[dm385]

Q: Does anyone know the bit depth of the LCD (e.g. 18bit or 24bit)?

I'm looking to purchase one, but want to verify the bit depth first.

This spec is usually found under the actual LCD specification rather than what the display driver says.

If someone could help run the 24bit test link and report if they see color banding, that would be helpful: http://www.leppik.net/david/blog/?p=58

It could be possible some sort of color dithering is enabled which could fool the test, but at least I'd know that I wouldn't have to resort to finding a driver which would turn it on.

Thanks.

[acabtp]

I can't say definitively that it has a 24-bit panel or dithering drivers like you suggested, but I am leaning towards the former. I find the dithering technique noticable as a bit of a 'shimmer' on most monitors that I have seen which use it and I did not detect any of that on the Mini.

The 24-bit test image appeared smooth as it should. The bands on the 18-bit test image were quite noticeable.

[acabtp]

I looked at it a bit more closely, and when viewed from off angle, it seems like dithering may be used, but it is not noticeable when looking directly at the screen, IMO.

[dm385]

Thanks for looking into this. It's good to know that the appearance seems okay on the mini.

The Acer Aspire One's 18bit display really caught me off guard once I noticed it and it doesn't have dither on, at least in the Linux version. I wonder what other netbooks have this issue.