X220 IPS Screen

I have never seen an IPS screen. From the Youtube videos, they have a great viewing angle but how are they in terms of brightness and color display?

Also, I see that Thinkpad is not offering a higher resolution like 1600x900 or 1980x1200. Somehow I am glad about this as I can't imagine enjoying reading / browsing without upscaling or zooming everything on a 12.5" screen. Thoughts?

 

You don't have any friends or family members that use iphone or ipad?

 

Yeah, I found that out. This was a good read: NOVA Display vs Super AMOLED Plus vs Retina Display vs IPS LCD - Phone Arena

Sounds pretty nice.

 

that title is illogical, Retina display is just IPS with smaller pixels.

 

Correct. The iPhone 4 is "Retina" and IPS while the iPod touch 4th Gen is "Retina" only so a good comparison between IPS and non-IPS (skip to 4:18):

YouTube - ‪Apple iPod touch 4th Gen vs iPhone 4 vs 2nd Gen iPod touch‬‏

I don't think the IPS display for the X220 is all that great but for $50 I would definitely get it over the non-IPS version. It's still going to be noticeably better.

 

Yeah its not as great compared to the ultrasharps I use at work. Even the viewing angles aren't quite as good. However, its still by far the best laptop screen I've ever used and even bests my 24" Dell TN panel by a good margin (both viewing angles and color reproduction).

 

You're starting to mellow

 

Although the screen might not be the creme of the crop of IPS screen, it still beat any TN panel. One major fault people are complaining about is light-leakage, a couple are complaining about ghosting which could be because of faulty screen. Despite the fault, it is still one of the best screens you could get on a notebook.

 

If color accuracy is important to you, and you are well versed with color management and calibration, you will never happy with a TN screen no matter what resolution, hence go for the IPS. A properly calibrated IPS screen is worth every penny. A poorly calibrated IPS screen is another story.

 

Can you recommend an easy calibrator?

 

The X220 IPS screen isn't 120% gamut or anything, you don't need to calibrate it to enjoy it during everyday usage.

 

here's a simple solution for non-graphics/photo pros: http://forum.notebookreview.com/len...st-your-thinkpad-display-fix-windows-7-a.html

either that or play with the individual RGB settings in the intel display control panel.

i've not seen any significant reason to hardware calibrate an X220 IPS panel.   it's still only 6-bit and not intended for serious graphics/photo work (and not advertised as such, either).   it certainly works but isn't anywhere near what one gets with an external 8- or 10-bit graphics display.   if for some reason the X220 panel has a color cast, one of the above suggestions will fix it quite easily with no out-of-pocket expense.

 

even for us graphics pros. no the X220's 6 bit panel cant come close to my 10 bit IPS elitebook nor my good external screens its still a great screen for its use. I agree with Erik follow that link and you should be good to go.

as for harware calibrating .... it is fun to hook the Spyder pro to but no it wont calibrate like a much higher end screen

 

Thanks, both!

 

x-rite i1display2

 

The X220's IPS panel is 8-bit

The QXGA IPS in my T42p is 6-bit

 

im going to have to pull the screen ID off of my X220, for some odd reason I thought it was only 6, but I could quite possibly be incorrect.

the old T42 had an IPS panel?, I wish I would have known that a few years ago.

 

The 15-inch versions of the T42 and T42p had SXGA+ and UXGA IPS panels, and QXGA is possible through a mod. They're all IPS panels made by a now-defunct company called IDTech (A<b screw auto-replace>[/B]FAIK)

 

Most of the older models had IPS / Flexview display options. At least my T4x series and T6x series had them, and I've used them exclusively. It was when they went to the 400/500 series that they no longer offered them.

You'll still find old T60P's going for a premium if they have the Flexview display. Like mine, I upgraded the wlan card to 802.11n, upgraded the CPU to Core 2 and upgraded the ram and SSD drive. It's just as fast as more current models but has a really, really nice 1600x1200 display

 

my T60 was AFFS not IPS

 

got any hard evidence of that?   99.9% of notebook displays are 6-bit so i'd love to see something definitively proving this panel can exceed 262,000 colors at the hardware level.

heck, i'm still waiting for someone to prove that the HP dreamcolor panels are 10-bit at the hardware level and not 6-bit with hardware interpolation via the large chipset strapped to the back of the 6-bit LG panel they're using (according to the decal on the display anyway).

 

no hard proof, I just recall someone mentioning that "The X220 IPS panel can run on integrated graphics because it's 8-bit rather than 10-bit" (Of course this doesn't imply 6-bit panels don't run on integrated graphics too, it's just where I'm getting the info from)

 

unfortunately whoever originally made that statement (and assumption) was patently incorrect.   a GPU doesn't care whether the hardware it's connected to is monochrome, grayscale, or 6-bit, 8-bit, or 10-bit color.   even the venerable 95% NTSC gamut FHD display in the W510/W520 is 6-bit despite being able to display a lot of colors via a discreet GPU.

i've never seen anything official pointing toward the LG LP125WH2-SLB1 being anything other than 6-bit at a maximum of 262,000 colors.   if it were 8-bit at the hardware level then it would easily cost 4X more.   it's inexpensive for a reason.

the only safe assumption to make is that notebooks use 6-bit panels unless explicitly proven by both panel manufacturer datasheets and hardware analysis.   i'd rather assume this number is 100% but wouldn't doubt that someone out there finally has a true 8-bit panel.

 

I would have to locate the posts in the old Aiimox 8740W review showing information that no current IGP's could drive a 10 bit display. and even a few discreet mobile GPU's could not. it was a large issue back when my 8740W was first released. as HP had wanted to put in some form of graphics switching with the IGP and a Quadro card but the Intel IGP was unusable at 10 bit and had to be left in a corner disabled and the FirePro/Quadro had to be setup with its own MUX.

since the refreshed 8760W does not support the SB IGP I would assume it may still hold true.

 

physically being able to drive 10-bit and caring whether or not the physical panel is 10-bit at the hardware level are two different issues though.

you could connect an nvidia quadro 6000 to a monochrome display and it wouldn't care.   it might secretly laugh inside and post snarky messages about you on the internet but overall it wouldn't care.

an intel IGP not being able to drive 10-bit is a different issue entirely.   in fact, that wouldn't surprise me one bit (or even 10 bits).

 

I use the X-Rite i1Display

 

Some users complain of image retention on the X220:
Faint Ghosting on X220 IPS screen - Lenovo Community

 

Really? Measured how? My new ThinkPad X220 with Core i7-2620M is roughly 3x on video transcoding as compared to my ThinkPad T61p with Core 2 Duo T9300.

FWIW, I do not have a ghosting (or light leakage) issue on my ThinkPad X220 with IPS screen.

 

How does one find out the bit number of screens?

Corollary: how do we *know* that the Thinkpad 520 series uses 6-bit FHD screens?? ---> this is what I really want to know.


I have heard that the current HP and Dell IPS screens are 10-bit (real or interpolated, I don't know, but you can't run Optimus with them, I do know).

Also I've heard that there are some 8-bit panels on some laptops. But _how to find out for sure_????

I suppose one would start by finding the part number/manufacturer of the screen, then look up (somewhere) the data on that screen. But where??

 

Dump the EDID (or disassemble the machine) to get the panel's model info. Then go find the datasheet for that panel. (That last part can be tricky, possibly impossible.)

 

The IPS screen covers about 67% of sRGB color space and "circa 562000 possible colors " per notebookcheck:

Review Lenovo ThinkPad X220 (IPS) Subnotebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

 

I posted this a few times. Here is the 2d view, as measured by my i1display2.

Personally, i think the gamut is a big let down. However, I think the gamma tracking, and contrast are pretty solid.

 

Colours seem a bit more vivid with Intels latest driver, 2361, but I'm probably just imagining it -)

 

All in all, I think Lenovo made the right choice.

The X220 matte IPS screen compared to a "normal laptop screen" gives you:

Better contrast, viewing angles, brightness, outdoor usability and color accuracy. These are all usable features for a 12.5" laptop, and for a minimal price bump.

There are better screens that give wider color gamuts and higher resolution- but IMO those benefits are more important on a larger screen- and probably would not be all that useful with such a small screen. But maybe I am wrong.

Which applications take best advantage of a better color gamut- and are those the types of applications that are well suited for a 12.5" screen?

 

Here's what Lenovo says on their forums:

IPS - there is a tip pending release which explains IPS vs TN functionality of the panel and why image persistence can occur. Lenovo engineering believes this normal functionality for this panel.

 

Wow, that sucks!

 

. . . Lenovo engineering believes this normal functionality for this panel.

Please note emphases.

(1) Real engineers know for a fact, not believe. (2) Such quirky behavior applies to this panel only, not all IPS panels.

 

Such quirky behavior also applies to the IPS panel in a television that I recently purchased. Just saying...