Thinkpads Forum

I just bought ($400) a secondhand P50 with Xeon CPU. It is in beautiful condition.
But I noticed that the display is a little dull. Upon examination I can see that it has a film on the screen that looks like a screen protector.
I wondered about removing it to "brighten" up the screen a little but I'm not sure if it is an "after-market" screen protector that will peel off nicely, or if it is part of the screen and attached by Lenovo in the factory, and that if I try to peel it off it might damage the screen permanently?

Questions:
Does anyone know if P50 laptops came from the factory with screen protectors? And are screen protector films always easily removable without causing damage?

I know that screen protectors are meant to protect screens from scratches etc, but I really don't need them. I have owned around 20 Thinkpads over about 20 years, and I have had 2 or 3 of them at any one time. I'm pretty careful with them and I have not ever scratched a screen, or even come close to scratching one.
The only screen I ever damaged was when I unwisely allowed my T410 to slip off a tall table and totally destroyed its screen when it hit the floor; a screen protector would not have helped me much then.

I've never seen a ThinkPad with a protective film on the LCD, so it's almost certainly aftermarket.

New LCDs will ship with a thin film on them to keep them from scratching while they are in-transit in their bulk shipping containers. OEMs remove them because screen bezels don't fit properly over them, and said screen bezels do the job of protecting the screen after they're installed in the computer. Sometimes there will be a black fibrous sheet between the keyboard and screen to keep the screen from contacting the keyboard when the completed machine is packaged, but it's never a screen film.

Is it a touchscreen model? I think that touchscreen models have a anti-glare screen protector. I had one in my X1C3 QHD Touch.

Yes, it is a touch screen model.

When I look at the screen the outer layer on it impedes the screen itself simply because the image has to pass another layer before it reaches my eyes. I think that I would like to remove it, but it would be a great shame if I found that this outer layer was an important part of the screen and the screen did not work properly if I removed it.
Michael

Any chance its PrivacyGuard film? Lenovo offered that as an official accessory for a while on some models (not factory install, but they would throw it in the box), and it would have the same impact as a screen protector on top of reducing the viewing angles substantially.

Either way, pictures would help determining what it is though. I wouldn't peel anything off until you're certain its not part of the LCD.

Yes you're right. Pictures would help. I thought I had included a couple but obviously I hadn't.
I will attach a couple here.
And I have measured the thickness of the layer as best I could with a depth caliper, It looks like about 0.2 mm.
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Hmm ... I can't see how to add pictures to this post. I have a couple of photos on my computer (file server) but I don't see how to insert them here.
Any suggestions?

The current forum software does not support attachment of files / images to posts. The images must be uploaded to some file hosting. Some free options that come to mind are Imgur, Postimage, Cubeupload...

I usually just use Imgur albums if I need to put pictures up here