[Closed] Best Mapping/Route Building Laptop

2 hours and not a single reply.....

For me if I've ever been working on a laptop with a screen bigger than 15" I'd rather just admit defeat and get a desktop and monitor instead as I find them far to big to be properly portable.

Current work laptop has a full HD (1080) 14" screen and easily has enough resolution for me at a comfortable typing distance. I'm sure more pixels wouldn't hurt but I don't think I'd be using them to see any more useful information.

By way of comparison I have a 17" laptop which is WUXGA (1920x1200) and a 14" FHD (1920x1200) as above. With text zoom set at 100% I can't imagine either of them running at a much higher resolution without it becoming illegible and I have pretty good eyes. How good are yours? Top to bottom on the latter I can fit ten desktop icons at default grid spacing.

UHD (3840x2160) on a 13.5" screen, I'd have thought you'd need a microscope unless you were planning on ramming up the zoom. Which rather defeats the point? If I were going above FHD I'd want a bigger screen fo sho.

Huawei Matebook X Pro. Ignore people who say you don't need more than full HD screen resolution - it just means they need glasses and aren't prepared to admit it.

In Windows you can adjust the scaling to control the size of things overall, but the advantage of a 4K screen is that everything is pin-sharp. Touchscreen too for quick pinch to zoom and a big accurate touchpad.

You may be selling your soul and personal data to the Chinese but the Matebook is cheap as chips and also works as a good Zwift machine.

Thank, but let me explain a little further. I use the laptop for zwift, and more importantly for plotting routes on OS maps. So what i am looking for is to get as much "map" as possible on the screen when zoomed in to 1:25. Not to fused about text size etc.

Huawei Matebook X Pro.

I was looking at one those but heard they were a bit plastiky (but have great screens)

what i am looking for is to get as much “map” as possible on the screen when zoomed in to 1:25.

I think you probably want the biggest physical screen you can get with a "high enough" resolution.

13" at 4k will make everything look supersharp but it may not help you see more of the map. Even at 17" I can't really see 4k helping in your very specific use case. At the other end of the spectrum, 17" @ FHD, you will probably see some pixels unless your eyes are terrible. I'd guess a 15-17" 1200-1440p display would probably be a decent compromise.

I'm sure there are some people who will claim their eyesight is good enough to take advantage of higher pixel density, but I can tell you that I would definitely prefer a larger physical screen for looking at maps (or editing images for that matter). I don't think you can really know what'll work for you without sitting down at one and trying it.

Would you use a tablet (or a laptop in 'tablet mode')?

I think you probably want the biggest physical screen you can get with a “high enough” resolution.

13″ at 4k will make everything look supersharp but it may not help you see more of the map. Even at 17″ I can’t really see 4k helping in your very specific use case. At the other end of the spectrum, 17″ @ FHD, you will probably see some pixels unless your eyes are terrible. I’d guess a 15-17″ 1200-1440p display would probably be a decent compromise.

But screen size is only part of the story, surely if you have a 13" and a 17" screen that are both Full HD, you will see the same amount of map on each screen?

I was looking at one those but heard they were a bit plastiky (but have great screens)

I have one (2018 model). It's solidly metal all over - Huawei basically ripped off the Macbook Pro design but put better internals and a bigger screen into the same size case (I actually use a Macbook sleeve for mine).

But screen size is only part of the story, surely if you have a 13″ and a 17″ screen that are both Full HD, you will see the same amount of map on each screen?

Not necessarily - my 15" HD 1920x1080 laptop runs by default at 125% so only see a smaller about of screen - you can change it to 100% but other bits of text get a bit small.

But screen size is only part of the story, surely if you have a 13″ and a 17″ screen that are both Full HD, you will see the same amount of map on each screen?

Yes. But whether your eyes can do anything with that is a different matter. 4k on a postage stamp is less useful than 4k on a 32" display, for example.

Not necessarily – my 15″ HD 1920×1080 laptop runs by default at 125% so only see a smaller about of screen – you can change it to 100% but other bits of text get a bit small.

I don't know precisely how Windows PCs deal with scaling, but Macs will scale the GUI elements and text etc. While images are also scaled (zoomed, essentially), you can always still see the images at the maximum possible pixel density for the display. I.e. Images will be displayed at the resolution of the screen irrespective of scaling setting.

on windows, you can just hold down CRTL and use the mouse wheel to scale up and down on the fly.

But agree, 4k on a laptop screen is absurd.

By way of comparison I have a 17″ laptop which is WUXGA (1920×1200) and a 14″ FHD (1920×1200) as above. With text zoom set at 100% I can’t imagine either of them running at a much higher resolution without it becoming illegible and I have pretty good eyes. How good are yours? Top to bottom on the latter I can fit ten desktop icons at default grid spacing.

I always thought that, but 2560x1440 is fine on 14" (4k is a bit too much, though).

I'm still struggling with this. Imagine I have infinately big map. Two laptops both 14" screens. The one with highest resolution will be showing a larger area of the map on screen, right? Then get a 17" screen at the same resolution and it shows the same area as the 14"? So best idea would be largest screen laptop at the highest possible Res, no?

For your use case, you want highest possible usable resolution. Screen size only relevant for determining "usable". If you can use 4k on a 12" screen, then a 4k at 17" isn't going to give you more map.

Huawei Matebook X Pro.

I had made my mind up on this but Currys dont have it for delivery or collection...... the 3:2 high res screen sounded perfect.

I’m still struggling with this.

What you’ve said is correct, but whilst those with amazing eyes may be able to discern to pixels at 4K/13”, if you had an imaginary display that could do a hypothetical 40k/13”, the extra screen real estate would be useless.

At a given size, more resolution is almost always ‘better’ but it might be such a small difference so as to be kind of useless E.g. lots of people debate the Dell XPS 13 options of FHD vs 4K. Caveat: more resolution = more expensive and potentially worse battery life.

In your case, a physically larger screen is IMO more useful than a more pixel-dense small screen. Ie I’d choose a 17”/1440p over a 13”/4k for your purpose. Of course, a 17”/4K would be better still.

The other thing is that extremely pixel-dense screens (eg the 4K/13”) are actually most useful for reading crisp text. This won’t necessarily help map reading AND it’ll mean the machine has to do more processing - ie dragging maps around might not be as smooth with more pixels.

I had made my mind up on this but Currys dont have it for delivery or collection…… the 3:2 high res screen sounded perfect.

Brand new on eBay for about 775 quid (there's a 10% voucher at the moment).

dragging maps around might not be as smooth with more pixels

That's a good point, and one I hadn't thought about.

Just found the Huawei Matebook X Pro direct on the Huawei UK store at £999 with free wireless earless buds and G2 smart watch!! Ordered, will report back on the screen Res/size when it arrives

Its arrived! and first impressions are good. The screen is pin sharp and super crisp with nice colour.
Maps are fantastic. On the picture below the new laptop is on the left, the old on the right. The old laptop is full HD 1920x1080 at 100% display size. The new is 3000 x 2000 at 100% display size. The new laptop can display a map size of 9x6 grid ref, the old just 6x3 so the extra viewable area is significant.

Smart