Z60M quandary

All right. Just got my Z60 M yesterday. I ordered the one offered during the American Express deal. At the time, some sources said the screen was WXGA, and some said WSXGA. Given the other models available, I assumed it was WSXGA - that the others were typos. As it turns out, the one I received does have the WXGA Maxbright screen. Three things:

1) I know people have wanted to know more about these screens, but I don't have enough experience with laptop screens to say anything extremely meaningful except for the following: I haven't used it much, and I haven't played around with settings or even done a side-by-side comparison, but my impression is that it is as bright as the Dell Ultrasharp I use for my desktop.

2) Am I the only one that found this? I'm actually abit embarrassed to ask, but ... oh well.

3) I also took advantage of the one-day EPP deal (which got me a better price than EPP, if I remember correctly). In addition to being significantly less expensive (not deal-breakingly less, but less), I configured it with the Atheros card, rather than the Intel. Since I do prefer WXGA over WSXGA (and it does have the titanium cover and X600 video card), and I don't think I want to blow the money required to replace the card, how much trouble do the Intel cards actually create?

Best,
Howie

 

I've never had trouble with an Intel card in a ThinkPad. However, if you go to the wireless section of the forums and look up stuff on the 2200 Intel card you'll hear some disaster stories ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=11402), but most do not have problems.

Just to be clear though, you're thinking of returning the model you have for a different one? Not exactly sure on that point.

 

Ah. Sorry about that. I've already got one on order and am inclined to cancel the order. I should probably do so within the next ... eh ... four days. I'm also considering returning this one, cancelling the other, and dropping to a smaller screen. In the meantime, the one I got is pretty sweet. The card is the 2915, though I don't expect to run into too many A networks.

In your (abaxter) review of the Z60M, you mentioned that the 9-cell battery wobbles, and you're right. Does anyone know if the 6-cell battery does, too?

Thanks,
Howie

 

HMLintz, as long as you don't return this laptop, allow me to ask you some questions on the screen (I was one of the people anxious to know things about it). I asked on thinkpads.com, got some answers, but perhaps you can reiterate, if you don't mind the minimum trouble.

I'll just copy-paste my question from Thinkpads.com:

1) How is the brightness really? If possible to compare to other Thinkpad screens (like the Z-series non-Maxbright or the T-series Flexview/non-Flexview) - even better.

2) How is the screen for outdoor working?

3) Perhaps most important - what type of panel is it? TN/IPS/VA? There is an easy way to determine it, here's how:

Look at the screen at VERY large VERTICAL angles. If the color gets distorted (dark from below, bright from above) - it's a TN. If not - it's one of the others. In which case you do:

In a dark environment, load up a totally black image (fullscreen commandline prompt will do) and look at the display from large HORIZONTAL angles. If the black gets a purple shade, it's IPS - otherwise it's VA.

 

Dr_st,
1) To be honest, I have no idea what the other IBM/Lenovo screens are like in normal use.

2) It's been a bit overcast here for a few days, but I imagine it should be fine. I wouldn't use it outdoors, personally, since my academic buildings are located in a fairly urban area, with my department actually plopped into the same building as part of the state's court system, if I understand correctly. Between that and the absence of power outlets, I'll be keeping mine an indoor pet.

3) TN. While you didn't ask this, the usable viewing angles are far greater than I can ever imagine needing for a laptop.

I will say this: It's noticably brighter than my desktop monitor, which has received a fair share of praise. The Z60M's uniformity is good. I don't know what goes into the construction of monitors - specifically what methods are used for keeping various components attached. However, the light leakage, which seems to be a problem with many computers, is imperceptible during use and really only noticable when specifically looking for it while the screen is powered on but black (e.g. during a preview of the "Blank" screensaver).

I don't have much to judge color or image quality by. I'm only now realizing that the color on my desktop monitor is off. The only DVDs I have are The Family Guy and W ings of Desire (a black-and-white German film, but the playback is sharp enough. For a better idea of colors, I'm testing out some images from gamewallpapers.com (you can get a few freebies a day) and deviantart.com. For image quality, I'm testing with the first two. For accuracy of humor depiction, I'm using the third (warning, "bad" but inoffensive language use). Check and check!

For those of you too young to recognize the characters in the third image ... I'm sorry for what the gaming industry has denied you.

Hope that helps a little,
Howie

 

Thanks for the detailed explanation!