To x220 and x230 users with LP125WH2 SLB1-SLB3 screen. Please, report about quality of the screen.

Hi there!

There is a new, the third generation of IPS screens that marked as LP125WH2 SLB1-SLB3 (0A66702 (FRU 04W3919)), if anybody uses it, please, report. How is it? Is it somehow better than the previous generations? I'm interested in everything! Ghosting, blacklit, colors etc. One word - QUALITY, with comparsion to old generations.

Thanks in advance

 

how do you check?

 

You could probably use Everest. Call me a skeptic, but I doubt the screen is markedly better or worse. I have the original screen in my X220i and I have yet to see any ghosting in almost two years.

 

By opening it

 

Hehe. no can do my friend. Way too much work.

 

I've made a mistake it is not LP125WH2 SLB1-SLB3 but LP125WH2 (SL)(B3). You can try to check if you have that screen with AIDA 64. Please, report about the quality. Thanks.

 

ive got a new x230t with a LP125WH2-SLB3

 

No ghosting on my X220.

 

What about ghosting? Colors? Do you see any waves on grey background? Try out online test for displays ( Single-page version), What about personal feeling compare to the display of previous revision? Thanks in advance

 

Commence wet blanket, lol..

 

I have an SLB1. Brightness is around 250 nits, colors are horrid (67% sRGB), viewing angles are good but not perfect (shift in contrast, brightness, colors and color temperature), some backlight bleeding across the bottom of the screen, ghosting around the corners. The Inverter can get quite warm as well.

I really doubt the SLB3 will make that much of a difference. It's not so much the SLB (add number) version, there are a few SLB1 versions out there, some of them without ghosting and backlight bleeding.

 

So it's luck of the draw? I've had two screens so far and both experienced ghosting (had to get it replaced because of a drop, good thing for accidental damage warranty). Managed to mess up my keyboard while being overvigorous in getting it out so I'm gonna call them about that, and was wondering if it was worth looking into getting the screen replaced too. In my experience the onsite guys need to wait for parts to come in though, and I dunno if it's worth the wait if it's essentially luck of the draw.

FWIW: I have the LP125WH2 SLB1, and it definitely suffers from ghosting. It doesn't bother me much but I dislike the fact that I bought a slightly defective product on principle :/

 

The SLB2 has no screw mounts, so you will have a loose panel in your X220. I don't know anything about the SLB3. From what I've heard, it will be nearly impossible to find a flawless panel. It just pure luck. That said, I don't see any reason to change anyway. Not like you're even gonna see the backlight bleeding and ghosting.

 

Please describe what you mean/experience with "ghosting", thanks.

BTW from your sig, you clearly like small laptops.

Do you have a clear favorite between ThinkPad 12.5", and older Asus 11.1" or Fujitsu 10.6"???

re the SLB1 screen, me too (verified by free HWiNFO64 program), and I'm happy to say that it is rather good, even compared to my T530 w/ it's excellent 15.6" FHD screen.

I thought my refurb X220 (from Lenovo's Outlet store) was recent given that I thought it's 4286 model number was/is recent. I'd have thought having a SLB1 screen to be only found on an older X220. Can you provide any insight on this?

Edit: other info Date of manufacture: Week: 0, Year: 2010 and Monitor hardware ID: LEN40E2

Anyway I just pulled up the rather nice color chart at: Single-page version

And to my pleasant surprise it looks within a whisker as good on my X220 as it does on my T530.

How do you know what you state above? i.e. the "nits and sRGB" values that you state.

What I know is that my T530 15.6"FHD screen looks slightly better than my X220, as I said before (above).

You mean that there was a fair amount of quality variance from one SLB1 screen to another???

Based on what you've seen of posting by those (like me) who have a good SLB1 screen?

 

All initial X220 IPS screens had ghosting and backlight bleeding. (or rather pretty much all of them, I'm sure there were some exceptions) People started complaining. Lenovo offered to exchange screens that were affected. The display they used was probably a newer revision of the SLB1. The SLB2 never shipped with any X220 or X230 as far as I know. There are merely SLB1's out there, all with different revisions. I'm not 100% certain about this whole thing, it is rather confusing, but I know for sure that the SLB2 is not a better SLB1. Like I said, the SLB2 does not even have mounts for screws. I know a guy over at the German ThinkPad Forum who has an SLB2 in his X220i and it is no different from the SLB1 he has. (apart from the fact that the panel is loose because it's not even mounted anywhere)

Nits = the brightness of the screen. It can be determined with a colorimeter. Same thing applies to the color gamut. Any colorimeter can measure the amount of colors a panel can reproduce. There are different standards a display can reach. This also decides how good colors look. Anything under sRGB is typical low end notebook TN. Sadly, the X220 IPS only has 67% sRGB, so colors look horrid. The T530 FHD display actually achieves nearly 100% AdobeRGB (which includes sRGB), thereby making it the second best laptop display on the market when comparing colors.

 

I ordered my X220i the first day and have no ghosting issues at all. There is a bit of backlight bleed, but I usually only see it when the screen is black.

 

If there is backlight bleeding there should be ghosting as well. It's like the screen door effect. Only picky people see it.

 

I have ordered and installed a 0A66702 (04w3919). Its a great screen, no ghosting, no white spots or backlight bleeding.

I actually ordered an 04W3462 ("2nd gen"), I was not aware there was an "3rd gen" untill the screen was delivered and I saw the different FRU.
Tecnically not what I ordered, but since its a newer revision I'll make the assumption its equal or better then the previous one and wont complain

Seller: Lenovo ThinkPad X220 FRU 04W3462 IPS 12.5" LCD DISPLAY BILDSCHIRM HD LED | eBay

 

I have x230 with LP125WH2 SLB3 screen and I absolutely love it. I guess there is some ghosting, but it doesn't bother me. What I especially like is the contrast and white balance.
The weird problem I have now, and this is the reason I'm posting this message, I cannot find decent 22"-24" monitor which would be even remote match to my x230 on picture quality. This laptop is my working machine, I do some coding, work with texts, worksheets. Sometimes I need bigger screen but all larger IPS monitors which I saw are not even close to the LP125WH2 SLB3 when it comes to comfort for eyes and I think i's because of contrast. I tried 23EA63V-P, U2412M and VS24AH-P and they are all lame compared to x230 display, there were problems with white balance on first two (could be defective though). They also make my eyes hurt. Sadly enough, I didn't have this problem until I bought x230. Now working on VS24AH-P but thinking of returning it too. Maybe I need to look at other technology, something like PVC display? Thanks.

 

I've never had any significant issue with the SLB1 in my X220. It's an early near initial release build too. No ghosting, uniformity is good, no unordinary (for IPS) light bleed, etc. I can notice some minor short lived image retention during reboots and stuff every now and then though. I also have used a colorimeter (i1 display pro) on it simply due to having the hardware for my desktop. This was just to get a good profile to use in windows to keep things relatively accurate, and not done regularly since I'm not doing critical photo work or anything on the laptop. Therefore it's been probably over a year since the last time the meter has touched the x220's screen, so I don't remember the specs it came up with off the top of my head. I do know the color range isn't as bad as mentioned above, and I think the brightness wasn't that low either but I'm not sure there. It's certainly no high end top notch display, but it isn't terrible for what it is. Certainly better then having a TN display.

1 thing that may make a difference however, is I do NOT use the Lenovo supplied graphic drivers. I use the generic ones from intel. The Lenovo supplied drivers are always WAY dim comparison, as well as leaving a generally lacking picture. I don't know if power conservation is behind that in the Lenovo drivers, but I cant think of any other reason for that phenomena.