I will be upgrading my current Vaio laptop with a 17" xbrite-eco model. My old laptop display has been quite accurate without calibration and has served me well for over 5 years. Anyone with experience with the xbrite screen? How accurate are the colors? Color gamut close to sRGB?
They are extremely inaccurate. The Xbrite screens have unbelievably high saturation and contrast levels to give them a "pop" when they're sitting on the display shelves at Best Buy, but its worthless for anything that might be printed or viewed on a color accurate monitor. Not at all worth the time for even a semi serious photographer.
Basically, (and some people may argue with me here, but I'm stating a fact; not opinion) a glossy screen is going to be worse then a matte screen for color accuracy. With a matte (anti glare), you're looking straight at the image. With glossy, you've got a slab of glass inbetween jacking up contrast levels to get that image that jumps out at you - this comes at a price however, anyone with a different monitor or your local print shop is going to see a completely different image.
Thanks Taylor for your info. In this case, I should forget about the Vaio altogether.
Could anyone in this case indicate any brand and model of laptops that are photo-friendly?
Thanks,
Edward
Taylor Barrett wrote:
They are extremely inaccurate. The Xbrite screens have unbelievably high saturation and contrast levels to give them a "pop" when they're sitting on the display shelves at Best Buy, but its worthless for anything that might be printed or viewed on a color accurate monitor. Not at all worth the time for even a semi serious photographer.
Basically, (and some people may argue with me here, but I'm stating a fact; not opinion) a glossy screen is going to be worse then a matte screen for color accuracy. With a matte (anti glare), you're looking straight at the image. With glossy, you've got a slab of glass inbetween jacking up contrast levels to get that image that jumps out at you - this comes at a price however, anyone with a different monitor or your local print shop is going to see a completely different image....Show more →
I have a $3,000 Sony with XBrite ... I don't use it for photo editing because as stated above there is no way to get accurate results from them. The problem with the screen is that color/saturation changes with small changes in your viewing angle. So even if you calibrate the screen carefully you can't get it close. Actually, I feel that all notebook screens are junk and your best bet is to get a notebook with a digital DVI out so you can connect a quality monitor to the notebook.
My Sony notebook has been extremely reliable and done an superb job for me for it's general use mission. I have enjoyed the XBrite screen ... even though it is of no use for photo editing.
