Notebook with high quality screen

[luctus]

Hello, I've been lurking for a while trying to determine what notebook to purchase but decided to register in order to get some direct advice.

In short, I'm primarily after a notebook that has a screen with good quality. I've had my share of computers with poor viewing angles, mirror-like glossiness, bad color reproduction and low resolution (I can't even begin to comprehend how 1366x768 can be seen as acceptable on anything but the smallest of screens) and is frankly tired of the whole mess.

I'll have to beg your pardon in advance for not using the stickied questionary form, but I believe my constraints on screen is enough to cull the available options down to a handful on it's own. My preferences are, roughly in order of importance:

• High resolution, matte screen of good quality.
• Good (non-gaming, i.e. GPU is not a priority) performance. i5 or preferably i7 Ivy Bridge. 8GB RAM is desirable, 16 if possible.
• As portable as possible. 15" screen is an absolute maximum.
• Price, less than about €1500
• Having a discrete GPU for the occasional light gaming session would be nice, but by no means a priority.

One wouldn't think that would be too hard?

The options I have been looking at are:

The obvious candidate, Asus Zenbook UX32VD
i7, 13" 1080p matte (anti-reflex, really. It's still a bit glossy) IPS screen and RAM expandable to 2+8GB.

Has horrible problems with quality however. I've had 5 of these at home for evaluation in total, but all of them have had problems.

Two had bad backlight problems (all of them had bleed to some degree, but these had bleed visible even when placed in a lit room). Another two had pixel faults and the last one had blobs where the display had red-tinted miscoloration.

To makes matter worse, several of them also had spongy keyboards. Something that supports the theory of bad quality control and/or problems with the assembly process since at least one I tested had a perfectly firm keyboard. Such variance does not suggest to me that everything is all that peachy with the manufacturing.

It is also as of now apparently out of stock until the Win8 upgrade is available in October according to the retailer, so it's not really an options right now anyway.

Samsung Series 9
The NB900X3C has slightly worse specs than the UX32VD in pretty much every aspect (except for possibly the design). i5, 13" 1600x900 matte PLS screen and most importantly stuck with only 4GB of soldered-on RAM.

Sure, big brother 15" NB900X4C have 8GB of RAM, but of course has a TN-panel installed instead.

Lenovo X230
Available with i7, upgradable to 16GB RAM and 12" matte IPS screen. Only 1366x768 resolution though.

HP Envy
Only the 17" model is available here and I don't think it's possible to get the IPS option either (it was not possible to order the 15" Sandy Bridge Envy with IPS screen anyway).

Vizio Thin+Light
1600x900 13" or 1080p 15" IPS screen, but only 4GB of reportedly soldered-on RAM. Also doesn't seem to be available outside US/Canada/Mexico.


I had high hopes for a good panel in the Lenovo X1 Carbon, but no such luck apparently. Right now I'm leaning towards the X230, but even if the screen is rather small, the low resolution is a bit of a downer.

Are there any other alternatives that I've missed?

And while well-designed with supposedly fairly high quality display panels, a MacBook is not really an option. I'm not going to go into specifics, but suffice to say, I've tried and they're not for me.

Sony is also off the table. The debacles over the years with rootkits, PS3 OtherOS, handling of the PSN hacking and their bullheaded stance on DRM has made them a company I rather not deal with.

[cognus]

HP Elitebook with Dreamcolor option.
see this thread for the top picks: shortlist of the best high-res display panels available

[kanuk]

1366x768 isn't low resolution for a 12" display, it's about 130 ppi.

[luctus]

HP Elitebook with Dreamcolor option.
see this thread for the top picks: shortlist of the best high-res display panels available

Thanks for the link.

The DreamColor equipped EliteBook starting at ~€2500 breaks the bank I am afraid. The Dell Precision M4700 at €1600 for the base model with IPS screen is a bit more pricey than I would like as well and both of them stretches the definition of portable at 15,6" and ~3kg.

What I am interested in is other laptops with screens similar to the "various low grade 6 bit IPS screens used in Sony, lenovo x220/x230, samsung etc" that was mentioned in the linked thread.

[rob7]

Apple MacBook with Retina Display.

[JonCordova]

Retina MacBook Pro is obvious, but the cost is astronomical.

The two that you didn't mention are:

Sony Vaio SE 15.5, which is considered to be the same IPS screen as the Envy 15 but anti-glare,
Vizio CT15 [and CT14], which is an anti-glare IPS screen.


Beyond that, I'd say give the Thinkpad X1 Carbon a second look. Here's a video comparing it with the T430s. The viewing angles are supposed to be decent...but come to think of it, Tim over at Engadget, who is a Thinkpad enthusiast...was pretty scathing about the X1C's screen. Apparently, the X1 Carbon has windowscreening.

My problem with the X1C is that it's already 14-inches but only 1600x900 and very expensive; the T430's screen isn't so good, so why not just step up to a 1080p 15-inch T530 or W530? They're under 5 pounds, light for the class, and sell between $800 and $1200 USD.

It's also worth noting that these 1080p TN screens almost definitely have better color gamut than the 15-inch IPS screens around now, with the exception of those Elitebook workstations.

The Vizio CT15 is the dark horse. People gripe about the trackpad and mistrust what is essentially the Walmart Ultrabook, but while HP and Dell weren't looking, Vizio put a bright 15.6-inch anti-glare IPS screen into the Walmart Ultrabook. I tried one in the store. The keyboarsod and trackpad are decent, and can anything be more important than the screen in front of you?

[luctus]

Thanks for the reply!

The two that you didn't mention are:

Sony Vaio SE 15.5, which is considered to be the same IPS screen as the Envy 15 but anti-glare,

I wasn't aware of the Vaio SE, thanks. I'd prefer not to deal with Sony, but I'll keep it in mind.

Vizio CT15 [and CT14], which is an anti-glare IPS screen.

I did mention the Vizio in my original post. The main problem with that one is that it's not available in europe. I would also like to have more than 4GB of RAM.

Beyond that, I'd say give the Thinkpad X1 Carbon a second look. Here's a video comparing it with the T430s. The viewing angles are supposed to be decent...but come to think of it, Tim over at Engadget, who is a Thinkpad enthusiast...was pretty scathing about the X1C's screen. Apparently, the X1 Carbon has windowscreening.

My problem with the X1C is that it's already 14-inches but only 1600x900 and very expensive; the T430's screen isn't so good, so why not just step up to a 1080p 15-inch T530 or W530? They're under 5 pounds, light for the class, and sell between $800 and $1200 USD.

Yes, I think I will have to give the X1 and the T530 some more thought.

[luctus]

Extending the question a bit, does anyone know of a laptop with exceptional quality TN panel, particularly with regards to vertical viewing angles?

[JonCordova]

Here's the thing about TN viewing angles: The best ones will have very good sideways angles and good vertical angles from from above, but there's no such thing as a TN screen with good viewing angles from below. If I understand correctly, that's what IPS technology does, overcoming the shifting of the pixels against that one angle.

But the answer is, any workstation-class 1080p TN screen will have good viewing angles from the sides and above, actually better than an equivalent IPS unit, because IPS screens become dimmer from the sides and top.

This review has a picture of the viewing angles on the Thinkpad W520 with the 1080p workstation panel, TN only. As you can see, if you can manage to avoid looking at the screen from below, the W520 is a functional television with viewing angles good enough for a house party.

Not every 1080p screen measures up, though.

Notebookcheck, Notebookreview, and Laptopreviews.com include pictures of viewing angles in their reviews.

[baiii]

Op, which of the following you value more?

Viewing Angle
Brightness
enough gamut ~90 sRGB
wide gamut 100+sRGB