laptop display question??? please help

[notfound]

I want to know what the difference in laptop displays. Some are HPA, some are TFT, some are DSTN. What is the difference and which is the best. Please help me out, looking to finance a laptop within the week and I would like to find this out first. Also any suggestions on brand of laptop to get and the brands to stay away from. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Prodigy^]

DSTN is an old technology, best to avoid. the screen gets very blurry when when anything moves.

HPA is bad too

TFT is the best, in most cases better than CRT (normal monitors)

 

[AndyHui]

DSTN, dual scan twisted nematic, is what they used to use when LCD screens were very expensive. They are blurry, the update is slow, contrast and colour saturation is poor. They leave lines all over the screen and looks not too good. You can forget trying to play and games on those. Costs were saved because they only had a set of transisters for each row and column.

HPA has similar problems.

TFT, thin film transistor, has controlling transistors for each pixel rather than a row and column. Colour saturation, contrast, brightness is very good. Update is quick and you don't get crap left over on the screen. More expensive than DSTN, but worth the cost.

Suggestions for brands: Dell and Toshiba. Stay away from Acer (Texas Instruments).

 

[T2T III]

In summary:

Dual scan, DSTN and HPA: Bad quality. Lots of ghosting on the screen. Can be viewed straight on, but not so well from an angle.

Active Matrix or TFT: Bright screen. Can be viewed straight on and from different angles.

The active matrix or TFT screened laptops will cost you more money, but it will be a good investment. The cheaper displays (dual scan, DSTN and HPA) are pretty common on laptops that sell in the $1,000 to $1,400 range (new prices). While the TFT or active matrix screens are more common on laptops that cost over $1,500.

 

[notfound]

thanks for all the great info, I thought that I should look into TFT or active matrix, but I didn't know a whole lot about it and wanted to make sure that is what I should look for. I was looking at a couple Toshiba. Thanks this really helped a lot.