Question concerning T530 screen upgrade

[GermanDog]

Hello

I am new to the world of Thinkpads. My last Macbook just died and I have purchased a T530. I plan on running Linux Mint or Pop OS. The screen is a bit hard to read for my 6 decades old eyes. I need the machine to be portable, so an external monitor will not work for me. The display is currently 1600 x 900. I would like any thoughts or recommendations for a brighter, easy to read screen, if possible.

Any guidance as to sources for screens will be appreciated. I do not wish to remodel bezels or custom fit, just "plug and play if possible.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

[WarMachine]

Hello GermanDog and welcome to the forum.

When you write that you need a screen more readable, is that that you want to see bigger things on your display? If so, applying a zoom wouldn't be sufficient?
If you want to have a screen with a lower resolution (1366×768 for the T530), then you could hunt a screen made for the entry models of the T530 (the models for the T520 should do the trick too, the laptops are often named T520i or T530i). The good news is that the screen will be plug n'play.

It seems that a screen like the LTN156AT32 could replace yours. It's not the only one but if you search with this reference and if you find others very similar, you must be careful with the position and the type of the plug. You'll need a screen where the plug is 40 pins, lower left.

As I don't own a T530 (and if I had one, I would not put a 1366×768 display but a Full HD one if not already present), I haven't done research on the different models that can exist. The quality of the image might be slightly different from one to another.

Before purchasing something, be sure you can't do what you want with the tools provided with your distribution. Things like zoom and high contrast can sometimes do wonders (or things like Windows Night Shift, you should have something similar with Linux distros), and it's free (if you buy a screen then It will cost you ca. US$50).



W.

[GermanDog]

Hi Warmachine

Thank you for the reply. I was looking for a screen a bit sharper, spoiled by Macs I can live with the 1600 x900, but, sharper would be nice. I installed Linux Mint 20 and it is great, no issues. I really like the Thinkpad so far. I am reading and learning about Thinkpads. I will take your advice and search for different screens. Thanks for the information. I appreciate the help.

[WarMachine]

Hello GermanDog,

I'm happy to help you. I understand better what you seek thanks to your explanations. So, you don't necessarily need a screen with a lower resolution, but a sharper display. I'm not sure it will be easy to find this type of hardware. I don't think the difference is big between the various HD+ screens available for the T520/T530. Those laptops are not known to come with outstanding displays. Perhaps you could verify the refresh rate of the screen and select 60 Hz if by default you have 50 Hz, for example, but you mustn't wait for something absolutely outstanding. Just a tiny little bit better at most.

You could also, if you change the screen, look at the pitch of it. The pitch, or pixel pitch, or dot pitch (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot_pitch) in millimeters, is the distance between the center of two adjacent pixels. Sometimes, it can enhance the quality of the image. But once again, it won't be easy to find the right screen and to test it is always way better to see if it's comfortable, than just study the specifications. On Windows, you have the tool named ClearType, which can increase the render quality of the fonts. You should have something similar in Linux. I remember I saw options to change the aliasing of the fonts. More aliasing means better rendering of the fonts and I remember I saw a big difference with this option.

You can have a look on the blog here: https://linuxpanda.wordpress.com/2013/0 ... ity-fonts/
With screenshots to understand better what to do.

The choice of the fonts itself can change a lot of things too. The best is to try different ones and keep the one that pleases you the most. As far as I'm concerned, I like Ubuntu font (https://design.ubuntu.com/font/ – download at the bottom of the page) very much. I like it so much that I use it with Windows, to replace the original font (Segoe UI). On my machines under Windows 7, I can change all the fonts and I have something very enjoyable. Same font everywhere, that's very nice, and lovely (but everyone knows that beauty is in the eyes of whom looks at it, so it's very subjective). With Windows 8.1, the results are nice too. On Windows 10, not so much, because if I apply the same 7 or 8.1 tweaks to this system, not everything changes. There is certainly some way to do it but it's not one of my priorities at the moment. Again, it's personal, but I also think fonts without serif are easier to the eyes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serif

All in all, I think it's better, before buying something, to play with the options, trying to find the best software configuration that answers to your needs.



W.