14. LED Gotcha: Backlight Bleeding

As with every new technology, this one isn't perfect, either - at least, not yet. As the following image shows, there's a kind of "backlight bleeding effect" that occurs when LED backlighting elements are placed around the edges beneath a TFT display. In other words, users can see small, bright beams of light around the edges of the display that correspond to the total LED count, appearing on the screen as somewhat brighter beams or stripes. In everyday use, this isn't especially bothersome, but those who are picky should look closely at this display in action before buying this laptop or any other with LED backlighting, lest it prove irritating later on.

Distracting: LED backlights "bleed" from the lower TFT display edge onto the screen in the form of small beams or stripes of slightly higher intensity.

Sony goes its own way in the coating it uses on the screen: the top surface of this 16:9 display is a hybrid that's halfway between a normal matte-finish and a contrast-rich glossy finish coating. Color saturation is therefore a bit higher than on a standard TFT display, but the color blending effect typical on glossy finish coatings is also somewhat diminished. The screen viewing angle is exceptional, so looking at the display from the side manifests almost no color or brightness changes as compared to a straight-on view.

Unfortunately, the coating also allows dust and dirt to adhere fairly readily. Fingerprints are difficult to remove, even with a micro-fiber cleaning cloth. The 433:1 contrast levels we measured are pretty good, but not at the top end of the TFT scale. On the plus side, light output is very even.

Brightness level measurements for the VNG-TX1XP backlight.

Typical brightness levels for a sub-laptop with CCFL backlighting

The laptop's maximum brightness level of 137.4 cd/m2 makes it well-suited for use in a standard office environment. However, under very bright indoor lighting, or outdoors in full sunlight, it can be difficult to see very much on this display.