Dell Inspiron 5000 (15" SXGA)

[ddm at mclinux.com (Derek Martin)]

On Wed, 16 Aug 2000 SiriPro at aol.com wrote:

> I saw your post on "BLU Users' Group" saying you have the Inspiron 5000 with 
> the 15" SXGA LCD screen.  I just purchased the same and I have complained to 
> Dell that the screen appears soft focus, and I'm having trouble viewing the 
> screen with equally full saturation of colors and contrast which varies 
> drastically from top to bottom of the screen.  There is no optimum viewing 
> angle to see the full screen.  I must tilt it to see the bottom...then the 
> top fades away.

I can't call myself an expert, but I can give you my opinion:

On mind I find the screen is VERY crisp if I run it at the full 1400x1100
resolution (or whatever it is...  I forget off the top of my head).  Text
mode does tend to be a little "fuzzy" for lack of a better term, unless I
run it at a very high resolution (160x64 characters).  It seems to
be clearest at very high resolution. 

I have noticed what you call a "full saturation of colors and contrast"
problem, but every laptop I've ever used suffered from this.  You must
remember that this is a laptop, with an LCD screen, not a high-quality
CRT.  It WILL NOT give you the same quality image as a good CRT monitor,
and isn't intended to. 

I find that if I adjust the angle of the display so that the plane of the
display is parallel to the plane of my face, the effect is minimized.  I
think the effect is exaggerated as compared to other laptop LCD displays,
because of the very large size of the screen.


> I have had a Dell technician swap the LCD and the Video Card and next
> will be the mother board.  Dell is starting to say my expectations are
> too high of the monitor.  Well... isn't this supposed to be the
> absolute best laptop monitor currently available?  Their sales
> literature taunts the "amazing clarity"... "crisp resolution"... and
> "Outstanding for presentations to a small audience".

Surprised as I am by it, I'm inclined to agree with the Dell technician.
If you compare the display to other laptop displays, I think Dell's claims
stand up.  Lower resolutions do seem a bit fuzzy, but if you stick to the
higher resolutions (which after all, is the whole point of having a screen
that large) it's very crisp. As long as you situate yourself and the
laptop well, the color and contrast problems are minimal.


> I'm disappointed!  Are you or anyone else, aware of these problems being 
> standard with this monitor or do I really have a lemon that can be fixed?

And I thought *I* was demanding!  :)


-- 
Derek Martin
System Administrator
Mission Critical Linux
martin at MissionCriticalLinux.com 

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