Luology and I had a get together tonight, 9300's side by side.

Here are some disclaimers from me before you read on:

1. First, I personally am reluctant to post these pictures because they only tell partial truth:
1.1. There are definite discrepancies between what we see and what the pictures tell. The light travels through the lens, picks up by CCD sensors, converts into "1" and "0", compresses down to jpeg, then displays on your monitor (not to mention how sparkly is yours.....).
1.2. If our monitors are not calibrated exactly the same, we don't see the same picture.
1.3 Light exposures for the camera is nearly impossible to be set for Full-black and Full-white screens. Again, the little LCD on the camera is not calibrated the same as my monitor.

The setting is a pitch dark room, LG monitor at default color settings. Samsung setting info will be provided by Luology (slightly reduced gamma, I think). Here are my comments:
1. Full-black: None of them uniform in brightness. LG is darker overall. Samsung has more light leaking along the bottom and two vertical sides.
2. Full-white: LG has more sheen (pearly look), no surprise. LG has a light leak/seep along bottom, slightly darker on vertical corners. Samsung has the sheen, too, but less. Samsung is "whiter" and cleaner. When standing more than three feet away, the difference is only about grayness and uniformity.
3. R=255: LG is richer and heavier in tone. Samsung compares a little washed out.
4. G=255: LG, no surprise, more evident sparkle. Samsung is more solid on green, heavier in tone.
5. B=255: Samsung is richer and heavier in tone. LG is less even on blue (similar to light leakage) at sides and corners, not severe, but noticeable.
6. Desktop image Scenic004: LG has a magenta hue, slightly more contrast than Samsung. Samsung reveals more detail at shadow, dark areas.
7. Desktop image Scenic009: LG is "louder", colors of sky and water punches out stronger. Samsung is more tamed, less range in saturation and contrast.
8. Color bands (see picture below): Comments on this picture will serve as my summary.

Samsung overall seems more "harmonious" and "tamed," more solid on the darker blue tones. LG on the other hand have punchier and "louder" colors, "loudest" at the red/orange family. LG at default setting has a slight megenta tint. An analogy would be one system is built for rock/electronic music, another would be for classical. When it comes to extreme full colors, it really depends on your use of this computer. Samsung has a better and cleaner white (if most of your applications have white backgrounds). LG has a better full-black (if you set your desktop background to full-black, like me. I will not be able to live with the Samsung's "light seep/leak" along the vertical edges).
So, it really boils down to what you want and what you choose to live with. Here are the choices Dell offers, if you don't like what you have, then get something else, choose a different lappy all together. It kinda sucks that we have to compromise, but reality bites sometimes. These are just different screens, possessing different characters. Room for improvement, most definitely, yes! Then again, if Dell had only offered one type of screen, then it might have made all our lives a little easier, just accept or reject, no comparing.
Well, I am keeping my LG, just too much trouble for me to replace/exchange due to my warranty plan. As for Luology......decision pending. He needs to pick between Black and White. I will let him tell his own story.
Sorry if anyone don't find these comments concrete or constructive, but I believe this is the nature of perception, I tell you what I saw, in my own words. And I am not equipped to gather and share empirical light wave spectral analysis data.

Ok, pictures,
no other light source,
no flash (museum mode),
on a tripod, lens perpendicular to screens.
PLEASE, just see them as loose references, NOT truth.


Images discussed in Point 8 and conclusion.

I think the camera over-exposed slightly. LG on left, Samsung on right.

From the second picture, you can see the samsung has less sparkle....

I prefer the colors of the LG.. That's why I'm keeping mine!! The sparkle doesn't bug me that much...

The more and more pictures people are posting between the two just reinforces that I personally think the LG is alot nicer than the Samsung. But until my lappie gets here, I can't make that ultimate decision.

Are you on crack?

I will admit the light leakage on this LG is very low... and I have NO sparkles. Unless I am blind to them.

All my problems were with the lack of grays and sepia... I have been thinking of keeping it. I wish I could see a samsung in person.

Also been thinking of returning the whole thing and going the next year with a Zaurus PDA... or 700m or something

I think if I was starting all over again, I might be looking at another laptop manufacturer. I wonder what other notebook forums are saying about their LCDs?

I got the LG and I think it's stunning. I have a 1905FP with Samsung innards and while black and white photos show a little "flatness" on the 9300 when compared. the LG colors are just gorgeous. I am very happy with the LG screen, no dead pixels, little light leakage. Not so happy with the DVD playback using the default included software. They are very choppy, which has nothing to do with my beautiful LG screen, of course.

I have the 1 year mail-in only service, and had little problem getting tech support to send me a replacement screen. The swap took about 40 minutes. What was too much trouble?

After seeing both screens, my personal preference is the Samsung. I work in more applications that have white backgrounds, and the silver sheen on the LG was a major irritant. The LG looks like it's always dirty to me. The blacks on the Samsung aren't as dark, but there is more definition in the shades of dark black than on the LG. With a slight gamma correction (.94) to the Samsung, R G and B are very close between the two. Like you said, the choice really is black or white.

varargs63,
I have the 1 year mail-in, Dell would send me a replacement instead of sending my machine to the depot, under the condition that my warranty will be voided for a "reasonable duration of time." Simply because I am not "Dell certified." Plus, who knows exactly how long it will take for them to send me another lappy (which very likely it will be another LG). Who knows if they will really put a Samsung into my existing lappy, they may just throw in one of the returned LG's.
Since the LG is acceptable for me now. I am keeping my warranty in tact. I had everything set up with Dell already about a week ago, told them to hold the replacement until further notice.

Interesting. Did the tech rep tell you that on the phone? Mine never mentioned it, and there was no additional paperwork either sent to me or in the replacement box that modified the terms of my warranty. I wonder if thats just a scare tactic to discourage people from replacing their own parts. Has anyone seen this in writing on the Dell site or anywhere else?

COMMENTS ON SIDE BY SIDE IN PERSON LCD SHOWCASE WITH THE THREAD STARTER.

well on the pictures that i took, the light leakage looks worse then in person. am gonna delete one picture cause its not fair , i took the picture from the top facing down. another thing i just got back from comparing the samsung and lg screens side by side with a fellow notebookforum member. and we notice alot of different things from both screens. i took pictures and so did he. my batterys ran out so i cant post hopefully they came good. again the screens are not really what the camera makes them out to be i posted them light leakage pics for those to get an idea about the light leakage. but i think i received a bad light leakage screen from samsung , since others are reporting same light leakage as the lg , and some are saying they barely see the light leakage.

its really hard to write down every little detail on this matter. it gets down to what you really wanna lose and gain.

the samsung really has better whites and less sparkles that has been known.
the guy with the LG likes how some of the colors look on the samsung.
we both notice the light leakage on the samsung which was more then the LG.
on the side of the screen with the lights off we notice bright light coming out from the side of the screen. on the LG there was no light coming out. its a real bright light on both sides of the samsung. those who have the samsung , turn of the lights and look on both sides between the LCD and the front bezel.
i notice that the LG has like a tinted black effect on it , sort of like a blackish, dark bluish black . hard to explain , while the samsung is like a more faded out black greyish look.
we did the green background test. and samsung beat the LG in sparkles. samsung barely had sparkles.
samsung seemed brighter then the LG.
we set the background to where is like a big rock in a river type place (scenic004), . he notice that the rock look better on the samsung. he said that he felt that the LG had a pinkish look to it. he felt that the rock look more real on the samsung then on the LG.
the red background test. we notice the LG to have a better red not way better but a slight better since it was darker.
Blue test , we notice the samsung had better blue , both light and dark blue.
we set the background to picture name (scenic009) and we notice the samsung had a better sky color, the LG had a more light light baby blue look to it , while the samsung had a nice sky look to it. and the water looked blueish on the LG , while on the samsung looked more of a true dirty water look.
when we set the background to complete white. samsung destroyed the LG in white background, the LG had sparkles and darker around the side of the LCD.

well its really heard to detail everything but like i said its really hard to write down everything we notice. hopefully i wrote down important parts of the side by side test.

but yea i feel that overall the samsung is far better if it didnt have the light leakage problem. i have a feeling i received a bad light leakage screen , while others say they received the samsung with lil or less light leakage then the LG. so am gonna see what i do next.

again for those who have the samsung screen , turn off the lights and look on both sides of the lcd sreen between the LCD and the front bezel, its like a bright light coming out from the sides.

another thing the pics i posted is not really how it looks makes it look really worse. but still its double then what the LG had.

If you like the "cold" colors go with LG. If you like "sepia" go with Samsung

That seems to be the general theme yah?

wat the hell is sepia? lol sorry about that. i gues am a noob at that.

if you read above. the samsung actually was close to the colors LG has, samsung only failed with the light leakage problem.

i guess one cant ask for a perfect LCD.

again you win some and you lose some.

I think it more comes down to whether the sparkles annoy you more or whether you prefer the bolder colors. I think there's definitely more variance of light leakage. The LG I had an enormous amount of light leakage on both the top and bottom. The Samsung I ended up with has very little and is only visible in obscure circumstances that don't matter (to me). And this may come down to whether your most important activities are white background activities (work) or colored activities (play).

Great review guys.

I cant compare my LG to a samsung because I dont have a samsung to compare with. But what I can compare it with is the Sony xbrite and one thing for sure, the color rendering on the LG is SUPERIOR to that of the xbrite. The two big advantages of the xbrite are the lack of sparkles and the better brightness!