Worried about crappy 8600 LCD

Well, I finally committed to the following system:

Pentium®M Processor,1.7 GHz,15.4 in WSXGA+
512MB,DDR,333MHz 2 Dimms
Power Adapter AC adapter -90w, 19.5v
Wireless Networking Cards Dell TrueMobile™ 1300 WLAN (802.11b/g, 54Mbps) miniPCI Card
Primary Battery 72 WHr Primary Battery
Hard Drive 60GB - 7200rpm Ultra ATA Hard Drive
Network Card Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem
4x CD/DVD burner (DVD+RW/+R) including Sonic RecordNow
Video Card 128MB ATI MOBILITY RADEON 9600 PRO Turbo

Price after tax, shipping, and rebates: $2,293.83

What I'm worried about is receiving a Hitachi LCD instead of a Samsung LCD. As detailed in this post, the Hitachi screens are obviously inferior to the Samsung screens and don't even meet Dell's published specifications of an "Ultra Sharp" LCD. I could ensure that I get a Samsung by ordering a WUXGA screen instead of the WSXGA+ screen, but I found the WUXGA resolution too high for my liking.

If anyone has any suggestions about what to do if I end up with the Hitachi screen, how I can prevent getting one now that I've ordered online, or if anyone knows of more information, I'd be grateful.

Thanks,
beemsg

Hi all.

After placing the the above order online as a Small Business consumer, I called 800-274-3355 and got to a "pricing and sales technician". I told him that I wanted to place a note with my order requiring that I get the Samsung LCD screen instead of the inferior Hitachi screen, and that if I still received the Hitachi screen I would be returning the system. I was put on hold while he checked to see what brand was being used in my build, and he returned ensuring me that the Hitachi screen was no longer being used.

I am skeptical that Dell has finally made universal brand changes with respect to the WSXGA+ I8600 screen, since I'm sure they still have some Hitachi screens laying around that they have been told to get rid of by Christmas. This might be the beginning of Dell's phasing out of the use of the Hitachi screens, however, so I thought I'd let the board know.

Well damn. Now I'm REALLY glad that I got the next-day shipping, because I don't have the time to play the return-and-pray game.

On the other hand, a small part of me hopes that they mess up the order so that I have an excuse to cancel it. Then I can use the 15% Small Business discount I just discovered when I reorder it.

Well, I believe this is the most amount of closure I'll get in this matter: http://forums.us.dell.com/supportfor...sage.id=101093

SiDD, a Dell Moderator finally responded to the on-going thread here: http://forums.us.dell.com/supportfor...sage.id=101093 (Mod's response is on the bottom of the second page).

Here's the current situation:

It has been acknowledged by the Dell community (the customers on the Dell Support board) that the Hitachi WSXGA+ (1680x1050) 15.4" screens being shipped with the current Inspiron 8600's probably fail to qualify as "UltraSharp" screens as Dell defines them (300:1 contrast, 35 ms response, 65 degree left-right & 50 degrees up-down). The uncertainty arises because we don't know if Hitachi is selling Dell an LCD other than this one.

Rollie (the Dell moderator) has said that anyone who feels dissatisfied with their system solely because of the display (which you SHOULD be), should post in the above thread and mention their service tag or have their service tag in their profile. Rollie seems to be hinting that the only way Dell will consider helping us out is if we complain about the absolute unusability of the screen, as opposed to it not meeting specifications or "feeling" of poorer quality than someone else's Samsung screen.

I myself am waiting for my Inspiron 8600 to arrive sometime today or tomorrow. My online parts list has confirmed that I will be receiving a Hitachi screen, so I'll see if the screen is as bad as everyone says. If so, I plan on raising hell and either reordering the same resolution screen in January, when it's been reported more Samsung LCD's will be available, or order a WUXGA (1,920 x 1,200) screen, which is only available as a Samsung or Sharp.

Please see the thread link I posted above (fine, here it is: http://forums.us.dell.com/supportfor...sage.id=101093). In it, I mention 3 ways to determine your LCD brand.