Hi Lou,
You have the 64meg card? Im glad you posted & saved me the upgrade bux! You know, Lou, I believe that I have realistic expectations as I  have looked at plenty of notebook displays at local electronic stores -- I *know* a notebook display can look better. I dont think that I could present images to a client on my 5150, that brightness falloff is so noticeable. Do you know what the Dell return policy is? Ive been so busy, I hope i didnt run out the clock. Also, I was wondering about that UXGA display -- anyone out there have one that can tell us if its superior in terms of even bightness from top to bottom? Can a new display be added?

Thanks,
Paul

Does anyone know if this problem is unique to the 5100/50 series or do we just have a couple of bum monitors?

Glad to know that I'm not the only one who sees this as a problem.  To answer your graphics card question... I have the 64MB DDR NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 AGP 4X graphics card, so I guess that makes no differece.

Thanks,

Loumag

Inspiron 5150
P4 3.06 Mhz / 512MB RAM
15" SXGA+
64MB nVida QuadroFX Go5200
30GB HD

I notice it with mine too, at first I thought it was a faulty screen but I got used to it, and it became harder to notice after time. The screen is really nice once you look past the backlighting.

 

As for the UXGA, you might be able to order one from spare parts. The horizontal viewing angle is +50/
-60 degrees and the vertical is +/- 70 degrees, not to mention a 400:1 contrast ratio compared to sxga+'s 250:1

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@Revolvah wrote:

The screen is really nice once you look past the backlighting.

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Thanks for the great info on viewing angles. The Dell rep who sold me the 5150 said that I was getting the best display available with the SXVGA+! Obviously not as the UXGA looks better. My advise: talk to Revolvah first ;-) and make sure you get a rep who knows what is available. I told the Dell rep that I was a pro photographer & that I needed the best screen that had for my photo editing. Thats what he recommended (SXGA+) ...

Thanks again,
Paul

OH that really stinks.  'Cus I was just reading the posts and was gonna ask why you even got a SXGA if it was so important for clients to see a nice screen (but didnt cus I thought it was gonna sount too bratty).

Anyway, if it helps I have the UXGA and ist beautiful.  If you can exchange it or something and just pay a slight bit more for a UXGA that would be good... hope its not too late for you to do that though

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@GrumpyChick wrote:

OH that really stinks.  'Cus I was just reading the posts and was gonna ask why you even got a SXGA

Anyway, if it helps I have the UXGA and ist beautiful. ... hope its not too late for you to do that though

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Whew, close call with you!!! But I might like it when you're bratty ;-) Also, I just checked - I am within 30 days for a return. Another close call.

Thanks to all - I learned about displays!

-Paul

i also have the UXGA on my 5150 and i have had no brightness/darkness issues with it.

Thanks for your recommendation of the UXGA - I'm trying to get my upgraded from SVGA+ to UXGA by Dell. I'll give you an update when i find out more.

The only problem with the UXGA is that the fonts are very small (basically more pixels are squeezed in the same area). Good for photos and videos but can be a problem while browsing and / or doing other stuff.

Raj

I'm well past a month after my purchase, but I was wondering what it would take ($/time wise), or if it was even possible to upgrade from SXGA to UXGA. My SXGA screen gets 1400x1052, while I heard the UXGAs can get up to 1600x1200 - the same as a 19" monitor.

just call dell tech support for this issue, since the system is new, it might be a backlight problem, and im sure that tech support can help you with this problem.

Jared123,

Squeezing 1600x1200 pixels (meant for a 19" screen) onto a 15" screen means that the pitch size decrease, in other words the pixels are spaced nearer to each other. This reduces the font size and also some web pages display very small. This is the very reason that I returned my 5150 with UXGA and ordered one with SXGA+.

-R

The SXGA has a higher contrast ratio, and when you're playing games it makes a big difference. As far as web sites and text editing go, you can set the resolution to 1400x1050 or up the font size in the advanced display settings.