The laptop's display measured 200 nits on our light meter, falling short of the 216-nit average. I could see every wispy curl of Jimi's whimsical hairdo, along with the fine curlicues in his silk paisley shirt. What the Y40 lacks in color and viewing angles, it makes up for in detail. However, contrast was lacking in Metro: Last Light, as the Moscow subway system was a muddle of grays and blacks. I particularly enjoyed watching enemies taking continuous damage from the bright-green radioactive goo that I shot at them.
Things improved somewhat once I started gaming, as the deep greens, magentas and electric blues practically leapt off the panel as I played Borderlands 2. Viewing angles were monstrously shallow, with colors inverting at viewing angles of more than 45 degrees. Andre 3000's skin looked washed out, while Hayley Atwell's red hair looked flat and lifeless.
The 1080p trailer for JIMI: All Is By My Side, which should have been an explosion of color, was lackluster at best. Those underwhelming results help explain why colors fizzled on the Y40's display. The Blade 14 came the closest to that mark at 1.5, while the GS60 scored 2.9.
On the Delta-E color accuracy test, the Y40 scored 8.8, which is far from a perfect 0. The GS60 managed 98 percent, while the Blade 14 hit an impressive 101.5 percent. According to our measurements, the panel is capable of displaying only 58.5 percent of the sRGB color gamut, which is well below the 86.4 percent thin-and-light average. Click to EnlargeSadly for a multimedia and gaming notebook, the Y40's 14-inch, 1920 x 1080-pixel anti-glare screen doesn't deliver the entertainment value I'd expect.