I9200 wuxga ???? - Page 8

Keep in mind that the image I posted was a higly magnified portion of both screens, and that the Apple 20" Cinema, a desktop LCD with no power restriction, is the best LCD I have seen on the market.

I just don't want to give others the wrong impression. In normal usage the 9200 WUXGA screen is growing on me. The text is incredibly sharp. I was looking at a Powerbook 17" last night to see if I can live with 1440x900, and I noticed that the text was quite blurry by comparison and the whole screen was quite dull. I would be happier with a 9200 WUXGA screen. But that wasn't a good comparision because they run different OSes and the lighting in the store was quite harsh. In the end I don't want people to get the wrong impression and not buy a 9200 WUXGA because of my failure to capture the look of the screen at normal viewing distance.

I am leaning toward to keeping this screen. As a programmer it is hard to beat the sharp text display and the real estate. It bugs me a bit that the background is not so smooth, the viewing angle is not wider(probably still better than most laptop, but the 17" wide screen really pushes the envelope), and white area is not solid white, but I may get used to it as I grow to like it more and more. The rest of the system so far is wonderful.

If I have time later and figure out how to capture a better representation of the screen at normal viewing distance as compared to other laptops and my Apple 20" Cinema, I will do so. It turned out to be quite a challenge even with the right equipment.

To me this is the best portable 17" WUXGA on the market overall. If you are not sure about the screen, there is only one way to find out. I think it's worth a try. I am glad I did.

At least, is there some kind of backlight leakage on 17" WUXGA?

I realy don't know what to say now. I just canceled my I9200 WUXGA order before it shipped. I will go today to a Dell Direct Store and take a good look at it.

Ultimately, it does come down to personal preference. In the case of my 9100, I liked the pixel real estate avilable on the WUXGA, but your picture captures what bugged me about the display: diffration from the coating caused false-color "ghosts", blotchy spots where there should be pure white, and visibile artifact patterns similar to the cross-grids evident in your picture. But the killer for me was that these artifacts would change depending on viewing angle, so as your head moves around, the changing artifacts attract your attention and cause you to constantly shift focus.

At least that was my experience, and I decided it was intolerable.

Dellbert: Wow, you said what was on my mind in the beginning. After spending some more time with it, I am adjusting to the minuses and appreciating more of the pluses. I am wondering if in the end it's not the individual pixels that matter but the whole screen experience. I used to have a great Sony Trinitron display that has two thin wires to stabilize the grill which appears as two permanent faint lines across the screen. I was bother by them in the beginning but after a while I got used to them unless someone point them out to me again. I am expecting my brain to get used to sparkling effect and there is evidence as I seem to like the screen more and more. I think the brain has a lot to do with visual perception.

Cristisimo: Sorry if I caused you to make the wrong decision. I was 90% sure that I would return this thing the first few hours I saw the screen. Now I am leaning toward keeping it. It seemed to get better with use, and I wonder if I am adjusting to it or perhap the screen need a break in period (sounds like an urban myth). If you are in the Bay Area I would show it to you personally.

I got the wuxga screen and I think it looks great. Although its not as godly as the sony screen, it does have its moments. After adjusting the dpi i am just where I need to be. Watched movies on it and got quite a few compliments. All in all, after looking into other notebooks, they all came up short somewhere. But I can honestly say I am happy with the i9200.

I too just received my WUXGA. It's not what I was expecting. It's not as bad as I was expected, but it's not exactly perfect. I think WUXGA may not have been the right decision for me in the first place... But the strange snow effect makes it easier to return. I wouldn't say it hurts my eyes, nor is it all that distracting. My eyes have already turned it off. But when I shift my eyes, it does sort of make your eyes water just a litte.

I love the i9200 otherwise, though. This system is hot (but not running hot.)

EDIT: I really think a lot of people overreacted at first. Literally, I've been on the system for less than an hour and it's really not that bad. I'm not saying that I love it, but... I dunno.

I guess the first impressions and the expectations of bad things really stick in your mind for a long time.

If you guys want to mitigate the problem somewhat, set your wallpaper to a pure black background, and you might also try backing the brightness off the highest setting. Stuff like this won't make the problem go away, but it seems a little easier on my eyes (at least on my 9100).

In a few years from now, when we're all crazy and blind from staring at sparkles all day, this thread will document our class-action case against Dell

Unclejung, I am not from the Bay area but thank you for offering to show it to me. It was not only your pictures that made me decide to cancel the order. It was the reactions of many others in this forum and the Dell Community Forum as well. On the other hand I did go today to a Dell Direct Store located in a mall, but guess what -- they don't have the I9200 on display, so I did not get to see one. I will wait for now. My old I8100 is still doing a pretty fair job.

Hi Everybody,

I have a 9200 with the WXGA+ (1440 x 900) screen on order. I was (am?) thinking of getting the WUXGA. I have two concerns:

1) This sparkle business - please keep us posted
2) Will the font displays be too small?

I plan on running a BBS, probably using the same vBulletin software this board uses, and I want to be able to demo it to people without them squinting. Ideally I'd like to get the WUXGA screen - hopefully be OK with the sparkles and enjoy the real estate and then downshift the resolution to 1440x900 or lower when I want everything to be big. I've read the various thread about how LCDs don't look good at a resolution below the native resolution, but some one said that they tried it and it looked good.

Would some of you be so kind as to try reducing your resolution to see if the sparkle goes away and if the display is still crisp (though with less real estate).

It sure would set my mind at ease.

Thanks!
Barry
Sebastopol, CA
(Sonoma County)

Hey Barry, I don't have the lappie in front of me,
but from what I understand, the sparkle is a consequence of the anti-glare anti-diffraction coating reacting with the small physical pixel size. Thus changing resolution doesn't positively affect the problem since you're only changing the image size and there's nothing you can do about the physical number and size of pixels.

D

hey everyone, I just got my 9200 tuesday, without going into detail, I will say I have the same problems as everone else. Great performance, poor screen.

I noticed something about the screen when I first got it, but when I started reading these forums is when I realized what it was.

Ever since then I have been debating on whether to send it back. I think I have finally made up my mind to send it back!!! I have been looking for excuses to keep it, and trying to talk my self into liking it, because I don't want to be without my own computer anymore and hate sending stuff back, but enough is enough.

My wife just received her 700m, and it looks better than mine!!! I have a 128mb video card, wuxga, and upgraded processor, and more ram. I went to a website with ours side by side, and it was definitely apparant something was wrong. The 700m was crystal clear, mine was the usual shiny, blurry crap. Also, the 700m is way brighter, both are turned to full brightness, but the 9200 looks very dull and dingy in comparison. Clarity was especially noted on the 700m when I took both computers to a website such as a webmail screen that has horizontal rows of colors. On the 9200,it was hard to tell where one began and the next began due to the shiny crystal like things defracting the colors, and once again, the 700m was great.

also tried watching a dvd on both (at separate times), and the 700m was better at dvd watching. You could tell that the res. on the 700m was not as good as the 9200's, but everything else that was wrong with the 9200 (blurry, grainy, sparkle, darkness) still made the 700m look way better. Also during the "darkened seens" of the movie, the 700m was outstanding, while the 9200 made it where I couldn't see half of what was going on.

I bought the 9200 for our main computer to take with us to watch dvd's, and to do video and picture editing, and to watch internet video hmmm, but the 700m does all of this better, and cost half as much... Isn't there something wrong with this? Isn't the 9200 supposed to be better at this stuff?

sorry so long, just wanted to state my experiences.

jslessley

I think the 700m screen is better because of the shiny screen that enhances color. Just like that 17" sony. The 9200 doesn't have this.

Right, the 700m doesn't have an anti-glare coating. It has a highly reflective coating. It's kind of cool -- you can see if somebody is sneaking up behind you. And the color rendition is great. But no MR9700. No WUXGA. No 17" display. If you don't need those things, definitely go for the 700m.

I realize that the 700m has the reflective screen and the 9200 does not. The image quality still should be better on the 9200. A reflective screen should not outperform a 9700vid card, wuxga system just because a system does not have a reflective screen. That was my point that the 9200 is just plain crappy, and it is all due to the screen.

jslessley

bchertov: small font was also my concern when I order the WUXGA screen, the other was weight. As a programmer I look at text all day long. I was pleasantly surprise that the text was very readable, perhaps partly because the screen is so sharp. I had a chance to compare it to a 17" Apple Powerbook which has WXGA+ resolution last night and felt that the 9200 WUXGA screen is better in term of sharpness and brightness, and the text is much sharper. It like looking at good printed text on paper.

If you are demoing with a browser to a few people (increasing viewing distance), considering using a browser like Firefox which you can easily increase/decrease the font size by hitting ctrl +/-. I would not consider lowering resolution on a LCD because to me that would make the display look terrible for text.

I am trying to be objective about this sparkling effect because I think perception is personal. At first it really bother me, but the more I use it the less apparent it is to me, and I like the screen more and more. To me there is always better technology on the horizon, but this 9200 seems like the best thing in its class right now. Another pleasant surprise is that this thing feels a lot lighter than you expect it to be. I am not sure it is any heavier than my 4100 with 2 batteries.

So you are in Sebastopol. I am in the Bay Area. If you would like, when you get yours with the WXGA+ we can meet and compare notes. May be we can write a short comparative review of the two screens. It probably would be helpful to a lot of people here.

My 9200 will ship on the 6th of Dec and be at my door on the 8th of Dec according to Dells web site. I ordered the WUXGA screen like many of you have, I have been reading the post with some liking it and some hating this new screen. I was close to calling Dell this morning to cancel my order, I'm really confused. I'm sitting here typing this on my work Inspiron 9100 with 15.4" WUXGA screen as I sold my Inspiron 8200 to buy the new computer. I like the screen on the 9100, I don't know if the 9100 has the same problems with the sparkels as the 9200 as I don't notice it if it does. Can any one compare the 9100 screen to 9200 screen for me. I don't really game, but I do spend a lot of time on a remote control airplane sim, some would call that a game but I don't think it is the same class as some of the real games, I do a lot of 3D solid modeling/Cad type work.

Keep the order comming or cancel???????

Thanks
LeeU

I got my 9200 WUXGA yesterday. I’m still undecided as to what I think of the screen coating. It’s another issue, that hasn’t been brought up here, which is going to force me to return, or exchange, It for the WXGA.

When reducing the screen resolution to 1440x900 (or anything above that up to 1920x1200) the screen will not stretch. All resolutions below 1440x900 stretch to full screen fine. After doing some forum searching I found out that the problem is the ATI 9700 card. Apparently the card’s available resolutions are a function of the hardware, and no driver or software fix is possible. As a gamer, 1440x900 is a much more reasonable resolution to play most wide screen games at. I tried playing WoW at 1920x1200 last night, and although playable, it was a little jerky (I haven’t installed my extra 1 GB memory stick yet). WoW at 1440x900 was rock solid at 60 fps, but because of the ATI issue, I was playing in a little window! Also, even though I an play most recent games decently at 1920x1200, I have no doubt that the games coming out a year from now would bring this system to a crawl at that resolution.

I really like everything else about this laptop. I’d like to just exchange this one for a WXGA version, plus the $88 I spent to upgrade to the WUXGA. Any advice when dealing with Dell to make this happen?

Thanks