New T61 Screen (and first impressions)

I received a new 15.4" T61 yesterday.

I'm concerned about the screen. Some of the letters on websites look "rough around the edges." For example, when I look at the Thinkpad Sticky on this forum and look at the letter "S" in the word Sticky, it is rough around the edges (pixalated might be the word) and basically not smooth. Oddly, though, this pixalation or rough looking text is more noticable on some sites then others.

I don't know if this can be corrected, but is annoying. The 5 yr old Dell next to me has clear and smooth type. I haven't been able to determine the lcd yet, it's FRU 42T0421. It's the standard WXGA. (I do I have cleartype on and have changed some settings with no help).

Another issue with the screen is that the vertical viewing angle seems poor. IE, changing your postion realtive to the screen makes text look less clear in some areas.

Otherwise, the screen is fine. The brightness is more than sufficient, maybe even too bright.

The trackpoint is a joy to use. Sometimes I do use a touchpad as well. Lenovo would be wise to use a larger touchpad, especially as they're aiming more and more at the consumer market.

The keyboard (FRU 42T3273) is a Chicony and is fine so far. The (very) old Dell I'm comparing it too had a good keyboard as well, so it may take some time before I can say this one is better. It is "clicky" as has been mentioned, but doesnt bother me so far.

The harddrive (100gb 7200RPM) is the Hitachi (FRU 42T1485). It's fast and quiet. The old Dell's drive is MUCH louder. You can hear the Hitachi if you listen for it and it has spun a little long a couple times when I moved the laptop, but overall seems excellent.

Overall, this is an EXTREMELY quiet laptop for what I'm used to.

The right palmrest of this 15.4" T61 (no fingerprint reader) has some flex, but I can live with that. Otherwise, the laptop seems VERY SOLID (no loose screws) and easily beats the consumer laptops I've seen for build quality.

So now I don't know if I'll keep it or not. The first thing I thought when I took the laptop out of the box is, wow, this thing is big! I think I'd be fine with a 14" even though I'm using it as a desktop replacement. I think the 14" would look sleeker, but thats a personal opinion. But, first I need to figure out the screen issue.

 

Turn on cleartype. If you are on vista, it's under personalizations.

 

also change gama to 0%.

 

Like others here I think its an issue with Cleartype/Smooth Font. I think that's about as good a monitor as you'll get - vertical viewing angles are never perfect...unless the viewing angle degrades significantly with minor variations in angle.

Have heard alot worse complaints on Thinkpad lcds (dimness/dead pixels/extreme light leakage... you name it it's all there).

 

Cleartype is still on.

Gamma adjustment to 0 makes the screen darker/more blue. It does make text darker as well, but does not make it sharper. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

The poor vertical viewing angle seems real. The 5 yr old Dell next to me doesn't change when you move the screen either an inch forward or inch back or when you move your head a few inches up or down. But that's not my main issue.

The sharpness of certain text such as the "S" in the Thinkpad Sticky bothers me more.

Maybe someone here can look and see what it looks like to them. Go to the Thinkpad Sticky (first post in this forum), click on it, and look at the text to the right of ZaZ's avatar. The letter "S" in Sticky is particularly degraded. Is this normal? The 5 yr old Dell next to me shows this text smoothly and clearly, thus my concern. Maybe I'm making a mountain out of a mole hill. But if the 5yr old Dell shows it clearly why shouldn't the new T61?

I'll be looking at laptops in the store later today (if I have time) or tommorow to do a comparison for myself. Again, it's not the lack of brightness or lack of a glossy screen that concerns me but the sharpness of text.

 

Well, I have the same issue with the sharpness of text on the Samsung 14.1 SXGA+ (non wide) screen on my T61p. It is bothering me a bit too and text is definitely clearer on my old T42p's display.

I have tried playing around with Microsoft's clear type tuning tool which helped a little, but has not made it perfect. Otherwise, the screen is fine.

This lack of sharpness of text issue, plus the Chicony keyboard, which I don't particularly like coming from an NMB, are my only complaints.

(OT: Anyone with an NMB that would fit my model who wants to trade keyboards, let me know.)

 

How do you turn on clear type on Windows XP?

 

Install this: http://download.microsoft.com/download/b/7/0/b7019730-0fa3-47a9-a159-98b80c185aad/setup.exe

It is safe, I got it from here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

Then it should appear in your control panel.

 

@ OP:

I know EXACTLY what you're talking about and experienced this same issue with my T61 14.1" 1440 x 900 LCD.

This isn't something that can NOT be fixed with clear type tuning alone. Here is what I did.

1. Mod your LCD screen at ScreenTek (google the name of the company) for $100.00 plus shipping. They will "repolarize" your LCD to make it glossy (like Dell TrueLife or Sony XBrite). This improves vertical viewing angles by about 20 degrees and it will take care of the "rough around the edges" look on web pages. For me, the benefits far outweigh the problems of glossy screen glare.

2. Certain fonts appear better on web page (in Firefox atleast). I use Segoe UI or Arial. These seem to appear the clearest on web pages.

3. Use clear type tuner as suggested above in Windows Power Toys.

4. Use the free LCD Calibration tool found on someone's signature here in the forums. The Lenovo panels are too blue by default.

With these modifications and tweaks I was able to get my LCD looking pretty darn good. The most beneficial change was the conversion to glossy. Text is now sharp, bright, and higher in contrast.

Good luck!

 

Rxblitzrx,

Thank you for your insights. I was thinking that maybe I was being too demanding, but apparently this is an issue for more than just me.

If I decide to keep it I may think about the glossy conversion. However, it's unfortunate that we have to spend more to correct this issue. Also, I'm not that interested in glossy screens, but if it works it works.

Decision time now.

 

Just one more note to this thread: Since my earlier post, I have found that turning down the brightness to about 50% to 60% makes the text appear sharper. I think it might have something to do with less light coming through between the pixels. Anyway, after a few minutes using the screen at the lowered brightness, I got used to that quite easily and actually find it more comfortable for extended viewing. And having the text appear sharper is worth it to me.

(Also, this screen was so bright to begin with that I would never want to run it on maximum brightness anyway.)

 

I'm still having issues with the screen after trying multiple adjustments(suprsingly, turning town the brightness does seem to help. The thing is sometimes I do like a bright screen). The text is still not as sharp as I'd like, but I can make do. The vertical viewing angles, however, are bad to the point of being silly. The slightest movement of my head makes text lose clarity. I can only think that the lcd shipped to me has a more severe issue with vertical viewing angles than the majority shipped. Lenovo will not allow me to return the machine for another w/out paying the 15% restocking fee(they want me to send it in for service). If I keep it I may go glossy to try and address the issue, but I'm worried it won't do much.

Today I went to CC and looked at several different notebooks to do a comparison. I opened up Word and typed the same lines and compared them on various notebooks, starting with a matte screen R61. I have to say the glossy screens had clearer text. Of course, the glossy screens were more brilliant as well. But that isn't so important to me. I was impressed that text appeared clearer. It didn't matter if it was a Sony or HP, the results with text were similar. The R61 on display (cleartype enabled) had ok looking text. It looked pretty close to mine, maybe just a little bit better. It also had poor vertical viewing angles, but not as poor as mine. However, compared to the glossies, the R61 has very poor vertical viewing angles indeed. I know matte screens have their merits and in some environments glossies may create too much glare, however the glossy screens do make text look better in my opinion. There's only one problem: Those Sony's and HP's are nice enough notebooks, but they're not Thinkpads!

 

The vertical angles on your machine sound much worse than on mine. Perhaps your display is substandard, (even by the substandard Thinkpad display standards). Maybe you should send it in for service.

If you do, I would recommend removing every removable part including the hard drive, memory, optical drive, etc. before sending it in.

 

Magister, that "S" you're talking about is just a poor font. I see the jaggies in it that you're talking about, on both my T60p (1600x1200 IPS) and X61 Tablet (1400x1050 AFFS) displays. It's not a problem with the display at all, just bad anti-aliasing on that particular character.

 

i have to agree with Geary. after taking a careful look and comparing, i have to say the thinkpad LCD screens have no issue, it's just the font that doesn't look that great. Even on an apple screen, it just looks the same!

 

Thanks for checking. I realize this after viewing several other lcd's. The older Dell Latitude I used for comparison had a UXGA screen that did not show any jags in the same character strangely enough. (Same browser, fonts, settings, on both notebooks).

Unfortunately, the screen has other issues (text is not sharp, colors are washed out, terrible backlight bleed, terrible vertical viewing angle) and I am in the process of returning the notebook. Lenovo insisted on my sending it to the service center and I debated this but decided not to risk not being able to return it in the future regardless of their assurances that my return period would be extended. When I put a DVD in(which admitedly is not why I bought the computer) and the mechanism sounded like thunder throughout any movie I played it made the decision easier. That and the Core 2 Duo whine that cycles on and off even pugged in(least of my problems as this is related to the processor). The return rep and I haggled about the 15% restocking fee and he agreed to "note" my issues with said machine, but wouldn't promise no fee. I told them to inspect at the return center and see for themselves. He said they would do that. Still, I'll be surprised if I don't get hit for the 15% fee. We'll see.

 

BTW I still can't figure out the screen manufacturer.

The FRU is 42T0421. It is the WXGA screen.

Device type in device manager is simply listed as Manufacturer: Lenovo.

PC Wizard lists only a serial number under manufacturer:
154WX4-TLA6

A search on the PC Wizard info pulls up some text with a reference to LG-Phillips, but isn't very convincing.

 

Check out this: http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cach...4.0.html+154WX4-TLA6&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us

Look on the right side of that page.

I think it's an LG.

 

Magister, I just received today my T61P and I can confirm the LCD is the most crappy I've ever seen. (Part # 42V8287)
I have seen l$500 laptops in Walmart that have better screen.

Mine came with a leak at the bottom and the Right Lower corner is sunk.
The LCD grid shows like faint horizontal lines, the viewing angles are too narrow and the whole screen is rather dark.
My 4 year old Compaq X1000 has the same resolution and size 15.4" 1680x1050 but the screen is obviously SUPERIOR.
I was expecting something better or at least the same quality than my X1000 which is being replaced.

I'm really mad, since I'm a 3D graphic designer and need a decent screen.
Mine looks so bad that I think it might be defective, so I will ask for a replacement.
If it is the same crap (I think it will be) I will have to resell it.
This is unfortunate because the T61P is a fine Laptop, but this bellow average LCD kills it for me. (
I'm MAD and SAD and FRUSTRATED with this Lenovo T61P.

I thought that the P stand for professional.
What a joke. !!!

 

Hey Everyone,

I agree that the T61 LCD is for crap. There's hope though!

Send your new laptop to ScreenTek and they will convert it to glossy for a hundred bucks. Text comes out MUCH clearer and contrast ratios are improved. Vertical viewing angles improve by about 15-20 degrees.

I think all these benefits outweigh the cons of a glossy panel.

Give it a try!

 

Yeah, you would love the t61 so much when you play DVD in it, . mine (both machines) are also LG-philip LCD , same problem you describe.