Ah. From what I've read now, only some models of the Lenovo X200t ever shipped with PVA in a laptop (some were IPS, some were PVA). I guess different qualities of TN make a difference.
It all makes the IPS panels in the iPads even more impressive. From what I've read the IPS panel yield goes down with DPI, too, so the panel in the iPad (Early 2012) is amazing.