7. The MSI MS-1029's Display: Good Brightness, Crazy Quilt Contrast

The MS-1029 has a very nice 15.4" (39.1 cm) display with resolution running up to 1280 x 800. The display is sharp and easy on the eyes in spite of some of the numbers I'm about to give you.

The mean brightness of the display is 122 candelas per square meter. That's not bad, though in previous tests HP's dv4000 delivered 135 candelas per square meter and Toshiba's TV-quality Qosmio G25-AV513 wowed all with its brightness score of 335 candelas per square meter.

The MS-1029 has unusually dark blacks, which gives it a contrast ratio (whites/blacks) of 342. This compares well with the dv4000's score of 141 and is only outshone by the Qosmio's contrast ratio of 450.

As the spatial uniformity of brightness chart below shows the MS-1029's brightness peaks in the center of the display and falls off toward the edges. Brightness ranges from 98 to 140 candelas per square meter. This is not atypical of the LCDs on other portables we've tested.

The display's contrast ratio is another matter. I have never seen a display with such contrast ratio variance: 194 to 479. That's why I referred to the MS-1029's contrast ratio as "Crazy Quilt Contrast." Just look at the plot. There are 15 contrast ranges with peaks on the bottom and left side of the display and valleys on the top. Surprisingly this wild distribution of contrast across the display doesn't significantly affect the utility of the display. I suspect that some of this irregularity in contrast is a function of the heavy travel of this particular sample of the MS-1029.