Alienware Area-51 m9750: Power Gaming on the Go
by Jarred Walton on August 24, 2007 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
LCD Brightness, Contrast, and Viewing Angles
As always, we like to take a closer look at notebook displays to see how they measure up to the competition. We use ASTRA32 to probe for details about the LCD panel. However, ASTRA32 merely reads the information directly from the LCD panel using the VBE/DDC standard. Some LCD panels contain the wrong data, for example serial numbers, manufacturing date, etc. so we cannot guarantee all of the details are 100% accurate. Likewise, we cannot guarantee that the LCD panel used in our particular sample will be the same as that used in other notebooks of the same model.
ASTRA32 reports that the LCD panel in our test unit is an LG Philips LPL0B0A, manufactured in January 2005. Many of the notebook LCDs we've looked at have listed January 2005 as the manufacturing date, which seems a bit odd, so it may have been produced a bit more recently. However, looking at the LG Philips website, we could not find any details about this particular panel, which indicates that it was manufactured at least one if not two years ago. The overall display quality seems to be a bit better than some other 17" notebooks that we've seen, so Alienware may have purchased higher-quality LCD panels initially, but it's still safe to say that the LCD panel is a somewhat older model. Response times, color quality, and viewing angles are all pretty similar to what we've seen in other 1920x1200 17" notebooks.
Moving on to objective testing, we'll start with a look at brightness and contrast ratios along with viewing angles. We'll conclude on the following page with an examination of the color accuracy, before and after hardware calibration. For color accuracy, we are including results using ColorEyes Display Pro in addition to Monaco Optix XR Pro. Monaco Optix XR Pro uses the older ICCv2 profile specification and it may not be as accurate as software that uses the more recent ICCv4 specification. In testing we have discovered that there are certainly differences between the two software packages when it comes to color calibration, but neither one is universally better. We use a Monaco Optix XR Pro colorimeter (which is the same as the DTP-94) with both software packages.
The calibrated white level is slightly lower than other LCDs, but maximum brightness prior to calibration was 146 nits, putting it on par with most other laptops. Black levels are also pretty good, and the result is a contrast ratio right around 500:1, give or take. (Without calibration, the black level was 0.28 resulting in a contrast ratio of 520:1.)
Turning down the brightness level rapidly reduces the display to the point where we wouldn't want to use it. Minimum brightness results in a white point of 6.65 nits and a black point of 0.01 nits, and while the measured contrast ratio actually goes up the quality certainly isn't better. There are eight total brightness settings available, but only the top four are really useful as the bottom four start with a white point of 50 nits and go down from there. The steps are also relatively coarse, changing the white level by 15-25 nits.
Brightness levels and contrast ratios aren't the only important aspects of a display, so here's a look at the viewing angles, taken at 30° from center. Images for the other laptops can be viewed using the links below.
ASUS A8Js
ASUS G2P
Dell M1710
HP dv6500t
Gateway E-155-C
MSI S271
PC Club ENP660
The viewing angles overall are pretty good for a laptop, ranking slightly ahead of most other laptops we've tested particularly in vertical viewing angles. In terms of overall quality we still prefer the ASUS G2P LCD, while the Gateway E-155-C has the best viewing angles.
Given that this is a gaming notebook, response times are going to be a bit more important. Using a 1/80s shutter speed, we can see remnants of at least four screen updates in the above image. Actual response times are thus similar to what we've seen in most other notebooks: somewhere between 25ms and 35ms. While that might seem slow for a modern LCD, consider that similar testing on "5 ms" LCDs indicates that they response times are also closer to 25ms in practical use. We weren't bothered by pixel smearing when using the notebook, but others may have more sensitive eyes. Test out some other laptops in person, and see if pixel smearing bothers you.
As always, we like to take a closer look at notebook displays to see how they measure up to the competition. We use ASTRA32 to probe for details about the LCD panel. However, ASTRA32 merely reads the information directly from the LCD panel using the VBE/DDC standard. Some LCD panels contain the wrong data, for example serial numbers, manufacturing date, etc. so we cannot guarantee all of the details are 100% accurate. Likewise, we cannot guarantee that the LCD panel used in our particular sample will be the same as that used in other notebooks of the same model.
ASTRA32 reports that the LCD panel in our test unit is an LG Philips LPL0B0A, manufactured in January 2005. Many of the notebook LCDs we've looked at have listed January 2005 as the manufacturing date, which seems a bit odd, so it may have been produced a bit more recently. However, looking at the LG Philips website, we could not find any details about this particular panel, which indicates that it was manufactured at least one if not two years ago. The overall display quality seems to be a bit better than some other 17" notebooks that we've seen, so Alienware may have purchased higher-quality LCD panels initially, but it's still safe to say that the LCD panel is a somewhat older model. Response times, color quality, and viewing angles are all pretty similar to what we've seen in other 1920x1200 17" notebooks.
Moving on to objective testing, we'll start with a look at brightness and contrast ratios along with viewing angles. We'll conclude on the following page with an examination of the color accuracy, before and after hardware calibration. For color accuracy, we are including results using ColorEyes Display Pro in addition to Monaco Optix XR Pro. Monaco Optix XR Pro uses the older ICCv2 profile specification and it may not be as accurate as software that uses the more recent ICCv4 specification. In testing we have discovered that there are certainly differences between the two software packages when it comes to color calibration, but neither one is universally better. We use a Monaco Optix XR Pro colorimeter (which is the same as the DTP-94) with both software packages.
The calibrated white level is slightly lower than other LCDs, but maximum brightness prior to calibration was 146 nits, putting it on par with most other laptops. Black levels are also pretty good, and the result is a contrast ratio right around 500:1, give or take. (Without calibration, the black level was 0.28 resulting in a contrast ratio of 520:1.)
Turning down the brightness level rapidly reduces the display to the point where we wouldn't want to use it. Minimum brightness results in a white point of 6.65 nits and a black point of 0.01 nits, and while the measured contrast ratio actually goes up the quality certainly isn't better. There are eight total brightness settings available, but only the top four are really useful as the bottom four start with a white point of 50 nits and go down from there. The steps are also relatively coarse, changing the white level by 15-25 nits.
Brightness levels and contrast ratios aren't the only important aspects of a display, so here's a look at the viewing angles, taken at 30° from center. Images for the other laptops can be viewed using the links below.
 |
ASUS A8Js
ASUS G2P
Dell M1710
HP dv6500t
Gateway E-155-C
MSI S271
PC Club ENP660
The viewing angles overall are pretty good for a laptop, ranking slightly ahead of most other laptops we've tested particularly in vertical viewing angles. In terms of overall quality we still prefer the ASUS G2P LCD, while the Gateway E-155-C has the best viewing angles.
 |
Given that this is a gaming notebook, response times are going to be a bit more important. Using a 1/80s shutter speed, we can see remnants of at least four screen updates in the above image. Actual response times are thus similar to what we've seen in most other notebooks: somewhere between 25ms and 35ms. While that might seem slow for a modern LCD, consider that similar testing on "5 ms" LCDs indicates that they response times are also closer to 25ms in practical use. We weren't bothered by pixel smearing when using the notebook, but others may have more sensitive eyes. Test out some other laptops in person, and see if pixel smearing bothers you.
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Guspaz - Saturday, September 1, 2007 - link
Anybody considering buying a gaming notebook should refuse to purchase one until nVidia gets their act together and starts releasing notebook drivers with regularity.I myself am a notebook gamer, with a modest Dell Inspiron 9400, Core 2 Duo 2.16GHz, and aGeForce Go 7900gs. I run Vista.
Well, nVidia currently DOES NOT OFFER Vista notebook drivers at all. Not a one, nada. Your only options are to either use Dell's driver, which is an ancient beta missing support for most features of the GPU, or a hacked desktop driver (which still is missing many features under Vista, and lacks PowerMizer support).
Under XP, the situation isn't much better. nVidia's latest notebook drivers for XP are 84.63, released over a year ago on July 5, 2006.
Your notebook manufacturer MIGHT provide newer drivers, if you're LUCKY. For Dell's part, their XP drivers are still ancient and stuck in the 90 series, and they only ever released ONE driver for Vista, probably thinking "Well, they have drivers now, that's good enough."
In order to play BioShock on a notebook, you have NO other option but to hack the desktop drivers.
This is NOT an acceptable situation. As notebook gamers, we should REQUIRE nVidia to SUPPORT THEIR PRODUCT and release regular updates for their cards. The fact that their desktop drivers work so well on notebooks with a simple INF tweak should show you how EASY it would be for them to release official notebook drivers. They give us this bullshit story about how driver updates need to come from the notebook manufacturers due to differences between notebooks. This is bullshit. I don't get my desktop graphics drivers from Abit because they happen to have made the motherboard.
So what do I plan to do? I have no choice. I'll keep using hacked desktop drivers for lack of ANY other option.
monitorjbl - Saturday, August 25, 2007 - link
Yay, a William Gibson reference!
JarredWalton - Saturday, August 25, 2007 - link
Bonus points if you actually played the old Neuromancer game by Interplay. Cue Devo...Some
Things
Ne-ver
Change
....
:)
strafejumper - Friday, August 24, 2007 - link
i never understood the concept of all these laptops such as this alienwarethe idea of a laptop to me is it is portable
however if the battery only last 60 mins it is not really that portable
for $5000 i would want to be able to for example watch a dvd
however this cannot even do that seemingly simple task!
battery life to me is so much more useful than the extra cpu and gpu cycles
when watching a dvd, browsing the internet, playing cards, backgammon, chess or other simple games, listening to music, typing documents, emailing, messengering etc. etc. the extra horsepower of the cpu and gpu are not even being used.
battery life > some extra frames in the latest game (which is better on a desktop probably anyway with bigger screen, full keyboard + mouse, desk, speakers, etc.)
Inkjammer - Saturday, August 25, 2007 - link
I am one of the people who have bought, buy and will buy workstations like these. People like me don't buy them as a "laptop" but as a "portable desktop replacement" (DTR).Some of the justifications:
Lugging an entire system to LAN parties can be frustrating, especially since I have a 24" monitor, large keyboard. I'm also using a Coolermaster 830 CM Stacker case, which weighs a ton, and breaking it down, setting it up can take far, far too long.
I also tend to take my DTR notebooks systems with me to work, where I can game during nightshifts. I'm also stationed overseas, so being able to easily transport a FULL system, even if contains in a laptop, is invaluable. I also do high end art and 3D animation, and need the additional power for job and hobby.
The tradeoff for portability and battery life on a notebook is fairly steep, but there's not much in the way of compromise.
And yes, I have a second laptop for my "on the go" needs.
yyrkoon - Friday, August 24, 2007 - link
Some people do not have room for a desktop(or a desk), and use nothing but laptops. Others may travel, staying in hotels nightly, having a plug available, but do not want to tote around a desktop with them. Other people like truckers may be able to use an AC inverter for power, but have limited room in their sleepers for a computer.Having said that, I have been a trucker, and kept a full sized desktop in my sleeper, and I have also worked over the road, staying in a hotel nightly, and used a desktop during this time as well. Not everyone is like me however, and some of these people may preffer something smaller, and easier to carry around, or maybe just smaller to maximize their given 'alotted space' where ever they may be. I wouldnt buy one though . . .
wolfman3k5 - Saturday, August 25, 2007 - link
Well, how about there east bound, you got your ears on? I totally know what you mean, how ever I never had time for gaming. Battery life was always more important to me. I'm also an ex trucker, God, it's a lonely job. Anyway, just wanted to say hi:)yyrkoon - Monday, August 27, 2007 - link
Myself, for 2 years(and around 200k miles) I would typically drive 8HRs/day, 2-3 months at a time. Plenty of down time, and plenty of time to game, even in the early to mid 90's ;) Of course back then, there was nothing like this availible, and I was probably one of the first drivers to have a full blown desktop in their cab(IMB compatable 386SX-25 with 4 MB of ram YEEE HAAW!) lol . . .yyrkoon - Monday, August 27, 2007 - link
IBM compatable . . .JarredWalton - Monday, August 27, 2007 - link
IBM compatible you mean? :)