E1705 and WXGA - not pretty

Not sure what you mean by "a bit much" in reference to the 1920 x 1200 screen. It's a byute!

Yeah, I have an LG Wuxga Screen and it is far and beyond the nicest looking lcd screen I've ever seen. Unfortunately I cannot vouch for other brands/resolutions, but if you are not happy with your screen I wouldn't settle for anything less than perfection. Call Dell and let them know you are unhappy and I am sure they would be happy to replace the screen for you.

Damnit, I hate seeing these topics.

I always consider the WXGA+ as an option, but i guess when i finally buy the E1705, it's gonna be the WUXGA for sure. Why can't Dell just make a damn 17" WSXGA...

No resolution will make everyone happy. Unless someone figures out how to make LCD's scale transparently. And it's hard for any one manufacturer to offer every possible resolution on the market. I for one love the WUXGA. It's easier to go down in resolution via software scaling. But the reverse is.. um, difficult. The best answer remains to see both screen options in person & go from there.

....and Dell are currently shipping out E1705 with Samsung WXGA+ matte screens....

Anything less than a 1920x1200 on my XPS is not acceptable. There is no way to go, but upwards

I'll say that the one you get is just one of those rare faulty ones. I mean Dell is shipping out so many each day that the LCD makers are also having to make quite a few each day to meet demands so one or two may be faulty. Nothing is perfect.... I'll suggest maybe you'll like to give Dell another chance & go for either a LCD replacement or a full system replacement. I'll sure you'll get a great screen with either replacement. Good luck & keep us posted.

why not just answer his question here so everyone can read it

I have a dell M90 with a WXGA+ screen, and it's beautiful. Hope this helps somehow

Well they seem to have no problem having every available screen for the 15.4" notebooks, so I don't see why they can't find a WSXGA for the 17".

I've been through 3 screens on my 1705. 2 samsungs and an LG. All WXGA+.
None of them are any good. The LG seems to be the best but it still has a lot of light leakage. Far more then I consider acceptable. The clairity is superb, but the colors are a bit washed out. The light leakage probably contributes to the washed out appearance too. I tried a "nushield" protective laminate, which I'd heard helps, but it's not good enough for me. You can see the waviness from not lying completely flat and I wasn't thrilled with the effect either. So I sent it off to these guys. AGParts for a AR coating. This is where the Matte screen gets stripped off and a gloss coating (like trueview or brightview) gets applied. They did a great job and turned it around in a single day. I had hoped they could also improve the light leak problem, but that looks the same. The colors are a bit brighter and vivid though, so all in all I,m happier then I was before. I'm still not 100% satisfied due to that horrendous light leakage.
I too wish for Dell to start providing better quality screens in lower resolution like sony and fujitsu do. I can't use a WUXGA anymore. I had one with my XPS, and even with using the large font it strains my old eyes. The extra large fonts distort things too much. I even have a hard time with WSXGA like on my Asus Z96J, but the large fonts do ok here....barely.
For those who say WUXGA is the only way to go..use it and flaunt it. Your time will come

How about some pics and price to make it happen?

I have the LG wxga+ screen on my E1705 and it is superb. Very bright, great color, sharp, good viewing angles. I do have the dark corners on the bottom of the LCD, but I can't believe this bothers some people. Maybe mine just isn't as bad, I don't know. It is minimal. Light leakage also went away mysteriously, I've had the laptop for about 2 weeks and now there is almost no leakage (was along the bottom a bit before). It is hit or miss no matter what brand LCD you get, just keep sending it back or request an exchange until you are satisfied. If you are nice to the rep 9 times out of 10 they will help you out.

I have the dark corners on mine too at the bottom, but untill I read this post, I hadnt noticed it. Im more than happy with my screent its a glossy one though. Ive never seen a sharper or better looking screen in CRT or LCD that I thought looked better.

Well, the price was $80 for the job not including shipping your laptop. The results are a bit difficult to compare if not in person. I'll try to show the difference here.
This first shot is the matte screen I first took when I got the 1705. It's the sumsung LCD.


Here's the AR coated LG for comparsion, but again, you really need them side by side to compare.


Here are two more that show the light leakage. The first is LG matte

Here's the AR coated glossy LG


I should add, that the last time Dell replaced my LCD, they replaced the whole panel, not just the LCD. So I got a new backlight, cables and everything. As you can see, the light leakage is still there even with a complete new screen. That's why I gave up with Dell support being able to fix it.

Im sitting here laughing at Speed's comment about bad screens being rare.... In my 2 1/2 years with dell I have went through over 8 different screens because the majority were crap. Bad enough to where my color calibrator would not work with them. I have also had every model WUXGA out there. LG is the only way to go, unless you're "lucky" and get a good samsung...