T-43 and other IBM Screens - Help.

I'm going to be buying a new lap in the next few days. The screen is the most important thing to me. I show a lot of animations and presentations and I need a wide angle view to show people who might be sitting next to me.

I also need a screen that is bright and clear. I really like the Toshiba and Sony screens but would rather have an IBM. The problem is I can't find an IBM to look at.

I'm looking at a custom lap because I want to get a powerhouse but not too heavy. So, far the T43 looks good but I don't know anything about the displays. Plus, if I want the better video card then I get UXGA but some people say that's not as good as the SXGA. I'm confused.

How do you think the T43 screen compares to the Sony's and Toshiba's screens?

Thanks.

 

IBM doesn't do glossy screens like Sony or Toshiba. IBM's FlexView screen is very good. It is brighter and has better contrast with wide viewing angles. All 15" T43s with SXGA and UXGA have it. It is not offered on the 14" models. The FireGL card is better than the x300, but is more geared towards doing like cad. If you want to show animations perhaps a glossy screen would be a better idea. They are sharper and have more vivid colors. Something like the Fujitsu E8020 or N3511 is a good choice. Like IBMs they are well built machines, but are a little heavier and the glossy screens are only offered in XGA or WXGA resolution. Fujitsus have the best glossy screens in my opinion. If you want to go a little bigger, maybe the Asus W2v. Good Luck.

 

I was looking at a unit with UXGA. Is that better than SXGA?

Also, one of the reps said I could get flexview with a 14" screen but I thought they only came on the 15".

 

Unless you have a need, the UXGA ones are pretty expensive. Plus text is pretty small. To my knowledge, 14" are not offered with flexview.

 

SXGA+ (1400x1050) required some DPI tweaking to make it confortable on my 15". And even now, some text during browsing feels too small (especially late in the evening when I'm tired) and requires me to use Firefox's built-in text magnifier... I wouldn't want to think about UXGA (1600x1200).

And it's pretty safe to say that Flexview only comes with 15" SXGA+/UXGA. At least according to all official sources.

 

I needed the Flexview because I'm often showing people presentations on my laptop while they sit next to me. Plus having a 15" screen is nice too. I just ordered it on Tuesday. It's 2 weeks away. Ugh.

I don't understand. Why is the text small on the UXGAs? Can't I just adjust the resolution to make it look pretty much like the SXGA? I HATE small text. There must be a way. . . .

 

LCDs have a fixed number of pixles. Hence, when you run an LCD at any resolution except its native (maximum) resolution, it uses interpolation techniques. Some LCDs achieve better results, some worse, but they all look a bit blurry at lower resolutions. You may not notice it much while gaming or watching a video, but during everyday work with text it may cause eyestrain.

There is a way to increase text size without decreasing the resolution - you just need to play with Windows' DPI settings to adjust the size of text, icons, etc. (Desktop Properties -> Appearance -> Advanced). It works for most things, but some things are unaffected by it.

Here's how my desktop looks at SXGA+:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v65/dr_st/FortitudoDesktop.jpg

Here's how the forums main page looks at SXGA+:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v65/dr_st/nbreviewsxga.jpg

Notice how some text is large and some text is small. Overall it's usable, but the small text might be too small on UXGA...

(Pictures have been resized by Photobucket, but maintain original aspect)

 

Yours isn't too bad but still a little small for me. Dang. I'll definitely be playing with those DPI settings.

I wonder if there is some sort of utility that could fix this problem. Heck, there are utilities for everything!

 

Two weeks? Some people wait months for specific models.

 

Why? Shouldn't they have this stuff in stock?

 

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