HEL80 WSXGA+ uses the new Prism LCD technology!

Now, for some really great news. The HEL80 WSXGA+ screen is the Samsung model LTN154P1-L02. This Samsung LCD uses the new Prism technology. In summary, the technology is called LGP Prism and it projects light from the outside toward the center allowing for even display brightness compared to standard screens which project from the middle out. Essentially this is like comparing Trintron technology to grid technology on old CRT monitors. Even though they both have the same resolution, the picture quality is much different.

Also, here are the official specs for the Samsung model LTN154P1-L02 that is the WSXGA+ screen (1680x1050 16:10 Aspect ratio) on the HEL80.

Brightness - 185 cd/m2 (nits)
Contrast ratio - 300-500
Viewing angles - 130 degrees horizontal/100 degrees vertical
Response time - 25ms

 

Wow, you had to do that to me.
Wednesday can't come any faster!

 

That's cool but only 185 nits?

 

You can't compare nits with the new Prism technology to LCDs without it. The point is with Prism technology you don't need the same nits number that you would with other LCDs to get the same perceived brightness.

See Sindisil's post at http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=1460889&postcount=17

 

argh, is it really worth the 100bux to upgrade???

 

im going to be gaming, and be using this computer in college for computer engineering. should i upgrade to the better screen? also how hard is upgrading the hard drive on the hel80? if I wanted to buy a bigger hard drive later how much would that run?

 

For gaming and computer engineering I would definitely recommend the higher resolution WSXGA+ screen.

If you will look at the picture that is 2nd from the bottom you will see how easy it is to replace your hard drive.

It is kind of hard to quote what a "bigger" hard drive would cost, but you can see the current pricing of SATA hard drives in our Accessories Store.

 

so pretty much to install the new hard drive i just stick it in, and install a new os right? what about the bios is that on the old hard drive? i have no clue what im doing.

 

BIOS is not on the HDD, so all you have to do is pull one out and put the bigger one in. Then install OS and drivers, then do Windows update, then install whatever software you are going to use.

No clue? Well, that is what our 24/7 Customer Service is there for. Give them a call if you have any issues and they will work them out with you. Stay with them until you get all of your issues resolved.

 

i'm guessing that compal puts the same WSXGA+ screen on all of the HEL80s, so why does discountlaptops.com show this option as glossy?

 

I dont know why they have it as glossy (most likely a typo), you can see by our review that is clearly not a glossy finish.

 

Well, the WXGA display is glossy, is it not? Perhaps that is the confusion.

 

Thats right The WXGA is Glossy and the WSXGA is not. I think DL labeling it as a glossy WSXGA was a typo.

 

So wait, have thse LTN screens been shipping with 'prism' technology all along since the HEL80 wsxga+ was first released or is it something that they have changed recnetly with the more recent shipments of HEL80? I havent found any mention of the acers with 'prism technology' that have the same exact model number for their screen.

 

Yes, all of the HEL80s with WSXGA+ have shipped with the new Prism screens.

It is a bit of a puzzle to me as well because we have not had a single complaint about the screen. We HAVE had people say that they are very happy with the screen and find it exceptional.

Now, Acers are not necessarily known as the quality capital of the world, so I don't really know what to think about these complaints...but we certainly are not getting them.

 

The WSXGA+ screen is fantastic on the HEL80 - viewing angles are the best I have seen, vertical especially.

I owned an Acer before; their displays leave something to be desired. The matte screen on my TravelMate was abysmal. The Compal's is not even comparable to it.

 

Thanks for the feedback. I'm still not sure I can go back up to that size machine from my current T41, but your comments, as well as the value for the money the HEL80 represents, sure push me in that direction!

 

hmm 25ms is that normal? because that's a horrible response time

 

Good luck finding a laptop with a faster response time. In fact, some IPS screens have more like a 50ms response time (exception being IBM FlexView at 30ms).

25ms is the norm in the notebook world.

 

I believe Asus S96j has 16ms which is fresh in alot of our minds right now. thats what i have been thinking to.

 

How has the 16ms been confirmed on the S97J?

I agree with Sindisil, 25ms is below normal actually, only the better laptop LCDs will be that low. If indeed the S96J has 16ms that will be the absolute best ever seen on a laptop.

 

I have to say the WSXGA+ screen on the HEL80 is a wonderful screen. If you are thinking about this particular laptop, let me assure you that you will not be disappointed by the screen or any other part of it for that matter.

 

25 is very normal, infact you won't get anything below 25ms in notebooks under 15.4", they are all 25 or worse, 28 (like in the Sony SZ and Asus W7).

As a gamer and some one who translates old school console games for the PC.. even at 8ms on a regular LCD screen, I can still see ghosting. I prefer CRT still yet.

 

hmm if that's the case , what good are gaming laptops ? if you're going to have a responose time like lcds from 5 years ago with ghosting and stuff how can you play with them?

 

The ghosting is not as bad as it is made out to be. Personally, I have been a notebook gamer for a long time; the response time hasn't bothered me. Of course, I notice a difference between my deskop 8ms display and the HEL80's, but in reality, it does not make much of a difference. The ghosting is slight and can cover up some choppiness.

 

depends on the person. Like in Chaz's example, he doesn't mind. But me personally, if I was going to do hardcore gaming.. nothing beats a Desktop with a CRT monitor.

 

I've gamed on the HEL80 and didn't notice any ghosting if that helps.

 

i hope mine ships by the end of this week...

 

On the topic of Ghosting, if I were to buy a tv/cable tuner for my notebook would I also have ghosting? Would it be worse than if I were playing a game? I am assuming a lot of it depends on what you are actually viewing such as a fast paced base line to base line basketball game or watching Wheel of Fortune.

 

email me at [email protected] and I will tell you when it is scheduled to ship.

 

Ghosting is simply not an issue here...you can quit worrying about it. Read some of the other threads and posts here and you will find several people saying the same thing. Just look at Chaz's post just above yours at http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=1467628&postcount=25

 

Yep, I just didn't know if there was any difference with a tv tuner. I didn't think there would be since gaming would require more video processing.

 

Now that several of you have the WSXGA+ with the Prism technology, could you report your impressions of it?

 

I love my screen. It's got light leakage at the bottom, though. I can't really notice it unless it's a black screen. Other than that, the brightness is quite even, but it's definately not overly bright. I can read text from practically any angle, which is quite impressive. The only game I play is Counter-Strike/Condition Zero and it looks beautiful with the max resolution. The huge screen area is really nice, though sometimes I have to lean in a little bit to read some small text. I've got a stuck green pixel apparently just outside the center of my screen, but all it wants is a little massage to go away.

 

My WSXGA+ matte is a beautiful screen. I myself once owned a 17" WUXGA glossy screen which was also beautiful in its own right. For glare purposes, however, I think I prefer matte.

There is a bit of light leakage at the bottom, which I think is quite standard with laptops anyway--and only visible on black screens. The picture is great, gaming is wonderful, and I love looking at the screen instead of my reflection and everything behind me . Viewing agles and brightness are great. To be honest, I don't know if I personally can tell the difference between this Prism technology and the standard as far as "light evenness" goes though :l.

One thing I will say is this: on the 17" WUXGA, when I tried to adjust resolution or image/text sizes, it didn't look very sharp--actually very poor in anything other than native. That doesn't seem to be the case. So I guess that means better scaling on this one?

 

The issue of having to use an LCD at its Native Resolution has been diminishing more and more ever since the ATi 9000.

With today's LCD screens coupled with the better video cards you will find that it is hard to notice a change in sharpness and clarity when you reduce the resolution below Native.

 

I am enjoying the screen quite a bit. Everything looks very crisp and vibrant in the right lighting conditions. I personally wish it were brighter, but i am definately not dissapointed. As i write this, i have the screen facing a day lit window and it still looks pretty good. Overall, very satisfied. I havent gamed on it yet. The light leakage hasnt bothered me, i didnt even really notice it. Compared to other matte screens i have seen on freind's laptops, this one is much nicer, though those that i have seen were cheapo options to get the absolute cheapest laptop possible. either way, i say thumbs up on the wsxga+.

 

I have only good things to say about the matte screen. I think it was well worth the extra expense. I have very middle-aged eyes, but have had no trouble reading anything for the two or three hours I have been online today. Text is nice and crisp. I watched part of a DVD Thursday night and was very satisfied with that experience as well.

 

yes, i also have to say that i am very happy that i chose WSXGA+ in terms of resolution... Now everything on my desktop LCD seems so fat and wierd at its max of 1280x1024. This just look crisper and is very gentle on the eyes.

 

That's good to know--thanks Donald. It did have me wondering about that when I worked on it.

Unfortunately for Dell, though--that's not so good news.

The 17" WUXGA was a Dell e1705 (bought this year) with a go 7800 and Truelife (glossy) display. It just didn't show internet pictures or text very sharply at any resolution. Makes me that much happier with the quality of my Compal's Samsung!

 

Hi, I'm thinking about getting an HEL80, though it'll probably be from Zepto as I'm somewhat UK-based.

I was just wondering if any objective tests of either screen (in any laptop, not just the HEL80) have been done independantly, by some like tomshardware.com. Call me old fashined, but I just like numbers.

Can you tell me exactly what the panel is?

Finally, which would you recommed for me? This'll be for uni, so it'll probably get fairly heavy "productivity" use, as well as for DVDs and other video, probably not too many games though.

Cheers for any help

 

eek just thought i'd add under here that the zepto is the glossy screen not the matte

 

I realise that, I might have to do some begging, either to Zepto for the better screen, or to PowerNotebooks.com for the shipping if i want the matte screen.

Either way, I'd like to see a independant review of either screen (or both!) by someone with the kit to measure them properly. No rush though, if the Core Duo prices are going to drop when Merom appears, I can wait until then.

 

Now that I've got a few days in, I'll weigh in with my impressions.

• There is some very slight lite leakage. More than what I see on my T41, but much less than what I see on many Dell's here at work or some of my Toshibas at home.
• The matte screen (not sure if it's cut or etched on this panel) is more noticable on this screen than on many others I've used. All matte screens have this issue to one degree or another, so this isn't necessarily a big deal, but I do notice it more on this display. It's almost unnoticable on my T41. This display is much brighter than my T41. The order of cause and effect here isn't clear to me at this time. In actual use gaming, text editing and web browsing, it fades into the background and is a non-issue. I've not done any image editing on the machine yet, so I don't know how much it will annoy me then, if at all.
• As I've mentioned elsewhere, the brightness is very good to excelent for a matte screen. Perceived uniformity of illumination is at least average. I find that, even in a fairly well lit room, I can often run at half brightness w/o eyestrain (and I'm 39 and very nearsighted, so it's not just "young eyes" talking), though I still would like about two more "steps" of brightness.
• Colors are quite vivid, especially for a matte display.
• Contrast is very good to excellent, comparing well even to some glossy panels I've compared it to. Because of the matte screen, though, sharpness suffers some and therefore perceived contrast be only good to very-good, depending upon your point of reference.

 

oh no I would say 16 ms is common in 15 inches. Im trying to compile more of the screens right on the market atm. the 17 inch in the e1705 is 16 ms, and the 15 inch in the e1505 is 16 ms, regardless of which manufacturer....

the screen on the s96j is 16 ms its model # is AUO B154EW01 (15.4'' wide


whats probably even more relevant, is that its the exact same screen in the wxga hel 80.
http://www.auo.com/auoDEV/products.php?sec=notebook&func=info&product_id=89&items_id=2

hit the3 companies that make the vbi screens home websites, then the screen sizes. i think they are auo cho and something else. thatll get you familiar with the screens that are coming out in the different models youre selling, and the ones upcoming.
worth checking samsung as well they are in some models and should be leading edge... samsung is in the clevos often.

edit last edit, the quickest response time is in the sony laptop thats extremely expensive. I think its 12 ms it might be 8 ms.


last edit its qdi. havent seen them yet.

 

remember not to be too credulous too. i've been researching buying a new lcd for my desktop, and found different websites saying the exact same model of lcd had anything from 8ms to 26ms response time, and another site i read said that there were many different ways of measuring response time, each of which would give different numbers.

 

that seems logical. I think Im having to trust the manufacturers own web site on things unseen.

I wish there was a more objective test on ghosting. Here on the site the lcd reviews from users are almost worthless as they all say it looks bright and clear or whatever. Gaming test would show the ghosting, I think the best test is actually a game with many small moving objects like battle for middle earth.

I personally used a 25 ms lcd for many years and I became used to it. I didnt notice ghosting on the 25 ms until i started using a 12 ms lcd.

On the very last edit of the post by paladin, 25 ms is slow for a laptop screen from even 5 years ago. Or what Im trying to say, is that a lcd even slower than 25 ms, that is actually truly rare. Whatever that ms is be it 30 ms or 50 ms, theres almost nothing that slow available. 25 ms is very common but slower would not be.

 

The currently shipping Lenovo FlexView screens on the T60p are 30ms, and that is a great improvement over the previous version (T43p).

I'd say that 25ms is not slow for laptops. It is average, 16ms is very good, and faster is rare, at least on laptops that are worthy of the name, and not just single piece portable computers with integrated UPS.

 

Even on 8ms LCD monitors, ghosting still exists.. not so noticeable on FPS, but on 2D games and MMORPGs, it still can't match a CRT. 25ms is still the industry standard and only a few notebook lcds are any less. the 13.3" screens Sony use are 28ms, and it gets only worse as you go smaller.

 

Ok what youd need to do then to help with that generalization is find another lcd screen thats slower than 25 ms.

When you go to previously released models there are more but actually very few even from years ago.

When you look at the list from the manufacturers of ones that are for sale right at the moment there are almost none.

whatever the time for 50 ms lcd screens was ok, and Im sure there was a time, it was so many years ago I cant find it.