[Closed] Laptop res rant : 1366 x 768

yes, pants res.

Look at changing the size of your menus/icons/etc to make it more usable.

The ratio is fine that is just a shit res!

This has annoyed me for a while now too. Thinkpads used to be available with screens with very high resolutions (I.e. 1920x1200) but since all panels went widescreen to follow suit with TV, panel resolution has also stayed low (Presumably because 768 is the equivalent of 720p?)

It seems as though this is changing (Slowly) though since Apple got all pushy with its retina display stuff - some laptops can be found with 1920x1080 panels now and hopefully 4K will be affordable soon enough.

It is daft that most phones have resolutions that outstrip most laptops now, even though they're a fraction of the size!

[url= http://www.ebuyer.com/644417-lenovo-ideapad-z50-70-laptop-59427651 ]£369.99 at ebuyer[/url]

That is excellent for £370

I am guessing that this is the trade off most of the vendors have decided on for the cheap laptop specs. I imagine that it is much cheaper for them to add some extra RAM or change the CPU than to provide an HD screen. I presume that HD screens for laptops are not a cheap commodity so it does mean spending a bit more on a laptop to get it. They are not bank breakingly expensive - they seem to start appearing at around the £500 - £600 mark. It is a bit frustrating though, I agree.

As an example, the compact but quite nicely put together Lenovo U430 gives you a 14" HD touch screen laptop with a 750GB hybrid drive, 8GB RAM and an i5 CPU. If you are not bothered about the smaller form factor or the touch screen then they do a 17" jobbie (Z5070) for around £600 but with a 1TB HDD.

midlifecrashes

That is a great deal. I've spent the couple of weeks looking for a new machine to replace my 15" hp that had something like 1600 x1080.

Couldn't find anything below the £600 mark. I didn't want spend that much as it will be the 4th pc in the house.

Bugger is I've just taken delivery of this referb to get half decent res.

[url= http://www.scan.co.uk/products/141-lenovo-4180a32-b-intel-core-i5-2520m-25ghz-8gb-320gb-hdd-dvdrw-bluetooth-windows-7-professional-?utm_source=google+shopping&utm_medium=cpc&gclid=CjwKEAjw8O2hBRDKur2lseLW6C8SJAC-r1J3vL871pGJbQYKAhPLXPPUuYQkKxOQv8GA0VkPXmZYkBoC3Pvw_wcB ]http://www.scan.co.uk/products/141-lenovo-4180a32-b-intel-core-i5-2520m-25ghz-8gb-320gb-hdd-dvdrw-bluetooth-windows-7-professional-?utm_source=google+shopping&utm_medium=cpc&gclid=CjwKEAjw8O2hBRDKur2lseLW6C8SJAC-r1J3vL871pGJbQYKAhPLXPPUuYQkKxOQv8GA0VkPXmZYkBoC3Pvw_wcB[/url]

mines 3840 x 2400 - i thought my old laptop was fine, now if i look at it i have a hissyfit - first world problem.

Thinkpads used to be available with screens with very high resolutions (I.e. 1920x1200) but since all panels went widescreen to follow suit with TV, panel resolution has also stayed low

My eight year old 'widescreen' Dell laptop is 1920x1200.

Widescreen is often a bit of a misnomer these days; it's not "widescreen," it's "not very tall screen."

That is a great deal. I've spent the couple of weeks looking for a new machine to replace my 15" hp that had something like 1600 x1080

1600x1050 I'd hazard. I had a (HP) Compaq with that screen; the lid actually extended out further than the base when you closed it. Armada? maybe.

I've got full HD on my XPS. I specifically wanted a 15.6" screen with full HD as I find the lower res poor.

The new XPS now have 4k res in a 15" screen which is amazing.

What's "full HD" when it's at home? That's a TV definition, happy to be proved wrong but I've never come across a laptop panel with a foo*1080 display.

The new XPS now have 4k res in a 15" screen which is amazing.

Seriously? That is bloody amazing, indeed. (Though I'm struggling to see the point.)

I use Chrome with minimal toolbars and move the start bar to the left hand side (vertical) to maximise screen height.

..Armada? maybe

Model is 6715b in hp battleship grey. Real business machine. DualCore AMD Turin TL-60, 2gb ram. Just looked it up. WSXGA+ (1680x1050) in matt. Now that is a useful res for work.

Haven't used it for work stuff for a few years now but when I did it was a Vista host with a XP vm. Thats 1GB ram each!!!

- some laptops can be found with 1920x1080 panels now and hopefully 4K will be affordable soon enough.

There's loads of 19020x1080p laptops around - unfortunately not 1920x1200 anymore though 🙁

Apple 🙂

It is daft that most phones have resolutions that outstrip most laptops now, even though they're a fraction of the size!

There's loads of 19020x1080p laptops around - unfortunately not 1920x1200 anymore though

Yep - sat in front of a Dell less than 1 year old - the highest resolution I could find - 1920x1080. In my workshop is an old Dell, the best part of 10 years old and it has a resolution of 1920x1200.

So much for progress, we were supposed to have robot butlers and flying cars by now.

There's loads of 19020x1080p laptops around - unfortunately not 1920x1200 anymore though

This has only become common over the last year though (tbh I didnt realise they had become so affordable - see midlifecrashes link above). Thankfully 3 and 4k screens are starting to appear now as well.

After looking again perhaps panel resolution isn't such a problem now but a year ago when looking for a laptop it was impossible to get a (non apple) 14" laptop above *x900

This has only become common over the last year though

no - it is just that they were at the upper end of the laptop range and stores didn't necessarily stock them, but they were available.

Just saying I wish the default 'budget' res was something more like 1280x1024 or atleast 1000 vertical.

Besides movies, this widescreen business is pants anyway unless it's very very wide i.e. 2 happy windows

How the T420 Earl? Have you had chance to use it much yet?

T420 - I like it. Makes me feel smrt and more professional than I am.

Win7 pro. Processor and 7200rpm hhd say it should be fast and it is - well this side of a ssd.

Nice feel. Stiff chassis. When you bring it out you get that look from people 'I bet he's no fun at parties...' - 'Bet he knows his hex...' etc...
Its a referb but my unit is a close to new as it can be.
Battery is rated 'Good' according to the system tools.
Screen res is nice too - about the right size for a 14" (especially now I'm over 40).

I'm running a Win7 pro VM with 4gb and its fine for cutting coding.

Only slight issue I see is the hdd. Its fast but only 320gb or 270gb usable after leveno recovery partition. Completely enough for my work stuff (4vm's) but for some reason you always want more... I see easily swappable ultrabay caddys for £10 on ebay so will pop out the little used dvd drive and stick a 2nd hdd in at some stage.

I say all this but still cant stop looking at that ebuyer one above...

I only ask as I have been after a refurb T series for ages and that is a pretty decent price for one with 8GB RAM and a HD+ screen (And from Scan which my dept have an account with). My current computer (CoreDuo) now struggles with the plugins I use in vim believe it or not so this seems a good opportunity to upgrade.

When you bring it out you get that look from people 'I bet he's no fun at parties...' - 'Bet he knows his hex...' etc...

Will go perfectly with my Maltron keyboard then 8)

note. its only a 3 month guarantee. You can buy more though - I didn't bother - plan to thrash it death in the next few weeks as a test and it has all sorts of self dio stuff on there.

FWIW,

Our 'fleet' of laptops at work are all T4x0's. The T400 is a bit long in the tooth now, but the rest are serving us well. I have a T420 myself, and we're slowly rolling out T430s now.

CTRL + or CTRL - to change the font size in a web page and get more on or make it more readable.

on this forum I can see about 6 posts max before have to scroll.

Sort of the opposite problem here:

[img] [/img]

😀

Just got myself a lovely new [url= http://www.benq.com/product/monitor/GW2765HT/ ]27" 2560x1440 IPS display[/url] for my main work screen. It's lush.

GrahamS - Member

Sort of the opposite problem here:

Just got myself a lovely new 27" 2560x1440 IPS display for my main work screen. It's lush.

That pic is a good example of why I prefer the old screen ratios.
So much wasted space on widescreens. 🙁
At least the newer Windows window manager allows you to snap things side by side to get some use out of the width during day to day work.

Actually it's worse than that because I have three screens, one either side of that main one. 😀

I don't think widescreen ratio is wasted space as such, I just hate the lack of vertical which is why I was keen to get something greater than the 1080 default.

I don't think widescreen ratio is wasted space as such, I just hate the lack of vertical which is why I was keen to get something greater than the 1080 default.

Which is why I rotate my desktop monitor on its side when I'm looking at code... 1600 vertical is cool!

I can't stand rotated screens. They always looks weird and distorted.
Decent IPS displays can just about handle it, but standard TN-film displays just look awful on their side.

1440 vertical is plenty enough for me and means I have space at the sides for code browsers, output, stack, VMs etc.

Having seen Earl post it here, I've just bought one of those refurb Lenovos from Scan to replace our dying laptop. Assuming it comes in reasonable nick it looks like a total bargain!

Out of interest, why do you wish you'd gone for the Ebuyer one?

It might be newer architecture, but it's £100 more, only an i3 rather than i5, has half the RAM, a slower HDD and appears to lose the decent keyboard/trackpad that the Thinkpads excel at...

Obvious pros are slightly bigger screen, bigger HDD, HDMI and gig ethernet... Oh and brand new obviously 🙂 But all at the expense of the speed/power...

I guess it looks a little more bling.

Can't say I wish I went for the Ebuyer one now - but it does have its draw

All the pros you pointed out are completely valid but the following does play on my mind.

Ebuyer machine:
Its new - new lust - we all have it from cars to bikes to anything.

Its comes with a 1 year warranty. When things go wrong with desktops - easy - buy new part for peanuts and replace. Laptops on the other hand are harder to repair. Saying that T series machines are probably more supportable and repairable than others. For a start, the battery is designed to be swapped under normal operation.

Battery on T420 is used which will probably be the first thing needing replacing.

The 4th series i3 is a more energy efficient processor (hippy in me) not not much less top end speed.

Screen resolution.

i3 has better graphics capability (not that I will ever need it)

HDMI can be useful.

End of day, I have to say sitting in front of the T series makes me feel professional. I used one 16 years ago and it still feels the same - just right - like a old girlfriend.

And you should see the molding below the arrow keys <nerd drool..>

Battery on T420 is used which will probably be the first thing needing replacing.

On the T4x0s I've replaced: hard disks, screens, keyboards, batteries, power supplies, fans, in about that order (most common first). Which sounds a lot I know but a) the number of returns I've seen are comparatively few given how many we have out there and b) giving 'free' laptops to the great unwashed falls into the category of "hostile environment." The Thinkpads survive being hurled across the car park far more readily than most brands.

You've make me feel so much better about my purchase... I tend to not turn over computer stuff very often if I can so hope this will last a few years. Not a problem with the business HP i've got and its been 8y+.

It arrived earlier and is in immaculate condition, not what I'd call grade B at all!

Only snag is that it's showing a res of 1366x768?!

I've only had time for a quick play, so I guess it's possibly a driver issue... Did you have anything like that happen Earl?

nope mine was 1600x900 out of the box.

If you google around the T420 did come with 1366x768 as well so make sure you didn't get one of those.

The only thing I really had to do was a windows update to take Win7 sp1. Also I took the optional windows updates that said 'leveno' - specifically in regards to the touchpad as 2 finger scrolling wasn't smooth. Updates applied - it smooth now.

My B grade looks super good as well. Faint shine on the del/rtn/sft/space keys. My 8 month old chrome book is looking more worn.

Other thing is I havent popped the back off to look at the hdd to check if its 7200, if its not then I'll be chuffed as it will mean its even faster when it is - if that makes sense....

Thanks for letting me know, I'll give Scan a ring and see what's what.

There's a bundled Lenovo toolset, if you load that one of the tools is a hardware check. In there it gives you details of the Disk, mine's def 7200.

cool i'll do that check.

I bought the ebuyer one, waiting for the slow(free) delivery to arrive, I'm too cheap to pay for nextday service.

Yep - sat in front of a Dell less than 1 year old - the highest resolution I could find - 1920x1080. In my workshop is an old Dell, the best part of 10 years old and it has a resolution of 1920x1200

Bums... Scan customer services have been back in touch and have said the website was wrong (now updated).

I can only assume they got a mixed batch and hadn't realised. You (Earl) we're lucky enough to get a higher-res one.

They say I can return for a refund if I want, or keep it.

Not 100% sure what to do. The high res wasn't the be-all and end-all, but it would have been [b]very[/b] nice to have...

happy to be proved wrong but I've never come across a laptop panel with a foo*1080 display.

Two out of three laptops in my house are 1920x1080 🙂

Really? Definitely running at native res? Are they fruit-based devices?

1920x1200 is WUXGA, 1920x1080 isn't any sort of standard I've ever come across (except on a TV).

It's "[url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_display_resolution#FHD ]FHD[/url]"

EDIT: Yes it came about for TVs, but my Dell 2409w is 1920x1080 and newer thinkpads (T440) have an FHD option.

Really? Definitely running at native res? Are they fruit-based devices?

This is a Lenovo W520, from work

[URL= http://imagizer.imageshack.com/img674/3173/2wIJp6.jp g" target="_blank">http://imagizer.imageshack.com/img674/3173/2wIJp6.jp g"/> [/IMG][/URL]

And the other is a 5 year old HP HDX18 that's currently in bits awaiting the completion of its refurbishment.

It's "FHD"

EDIT: Yes it came about for TVs, but my Dell 2409w is 1920x1080 and newer thinkpads (T440) have an FHD option.

I know it's FHD, I've just never seen it in a laptop. Every day's a school day, cheers both.

Verses,

I ordered one of the T420's which arrived today. It's got a 1600x900 screen, but the viewing angles are not great - you have to angle the lid just right. If the lower res screen seems pretty good and the rest of the laptop is in good nick I'd probably say stick with it.

Mine has a 7200 rpm hard drive too and I've checked the battery and it says 93% of original capacity. The case on mine is definitely B grade. It looks like it has been chucked across the car park, but that's ok; it will live in the kitchen where the kids have finally finished off my 2006 Macbook pro and I expect it will regularly get knocked off the table...

Thanks for comments.

I'm disappointed to have the lower-res, but it was a nice-to-have rather than an essential and it's still a pretty good bargain, especially considering the condition it's in.

So I'm leaning towards keeping it.

I know it's FHD, I've just never seen it in a laptop.

? most higher res laptops have used this for several years - Dells, Sonys, etc. and 1920x1200 has disappeared in about the same timeframe 🙁

I ordered one of the T420's which arrived today. It's got a 1600x900 screen, but the viewing angles are not great - you have to angle the lid just right.

Anecdotally, mine's not like this (16x9 T420). The only time I find that I have to fiddle with the vertical viewing angle is to get the best view of the picture when playing DVDs.

? most higher res laptops have used this for several years - Dells, Sonys, etc. and 1920x1200 has disappeared in about the same timeframe

Maybe that says more about the number of high-end laptops I've seen in recent times...!

FYI, if anyone else is toying with the refurb Lenovo from Scan, buy from their Ebay shop rather than their own site as the postage is cheaper 🙂

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/131306732432