How is the SE 1080p display?

Okay so I'm currently in need of a new laptop as my sony SR is three and a half years old and the screen is (literally) half dead.


I'm looking at the HP dv6tqe, XPS 15, and Sony Vaio SE.

And arguably the biggest deciding factor is the display quality. For straight up hardware value the dv6tqe wins by a longshot especially with the current 33% off coupon, and if portability were the deciding factor I'd take the SE in a heartbeat.


Basically I've heard everywhere that the XPS 15's B+RGLED 1080p screen is like a gold standard for consumer grade 15 inch 1080p displays, so obviously it's good, and honestly is the only reason I'm even considering the XPS 15 compared to the dv6qte (dv6 is cheaper, has better graphics, looks better, is lighter).

So how does the Sony SE's 1080p display fare against the HP and Dell respective 1080p displays? All the reviews I've seen only praise the screen on the SE but I was wondering what the tech savvy people on this forum think.

 

Minus the slight red tinge, I almost prefer the SE to my U3011. The original Z still had a better screen in my opinion but the SE is great

 

I don't know if i'd trust the people here... they've all been spoiled by the Vaio Z's screens which are arguably some of the best non-IPS panels to date. However, the SA/SB/SE do have pretty nice panels compared to some of the screens out in the wild.

 

As for the SA/SB series, I respectfully diagree with my colleague. There is not a hint of resemblance to the excellent SE screen (see below), and these are not remotely considered premium, even "good" screens. Notebookcheck.net says:

"Colors look dull and pallid on the Vaio SA Our Vaio SA1 only has a marginally larger color gamut [than a Thinkpad Edge - $699], which is disappointing in the price range of over 2000 euros. "It is a viewing angle weak TN screen as built into every low-cost laptop."

Notebookcheck.net review of Sony SA

And this matches what most have observed. The SA is otherwise a monster-fast, small, light machine, but screen-lovers (not only spoiled Z-users) need not apply.

The SE, on the other hand, passes almost every screen evaluation with flying colors - brightness, contrast viewing angles (better even than the Z!) and visual observations agree. And while the colors are fine, the only area in which the SE is not in the "world class" space is color gamut. It's fine for 95% of the people (non-professional graphic/photo/video editors, but note that it doesn't come remotely near the RGB color gamut, of which the Z covers 96%, nor is it as good as any competing screens in the area of color. Still, it is an excellent screen, bright and high contrast and will look great to the naked eye. (see comparisons, below)
<dl class='csc-textpic-image csc-textpic-firstcol' style='width:129px;'><dt> </dt><dd class='csc-textpic-caption'>Sony Vaio SE1Z9E/B vs. AdobeRGB(t)
</dd></dl><dl class='csc-textpic-image' style='width:130px;'><dt> </dt><dd class='csc-textpic-caption'>Sony Vaio SE1Z9E/B vs. Dell Precision M6600 FHD(t)
</dd></dl><dl class='csc-textpic-image csc-textpic-lastcol' style='width:127px;'><dt> </dt><dd class='csc-textpic-caption'>Sony Vaio SE1Z9E/B vs. Vaio F22S1E/B FHD(t)</dd></dl>
Review Sony Vaio VPC-SE1Z9E/B Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

If you have room for the [very light weight] 15.5" form factor, the SE is the bargain "ringer" of the current Sony line. It is even on sale now, and you can pick one up for under $950, with a sheet battery, at Amazon (but it has the weaker GPU, about $200 more for the better GPU, still a steal!