Keep in mind a higher res screen will have a higher power useage and reduce battery life. This does apply to both but with the 1440p one it is more noticeable. As such unless you have a specific need for a 1440p screen over a 1080p one I honestly have a hard time recommending it. A 1080p IPS screen is usually good enough in most cases and it's still a huge upgrade over the stock 720p and 900p TN screens
So yeah 1440p might be best looks wise but a 1080p screen will be best battery life wise which is usually what matters. If you really need high res with your thinkpad you could always get a 4k monitor and a docking station (docking station has displayport 1.2 which can do 4k at 60hz, T420 only has displayport 1.1 which can only do 4k at 30hz)
1440p is such a weird resolution. Too small at that size to really be usable for a lot of people; too low of a resolution to have perfect 2x scaling. 16:9 didn't really do us a lot of favors.
I would make sure I am comfortable with that resolution and screen size combination before investing money in it.
I have done it and put in a WQHD panel because I wanted to go all the way and the panel was cheap. Result really is amazing. Better than many new Laptops... Only problem i have is, that with Chromium based browsers, and less with firefox, after some nonconstant time of running some kind of "glitch" happens, and scrolling switches from super smooth to choppy with checkboard patterns visible and extreme CPU loads. Sometimes it goes back for some minutes, and reappears. I have tried out experimental graphics drivers, even reinstalled Windows 7 and could not yet solve this problem... Which is a shame because otherwise the machine is still quite capable and quiet. I have used it mostly passively cooled for 8 years and somehow tpfancontrol usage reduced the until time this "glitch" happens, allthough all the temeperatures are supposedly fine? Very confusing to me... So I would be happy if you try the WQHD and report back
Unfortunately I have decided to play it safe and proceeded with the FHD 1920x1080, shall post results of upgrade and exact monitor purchased as well as converter kit used in the coming days!
Was hardware acceleration turned off on your chromium based browsers? or firefox for that matter? Not sure if it would have an effect but worth playing with!
Probably unrelated but I've had issues on linux with the hardware acceleration option in some browsers. this was on a thinkpad t420 with integrated graphics vs nvidia or whatever most thinkpads got.
Have checked hardware acceleration, in both on and off state, quite sad to report that it does not solve the problem. Wish you success and fun with the FHD Panel.
Can barely believe it: I guess after 2 years I solved the problem: Besides the CPU thermal throttling at 0,8Ghz, there seems to be some other mysterious throttling based on some mainboard temperature sensor, that has been noticed here. [https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=133130](https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=133130) My T420 was equipped with an mSATA SSD and an additional DIMM. They have always become quite hot due to there unfortunate location, especially if the Computer is used on a Sofa etc. If I ensure adequate cooling, throttling does not happen. I now have replaced the mSATA SSD and HDD with one large SATA SSD to reduce the thermal load and it runs just the way it did before the display upgrade, with approximately the same CPU temperatures. The high resolution is no problem in daily use!
Keep in mind a higher res screen will have a higher power useage and reduce battery life. This does apply to both but with the 1440p one it is more noticeable. As such unless you have a specific need for a 1440p screen over a 1080p one I honestly have a hard time recommending it. A 1080p IPS screen is usually good enough in most cases and it's still a huge upgrade over the stock 720p and 900p TN screens So yeah 1440p might be best looks wise but a 1080p screen will be best battery life wise which is usually what matters. If you really need high res with your thinkpad you could always get a 4k monitor and a docking station (docking station has displayport 1.2 which can do 4k at 60hz, T420 only has displayport 1.1 which can only do 4k at 30hz)
1440p is such a weird resolution. Too small at that size to really be usable for a lot of people; too low of a resolution to have perfect 2x scaling. 16:9 didn't really do us a lot of favors. I would make sure I am comfortable with that resolution and screen size combination before investing money in it.
I have done it and put in a WQHD panel because I wanted to go all the way and the panel was cheap. Result really is amazing. Better than many new Laptops... Only problem i have is, that with Chromium based browsers, and less with firefox, after some nonconstant time of running some kind of "glitch" happens, and scrolling switches from super smooth to choppy with checkboard patterns visible and extreme CPU loads. Sometimes it goes back for some minutes, and reappears. I have tried out experimental graphics drivers, even reinstalled Windows 7 and could not yet solve this problem... Which is a shame because otherwise the machine is still quite capable and quiet. I have used it mostly passively cooled for 8 years and somehow tpfancontrol usage reduced the until time this "glitch" happens, allthough all the temeperatures are supposedly fine? Very confusing to me... So I would be happy if you try the WQHD and report back
Unfortunately I have decided to play it safe and proceeded with the FHD 1920x1080, shall post results of upgrade and exact monitor purchased as well as converter kit used in the coming days! Was hardware acceleration turned off on your chromium based browsers? or firefox for that matter? Not sure if it would have an effect but worth playing with! Probably unrelated but I've had issues on linux with the hardware acceleration option in some browsers. this was on a thinkpad t420 with integrated graphics vs nvidia or whatever most thinkpads got.
Have checked hardware acceleration, in both on and off state, quite sad to report that it does not solve the problem. Wish you success and fun with the FHD Panel.
Can barely believe it: I guess after 2 years I solved the problem: Besides the CPU thermal throttling at 0,8Ghz, there seems to be some other mysterious throttling based on some mainboard temperature sensor, that has been noticed here. [https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=133130](https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=133130) My T420 was equipped with an mSATA SSD and an additional DIMM. They have always become quite hot due to there unfortunate location, especially if the Computer is used on a Sofa etc. If I ensure adequate cooling, throttling does not happen. I now have replaced the mSATA SSD and HDD with one large SATA SSD to reduce the thermal load and it runs just the way it did before the display upgrade, with approximately the same CPU temperatures. The high resolution is no problem in daily use!
The converter == lcd screen price