T61 14" SXGA+ LCD is too blue, what gives?

I received my T61 with a 14" SXGA+ LCD screen last week and have since been grappling with the horrible factory defaults for the color temperature / white balance. Everything has a blue tinge to it, especially neutral gray. There is no way to accurately work with photos as is.

Why does the monitor come with such a strong blue color cast? Shouldn't Lenovo address this instead of us having to come up with software color calibration workarounds?

 

Use the nVidia Control Panel and you can easily adjust your color settings to your liking.

 

The software for the Intel X3100 gpu has a color correction feature, but I'm still wondering: why do the LCDs come with such a strong blue color cast?

 

The LCDs don't come with such a strong blue color cast. Yours is an anomaly. Or your eyes are too blue.

 

Technically, my eyes would be too yellow for the screen to be too blue. But then my mind would've compensated for this. Still, the screen is has much more blue than a CRT anything I've been.

I'll post a photo to demonstrate what I mean in a bit.

 

You don't have to post a photo. I believe you. But you're making a big deal out of nothing. My computer was shipped with all grays a brown color. If you're truly unsatisfied, return the computer and buy another one.

 

What, another brand? Or a replacement T61?

 

My Asus G1s.

 

At this point, after the frustration, that sounds like a fine recommendation. I still want to get to the bottom of this: whether it's only my laptop or bad design.

 

Frustration? You must not have much going on in life if changing the color settings on your laptop caused you this much frustration.

 

It's difficult to use this laptop even as a casual portable computer for my photography business if the color rendition is so appalling.

 

Then adjust the settings. And if you can't get it right, return it.

 

Well, yes. Just, is it worth trying to get a replacement, or will the replacement be just as bad? Looking for an opinion from a T61 owner who has the same screen.

 

You would know it if it were a big problem. Just look at the Dell section and their screens.

 

Check to see the manufacturer of your LCD. A lot of people with Samsung screens complained about a blue tint. If it is that bad you might either want to return it or if you have a warranty, have Lenovo swap out another screen. Screen quality has been very variable with many manufacturers as per the threads I am reading. Dell seems to be hit the hardest, or the people who own them are very picky, I don't know. It seems to be a matter of luck, since these compaines are using different manufacturers to produce the same 14" screen. Some of the compaines making them are Samsung, LG/Phillips, sharp etc. Each can have a different brightness, color contrast etc. I am kind of annoyed with it as well, but it seems that QA or consistency, or whatever you call it has gone down.

 

My T61p had a blue tinge when I received it. I used the Nvidia color correction and it warmed right up. It does seem to favor blue though.

 

Here is what PC Wizard tells me about the LCD:

Manufacturer : HT14P12-100
Product ID : LEN4022
Manufacture : 2005
Video Input Type : Digital in 0.7/0.3v
Max. Horiz./Vert. Size : 28 cm / 21 cm
Monitor Size : 14 inches (estimated)
Aspect Ratio : 16:10
Gamma Factor : 2.2
DPMS Active-Off : Yes
DPMS Suspend : Yes
DPMS Standby : Yes
EDID version : 1.3



Seems to be a Hyundai LCD screen. Also, the computer was ordered from Lenovo's website on 1/31/08.

 

So here's a test of my T61 screen at full brightness, a Sony Trinitron screen, and an 18% gray card illuminated by a 5600ºK daylight-balanced flash tube. The T61 is on full brightness, and each screen is at 50% gray, or RGB(128,128,128).


As you can see, the T61 screen is simply way too blue.


This after dialing the brightness of the blue channel down to the absolute minimum through the Intel Graphics Properties dialog. The monitors are a bit on the green side, but at least not horrendously blue.


Final settings for the brightness offsets are Red: 0, Green: -5, Blue: -50.

-50 on a scale of -60 to 100 seems rather excessive. Of course, I'll be calling to return the T61 for an exchange -- but if the exchange is the same, I won't be a happy camper.

 

I wonder if the 15" color profile might be closer...
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=174408&page=2

 

Hi BrendaEM, thanks for the link but my issue isn't really with getting the calibration down; it's about just how miscalibrated these screens are supposed to come from Lenovo.

I'll venture a guess that my notebook is well out of tolerances, but I've been hearing an awful lot of talk of blue color casts in the Lenovo / IBM forum. As I asked before, shouldn't this be addressed at the manufacturer's level?

 

To remixity:

Were you able to have your monitor swaped for your T61? I have the same problem and am thinking to swap the monitor out.

Thanks!

 

If it really bothers you, why don't you just adjust it? It's just a setting, not even a candidate for 'bad design'

 

You run a photography business on your laptop and you don't even own a calibrator? I think perhaps I've found the 'bad design'

 

Granted "bad design" is a poor choice of words. It most definitely is poor attention to detail. If I were to build a business manufacturing and selling computer systems, I would be very worried about units leaving the factory needing such extreme color calibrations. A notebook monitor should be calibrated to suit, at the very least, the typical consumer, which by the pictures posted, is not the case here.

To the OP, you should definitely return the system if you're not happy with the fact that you had to do your own tweaking to make the system suitable. Just be prepared for the restock fee, you most likely won't get past that...unfortunately.

 

I would rather pay less and have my system come with a screen that is easily fixed by calibration than pay more for something that I can do. I would also venture that the vast majority of customers do not notice this issue.

 

I was unaware that the T61 costs less than comparable notebooks. When I shopped for mine (approx. 2 months ago), the T61 fell in line with similarly speced HP's, Dell's, and Toshiba's.

I would have also assumed that most consumers wouldn't notice the issue, until I saw the pictures. Of course it's possible that the OP got an exceptional unit.

 

Exactly, Thinkpads used to cost much more now they're in line with consumer laptops. They used to be like 2-3 thousand each.

 

Does anyone use the Monitor Calibration Wizard software? I've been trying to monitor my Samsung LCD's blue tinting issues with this and I'm always looking for better solutions.

 

My samsung 226bw 22" LCD for my desktop was blue too I had to adjust it down. Had to adjust my laptop LCD too I used natural colour that came with my samsung monitor and it worked great. But for photography thinkpads were never known for the best LCDs either but for everything else they are fine even looking at photos. If it's too blue it might be better to get a sony or fuitsu they are known for having better screens if it's that big a deal to you.

 

I sent my brand new T61 to lenovo technical support for fixing the blue-tint problem as OP has, but the Lenovo support people told me they don't see any blue tint problem, which surprised me a lot. If there was no blue tint on the screen, why would I bother sending the beloved brand new laptop? I wonder if there is any good LCD color calibration software for fixing my problem.

My T61 has 14'' wxga+ LCD.

I feel kind of bad choosing Lenovo.

 

No, the WSGA+ displays are WAY blue.
There is color corrections thread and icc profile, and a software loader elsewhere on this forum.

 

I guess you meant to say the w xga+ displays, particularly samsung's? Not for LG, right?

 

Guys,

Stay on topic...some posts have been deleted.

-kdawgca
NBR Mod