recent flexview buyers

Just wanted to check in with the rest of you who took advantage of the recent flexview coupons, because I know some were less than impressed with the display they got. In fact, I think chadwick and unhooked are both returning theirs (in part) because it's not bright enough.

Only reason I bought it (aside from $250 coupon making it even cheaper than the TN xga panel) was to guarantee getting an LG display. Knew it would solve the viewing angle and light leakage problems my t 61's samsung had, because no similar problems with my old (nonflexview) LG.

Solved those issues of course (no sheen at borders of display, uniformly lit, don't have to continually adjust it when the display's position changes relative to my eyes, no arc of white at the bottom etc), but now that I have been using it a while, I am loving the other advantages. Aside from the initial novelty of comparing huge nature photos (which I'd never really look at otherwise), even day to day stuff looks different on this thing. I keep finding myself thinking wow this website looks different, when before certain graphics just looked like shades of the same color, now subtle color differences leap out at you. Hard to describe, but it's awesome. Looked much better than I expected from looking at the comparison pics over in the thinkpads forum. Even better than my previous favorite display, vaio xbrite (glossy, but no glare somehow), and ompared to my old thinkpad's wsxga+, a "Maxbright" LG, this one's not as bright, and I wouldn't even say it has much better viewing angles (you could also look at the maxbright from any angle and it wasn't a problem)- but there is a definitive upgrade with display quality. Never knew I'd like it as much in that respect to even care, just thought I was solving a problem.

Hopefully when it's time to buy again either new technology will have replaced it, or at least IPS displays get more common, because I'll get spoiled to this for sure. But apparently the above didn't impress some of you guys as much, those who returned it (and/or just didn't make up for the other liabilities of the 15" t60 like size, weight, older technology, plastic lid with no roll cage). THat I can understand.

But for me, this one's a keeper. I'll just have to be careful with the lid, and invest in some proper brain cell or waterfield in-backpack protection. I think the reason my current thinkpad's screen went out is because I just tossed it in my backpack with a cheap neoprene sleeve.

Anyways, other recent flexview buyers chime in. Impressed, satisfied, unimpressed, or going back to lenovo?

 

Great thread.
Just to make it clear.
I'm returning my FlexView because of the total lack of white colors due to dimness.
It took me a couple of trips to the local BestBuy to realize how bad my Flexview is.
Absence of the roll cage in the lid, weight and older tech are all non-issues to me.

 

Yeah, prospective buyers of flexview should be advised- it's not as bright as most consumer notebooks with glossy displays found in best buy/circuit city and the like. Maybe if one were coming from other matte thinkpad displays, like me (lg wsxga+ and samsung wxga+), they'd probably not even notice a brightness difference, just the improved quality. In fact I've owned examples of vaios with both xbrite-eco (1 lamp) and xbrite (2 lamps)- this one's not as bright as either of those, but the tradeoff in that regard for the improved quality has been worth it to me... then again I don't have problems with whites not even being white(!), which I agree is huge problem. So nothing looks white at all? Probably too much of a risk to have them look at it huh? Because that round trip would likely take you past your 21 day point of no return. I'd be getting my money back too.

Some of hoya's comparison photos of the LG Flexview are what sold me. And now that I have it, even those don't do it justice (maybe because I was looking at pictures of a flexview... not on a flexview lol). BTW unhooked- while those comparisons themselves are no longer relevant (since afaik lenovo is not even widely offering 4:3 t/r61's period, the pictured sxga+ samsung or otherwise), you could still scroll down and take a look at his pics of the LG Flexview displaying a pure white screen (shot at bottom center in the above link), just to see how your white looked in comparison... merely academic now of course, since you are returning/have returned it already.



15" SXGA+ LG Flexview center ( by Hoya at thinkpads.com)


I've just noticed sometimes with really bright displays, they almost blow out the colors so that everything is bright (even colors that are supposed to be dark to some degree). I think it's easier (or cheaper at least) to use brighter backlighting and gloss the finish than it is to just have a higher quality panel. Had a toshiba once that was extremely bright (would have kept it had it not been a burn and SHOCK!! hazard), but everything looked washed out on it.

Oh yeah, I'm also curious to find out if any recent flexview buyers have observed the "sparkle effect". All the complaints I can find of it are from years old posts (in fact hoya above said it was present in one of his, but the effect does not translate to photographs well). So either the few of us around here have been lucky, or perhaps LG has since remedied that problem.

 

It's so quiet around here...
Where are other FlexView owners?
In regards to the "sparkle effect".
It's present on on my FlexView but it's not excessive by any means.

 

I received my T60 flexview on Saturday. I think the screen is wonderful. I have not had some of the issues that others have experienced. My screen is very bright. I couldn't stand it the top setting...I needed to turn it down a notch. I have not noticed any sparkle effect whatsoever.

I will say, though, that they very tips of the two bottom corners of the screen display a slight dimness in color. Also a bit strange, the screen is not exactly, perfectly centered in the case housing. The left border of the screen (not the case) is a touch larger than the right. I have decided that this is not a big issue for me and if I'm not looking for it, I don't notice it.

I am quite impressed with the color reproduction. I think this is the best I've ever seen. I echo the thoughts of the first poster in that I am noticing a clarity and vibrancy to colors that I have not noticed before. The desktop just looks more alive if that makes any sense.

The viewing angles, as have been mentioned, are awesome.

It seems to me that the flexview has all the vibrancy of the glossy screens I see in BestBuy, without the awful glare and with great viewing angles.

 

I've noticed something about the screen that could be related to my main concern (lack of brightness).
I'll post pictures later tonight.

 

Hi,

I will say this - I'm running the T60 for the first time on my 6 cell battery and the screen is dimmer. Not too dim for my tastes, but noticably dimmer. It's brighter when plugged in to an outlet... thought this might be interesting.

 

Power Manager --> Power Plan tab --> New --> System Settings --> Display Brightness --> Level7 for Battery Settings --> next --> Lower display brightness --> Never

 

I think it will still a dim even if you set it in power settings, you have to go into the bios and change that setting. At least thats how it is on my T60p Widescreen

 

Yep, I went into the settings as unhooked described and found that the Thinkpad default settings were already set as unhooked described. IMaybe tomorrow I'll take a look at the bios settings...

thanks.

 

You would have to take my Flexview from my cold dead hands.

 

I enjoyed the flexview the two weeks I used it, but it wasn't worth the negatives I had in my mind. It would have been a much tougher decision for me if it was UXGA, but those are no longer offered.

Brightness -- Mine was okay as long as you were in the house, but if I got near a window or any bright fluorescent light it was hard on the eyes!

Thickness -- For some reason the extra 0.2" bothered me more than I thought it would. It just felt like a "beast."

Heat -- It generated enough heat to get annoying when running it on my lap even just running casual programs. This bothered me because my old T60wide never got uncomfortably warm.

Resolution -- I missed the extra pixels after coming from my WSXGA+. Like I said earlier, if it was UXGA, I'd probably be keeping it.

Flexview -- Color was amazing, viewing angles killed my Samsung WSXGA+ panel, great eye candy. But if I just get a decent LG WSXGA+, for me that would be enough. I would rather not have somebody sitting across the classroom watching my every move during class. However, if my T61 15.4 comes with another Samsung WSXGA+ and it looks as bad as my T60 did, I'm not sure what I'll do.

Price -- The machine was a little over priced IMO. To pay a little more than some technology that just came out with the T61 (Wireless USB, Memory Card Reader, Santa Rosa, Quadro 140m, Cooler, Firewire) just bugged me. It depreciates so fast anyway, why do I want something that came out a year or so ago and pay more for it. Now if I needed flexview, then that would be worth it, but not for me.

Speaker Placement -- I didn't care for it. It was sometime muffled when the machine was on my lap. I webcam w/ family so this was annoying.

However I am being extremely picky here, I'm just listing my opinions. All of these things were not deal breakers, just things that added up together to cause me to question if I was really going to keep the machine. I was having doubts about it, so I returned it. Different strokes for different folks

Hope this is helpful...

 

Chadwick, just a head's up on your incoming t 61 15.4"- it will be just as thick as the 15.0" t 60 you just returned.

15.0" t 60: 13.2" x 10.6" x 1.2 - 1.4"
15.4" t 61: 14.1" x 10.0" x 1.2 - 1.4"
ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pcinstitute/psref/tabook.pdf

 

Same here.

 

Thanks for the tip Leon, I didn't realize that. I figured it was the same size as the T60s...

 

That was probably because the ATI GPU was not properly assembled in regards to the heatsink etc. It wasn't an uncommon issue unfortunately. Has nothing to do with the FlexView LCD.

And you're even more likely to get an overheating NVIDEA in your T61, as the assembly of these seee worse... our defect/incident rates on the T61 are by far the highest of any thinkpad ever. Adding more venting in the design isn't helpful if the assembly is poor.

 

Yes, by volume they're nearly identical although the 15" sports a whole 9 cm-squared bigger screen than the 15.4" (697 vs 688).

Also the X1400 is better for gaming than the NVS 140M. Though the IPS still has a much slower refresh rate.

 

I took a few pics of my FlexView with an old POS Dell Latitude and then with the not much newer Dell Desktop monitor, both under the bright fluorescent light conditions.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y12/vadp/IMG_0784.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y12/vadp/IMG_0786.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y12/vadp/IMG_0787.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y12/vadp/IMG_0788.jpg

Next to another desktop monitor, with no artificial ligtning:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y12/vadp/IMG_0746.jpg

Screen uniformity:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y12/vadp/IMG_0760.jpg

 

Curious it doesn't show up in the first four photos, but either way you don't like it and that's all that matters. So have you called in for an RMA and sent it off already? Hopefully no 15% for you guys. I was lucky to get out of it when I sent back my t 61 (actually felt lucky to get my money back at ALL from them).

Hopefully this refresh rate only affects games and movies, because I only got the x1300. In fact would have gone integrated had the flexview option not required dedicated graphics. Though might be why no heat issue with mine- skimped all the way around with 5400, 1.66, x1300 (obviously why it was under a grand anyways). And yeah, it's weird that a 15. 0 has slightly larger display area than a 15. 4, but the closer you get to a square, closer you get to maximizing area.

 

I haven't called yet.
Curious how you were able to get your full amount back without being a subject to 15%...

 

Definitely. In fact, it turns out I was lucky to get my money back PERIOD, after they held my funds for a month (wised up and used amex instead of debit for flexview order). Ultimately had to get the East North Carolina BBB involved (within a day of filing that complaint I had "executive relations" calling me directly, within two my money back). But bottom line it was their mistake for ever even shipping it, since I cancelled two days after I ordered (which she admitted showed in their system but had no explanation why it shipped).

You might still be able to get out of it. Maybe if there was some sort of a "discrepancy" with your order (I wouldn't even mention complaints of display quality or they'll either want to have it looked at for possible service or else charge you for return), or something a rep told you on the phone. But it's definitely possible- I recommend getting to a supervisor right away. They are much more helpful.

But since you haven't called yet, have you not decided for certain?

 

I have one day left before my 21 day period is over.
Yes, I'm not 100% sure yet.

 

unhooked did you keep it?

 

No, I did not. :cry:

 

Did you reorder something?

 

Nope. Will wait and see how the LED backlighted screens turn out.

 

Wise decision. Probably never would have been satisfied had you kept it.

I noticed in another thread you commented on best buy's t 60 15.4" (wsxga+) and how dim it looked vs others on the shelf. I think to a certain extent matte is going to look somewhat less bright than glossy even with the same backlight, just because different finishes break up the light differntly. It's entirely possible no other thinkpad will be quite bright enough for you, because the brightest (save the old 300 nits Z maxbrights) will also top out at 200nits.

If you want the brightest display possible but dislike glossy, have you considered a mbp? Has a matte option that's 300 nits, and you get the LED backlight you're waiting for. Also consider the 300 nits x-brites (non "eco"). They somehow have zero reflection problems on dark screens like most glossies. And dell's 1330 is glossy, but again you get your led and 330 nits which is insane on a 13.3. I bet that would satiate your brightness jones.

Other options for the brightest displays but still with matte finish are the "field" type notebooks like toughbooks and latitude's ATG- designed for outdoors viewing so they're super bright (like 500 to 1000+ nits). Just kind of big and heavy. And expensive.