T400 LED screen difference

thx for the clarification. the new LED does appear to be much much brighter. looks just as good as any other mainstream LCDs on the mkt if not better

 

the pictures i took aren't that good. the ones in the official review of the T400 would probably do it more justice. i was trying to show the difference between the lg panel and samsung, in terms of washed out samsung colors.

your first observation was that the lg panel was more washed out though! hahah.

so yeah, my pictures aren't doing their job.

 

I got the samsung screen.

it's really bright when set at max but there's a huge difference when i step it down a bar. otherwise it's not that bad (or so I think since I don't have the LG screen to compare it with)

can I get it switched somehow though? I move in my college on the 20th so it's gonna be a pain in the *** to have it shipped back and forth

 

yeah, the LG panel drops significantly in brightness with just one notch too.

 

I called lenovo and they are going to swap out the Samsung monitor and replace it with the LG. I will post pictures shortly with the samsung display

 

WOW! What did you say to them? This could be golden news for those with the Samsung panel.

You might want to start a new thread to document your findings.

 

yeah, i wanna know about that too i s%^k big time when it comes to negotiation

 

anyone know how long it takes for us to ship it to them, get the screen switched, and get it shipped back? and do we have to pay anything?

 

Some comparison shots:







I really just told them about the issue and was patient with them because I knew they would try to solve it on the software side. After that I talked to a high level technician and got the deal done. Don't know if they will swap in an LG but he said he would request it to the repair team.

 

keep us posted please!

 

nice pics rxblitzrx. glad to see someone else posting the pics. I can tell the left one is LG as it looks exactly like my t400. Its hard to take a good pic of t400 screen due to horrible viewing angles.

 

3 days after T400 has been delivered to my friend's place the parts info on the IBM site became accessible, and I found out that I have an LG panel (42T0497). I'm very relieved

 

rxblitzrx, is the T400 you have an LED screen or regular TFT?

 

I have the LED (LG panel).

PS: This screen is addicting. I can't stop looking at it! As a pharmacy student, black on white color production (in MS word) is what I'll be using 80% of the time, and the super-whiteness of the LG panel makes studying exciting!

 

nice You should also mention in your pic comparison between the LG and Samsung that you're comparing LED vs TFT(on the T61). The difference has more to do with the superior LED than with the different brand make.

 

I don't have a t400 (found this thread via google), but i have a dell latitude e6400 with the 14.1" LED WXGA+ screen. Its a Samsung and its not good at all. the viewing angles are awful, especially from above, the color is very washed out (contrast is very low, black is nowhere near black), and whites arent the pure white i was expecting from an LED screen. Also, dithering is easily visible on many solid colors. My 4 year old HP ZX5000 15.4" WXGA is significantly better in every way except brightness in every way except brightness.

I'm thinking about returning it because the screen is so underwhelming. Is the LG significantly better in terms of contrast and viewing angles (especially contrast) or should I give up on 14.1" altogether and just get an LED backlit 13.3" (regular backlit all appear to be crappy and similar to my current panel), which I've seen in person and ALL of them have been wonderful (sony sz series, macbook air, dell xps m1330).

 

Just ordered a t400. hoping it's an LG ><

 

For the price, I think LED + LG panel + Thinkpad is the best deal you can get by FAR. I agree that Sony LCDs are top notch, but they also cost twice as much. If you have the money, I'd go with the Sony. I personally plan on moving to Sony laptops after I graduate. As a student, I'm a little on the 'po side. A little bit of a catch-22 since I'll use the laptop more as a student than as a professional.

 

Looks like I am getting a LG panel too. It's coming this week; I hope it's as good as everyone says.

 

I guarantee it!

 

Hi guys! New T400 owner - bought it through CDW on a price match, but anyway, when I do a parts lookup on my machine I get 42T0572 for my LED LCD. I looked through this thread and did not see that number associated with Samsung or LG. Any thoughts?

 

Hmmm...this is it? I have the LG panel...and this screen doesn't look much brighter than any other screen...I wonder if I am missing something; expectations were too high. Doesn't look any better than an HP or a Dell screen. Viewing angle not that great - worse than expected.

I can't understand all the raves about this screen...unless the regular Thinkpad screen are _really_ bad, and the LED backlit just are better by comparison.

 

The LED screen raves you are reading are by owners trying to convince themselves their $$$ has purchased something superior to those who have TFT screens. As if they represent the new standard to be measured by.

I'm not an early adopter. Remember HDTV price/quality 5 years ago?

lolz

 

ummm... aren't these all TFT panels? The difference is backlighting CCFL vs LED no?

 

Oh, yes. Agreed. My mind was racing and I confused TFT with fluorescent != all being the same.

CCFL it is.

 

Being someone who received a T400 with LED. I'm still very disappointed with mine, and I have the LG panel. Though the laptop is no longer in my hands, it's back an LENOVO for repair, I did get to use it for awhile.

It did have an even illumination of the panel, when viewing it from certain angles, however, when looking at it from a standard viewing angle for typing into a Word document or something, I could see noticeable brightness differences across the panel. And viewing any video content (yeah, I know this is a business laptop) was a tremendous disappointment, especially since my lowly 3.5 year old Dell 700m looks so much better.

When my laptop comes back from repairs, I'm going to give it a week or so to decide whether it's worth keeping . At this point, after all the hasstle with Lenovo, I don't mind eating the $150 in returning the thing.

To me at this point LED backlight = better battery life, but at picture quality sacrifice. (But I don't know, I'm just rambling).

 

People have different opinions about picture quality due both to experience and vision differences. The panels manufactured by either LG or Samsung do have variability -- not all LG models are spectacular, and not all Samsung displays are terrible.

If something doesn't work for you, convince Lenovo to replace the display. If that doesn't work, you need to decide, as taude above, if it's really worth keeping. If you can't convince Lenovo to replace the display, you're not being assertive enough

I can't wait to get my T400 a week from tomorrow and will check back with the quality of mine, but, that won't matter much in terms of what others will be getting due to the variance in quality.

 

Update :

To look further into this issue I managed to get another T400 which also had LG screen.

I have three T400s with LG's and one of them is very white and other two have faint blue tint. When I keep them next to each other it creates an effect on eyes that makes white color on superwhite one look purplish white color on other two with blue tints look very dark blue tint.
If I look at only one of them at a time then superwhite one looks very good to eyes and other two look pale and with faint blue tint.
But if I consider majority then I guess the two with bluish tint are "normal" and there is some problem with one that looks nice and superwhite ( like a standalone LCD)

 

Parijat: so you think the superwhite LG panels are the "defective" ones? it's weird that you found two LG panels with blueish tinting.

I did notice mine looks a little blueish when I compared it to my sisters Sony Vaio Z. I opened notepad, full screen, and hers had more of a redish whiteness and mine was a little more blueish.

Shoot, so there's a LG panel out there that has even whiter, white than mine!! I'm selling this puppy and getting a new one.... j/k.

 

I like the superwhite one as it looks much better compared to other two.
But the one which I own is the bluish one so lets assume that bluish tint is "normal"

 

I'm glad I read this thread ... I have a Sony Z ... and need another notebook that will be used on the go and at the desk for business app's/web design etc, I spent the day with a Sony FW and determinined it was too big and bulky ...

I was reading here to decide whether to order a T400 or T500 ... now I'm stumped ... the Sony Z screen has spoiled me - it's near perfect. The T series sounds like a risk of whether you're going to get a good screen or not .... seems like to much hassle to me ...

The question is what to buy? At this stage I'm thinking I'm just going to get another Z and a 24" monitor for the desk, ... best of both worlds small notebook for traveling or just having on your lap and a 'real' monitor for detail work.

I wish the T400 had an HDMI port, I was willing to forgo that, but you guys seem disappointed with the screen.... the notebook that has 'everything' isn't here yet, the manufacturers are capable of making it but it hasn't happened yet ...

How about a 15" Sony Z wouldn't that be sweet, or thinner/lighter T400/500 series with a real good LED screen ??? Maybe one day ...

 

FWIW I love my T400 compared to my older Sony (15.4" VGN N130g). It is much more portable and I like the matte screen compared to the shiny screen of my Sony. I thought that the Sony had an awesome screen (and it does) but when I put my t400 next to it there is no comparison. Though I do have the LG screen....It seems that they have been shipping out more and more LGs lately. Is it worth the risk? Hard to say, I don't like to gamble with laptops. I ordered my T400 before reading about the screen differences. Sonys are awesome though.

 

I wanted to throw something into this discussion:

I've read in a computer magazine (german c't) that the production output yield of LED screens is at just about 60%. So I thought that the screens may highly vary in quality, even if they pass the quality check. And if there are good Samsung screens as well, Samsung might just have worse yield of good screens or their quality varies stronger within these alleged 60% of screens ok.

 

To whom got a Samsung panel, Does you your Samsung has camera or not?

 

I'm really not concerned about a slight shift in colors. My main concern is viewing angles, as I will be programming on this machine. If the angles are bad enough that their is wash-out on the top and bottom looking dead on, I will not put up with it. I am borrowing a Dell D630 which has this problem and its very irritating to use.

My questions are:

1) Do viewing angles change ( in general and on the T400 ) with LED vs CCFL

2) Are the viewing angles the same on the T500 screens ( I assume they would be, but might be missing some factor in drawing this conclusion )

Doesn't it suck that people only speak up to complain? Wish there were some satisfied customers with pics of their screens.

Thanks

 

1. TN panels (type of panel used on 99% of laptops, sans powerbook) are known for poor viewing angles. I think LED gives you a little more room to work with. That's my impression when I compare my T61 with CCFL vs my T400 with LED. I glossy-coated my T61 and that gave me about 5-10 degrees more (vertical). Horizontal has never been a problem for me on the T61 or T400.

2. n/a

 

Just need to be perfectly sure before I mail my shop about procuring a LG screen; does the same problem manifest itself with a T500 WSXGA+ LED screen?

I know the likely answer is yes, but I'd prefer not to confuse the shop needlessly in case I'm wrong.

 

no this is only for the t400!

 

Thank god. And thank you.

Looks like I won't have to worry about the purchase being a gamble, then.