Comparison
Here are the two screens, powered down for comparison. This isn’t the clearest picture I am afraid, but you can see reflections in the truelife screen (right) that are simply not present on the matt screen.
22 Comments so far
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Thanks so much for posting this info. I was trying to make the decision on which monitor to get (Dell is currently offering the truelife at no extra charge on the inspiron 1501)and now i have decided to skip the truelife.
Thanks for taking the time to post the pictures etc. Im glad you were able to get your new screen. It looks much better.
Was just going to plump for the truelife, thanks, £10 more for a sharper image
only problem … you cant see it for the reflection, nice post , thanks again.
Thanks for the post, i was about to get the truelife on my laptop but was not sure about it. I have decided against it. Thanks for taking the time to warn people about it.
I think u must be miss understood by the term TrueLife™, cause I do appreciate the quality TrueLife™. Have u ever made a comparison by viewing it from different angles? The TrueLife™ mon shows all the details, colors and contrast so accurate that I don’t think the matt can give.
Though u may see a reflection of other images, the clearness doesn’t drop, right? U can check this out by enjoying a movie with popcorn
How can someone misinterpret a term that is a trademark? It doesn’t have any true meaning. The only information I had to go on was what was on the Dell site, which was insufficient (at the time) to make an informed decision.
If I want to watch a film I’ll watch it on a TV or at the cinema. If I want to get work done I need a laptop that is portable - which includes being to use it in places that have not been specifically arranged for the way my computer works (I can’t complain to clients that their office has too many windows!!).
Hi, very usefull information was opting maybe to get this screen on the Vostro i was going to get but thanks to you, you have changed my mind on thei whole idea :P
Thank you for writing this. I was wondering what TrueLife was as I’m about to by a Dell laptop. I’ve experienced an incredibly shiny screen before on a friend’s laptop an absolutely hated it. I know think it may haven been a TrueLife screen; it looked exactly as in your photos.
Mehmet
OMG, i’ve already ordered the truelife screen with no extra cost. I originally thought the tech was supposed to do something good. Sadly, I’ve made the wrong decision. Thank you for the post!
I’v only now discovered that i saved myself a load of trouble by being cheap! Thankfully my pennies wouldn’t stretch far enough for the TrueLife screen, so I got luck, but I have compared them side by side, as seen in the post, and I agree with Mat completely. Thanks for trying to inform the public Mat!
I’m probably going to order a Dell soon, and it looks quite likely that I’ll end up with a TrueLife Vostro; which is a compromise for me. I really want a high-resolution, and they don’t seem to offer the option in non-gloss (notwithstanding the Precision machines which are a bit expensive for me).
Hi thanks for the post,
it’s very interesting cause lots of people hesitate between both screens.
I still do have a question :
Is the viewing angle (horizontal and vertical) so good on the matt screen as on the Truelife one ?
Thans again
Cheers
suppose i can order the true life and demand money offer and a printer and acept it! since i really dont mind true life lol
Thank you. Very good post indeed.
I work in autocad…which is all the time black…imagine that, in the daylight with all the reflections!
I think you are being too hard on the TrueLife screen. I have an iMac which uses the same technology on its monitor. The display is fantastic and dramatically better than the normal anti-glare you’d get on a typical laptop. Its true that the screen is highly reflective and I had to shift it away from having direct light behind it or the reflection would be unacceptable. That is a valid issue, but, believe me, the image is phenomenal. I am getting a new laptop and I am really undecided whether I should get TrueLife. I want it, but when I’m on the road, I don’t know how bad the reflections may be or whether I will be able to position it as easily to avoid bad reflections.
Thank you for posting this; I was on the fence regarding this option until I read it. I’ve ordered a Dell Vostro without TrueLife.
I have read your comments on Dell’s True life Screen with great interest, along with many other comments on various blogs. I have to say that I was so put off by them all that after I had ordered a Dell Vostro 1500 with True life and ultra sharp resolution at 1680×1050, I ended up contacting Dell and cancelling my order. Too late, however, and the laptop had been shipped. I decided therefore to take the laptop out of the box and play around with it, since I had 21 days in which to return it. But having received the laptop into my own hands and experienced it with my own eyes has changed everything. I think the picture quality is superb. Yes, the screen is shiny and there are certain light conditions in which you cannot place it, but that holds true for anti-glare screens too where there is simply too much light, like when I sat in my garden last year with a Dell Inspiron and had to position myself under a canopy shade in order to see anything on the screen. I now think that the choice of glossy or matt screen is very subjective. Some hate glossy screens, some love them. I have now fallen into the camp of one who loves them, but that was only after receiving one and going into numerous shops to check them out beforehand.
TruLife is a great feature for those watching movies. My personal LCD TV has the TruLife equivalent, and it’s fantastic… Which is partially based on my blinds in my room always being closed. I agree, reflective coatings on LCD screens are horrid for day-to-day lighted usage. Which is unfortunately where 90% of laptop usage occurs. On that note, I *highly* discourage people from using the DVD burner to watch their flicks. Get a dedicated player if you’re a big movie buff!
Like many of the other posts i found that both screens were the same price and didn’t have a clue as to the difference. I’ll now choose the original matt screen, thanks very much for the post and the pics.
I agree with everything said about the screen. I’m returning my laptop simply because all i see in the screen is myself. Can’t work on it at all during the day.
A few years back I picked up a Dell Laptop with the TrueLife option. It is not usable outside even on a cloudy day. This type of screen is only good for inside-the-house use, and even then it has certain problems.
Thanks for the information, I’ve just bought a 15.4″ Inspiron 1525 with normal TFT matt display. If it wasn’t for your site I would have gone for the free TrueLife ‘upgrade’ without really knowing what it was. I want to use my laptop in all sorts of conditions including outdoors so it would have been an utter nightmare. My dad is going to get a 17″ Inspiron with TrueLife which he’s only going to use indoors in a darkened room to twiddle with digital photographs so I will be interested in comparing the two screens when he gets his.
Well it is nice some people take a little bit of their time to warn others. I had a dilemma in choosing true life or not, hopefully I searched “truelife monitor” in google and found your post. I will be saving money.