ultra Brightview (1920x1080)

 

Those models should have a good brightness ratio and HP sources LG-Philips exclusively for the Ultra BV's. Can you take a reference photo of the max brightness over a warm-light colored background? I don't think the panel should be struggling in brightness.

 

Maybe you can post some HD pics, that would help.


KJ

 

I took a few photos but its really difficult to see a problem on them since they don't really show what I'm talking about at all. Looks fine in the pictures. I'll take a photo tonight when I get home next to my external monitor which looks bright as can be when it's plugged in for comparison... Unless you guys have any other recommendations? Thanks for the help by the way.

 

Here's an image of my laptop compared to my HP external monitor at home. I am not sure if this really does it justice, but the picture quality is MUCH brighter on my external monitor (HP w2408 I believe). On my laptop, whites are never WHITE. I have tried everything i could think of in Catalyst Control center to help this out. If I max out the brightness then colors get washed out and it is just not acceptable considering I do a lot of graphic design. Is there something wrong with this laptop, or is this just how it is?

Can anyone post some ideal ATI Catalyst color settings I could try?

 

maybe its just me but I think your Envy looks better. The monitor looks like it has a reddish tint

 

The Envy 15 comes shipped with a cool palette. Hence why it looks very blue in tint. I believe in the one of the Envy 15 owner's lounge, user JJB released color profiles to rectify that.

 

I installed the color profiles, and to be honest I can do a better job just using CCC to make the colors "right". However, the screen is still not BRIGHT enough. For an "ultrabright HD" laptop that I just shelled out 1000 bucks for, I am not impressed. I am just wondering if my laptop is not as bright as others or if this is just how they are. Kind of hard to figure out unfortunately when I don't have any other units to compare it to.

 

Comparing a laptop to an external monitor is kinda unfair. External monitors can easily hit the 30w-40w mark in power consumptions for the CCFL's or LED's used in them. A laptop's LCD must use much lesser power, and also less LED's.

Now I am not sure about the brightness, but according the picture it does look dim but that can EASILY be the camera's focusing algorithm. Best thing to do is to compare it to another laptop.

 

Yeah I agree. But I've seen much brighter laptops... an HP down at best by (not an envy) is a lot brighter than mine. It actually is dimmer, it isn't my camera. I just personally like bright whites and dark blacks. Maybe I should get one of those monitor calibrator things.

 

A calibrator won't help with the brightness. Also blacks are considerably worse when the brightness is higher, just to let you know.

Anyways I recommend you talk to HP and see if they can do something about it.