Display (cont’d) and graphics

As we just mentioned, one of the drawbacks of IPS panels is that the aperture ratio of each cell is lower than that of a TN+film panel. A brighter, and thus more powerful backlight is therefore necessary in order to provide a bright display. Because of this, IPS panels tend to consume more power than TN+film displays.

This isn’t a big deal in desktop LCDs, as you have a steady power source, but in notebooks this can be a problem if you’re running on the battery – it wouldn’t take long before you’ve run out of power.

To help overcome this, ASUS has implemented a new backlight in its ACE View notebooks. The new backlight increases the amount of light transmitted without drawing more battery power. But IPS and a new backlight isn’t all ACE View has up its sleeve. IPS is also combined with High Resolution Process (HRP) technology, which improves the displays contrast ratio and dot pitch. This is accomplished by applying a layer of poly-film to the TFT.

How does all this technology look in action? Simply brilliant! ASUS’ ACE View display panel provides a bright, sharp display. Colors are vibrant with accurate representation; blacks are deep and dark while on the other end of the spectrum, whites are nice and bright. While not quite up to CRT levels, the display looked great and performed well in a variety of lighting conditions. In fact, while flying to Chicago I had to get up to allow a woman to use the restroom (I had an aisle seat). As I was standing I noticed four other passengers with notebooks and a few others staring at the ACE View display! If I had had a movie playing at the time, I should have charged admission to nearby passengers.

As always, pictures speak louder than words, so we’ve included a few shots of the ASUS ACE View panel on the L5000GA versus Dell’s top-of-the line MOBILITY 9700 powered Inspiron XPS gaming notebook (full review coming shortly), which has earned high praises for its WUXGA wide aspect TFT display:

In the sweet spot of the Dell Inspiron XPS (right) and L5000GA (left)

ASUS (left) Dell (right), note the difference in color reproduction

Another off angle shot from the opposite side

Here we're just above the sweet spot, you can even see the reflection of the quick launch buttons on the ACE View display from this angle

The display itself performed well, even fast-paced action sequences in movies were reproduced accurately with no visible ghosting. For gaming applications though, results were good, but not quite up to the level of a high-end desktop LCD panel. Strategy titles like Warcraft III ran perfectly, as did flight simulators like Lock On: Modern Air Combat, and IL-2 Sturmovik. We’re pretty certain role-playing titles would run well also.

Results were a little mixed with first person shooters though. The display wasn’t able to keep up with fast-paced titles such as Quake 3. Flinch movements such as quickly turning around to face an opponent, and to a more limited extent, rocket jumping did result in ghosting. Next, we booted up Call of Duty. If you’ve played Call of Duty, you know that the Activision and Infinity Ward splash screens when you first boot up the game sport rapid movement. We expected to see ghosting here, but were surprised to see both screens run perfectly.

In the game itself we noticed the same ghosting during rapid movements. We’re talking rapid flinching, where you quickly flip your mouse to snap your character around, not the rapid, yet slower movement of the melee attack in Call of Duty, where you use the butt of your gun to strike your opponent. The display was able to keep up with these movements with no noticeable ghosting.

Finally we booted up Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, which is a slightly slower paced shooter. Here the ACE View panel was able to keep up with the action.

Overall we’d rate the display as good for simulation, strategy, and role-playing titles, but may disappoint gamers who are hardcore shooter players. Perhaps ASUS will address this shortcoming in future desktop replacement notebooks.

Graphics

Gamers will be pleased to see that the L5000GA sports ATI’s MOBILITY RADEON 9600 PRO graphics. Codenamed M10-P, MOBILITY RADEON 9600 PRO supports all the features of its desktop counterpart, although ASUS clocks their MOBILITY RADEON 9600 PRO core at 344MHz and its 128MB of memory at 200MHz. This compares well to the desktop RADEON 9600 PRO’s 400MHz core, the MOBILITY RADEON 9600 PRO is only 56MHz behind it. But this does fall behind RADEON 9600 PRO’s 300MHz memory (600MHz effective).

Before you get too disappointed however, keep in mind that the specs for ATI’s newer MOBILITY 9700 call for a memory frequency range of 200-260MHz (400-520MHz effective), so the ASUS isn’t too far behind it in the memory bandwidth department.