anyone upgraded their laptop to full HD?

anyone upgraded their laptop to full HD?

Author
Discussion

wjwren

Original Poster:

4,484 posts

135 months

Tuesday 1st September 2015
quotequote all
My laptop is a standard TFT display which looks cack. Ive seen a few videos on youtube of people upgrading to Full HD. Any PH's done this and did it work? Also considered going to 4K but apparently this kills the battery time.

GrumpyTwig

3,354 posts

157 months

Tuesday 1st September 2015
quotequote all
Not sure what you're asking exactly, are you proposing actually changing the physical panel in your existing laptop or buying a new laptop?

Either way windows doesn't do scaling great prior to 8.1 and even then it's not amazing, I guess OSX is probably relatively good at it with their retina panels.
I have a laptop that's very high res 3200x1800 and a lot of software (out of microsofts control for the most part) does not scale well, any of the adobe stuff is impossible to use on it and often you end up struggling to use some pieces of software because the GUI doesn't scale up and all the buttons are the size of ants.


C0ffin D0dger

3,440 posts

145 months

Tuesday 1st September 2015
quotequote all
I have an HD laptop (1920x1080), it's an Asus model. Pleased with it and the screen is nice. Personally I couldn't really cope with a resolution any lower than that on a 15" screen. My work Dell laptop is also HD.

Oakey

27,564 posts

216 months

Tuesday 1st September 2015
quotequote all
What does any of this even mean?!

"standard TFT display"... what resolution?

"Full HD"... so you want 1920x1080?

Even if you replace the panel, what about the GPU, will it handle 4k resolutions?

wseed

1,514 posts

130 months

Tuesday 1st September 2015
quotequote all
If you mean swapping the panel in the same laptop for an HD one then I personally wouldn't bother. I replaced the screen on a relatively new at the time Dell that had a smashed display. I'm relatively competent with taking stuff to bits, having replaced screens on mobiles before) and it's still a little unnerving as there are many fragile clips to break off and cables to route. In the end the swap was successful but the display wasn't of the same quality as the original panel had a couple of dead pixels...

With a working device not only do you have to find a panel that fits your laptop but also that the laptop is able to drive the higher resolution display. LCD panels vary in price but you could well be spending £100 or so one one from ebay and there may not be a 100% certainty that it will be compatible. In your position I'd try and sell your laptop and put the price of the panel towards a new laptop with the resolution you want.

That said I now have another Dell with an 1080p display and as others have said it can be a pain to read some times. I'm constantly changing the magnification in my web browser to get it right for different web pages and some applications are problematic. One of the Canon apps for my camera failed saying that it was too low resolution. Presumably because it wasn't one of the listed supported resolutions which is crazy as it must now be one of the most common.

wjwren

Original Poster:

4,484 posts

135 months

Tuesday 1st September 2015
quotequote all
Not 4k, I mean 1920 x 1080. My machine has discrete graphics so I dont think it will be a problem. Ordered a panel today so will post results. I did look at 4k but the battery will only last 2 hours. There is also an issue wil scaling on 4k panels apparently.

ZesPak

24,427 posts

196 months

Tuesday 1st September 2015
quotequote all
OP, I've done it in the past on a Dell, worked like a charm. Depends on yourself to take the risk and see if it's worth it though. Personally I don't think I'd bother again.

GrumpyTwig said:
Either way windows doesn't do scaling great prior to 8.1 and even then it's not amazing, I guess OSX is probably relatively good at it with their retina panels.
I have a laptop that's very high res 3200x1800 and a lot of software (out of microsofts control for the most part) does not scale well, any of the adobe stuff is impossible to use on it and often you end up struggling to use some pieces of software because the GUI doesn't scale up and all the buttons are the size of ants.
OSX scales better but they have the same issue regarding 3rd party software. Of course, since very high res monitors are now mainstay, it'll gradually improve.
I was always quite impressed on how all the software scales so well on Android devices, considering the countless resolutions available.

J4CKO

41,529 posts

200 months

Tuesday 1st September 2015
quotequote all
I have just bought a Toshiba Chromebook 2 for web surfing duties which has a HD screen, the display is superb, seems more vivid than my Ipad Air 2.

300bhp/ton

41,030 posts

190 months

Tuesday 1st September 2015
quotequote all
wjwren said:
Not 4k, I mean 1920 x 1080. My machine has discrete graphics so I dont think it will be a problem. Ordered a panel today so will post results. I did look at 4k but the battery will only last 2 hours. There is also an issue wil scaling on 4k panels apparently.
Unless computer lingo has changed significantly, this just sounds like gibberish to me (along with the opening post).

daemon

35,814 posts

197 months

Tuesday 1st September 2015
quotequote all
300bhp/ton said:
wjwren said:
Not 4k, I mean 1920 x 1080. My machine has discrete graphics so I dont think it will be a problem. Ordered a panel today so will post results. I did look at 4k but the battery will only last 2 hours. There is also an issue wil scaling on 4k panels apparently.
Unless computer lingo has changed significantly, this just sounds like gibberish to me (along with the opening post).
Its you - the lingo has changed significantly, particularly to do with screens

Edited by daemon on Tuesday 1st September 19:57

daemon

35,814 posts

197 months

Tuesday 1st September 2015
quotequote all
J4CKO said:
I have just bought a Toshiba Chromebook 2 for web surfing duties which has a HD screen, the display is superb, seems more vivid than my Ipad Air 2.
+1

I've a full HD screen in my Alienware 13, and its amazing.

RobDickinson

31,343 posts

254 months

Tuesday 1st September 2015
quotequote all
Have a 4k screen on my dell xps, it's great until some software doesn't scale..


But you can always run at 1080 if you need to.

buggalugs

9,243 posts

237 months

Tuesday 1st September 2015
quotequote all
You could buy a panel the right size but I am not sure the internal connectors will match up, screw holes etc unless there were a range of screens sold in the same laptop and you're just getting one of the others. If you are putting a generic one in I am keen to hear more info.

wjwren

Original Poster:

4,484 posts

135 months

Wednesday 2nd September 2015
quotequote all
the connector is different 30 vs 40 pin. So I bought an adaptor off ebay for £3. The screw holes will be generic like in nearly all panels so shouldnt be an issue.

buggalugs

9,243 posts

237 months

Wednesday 2nd September 2015
quotequote all
That's interesting so are you going from TFT to LED? Is there anything inverter-y to mess with?

wjwren

Original Poster:

4,484 posts

135 months

Wednesday 2nd September 2015
quotequote all
buggalugs said:
That's interesting so are you going from TFT to LED? Is there anything inverter-y to mess with?
I think it's a straight swap looking on the youtube vids. The machine I have (i7 with amd discrete) Is available with a HD screen so I'm hoping its just a case of changing the screen and il need an adaptor to change the 30 to 40 pin plug but hopefully thats it. Screen is arriving tomorrow so il post the results in a couple of days.

anonymous-user

54 months

Wednesday 2nd September 2015
quotequote all
I have a 3200x1800 screen on my XPS15 and it is simply awesome. Makes even 1080p look grainy and rubbish. It also does about 5-7 hours on battery as well. It is brand new though.

wjwren

Original Poster:

4,484 posts

135 months

Wednesday 2nd September 2015
quotequote all
bulldong said:
I have a 3200x1800 screen on my XPS15 and it is simply awesome. Makes even 1080p look grainy and rubbish. It also does about 5-7 hours on battery as well. It is brand new though.
You've now got me thinking I should of got 4k!

buggalugs

9,243 posts

237 months

Wednesday 2nd September 2015
quotequote all
wjwren said:
buggalugs said:
That's interesting so are you going from TFT to LED? Is there anything inverter-y to mess with?
I think it's a straight swap looking on the youtube vids. The machine I have (i7 with amd discrete) Is available with a HD screen so I'm hoping its just a case of changing the screen and il need an adaptor to change the 30 to 40 pin plug but hopefully thats it. Screen is arriving tomorrow so il post the results in a couple of days.
Please do, I would love to do something similar with the screen in my Lenovo but always assumed there was no chance of getting a 'foreign' screen working due to connectors, form factor etc.

anonymous-user

54 months

Thursday 3rd September 2015
quotequote all
wjwren said:
bulldong said:
I have a 3200x1800 screen on my XPS15 and it is simply awesome. Makes even 1080p look grainy and rubbish. It also does about 5-7 hours on battery as well. It is brand new though.
You've now got me thinking I should of got 4k!
Sorry, I made a mistake, my screen is actually full 4k which is 3840 x 2160