ThinkPad screens are not calibrated by factory - whether TN screens or IPS screen, they have a color miss-alignment in almost every case when you first use them. For example, IPS / AHVA screens like the FHD AUO screen used in the T440s or the Panasonic FHD++ / 3K screen in the W540 often have a greenish or yellowish tint, whereas the common lower end TN screen often have a bluish tint.

To get the best and most neutral colors possible, you will need to color-calibrate your screen. However, to color-calibrate the screen, you need to have a color-calibrator like a Spyder Elite 3 - except for those of us with a W-Series with a built in color-calibrator of course (W700/W700ds was the first model to have one). These color-calibrators are expensive, so if you do not want to buy one and if you don´t know anyone whom owns one, the best way to get neutral colors is to just use a color profile from someone else - luckily, the laptop-reviewers from Notebookcheck always make neutral color profiles for every model they test - and they link these color profiles in their reviews for free use. Here are links to the different color profiles for some of the most recent ThinkPads:

  • X240 1366x768 (HD) AH-IPS: LG LP125WH2-SPT1

  • X240 / Thinkpad Yoga 1920x1080 (FHD) AH-IPS: LG LP125WF2-SPB2

  • X1 Carbon 2560x1440 (WQHD) AH-IPS: LG LP140GH1-SPA2

  • T440p / T440s / T440 / T431s / S440 / S431 / L440 1600x900 (HD+) TN: Innolux N140FGE-EA2

  • T440p / T440s / T440 / T431s / S440 / S431 / L440 1600x900 (HD+) TN: AUO B140RTN03.0

  • T440s / T440p 1920x1080 (FHD) AH-IPS: LG LP140WF1-SPK1

  • T440s / T440p 1920x1080 (FHD) AHVA:  AUO B140HAN01.2 

  • W540 / T540p / L540 / S540 / S531 / E540 1920x1080 (FHD) TN: AUO B156HTN03.4

  • W540 / T540p / L540 / S540 / S531 / E540 1920x1080 (FHD) TN: Innolux N156HGE-EA1 

  • W540 / T540p 2880x1620 (FHD++ / 3K) IPS: Panasonic WX16T028J00  

Again, all credits for these profiles (and the good reviews) go to Notebookcheck.

To use these profiles, you first need to know which panel you exactly have, to get the best fitting profile - you can do this by using software like Everest for example. If you know which screen you have in your ThinkPad, then you can choose the right profile. Download the .icc profile to the file-folder you want. To apply the profile to your screen, use the Windows Color Management, which can be found in the Control Panel.

These profiles should help you to get the best out of you ThinkPad screen!