Screen issues are fairly prevalent in the market and unfortunately all of these have some issue or another when it comes to that.

Thinkpad T430

Refurb Thinkpads (T/W/X/P) I think are often some of the best values for lower-priced options due to their build quality and keyboards. If you don't need the larger text you might opt for a 1600x900 T420 instead. Both are low-quality-TN panels but the resolution can be a definite improvement to user experience. Also has the 7 row keyboard. With the price difference you can upgrade the RAM yourself back to 8GB.

ASUS P2540UA

I... don't like this one a whole lot. Yes it's "Amazon choice". Yes it's only $500. But you can still easily improve upon the poor display quality at this price, and I think that's a more important consideration than other differences. I might look at:

• Acer R 15 (IPS 72% NTSC touch, HDD + open M.2 slot, $535)
  
• Dell Inspiron 5567 FHD Touch model (IPS 45% NTSC touch, HDD w/ no open M.2, $500)
  
• Thinkpad E570 -- configure with i3-7100U, 1920x1080 IPS, 8GB RAM (or upgrade yourself for slightly cheaper), and 256GB SSD.
  
  

  Lenovo Yoga 900
  

  
  PenTile (RG/BW) not-true-3200x1800 display, regarded deceptive marketing on part of Lenovo. This is something Lenovo has moved past however this is an older model that still had the issue. The quality of the display was better than low-quality-TN at least, however I think the colors left something to be desired, as it was poorer than standard 1920x1080 IPS panels, and it made you deal with software scaling quirks of high resolutions without giving you the full sharpness in exchange for it.
  
  You can get a Lenovo Yoga 720 for a similar price with a good 1920x1080 display. Worth noting is that despite having an "i5" instead of an "i7", they're both U-series so there's not an appreciable difference between the two, and both are easily beaten by any HQ-series. In fact, the "i5" 7200U actually benchmarks slightly higher than the "i7" 6500U (it's a 6500U not 7700HQ). In general U-series vs HQ-series is a truly meaningful distinction, while "i5" vs "i7" can be considered misleading branding on Intel's part.
  
  

  ASUS FX502VM
  

  
  Also looks good on paper but the screen is the same type as the ASUS P-series, which is really not good for a laptop costing over $1000 I would say. I might suggest these alternatives:
  
  

• http://www.eluktronics.com/N850HP6 (72% NTSC only on Eluktronics, Schenker, and a few others' versions of this Clevo. Not Sager/Prostar unless you call and ask for a special order. 45% NTSC IPS normally -- much better than the FX502VM but this can be a similar price with the even better display.)
  
• Acer Helios 300 (if it comes back in stock for $1049 -- 45% NTSC IPS)
  
• Legion Y720 (if you don't mind the 7 lb weight and the non-replacable 45% NTSC IPS display)
  
• Legion Y520 (3GB 1060 like the FX502VM but better display still -- 45% NTSC IPS).

Price History