Question on Qosmio Display Brightness

I'm considering the Qosmio F25 and the F15. If both of these models have Trubrite, each has the same pixel count, but the older model (F15) has a brightness and contrast ratio about 2x the newer F25--will these brightness and contrast differences be very noticeable? I am not able to see these screens in person. I have seen the screen of the F10 which is very nice.

F15
15.4" WXGA TFT, resolution 1280x800 internal LCD
Brightness level 450 Cd/m^2 when plugged in; 300 Cd/m when on batteries.
Contrast Ratio-400:1
Viewing angle--Horizontal 130 degrees; Vertical 100 degrees

F25
15.4" WXGA TFT Active matrix LCD display at 1280x800 native resolution.
Contrast ratio: 200:1
Brightness: 200 cd/m^2
Viewing Angle--horizontal 120 degrees; Vertical 90 degrees.

I plan on using this for everything from web surfing, office productivity apps, dvd viewing, picture viewing and editing and home movie creating/editing. I want a great display and like the overall specs of the F25. I am wondering how much of a tradeoff there will be in the display.

 

I saw the F25 last night at a trade show and though the display looked very nice. Certainly in the top tier. There wasn't an older Qosimo to compare to, but I'd feel okay about getting it sight unseen.

 

Thanks, Brian. That's helpful!

Paul

 

I just bought the Qosmio F25, after looking at the ideal specs and price for my needs. About the same as you Lep. I havnt received it yet though. I also noticed the decrease in display and it worried me a little. But i doubt that Toshiba would make a Qosmio without great display, so I am not too worried. I will be receiving it in about a week, so I can update then. BTW, I'd go with the F25 instead of the F15 for sure. But no real evidence why. Need a partner.

 

VKA

Thanks for your post and congrats on your new purchase. Please post your thoughts once you have it. These machines seem to be very attractive at these prices.

At first I was thinking for sure I'd go for the F25 but I am now leaning towards the F15. The main reasons are the price (about $400 less), the display (I'm sure the F25 will be really good, but the added brightness & contrast on the F15 will make it a slam dunk) and to a lesser extent the integrated Bluetooth and color (I think silver is better than glossy black??). The FSB, DRAM, weight, battery life and HDD are better on the F25, but not significantly better. I could upgrade the RAM on the F15 pretty easily, me thinks. The $1500 price point is just hard to pass up, given the differences between the two. I was thinking I may pull the trigger today...we'll see.

Again, either one seems like a great buy for the money. Who did you buy yours from?

 

After looking at reviews from PCmag about the G25 (which clearly has better display specs), i figured that the F25 would follow suit in most things. I bought my F25 from Toshiba, they just are getting their shipment in. Honestly though, I think that the F25 is superior over the F15, even with the price point. FSB is now known (alteast I've heard) to be very important first off. I personaly like the black over the silver, giving it a much more high tech futuristic look. Though it does get fingerprints, its easy to clean. I also think that DDR2 is that way to go, becuase i think it will completely take over all notebooks very soon. I just hate being behind in technology. The screen shouldn't be a big deal, I bet the difference will be very minimal, even though the specs say otherwise. I'm not sure, but i dont tihnk the F15 has the new Intel Express thingy, which is newer and faster. $400 is well worth it in my opinion. But anyways, give me your feedback, tell me what u think.


VKA

 

I usually buy the leading edge as well; you're basically buying a longer useful life. You do have me thinking about which way to go on this.

I suspect the performance difference between the two would be something like 10%, max, for office productivity and Net content creation type apps. If you upgrade the DRAM on the F15 to 1GB it would be even less.

I've other things I need to buy right now and am left wondering is $400 worth 10% of performance. Plus the Bluetooth, better display and more VRAM all come with the F15.

It would be very interesting to compare the displays of the two models.

What to do, what to do...

 

It is true that the F15 does have higher VRAM memory, but I am pretty sure that the 64mb video card that comes with the F25 is better than F15's. Though they would be very very close. Also, considering bluetooth, I am also pretty sure not certain that F25 is capable of using bluetooth but does not come with it. I think thats ok becuase it still isnt widely used, and an external one can be easily bought. Also, bluetooth constantly comes out with newer versions, so why fall behind right away than buy the newest later on when you use it. I'm not telling you not to buy the F15, becuase I also wonder the same things. F15 is still a very powerful machine, and very well may have a better display. The two machines are very similar, but improvement must have been made on the F25 from the F15 that may not even be visible on a spec sheet. $400 is a lot of money, and u could go either way. I think all we need is 100% proof that the F25 display is as good as F15's. MCmag's preview atleast thinks so.

 

The difference in video cards is probably greater than you're stating. I think the Gforce 6600 is more high end-ish and the Gforce 5700 is a middle range card. Even with the extra memory in the F15, the set-up in the F25 is probably superior. I don't envision heavy game playing, so this isn't that critical an issue for me. The display is one of the bigger issues for me. I'll be very interested to hear your thoughts on it. I'm in Heathrow airport as I type this. They have a Qosmio F10 (comparable specs to F15) in one of the duty free shops here. It's display is fantastic. It has great viewing angles. The machine feels very solid and well built.

Good points on Bluetooth. With these integrated options I wonder if one is able to override them when superior alternatives hit the market. The WLAN falls in this category as well--could one replace these integrated solutions with faster external solutions at some point down the road?

I was on Micron's conference call last week. Their expectations for the industry's DDR2 ramp have been pushed out. They're now expecting DDR2 to cross over DDR1 early next year as opposed to Q3 of this year. Somewhere else I read that the performance benefits of DDR2 over plain vanilla SDRAM are nominal, but DDR3 will be vastly superior, as it runs at 667mhz, I believe. I imagine if you have a DDR2 system you could upgrade at that point, but perhaps not with a SDRAM system, like the F15.

I was going to order the F15 yesterday and then the retailer told me that they had a no return policy. So I'll think about it a bit more....and hopefully see an F25 in the meantime.