Wait for 17.3" IPS screen or not?

Hi,
I am hoping to purchase an XMG U705 (Clevo P771ZM) laptop and I have been advised to hold out until the IPS panels are released. I am conscious that the IPS panels will increase the price of the laptop and I just wanted to see what peoples thoughts on this are.
I will be using the laptop for gaming.

 

I wouldn't. It's a 25ms response panel @ 60% NTSC. I'd rather have a 72% NTSC 6ms TN. As for angles, I find it VERY difficult to use a laptop at any angle other than directly in front of it. As long as the screen is matte, full sRGB and low response, I'm dandy. If it can be completely clear of any hue (blue/orange) and high contrast ratio, good enough.

It's up to you obviously.

 

You know, as Zymphad said, IPS panels absolutely suck for gaming. I am completely remiss as to why anybody would desire them primarily for a gaming machine.

If IPS panels had high refresh rates, low response times, better contrast than TN, better colours than TN and wider viewing angles than TN, we would not be creating TN panels anymore.

 

TN panels are still good, and for gaming they are preferred primarily for their response time as mentioned.
If you can wait for it to be released it wont hurt to see what the specs are.

 

Especially when the IPS display doesn't have higher gamut, brightness is the same, and contrast is not an issue on the Chi Mei. Viewing angle is moot issue. Who uses their laptop with at an angle, horizontal or vertical?

 

Not really refresh rate, but response times. 60Hz is 60Hz, but a high response time means that frames can be newly rendered while the screen has yet to change colours properly, which can result in input lag and ghosting. 25ms response time is inexcusable when 16.67ms is the frametime on a 60Hz panel. My screen is 120Hz, and has a response time of 5ms, which is properly below the 8.33ms frametime at 120Hz, so I don't really get much (if any) ghosting issues. Many of the other TN panels these laptops get are 10ms or 8ms, which is good for 60Hz or even higher if you overclock the display.

 

The chi mei panel doesn't really have great contrast. Decent but could be a lot better.

 

Opps I meant response time, edited to avoid any confusion.

 

Cheers guys. I ended up just going for the TN panel as I wanted the laptop sooner and to keep the costs down. I am sure I will be more than happy with it.
I've updated my sig to show what I went for.

 

Congrats on placing the order! Once you get it delivered, follow up with your thoughts about the TN panel as I'm sure others will be interested in what you think.

 

what is the projected release date of the IPS panel build option?

 

Yeah I'll report back as soon as I can

I was told by XMG that it would be mid to late March

 

Well I received my XMG U705 laptop and I have to say I am over the moon with it. The screen in my opinion is absolutely spot on and viewing angles are pretty good.

 

See? The TN panels don't exactly suck here. People WAY overblow the panel importance with these things... in desktop world it can be different, because IPS panels usually have a much better colour gamut as well as the wide angles... but when you're dealing with the same colour gamuts (60% and 60% or 72% and 72%), all the IPS grants is better viewing angles for the most part, and it's at the cost of terrible response times.

I'm glad you like your screen.

 

Thanks for letting us know the TN panel is good.
I think they are really good too. I think when people hear TN they just have something bad in mind automatically. Just like when they hear "matte" type screens they automatically think of quality 10yrs ago.
Congrats again!

 

You didn't get the IPS Screen in the end?

 

I added a LP173WF4-SPD1 IPS panel to my P377sm-a. Compared to the original Chi Mei TN panel it offers overclockability to 100hz and gsync support with modded drivers. The colors are more saturated with wider viewing angle. Its not perfectly compatible since hotkeys for brightness do not work. A reg key needs to be added for the brightness sliders in windows to be usable.
Strangely the TN panel had better contrast but I needed the better viewimg angles. The 100hz support and gsync are nice bonuses.

 

Sounds awesome) Did you connect the new display via regular LVDS? I thought IPS panels use eDP...

So you can confirm that you have G-Sync option in NVCP with SLI?

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

It's not strange. People overblow what IPS panels do, and laptop IPS panels are generally terrible compared to desktop ones. People who assume "IPS = better colours" need to do a little research, especially when buying laptop panels.

 

I used EDP since that is what my Chi Mei TN panel was connected with so straight swap. Yes gsync is available with the leaked drivers as per G751/GT72 notebooks.

 

Chi mei eDP? Which laptop? I though chi mei was lvds.

 

P377sm-a, Chi Mei has both LVDS and EDP screens:

N173HGE-E11 is EDP
N173HGE-L11 is LVDS
N173HGE-L21 is LVDS

 

Maybe it's because I don't play fast-paced FPS games, but I've yet to see any benefit in gaming using a TN panel vs a IPS on my laptops (in terms of ghosting/response times, that is).

I DO, however, notice the horrible viewing angles. Dark colours start inverting very easily in the top corners with even a slight shift of my head, and it drives me absolutely bonkers.

I agree that a good TN panel can be better in every respect (besides viewing angles) than a bad-to-average IPS panel. But for my preferences, I'll take an average IPS panel over a good TN panel, simply because any kind of colour-shifting just drives me up the walls, and even good TN laptop panels have moderate to severe colour-shifting due to poor viewing angles.

But that's just me. I'm not graphics pro, so exact colour accuracy and contrast mean very little to me. Not being able to make out the details in dark-coloured games due to colour-shifting, however, is something I do notice.

Different strokes.

 

I agree I love IPS displays but my love for them still has yet to will one into existence for the sager/clevo 17'3 displays mainly the np9377sm-a do you think this will ever be an option? or are they just going to make a new model down the line that has this possibility?

 

Mine doesn't do any of that. I need to get to an unusable angle to start colour shifting. I sit with the top (keyboard level) of my laptop at about the bottom of my lungs, and I'm 6'0 in height, if you can get an understanding. My webcam is about throat level. I can push my laptop back all the way without distortion, and get far to the left and right without distortion. For me to see colour distortions, I would have to push the lid down until I'd have to crouch down to see the screen well. I would never use a laptop in such a situation though.

Also, be aware that TN panels are not all the same for viewing angles.

 

What panel are you using? The only TN panel I've ever had where viewing angles were almost acceptable to me is the panel that came with my old Inspiron 17 R SE. That thing was in a league of its own.

Keep in mind, I'm extremely picky in terms of viewing angles/colour shifting. And since the games I play tend to have dark scenes, the colour shifting on even good TN panels becomes noticeable. Remember, colour-shifting is practically non-existent on lighter-coloured backgrounds. I know a lot of people don't notice bad viewing angles on some TN panels because they hardly ever use dark backgrounds/scenes where the colour-shifting has a chance to manifest itself.

That being said, if your panel is as good as you say it is (even in dark scenes) I'd have to get my hands on one.

 

I have the LP173WF2-TPB1. You would not be able to install it in many laptops though, as you need a 50 pin eDP connector. The P3xxSM and P3xxSM-A OR P770ZM should be the only laptops able to plug them in. Maybeee the AW17 R1 3D model.