My t60p 1680x1050 question

Hi,
I actually had a not so great experience with a recent compal purchase, after being a thinkpad fan, I was "sold" a compal powerhouse machine. I had nothing but issues with it and ended up pawning it off. Expensive learning experience.
Anyways, I have been reading through this forum and have been attracted to the WS T60. I just got my 8744-C9U and I absolutley love it...I will not stray again.
Onto my question. One thing about the compal machine, the screen was a 15.4 and my t60 is a 15.4. The compal had an nvidia card, the t60 has the ATI card. Both machines specs show the display doing 1680x1050.
The compal's resolution was really good and I had plenty of desktop space to put up multiple windows at max resolution. The T60 is set at 1680x1050, but everything actually seems bigger on the screen compared to the compal at the same resolution.
I have not made any changes yet, I am using the factory install. I am wondering if I did a clean install if that would change anything.

Does anyone have any thoughts on the resolution?
Thanks
Rod

 

For the font size, see Display Properties > Appearance and check the font size is set to normal.

For overall display size, see Display Properties > Settings > Advanced and see what the DPI setting is at. I wonder if it is set to large size, in which case reset it to normal. While you are visiting this tab, make sure, on Display Properties > Settings, that you are actually running at 1680 x 1050.

John

 

Interestingly enough, my Z61m 15.4" 1680x1050 also seems slightly larger than another 15.4" 1680x1050 HP nc8000 that my coworker has at work.

My DPI is at 96 (normal) and it is NOT set to use large fonts or icons.

Weird.

 

thanks for the replies...settings are all set to normal. I'm glad I am not the only one that thinks this.
Rod

 

Hey Rod,

I can confirm that Thinkpads have larger text and icons compared to other laptops with the same resolution. I work at a university IT center and I see many different brands right next to each other when I'm in the office, and I've always noticed the Thinkpads having larger icons and text despite the resolution. Though it was always set like this from the factory, I always just assumed it was configurable. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how one would go about changing this other than what's already been suggested.

I have a question of my own though. I'm about to buy the exact same model, the 8744C9U, from Euclid Computers. However, I've heard such horrible things about the widescreen LCDs that Lenovo have been putting in the Thinkpads that I'm having a hard time making a decision. The only reason I'm considering the 8744C9U at all is because it's a T60p, and all the feedback that I've read about the LCDs have been based off different models. I'm hoping that since the 8744C9U is a T60p, it will magically have a screen that I can live with.

So.. is there any way you could give me a quick review of your new laptop's LCD display? How are the viewing angles, the light leakage, are there any sparkles, do you see blotches of light and dark spots, etc.

Thanks, and congratulations on your new Thinkpad!

 

Hey Return...I'll be more than happy to give you my impressions...I also work as a small business IT consultant...so I have a chance to put my hands on all kinds of laptops and purchase different ones for clients.
This T60p is my fourth thinkpad. I had an old one, cant remember the model, I bought a used T40...I think its a T40, that one is going to my wife to replace her broken d600 dell, and I bought my mom a used thinkpad.

Like i said in my first post, I wandered away and went to a compal powerhouse computer. No doubt there are things about the compal that I liked, but stupid things like the cheesy keyboard feel, the heat, and no red stick and scroll button drove me crazy...enough that I would take a 400 dollar loss to get something that would be better. BUT, only going on what people have said about the WS T60p I still was not sure...so I called lenovo, got a great sales guy on the phone, went throught the TABbook or whatever its called and I got my t60p for 2199.00.
Anyways, onto the screen...(btw...i am going to try an install from scratch, I like a clean non-factory install anyways) I personally think the screen looks great, I was concerned about brightness, but it is plenty bright enough, it definetly looks lit evenly all the way across, no dead spots...in so many words, I really dont see what people are complaining about...my only beef is the resolution issue right now. I think I am an obsessively picky person, so if there was something amiss with the screen, I'm sure it would have bothered my by now.
I'm sure you know about the build quality already, I am equally impressed with the build quality, the machine does not flex when I pick it up from a corner...I can say that I am SUPER happy with this laptop.
They keyboard does not feel like my current T40, but it still feels good.
My T60p was shipped directly from Hong Kong...if that makes any difference.

Let me know if you need any other info...I am going to try a clean install tonight.

Rod

 

Thanks for all the information Rod, I really appreciate it. It was enough for me to finally stop worrying about it and just order the stupid thing.

This is my first laptop and I'm sure I'll be happy either way, I'm just being extremely picky. If it does happen to be so bad as to be unbearable, then I'll just eat the restocking fees and order one with the Flexview. I can't imagine it being that bad though.

The font being larger than normal is something that would probably bother me too, so please let us know how your trials go with that as well.

Once again, thanks for everything!

 

I think the larger font is a theme setting... Right Click on the desktop -> Properties -> Themes Tab and change to the Windows XP theme. That changed my large fonts to the normal size...

 

I'm sure it may be a theme setting for some laptops, but for ThinkPads, you need to go into the Display Properties -> Appearance Tab and then click on the Advanced button. Once you bring up the Advanced Appearance window, you can change the individual font properties of the windows titles and contents.

I finally got my own Thinkpad and messed around with it. I found it easier to just switch to the Win2k classic theme though =)

 

I think you are also correct, but you are also changing settings that are under the umbrella of a "theme". My new T60p had the enlarged fonts, and simply changing from the Lenovo/thinkpad theme to the regular WindowsXP theme fixed the font issues. I'm sure there are numerous ways aroud it!

 

i had a similar issue when i got my t60, loaded up the preload image and text was too large, checked the font size and it was normal (grr!), changed it to large then back to normal and the text is how it should be.

then i did a clean install