how to test laptop lcd display factory

To learn more about best practices on handling and using a Dell laptop, see the Dell knowledge base article Best Practices for Product Use and Handling for Dell Laptops.

For displays with glossy bezels, consider the placement of the display as the bezel may cause disturbing reflections from surrounding light and bright surfaces.

WARNING: Use of controls, adjustments, or procedures other than what is specified in the User Manual may result in exposure to shock, electrical hazards, and/or mechanical hazards.

To learn more about safety instructions, see the Dell knowledge base article Safety Precautions When Working with Electronic and Electrical Equipment.

If the screen abnormality is not present in the built-in self-test mode, see the Dell knowledge base article How to Troubleshoot Display or Video Issues on a Dell Monitor.

If the LCD built-in self-test (BIST) diagnostic test passed, the laptop LCD screen is working correctly. The display problem could be due to an outdated graphics driver or incorrect video settings. Follow the troubleshooting instructions in the Dell knowledge base article How to Troubleshoot Display or Video Issues on a Dell Laptop.

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There’s a lot of variables to test when objectively evaluating the performance of a laptop display, including brightness, black levels, color accuracy, and more. To test these, we use different tools depending on what’s being tested.

When measuring brightness levels and contrast, we utilize the X-Rite i1Display Pro colorimeter. Colorimeters measures the light from the display through three filters. At this point you shouldn’t be surprised to hear that the filters are red, green, and blue. Colorimeters measure light and color similarly to the way your eye would. The advantage to using a colorimeter for testing contrast ratios is that with just three filters, there’s less noise when measuring black, so the accuracy of the black level is higher than with a spectrophotometer.

A spectrophotometer works in a similar way to a colorimeter, but instead of reading light in three bands, a typical spectrophotometer will have 31 filters to measure the entire color spectrum. They can measure a wider range of colors, generally with more accuracy. There are extremely good colorimeters on the market as well though, so as with most things, your mileage may vary. The disadvantage is less accurate readings on black, but we use the X-Rite i1Pro 2 spectrophotometer for all of our color readings including grayscale, saturations, and the Gretag Macbeth test.

For the software suite, we leverage SpectraCal’s CalMAN suite, which is an incredibly powerful set of tools. We utilize a custom workflow to measure brightness, contrast, grayscale, gamma, gamut, saturation, and Gretag MacBeth. If desired the workflow can also be used to calibrate a display, and measure the display accuracy across the entire display, although we generally reserve that for monitor reviews.

First, we measure the display’s brightness and black levels at both 100% brightness and 0% brightness. Contrast is presented with the display at 100% brightness, and a brighter display provides more options for use outdoors, but the brightness at 0% can be important too if you’re using the device in a very dark room, such as in bed. Some displays can go all the way down to less than 10 nits, while others bottom out much higher and would seem eye-searing in a dark room.

Next, the i1Display Pro is swapped out with the i1Pro 2, which is first calibrated and then placed on the center of the display. A 100% white image is shown and the brightness level is adjusted to 200 nits – or as close as can be had, since there’s not infinite steppings on the brightness levels. Once the brightness level is set, the display is run through the grayscale test which measures the accuracy of the white levels from 0 to 100% at 4-bit steps. Next, the gamut accuracy is tested, which is simply the 100% levels for red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, and yellow, along with white. We then do the saturation sweeps which measures all of the primary colors (red, green, and blue) as well as secondary colors (cyan, magenta, and yellow) with 4-bit steps between measurements. Finally, we test the Gretag Macbeth colorchecker which runs through colors that aren’t necessarily directly on the primary or secondary axis, and includes important colors such as skin tones.

The brightness and black levels are measured in candela per square meter (cd/m2) and because candela per square meter is a mouthful, we refer to it as the non-SI term nits, where 1 nit = 1 cd/m2. Contrast ratio calculation is the brightness level at 100% divided by the black level at 100%, and of course higher is better, since it means the LCD is doing a better job of blocking the backlight when the pixel is set to off.

The color accuracy measurements results are in Delta-E 2000 (dE2000), and Delta-E is a value that represents the distance between two colors. A dE2000 of 0 would mean that the colors are identical. A dE of 1.0 is the smallest color difference the human eye can see, but color is a complicated field and values above 1.0 aren’t necessarily noticeable either depending on where they fall in the spectrum. On our results, you’ll see a yellow bar at dE2000 of 3.0, and a green bar at 1.0. We’re generally looking for values under 3.0 to consider a display as accurate, but if it is under 1.0 it would be imperceptible.

So we’ve gone over how we test displays, and what it means to be an accurate display. But, you may be wondering why one display is accurate and another is not, when both are IPS LCDs. The likely answer is that one of the manufacturers took the time to calibrate the display at the factory. The other possible answer is that one of them was just lucky in the panel lottery sweepstakes, but we’ve never run into a display that was accurate across the board that wasn’t calibrated.

There’s certainly a cost to calibrating the display on a laptop, but don’t assume that all premium devices have calibrated displays. The vast majority have no calibration at all. As of this writing, the only manufacturers who calibrated every display individually on every device they sell is Apple and Microsoft. We’ve seen other vendors offer calibration as well, such as Huawei and Lenovo, but not necessarily across their product lineup.

Sometimes manufacturers will do batch calibration, where they measure one or more displays from a batch, and calibrate them all with the same results. This is generally better than none at all, but obviously not as good as individual calibration.

There’s a couple of reasons why we prefer manufacturers to calibrate their displays at the factory. First, it saves the end user the cost and hassle of purchasing calibration equipment and creating their own profile, which is an obvious benefit. People who are doing color critical work may still want to calibrate, but their profiles should need to be far less aggressive than a device without hardware calibration. Second, creating ICC profiles to be applied to fix a display can cause banding, shade crushing, and gamma issues, especially in gaming. If the corrections are done in hardware, the software can’t interfere with it.

Professional monitors may have 3D Look Up Tables (LUTs) which allow the end user to calibrate it at the hardware level, and allow the display to render images in multiple color spaces, but laptops don’t have this hardware accessible to the end user. There’s a cost, but on a laptop that costs several thousand dollars, that cost should be paid for.

In the past decade, LCD monitors have replaced CRT screens for all but the most specialist applications. Although liquid crystal displays boast perfect

Today we"re testing a monitor, but it"s not the usual sort of monitor review. Rather, we"re looking at a laptop display because it"s super interesting - it"s one of the few OLED laptop screens going around, and from testing this display we can learn a lot about how OLED might be suited to PC displays and how it compares to the LCD panels we"ve been using for a while now.

The laptop we have on hand is the new Gigabyte Aero 15 OLED, a mobile workstation aimed at creators packing a ton of great hardware. Our test unit came with a Core i7-9750H processor and GeForce RTX 2070 Max-Q graphics, but this same laptop can be upgraded as high as a Core i9-9980HK and RTX 2080 Max-Q. You also get usual high-end specs including up to 32GB of RAM and 512GB SSDs.

But this is not going to be a full laptop review. We"ve already covered the RTX 2070 Max-Q and the Core i7-9750H separately, so if you"re interested in how they perform, check out those reviews. This article will be a full investigation and analysis of this noteworthy OLED display.

If you"re not very familiar with OLED technology, we can"t blame you. It"s extremely uncommon to see an OLED paired with a PC. There have been a few laptops and monitors over the years to dabble in OLED, but up until now the technology has been largely kept to high-end TVs from the likes of LG and a wide range of premium smartphones. In 2019 OLED is making a jump over to PCs through a new 15.6-inch OLED display for laptops and a few interesting professional OLED monitors for creators.

OLED is fundamentally different to LCD. Rather than having a white backlight shine through liquid crystals to form colors like in an LCD, OLED pixels emit their own light, so they act as both the backlight and the crystal at the same time. This has significant benefits: OLEDs can have much higher contrast ratios, better viewing angles, better HDR performance, better color performance, and in some situations lower power consumption because each pixel can be individually controlled. The main downside right now is image retention, which we"ll talk more about later.

The OLED panel used on this laptop is a brand new offering from Samsung"s AMOLED division. A 15.6-inch 4K 60 Hz panel with VESA DisplayHDR 400 True Black certification - indicating we"re getting true HDR performance - as well as 100% DCI-P3 coverage. Not 90%, not 95%, but 100% DCI-P3 coverage, which is kind of hard to achieve with LCD technology.

OLED screens operate differently to LCDs in that they often have a brightness limiter that controls how bright the display gets based on the average picture level of the content it"s displaying. In contrast, LCDs will usually be capable of the same brightness in their SDR mode regardless of whether they are displaying a 100% white window, or a 1% white window.

This new laptop OLED doesn"t suffer much from brightness limits. While displaying a full white window, the panel was easily able to achieve 390 nits of brightness, which is higher than most common laptop LCDs. This then increases to above 470 nits when the APL falls to 10% or lower. This difference between high and low APL brightness isn"t all that severe and should be largely unnoticeable during use which is great news.

The contrast ratio is, of course, impressive. That"s because OLED panels switch off entirely when displaying black content, so the contrast ratio is effectively infinite. This gives OLEDs noticeably deeper blacks than LCDs and because the blacks are so deep and the contrast ratio is so high, it makes colors pop as a result. OLEDs don"t suffer from any backlight bleed or IPS glow issues that are otherwise inherent to LCD panels. For viewing dark content, like that one episode in the final season of Game of Thrones, there is no better display to have than an OLED.

OLEDs also have outstanding viewing angles, better than IPS and significantly better than TN LCDs. There is basically zero shift to brightness or colors when viewing this display at acute angles, to the point where you can basically see everything perfectly from any reasonable angle. This helps significantly with content creation: you don"t need to sit in a "sweet spot" to see accurate colors, because colors are accurate from most angles.

The screen does have a glossy finish but handles reflections well, so you should be able to use it comfortably with backlighting. It also helps that the brightness the screen can achieve is quite high, which you need to an extent with a laptop display.

Gigabyte claims that their display is factory calibrated to a deltaE of below 1.0, and it comes X-Rite Pantone certified. There are a couple of modes available, a specific Pantone mode as well as a standard mode, but we found the standard default to be the most accurate out of the box.

When measuring the Aero 15"s OLED against sRGB, out of the box performance is impressive. The only small nitpick we have is that the greyscale CCT average of 6157 is a little warm for general usage, and the gamma curve is slightly too high at the low end, but a deltaE average of 1.98 is better than your typical laptop display and with some slight tweaks to CCT will be perfect for content creation.

It"s better than that for saturation sweeps, with a deltaE average of just 1.36 getting very close to Gigabyte"s rated 1.0 metric. This increases slightly to 1.78 in ColorChecker but in general this is excellent for content creators that need to work with the sRGB color space.

The factory calibrated Aero 15 is just as good for wide gamut work, and it doesn"t require any profile switching or settings adjustments as the correct ICC profile is already pre-loaded out of the box. Greyscale performance is identical to the sRGB mode, while saturation performance is slightly better at a deltaE average of 1.31, again perfect for color accurate work. A ColorChecker deltaE of below 1.7 is again fantastic here.

Out of the box, the DCI-P3 color space covered was a little disappointing at just 95.6%. It"s kinda funny saying disappointing here given most LCDs can only hit 96% in the best cases, but Gigabyte did say 100% coverage and it falls a little short here... or does it?

When calibrating this display we were able to increase the overall color gamut of both the sRGB and DCI-P3 modes to be right on the limit, seems Gigabyte was being a bit conservative. Here you can see we"re getting 99.5% DCI-P3 coverage, 99.8% sRGB coverage, and an impressive 93.5% Adobe RGB coverage all from the same display. The total color gamut is nearly 150% sRGB, which is elite.

And when you combine all of this with great performance when calibrated, it"s safe to say this Aero 15 OLED display is the best performing screen we"ve tested for color accuracy, especially in a laptop form factor.

Uniformity is pretty good, too. As each individual pixel emits light it"s hard to get everything uniform, but Samsung has done a wonderful job here. Almost the entire screen falls under a deltaE of 2.0 relative to the center, it"s only the top left corner of our unit that deviated slightly, not that we could notice in most circumstances during general use.

While not a huge issue for content creation, gamers will be excited about the response times here: I measured consistent times between 1.6 and 1.7ms, which honestly is a little slow compared to the best LG OLED TVs that can transition faster than 1.0ms. But this blows any LCD out of the water. Even "1ms" rated LCDs are often more like 3ms in practice, so this is another area where OLED dominates LCD.

While response times are awesome, the limited 60 Hz refresh rate keeps the display from being the best for gaming. It"s difficult for laptop hardware to drive a 4K display at 60 FPS in the latest titles, and while this display looks fantastic at a lower 1080p resolution where you"ll get great performance, we think gamers will be better suited overall to a fast 144 Hz 1080p laptop which is more in the target range for this sort of performance. That said, we can"t wait until we see 120 Hz OLEDs in laptops, that will be the best of both worlds for gamers.

As far as HDR performance is concerned, the only way you"re getting true HDR in a laptop is with an OLED display, simply because you can"t fit a full array local dimming backlight into this form factor. So OLED with a DisplayHDR True Black rating is the way to go.

We were actually surprised this OLED was only able to pass DisplayHDR 400 True Black certification, rather than the highest DisplayHDR 500 True Black that"s available for OLEDs. Our unit was capable of 400 nits sustained brightness, and well over 500 nits peak, which is the requirement for True Black 500. Moreover, with a 10% window we were hitting 580 nits peak, and in smaller windows up to 600 nits. A full screen flash of 400 nits should also have sufficed for DisplayHDR 500 True Black. Anyway, that"s just a sticker on the box, this is a super impressive display.

Looking at the HDR checklist you can see it passes all the key metrics for true HDR performance. We"re getting a high peak brightness of 600 nits, which looks even brighter with an OLED given its deep blacks. There"s per pixel local dimming, which is better than any current LCD can achieve, even those with FALD backlights. And then there"s a massive gamut, wider than most displays out there. Essentially, this is one of the best HDR displays for PC on the market, it"s insane.

We watched some HDR video on this laptop while simultaneously viewing it on a LG OLED TV and the experience was very similar. Slight edge goes to the LG OLED as it can get a bit brighter but ultimately we were blown away by the quality of this OLED for HDR video. It"s miles ahead of the nearest LCD.

HDR gaming is also impressive, although again at 60 Hz it"s probably not the best laptop for full-time gaming, there is no better laptop to get a glimpse at what a true HDR experience is like.

The only downside to this OLED panel is one that remains a bit up in the air: image retention. OLEDs have come a long way in this department, but it"s unclear how this specific Samsung AMOLED will handle long periods of use with static content. We know that LG"s OLED TVs, for example, take a long time to burn in, however the tech used there is slightly different to Samsung"s AMOLED.

Indeed, one of the main reasons why we haven"t seen more OLED PC monitors is due to image retention. On a TV this isn"t as bad of a problem as most content you"ll be viewing, whether that"s movies or TV or games, is generally highly dynamic and if there"s any static content, it could be a small logo that changes with different channels. However PC usage has a static taskbar, often static navigation bars within apps, and large areas of static content. This is a scenario that"s prone to burn in.

For now we just don"t know how this panel will stand up to the test of time. Smartphones can have a lot of static content as well and the latest models seem to do quite well, often using Samsung AMOLED tech. But Windows 10 usage is a step above and it doesn"t have the same mitigations as Android, so this will be something to keep an eye on. We don"t want to say it will definitely burn in over time, but there"s a chance and you should be aware of it before purchasing.

Get past this risk and this is the best laptop display on the market. There is no competitor that gets close and we"re seeing top-of-the-charts performance in areas like contrast ratio, color performance, color gamut, response times and HDR capabilities. Even areas where OLED can struggle, like brightness, are extremely impressive.

This display also blows away most desktop PC monitors, which is why we really hope we find a way to get more OLED displays up and running as monitors.

We barely touched on the actual laptop, but it"s as good as Gigabyte"s Aero 15 line has generally been, which is to say very good. Great performance, good compact design, great keyboard, and the cooling system seems quieter than the last generation. Oh, and yes, that OLED display.

The Gigabyte Aero 15 OLED comes at a premium as expected. Our review unit as configured will set you back $2,499 which is $500 more than the non-OLED model, but that"s the price you have to pay for killer tech. A base model with the OLED display and a GTX 1660 Ti starts at $1,699.

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Just like televisions, laptop displays start to flicker too after a few years. You may sometimes also notice the display turning blank even when the laptop is on. Alternatively, you might find some white lines running down the display.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that there is an issue with the motherboard. If your laptop keeps turning off every few minutes and doesn’t turn on, there is a high chance that the AC adapter has malfunctioned. You can get help from a professional to confirm and get the AC adapter replaced, if required. There is also a possibility that the DC power jack may have broken. A DC connector (or DC plug) is an electrical connector that supplies steady power to the device.

If the DC jack has broken, you can try adjusting the plug’s angle in its jack. If you see some lights turning on but the device is still not booting, it’s time to replace the DC jack. If that doesn’t help, it’s a clear indication of a motherboard-related issue. You can either get the motherboard repaired or replaced by the brand service center. Getting the motherboard repaired could cost you anywhere up to Rs 10,000, whereas the cost of replacing the motherboard can go anywhere up to Rs 25,000.

If you ever notice multi-coloured or single-coloured vertical lines on your laptop screen, it may be a result of a hardware failure or due to damage to the screen. To try fixing it yourself, first unplug your laptop, hold the power button for 30 seconds and restart the laptop. If you continue to see coloured lines, the issue is probably with the LCD screen, which will need to be replaced from the brand’s service center. To be sure about the LCD screen problem, try connecting your laptop to another monitor and see if the issue persists. If it does, the issue is certainly in the LCD panel.

On turning on the laptop when you see the lights blinking and hear the fan working but if the laptop screen is blank and doesn’t display anything, this is again an indication of a faulty motherboard. The first thing to do is to transfer all the data to another drive to make sure your data is safe. Before going ahead and getting the motherboard repaired or replaced, you could try performing a hard reset (also known as a factory reset), which can mostly help in resolving the blank display issue.

Firstly, check if your laptop’s brightness level is set to maximum. If the display is still dim, try restarting the device. This could just be a system error that can be resolved by restarting the device. Also, check if the AC adapter cord is loose and firmly connect it to the outlet and laptop. If the issue still persists, it is mostly due to a failure of the LCD. Behind the LCD, there is an inverter board and backlight bulb which control the picture.

The inverter board converts the low voltage your laptop uses, into higher voltage required by the long bulb that lights up the LCD screen. If the inverter board or bulb fail, you will experience the problem of a dimmed display. Even if one of these two components fail, the screen will need to be replaced, unless the service center can help by just replacing the bulb. We wouldn’t recommend you try resolving it yourself, as this is more complex and you could end up damaging the circuit board and the backlight lamp. So, it’s best to leave this job to an expert.

Laptops are fragile and can easily break, especially with more and more thinner and lighter models being launched now. Some of the most common ways how a laptop is damaged include: when it accidentally falls and the screen cracks, when it’s held at an awkward angle or if you unknowingly placed something heavy on the laptop. Remember, a cracked laptop screen can affect the overall functioning of the device in some cases.

Since brands do not cover the laptop screen, it’s best to get your device covered with a protection plan in advance. Screen replacements are expensive and can cost you anywhere up to Rs. 15,000 but if you have the

Need an expert to take a look at your laptop? Book Onsitego’s on-demand repair service. Besides taking care of common laptop problems like battery draining or laptop hanging, we can help with issues like setting up the operating system or removing malware/virus from your device. Our service engineers are qualified and use only good-quality spare parts while repairing. The best part is that our service is backed with a 90-day post-service warranty.

Follow Onsitego on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube to get the latest news, reviews, maintenance tips, and videos about your favourite gadgets and appliances.

To learn more about best practices on handling and using a Dell laptop, see the Dell knowledge base article Best Practices for Product Use and Handling for Dell Laptops.

For displays with glossy bezels, consider the placement of the display as the bezel may cause disturbing reflections from surrounding light and bright surfaces.

WARNING: Use of controls, adjustments, or procedures other than what is specified in the User Manual may result in exposure to shock, electrical hazards, and/or mechanical hazards.

To learn more about safety instructions, see the Dell knowledge base article Safety Precautions When Working with Electronic and Electrical Equipment.

If the screen abnormality is not present in the built-in self-test mode, see the Dell knowledge base article How to Troubleshoot Display or Video Issues on a Dell Monitor.

If the LCD built-in self-test (BIST) diagnostic test passed, the laptop LCD screen is working correctly. The display problem could be due to an outdated graphics driver or incorrect video settings. Follow the troubleshooting instructions in the Dell knowledge base article How to Troubleshoot Display or Video Issues on a Dell Laptop.

To provide you more detailed instruction, you can also click ASUS Youtube video link below to know more about Troubleshooting for No display on LCD Monitor

Make sure if the operating system had entered hibernation,sleep or power-save mode. Press any key (Enter key / Power key) or move the mouse to wake it up.

Check if the signal cable (VGA / DVI / HDMI / DisplayPort) is wellconnected , and confirmed another end of the output cable has been firmly connected to computer input port (graphics card). Unplug and plug 2-terminals again to ensure all pins aren"t bent.

Check if the signal cable (VGA / DVI / HDMI / DisplayPort) is wellconnected and confirmed another end of the output cable has been firmly connected to computer input port (graphics card). Unplug and plug 2-terminals again to ensure all the pins aren"t bent.

If the model had attached with the power supply (AC-adapter), make sure the power supply has connected to the screen. Please check if the light of power supply is ON. If the light is NOT ON, change another power supply to test.

Are there any regional differences inpower specifications thatASUS LCD monitor supported (for example: If monitor was bought in Taiwan, can it be used in China or other countries?)

ASUS LCD monitor can support power specification: AC 100-240V. As long as within this voltage range, the display can work properly. However, please be noted that if you bought a monitor from another region, the power cord is not necessarily compatible to power outlet. Customer should replace the appropriate power cord or plug adapter in order to ensure normal power supply of the display.

So, a while back the hinges on my laptop broke. I ignored the problem and kept it open to not disturb any of the wires bridging the hinges. Long story short, the LCD finally hit the dust (damage to some of the ribbon cables and WiFi wires).

I ordered an entire 1600x900 factory replacement monitor (casing, webcam, LCD, etc) and took "er apart and plugged it up, but there is nothing posting to the new monitor. note: the laptop WILL output both HDMI and rbg to an external monitor.

Anyways, as far as I can tell and multiple passovers, there is nothing damaged on the board. I"ve taken it apart and checked multiple times to the best of my ability, reseating the LCD connection to the motherboard and internally on the new display..

So guys, what do? Is there any way I can test the power coming from the 40 pins on the mother and make sure it isn"t goof"d somehow? Are there diagram showing the voltages coming from each pin and how would I go about testing that? Any help would be appreciated.

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On the back side of the screen you can see one or several labels with numbers. Almost every screen on the market today have manufacturer"s code and screen size included in the model number. You will need the manufacturer part number to find the right replacement screen.

For example a Dell XPS 15 (L502X) has a Dell Part Number of VVR75 or 0VVR75, it has an LCD Part Number: XM5XG and a manufacturer P/N: N156B6 -L0B. The Letter N tells us that the manufacturer is CHI MEI and the 156 that this is a 15.6 inch screen.

Below is a list of LCD screen manufacturers with their abbreviations - if you click on the name (in blue) you will see an example of that manufacturer"s parts label.

LG Display is a large South Korean company and the world"s largest LCD maker, followed by Samsung Electronics. Currently, the two companies together control nearly 50% of the global LCD market. LG Display is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea.

Chi mei Part number start with "N". Some Screens have Revision numbers. Like in this example, the part number is N154I2-L02 followed by revision number indicated by Rev.C1. If you had to search for this particular screen on this site, you should search for "CHI MEI N154I2-L02 Rev. C1".

Toshiba Corporation (manufacturing company, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan Toshiba-made Semiconductors are among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders. Toshiba is the world"s fifth largest personal computer manufacturer, after Hewlett-Packard and Dell of the U.S., Acer of Taiwan and Lenovo of China and US.

Chungwha Picture Tubes, Ltd. (CPT) is one of Taiwan"s, and the world"s, leading manufacturers of thin-film transistor liquid crystal displays, or TFT-LCDs. Ranked number three in the Taiwan TFT panel market.

Sharp, a Japanese electronics manufacturer, has developed into one of the leading electronics companies in the world. LCD technology continues to be a key part of Sharp"s product range, in both the component and the consumer-applicance sides of the business.

Hyundai Display Technology Inc. (HYDIS) of Ichon, Korea, is an industry leader in the development, sales, marketing and distribution of high-quality LCD, which is a spin-off from HYNIX Semiconductor Inc. Boe Hydis (Formerly Hyundai Displays Korea)

Quanta Display Inc. is a Taiwanese company established in 1999, manufacturing thin film transistor-liquid crystal display panels. It merged with AU Optronics.

AU Optronics is one of the top 3 worldwide manufacturers of thin film transistor liquid crystal display panels (TFT-LCD), and is the largest in Taiwan. AUO provides customers a full range of panel sizes and comprehensive applications, offering TFT-LCD panels in sizes ranging from 1.5 inches to greater than 65 inches.

Power down the computer and unplug all peripherals. If you are using a laptop, take its battery out by flipping it upside down and sliding the battery release latch. Press and hold the power button for 15 or 20 seconds to clear all residual power from the system. Some of the computer’s power might have been transmitting to the monitor, causing it to short out. Reconnect everything and turn the system back on to see if the lines are gone.

Unplug the monitor from the back of the computer and wait a few seconds until it displays a message “No signal.” If the no signal message also has vertical lines, you know the problem is in the monitor and not in your computer. Press the “Menu” button on the screen and then use the other buttons to browse for a “Factory Settings” mode. Select this mode to reset the monitor to its original settings. If the lines persist, the monitor may have been dropped or exposed to a magnet -- which can’t be fixed.

Reconnect and turn the computer back on. Look for the lines at boot up: if you see lines before Windows loads, the problem is either with the video card, the video connection cable -- whether HDMI or VGA -- or the monitor itself. If the lines only appear in Windows, the problem is a Windows setting -- most likely the refresh rate. Right-click on the Desktop once Windows loads and choose “Screen Resolution.” Click “Advanced Settings,” “Monitor,” and then lower the refresh rate to see if the lines disappear.

Accurate to the T. Unlike gamers, content creators have more stringent requirements for an ideal laptop display. In this article, we will look into several factors that determine an ideal LCD panel for a content creator or workstation laptop, including factors such as pixel density, color gamuts, color accuracy, and more. We take the implementation of LCD displays in high-end MSI content creation laptops as examples to explain the basics. (Sponsored article.)

In our previous article on laptop displays for gamers, we"ve seen some of the important aspects that govern LCD panel choice and performance. This article aims to be an extension of that and will focus on some critical factors that professional users would look into while purchasing a workstation laptop.

Unlike gamers who can make do with fairly decent color accuracy and color-gamut coverage, creative pros require these parameters to be the best they can get. Working with high-resolution images and video for critical projects demands not only the required processing horsepower but also a capable display that is as true to real life as possible.

In this article, we will take a look at how some of these parameters such as pixel density, color gamut, color calibration, and color accuracy are factored in while deciding on a laptop display for content creators. We illustrate how these parameters are factored-in during the creation of premium MSI notebooks for content creators.

Pixel density, also known as pixels per inch (PPI), refers to the number of pixels per square inch of the display. The higher the pixel density, the more information can be displayed on the screen. Pixel density also correlates with the resolution of the display. For example, the pixel density of a 15.6-inch FHD display comes to around 141 while a UHD display on the same screen size yields 282.4 pixels per inch. Therefore, many more pixels can be accommodated in case of the UHD display on the same screen area, resulting in much more detail, sharper fonts, smoother lines, and overall a greatly enhanced viewing experience.

There is a point to note here, though. While higher pixel densities are generally welcome, the numbers don"t matter beyond a certain threshold. This is because the human eye cannot distinguish more than 400 pixels per inch at a distance of about 16 inches from the monitor.

In our previous article, we gave an introduction to the concept of color gamut. Basically, color gamut specifies the range of colors that the display can show in comparison to the colors perceived by the human eye. Displays with wider color gamuts are of utmost importance to content creators, especially those who work on photography and color-sensitive video-editing.

Commonly used standards include sRGB, NTSC, and AdobeRGB. Most LCD panels in the market list out the color gamut standards they adhere to and the extent of coverage. Professionals tend to look at the AdobeRGB coverage as it allows for more vivid colors than what sRGB can. There can be a lot of variation in color gamuts, so a standardized system helps to determine if the LCD monitor is displaying the colors it should.

The graph on the right is what is referred to as the xy chromaticity diagram established by the International Commission on Illumination (CIE). In the graph, the color perception of the human eye is represented by the inverted U-shaped area and individual color gamut standards are denoted by triangles. The larger the size of each triangle, the wider is the color coverage of the panel for that particular standard. The panel cannot display colors outside the corresponding triangle"s area.

sRGB is the commonly used color gamut standard across LCD monitors, printers, and most digital cameras. However, the overall color range of sRGB is very limited and does not include highly saturated colors. Adobe RGB overcomes this limitation, and panels supporting this color gamut standard can display a much more vivid color profile, especially when considering the greens. The image below illustrates this nicely.

With this information in mind, let us have a look at the color-gamut coverage of a high-end MSI content creator laptop. We see that the laptop"s display can cover nearly 100% of both the sRGB and the AdobeRGB color standards. This is an excellent color reproduction for a content creation notebook. MSI equips most of its laptops with True Color technology from Portrait Displays Inc. to ensure color gamut reproduction as close as possible to 100% sRGB or 100% AdobeRGB.

MSI first introduced True Color technology in 2014 and continues to use it across its portfolio. The process starts right from inspecting the panels coming from the factory. Each panel is color calibrated, which includes setting the ideal color temperature, color gamut, and grayscale values. These are then calibrated and adjusted using a color profile suited for the monitor before shipping.

True Color encompasses a suite of features that offer users a lot of control in fine-tuning the color profile. With True Color, users can share color profiles, adjust color temperature, and sync their settings across supported displays.

Delta E is a measure of the color difference that can be perceived by a human eye. In general, a Delta E value of 1 implies that two colors can be just about differentiated by the human eye while a Delta E of 0 implies that the colors are mathematically the same. Delta E values less than 2 are imperceptible due to limitations in human eyesight. Those requiring accurate color reproduction look out for the Delta E value that is calibrated at the factory. While content creator laptop displays generally have very low Delta E, depending on the display type, it is also possible to further calibrate the display and reduce the Delta E to less than 1.0. LCD panels with lower Delta E values display more accurate colors that are true-to-life as possible.

CalMAN is a popular tool used for color calibration across various industries. CalMAN offers hardware support for most modern LCD panels and is a valuable tool across the production chain right from post production to broadcasting. While MSI"s True Color technology helps in getting a color-accurate display right from the first step of display production, the "CalMAN Verified" branding assures customers in knowing that they are really getting their money"s worth. "CalMAN Verified" displays add an extra layer of assurance for both content creation and consumption. High-end MSI content creation laptops with a 4K panel carry this branding to assure creative pros that they are getting a highly color-accurate display. Whether editing a beautiful landscape photo, color-grading film footage, or even immersive entertainment, MSI laptops with "CalMAN Verified" displays offer a great true-to-life viewing experience.

In this article, we have provided a brief overview into what goes into some of the important criteria concerning selection of LCD panels for content creation notebooks. While you do have specialized monitors for professionals, a color-accurate laptop display is an indispensable tool for those on the go.

MSI content creation laptops such as the Prestige 14 and Prestige 15 offer a "True Pixel" display experience that combines a high resolution (4K), high density (>220 PPI) display with nearly 100% AdobeRGB coverage and impeccable color accuracy guaranteed by MSI"s True Color technology and "CalMAN Verified" branding so you know you are getting the absolute best canvas for unhindered creativity.

As always, we make sure to incorporate extensive display testing in our reviews so that you can make an informed purchase. We even offer calibrated color profiles that can be freely downloaded from our corresponding review pages.

We hope this primer on LCD panel selection for content creators was helpful in offering a high-level know-how into this important aspect of laptop purchase. Watch this space for more upcoming laptop 101 articles, including touchpad design and more.

Besides this careful component matching it’s ensured that the latest GeForce RTX Turing graphics are at the centre of MSI laptops. Whether playing blockbuster games like Battlefield V with ray tracing for the very best image quality or working with creative apps like Autodesk 3DS Max, Adobe Premiere Pro and Lightroom or DaVinci Resolve, RTX Laptops are true "workhorses" for professionals, students, and gamers alike. They are perfect for combining leisure and work.