Sony Screens for Photography

I am looking for a laptop for photo editing- but mainly for a secondary system as I have a desktop with a great ips screen. I still want the best screen in my budget. Are Sony's superior to others. I was viewing an FZ in store and was not impressed with it over the Dell XPS 1530, although a lot of people have told me to look at SONY. Is the xbrite-hicolor drastically better than the -xbrite-eco which could be a reason why I didn't see a noticeable difference between the two?? Should I be looking at a different model? Is there a superiour model over the FZ (in terms of display). Budget is only around 1300 since it isnt a necessity- but I still want to make sure I get the best display with my range, and wanted to hear some opinions on this forum before going for the xps.
Thanks for any advice.

 

Well Sonys have been known for some time to have the best screens.

 

You say you do photo editing. If you're not planning on using your monitor, and just using your laptop screen then please please please! go with a high definition screen with a good resolution. DO NOT...i repeat DO NOT go with the screens that only do 1280x800...you will be unahappy.

IN terms of the eco screens, i find that they are very vivid and clear, but you'll either have to calibrate it to match true colors of photos for printing, or just adapt your own editing processes to compensate. I have no experience with the hicolor.

i should add...just screw the PC and get a Mac...lol.

 

Well I plan on doing final editing on the desktop, but use the laptop for travelling. I was either looking for the 1440x900 or the 1680x1050 (at least on the xps model). I did see a MBP and loved it but it was out of my budget, and also all my software is PC which I use for my desktop. So screen quality is important but I still can rely on my desktop. Jooooe mentioned that Sony screens have been known to be the best for some time- I have seen a few at stores and didn't see them as superior. Possibly the model or diplay type could have not have been the best so I was asking if there was a specific model I should look out for.Tx

 

you dont need a mac , mac is what? if I say what I really want to say about it , then probably I will be banned for using too harsh words you know?

But I mean mac is a waste of your money , it costs too much itself and then you will need proprietry options from Apple , no competition means , apple always dominates the market and so prices always high.

Any way, I think a Dell Vostro or Inspiron with higher resolution screen should be the best bang for your buck although you might not need the WSXGA screen.

Well, to be honest , I liked ASUS monitors of G1s, F8sv,M51sn.

I like Thinkpad for its black body but its screen is so dull and dim(just business oriented like HP business or Toshiba tecra M9 all of them had very dim screens and it's not bad for business users) but you may like the high resolution option, all Sony screens are good but not for photoshop work.

Sony LCDs are good for DVDs.

As you dont play games , you should go for an Inspiron or Vostro1500 over an XPS.

 

Hello Kent,

There is difference between the ECO and the HiColour versions. Some folks don't notice big differences, but not all of them are in photography or graphics, so obviously impressions and opinions differ.

I'm not sure that all HiColours have double lamps, but if you want to compare Sony with any other I'd suggest to take a look at the double lamped HiColour version.

Actually, I own FZ with HiColour single lamp sceen. Friend of mine has got XPS 1530 with WXGA+ (1440x900) and, IMHO, Sony's screens give a bit better colours. This doesn't mean that XPS screen's performance is poor. I have notice one thing, tough: if you look at different angles, XPS screen is getting yellowish.

 

I don't know where you are but in North America there arre SonyStyle stores and you can comarre side to side eco vs hicolor vs hicolor double lamp. I think there's a big difference, you might not see it. Also compared to the XPS, there is huge difference in glare/reflection, I tried a 1530 (easy to downgrade to xp pro, looks cool) before buying fz470 and I couldn't use it because all I could see was my reflection.

 

Don't buy the XBRITE HiColor unless you are using color managed applications. It is oversaturated. Skin tones look orangish; green grass looks like a nuclear bomb exploded the day before. Even after I used a Spyder2 to calibrate it, all the colors are still oversaturated. I believe this is due to its 90% NTSC color gamut whereas the standard sRGB is 76%. I truly wish that Sony would correct this problem with a saturation control on the nVidia panel.

 

I just got a FZ31s in the UK which has double lamp (same as HiColor I believe) and would agree, while the screen is stunning (almost literally), it is totally over saturated out of the box. Even after calibration the reds were a bit out of control.
What I found has helped was changing the NVIDIA Desktop colour Settings. Moving the gamma up to about +62%, then recalibrating calmed things down nicely. Looking pretty accurate to me now.