New T61, LCD uneven lighting and poor viewing angle?

I just received my new Thinkpad T61. I had just returned my Dell 1530 because of touchpad problems and that VISTA sucks (BSOD, and slow slow slow), and I am much happier so with the T61 so far.

But, the LCD is not very nice. There is visible light coming form the bottom of the screen on start up and the viewing angle is pretty bad, and there is a gray distorted area on the bottom right corner of the screen.

So, my question:
Do I call them on it? Are these issues bad enough to justify service. Are there different screen suppliers (if so which one do I want).

And does anyone know if this would be handled by sending it back or would it be covered by the "on location" service upgrade I purchased. I'm not crazy about wasting more time sending it out for repair...I already had to send one laptop back.

Thanks!!!

T61
15.4 WSXGA, T9300 (2.5Ghz), NVIDIA Quadro NVS140M, 3GB, 200 GB HDD, Bluetooth, WinXP Pro.

 

i dont have those problems but i have a pretty wiggly pivot, dont know if its meant to be like that, theres like a half inch of freeplay

 

Sounds like you just got a crummy panel with backlight bleed and light uniformity issues. Since the panel is technically not defective but just of poor general quality, you don't really have a perfectly legit reason for swapping with them... However, putting your conscience aside, I think you'll be able to get a swap if you complain enough although I doubt they will do on-site unless you purchased one of their more expensive warranties.

 

In terms of viewing angles, most laptop screens aren't that great. The ThinkPad FlexView which has great veiwing angles, isn't being produced anymore.

 

I have the same issues with uneven backlighting, especially when my screen is set to dim settings, such as when running on battery power. Lenovo is giving me a hard time about it, but I am trying to get it replaced as well. You can give it a try but you may have to fight for it.

Cheers.