The screen quality is the same. There is a finite brightness that the screen can go to and Windows 7 can't push it beyond that. You may find that the way Windows 7 grades the image to be more pleasing, but I haven't found there's a significant difference. I haven't noticed a difference in sound quality either... Windows 7 may allow it to go higher, but again that's an internal software difference. Volume and quality are different things... I've noticed a difference in the volume as well, but the quality is the same as far as I can tell.