Is 1920x1080 really THAT much better than 1600x900 on a laptop??

StevieP

StevieP

StevieP

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I'm looking at getting a laptop for gaming and I'm not really sure what I should be looking in in terms of the screen resolution!

I've got a Dell Inspiron with the 15.6" screen that has a resolution of 1366x768 and while its not bad, it doesnt really compare to my 1920x1080 screen on my desktop (with is a 24" screen though!) - so it got me thinking if I stick with the 15.6" screen, does it make that much of a difference going for the full 1080p screen over either the 1366x768 or 1600x900 screens that are kicking about???
 
Well I would say they are a lot better than the 1366x768 screens, I personally just find that resolution low enough to be annoying, now 1600x900 is fine but 1920x1080 is better for sure, you just have more screen real estate to play with ...however I would say that the panel size also has a lot to do with it, I wouldn't go for a 19x screen on a panel smaller than 15.6" that's for sure ...the one I have is 16.4" and it's about right I find.

The issue with the 'full HD' 1920x1080 panels usually being pegged as much better is actually more to do with the panel quality as they typically use the premium quality units for the highest resolution panels, so you get better colour reproduction, better contrast ratio better viewing angles, back lightning ...and all in all just a higher quality unit ...this is what really makes them 'better' rather than the resolution so much.

Of course for gaming there is a disadvantage to higher res panels, i.e. to run games at the native resolution requires more power than on a lower resolution panel ...something which is often at a premium with laptops.

So it somewhat depends on what you are doing, for productitivity and general use ...yes higher res is much nicer I find, provided the panel is large enough that that the dot pitch isn't too fine (everything appears smaller the finer the dot pitch ...but also sharper) so that it's comnfortable to work with. As for gaming, well it depends really, I'd still go for the higher resolution myself but there are of course reasons why you might not.
 
I have a 1920*1080 display on my 15" laptop.

It looks pretty incredible when watching HD films and stuff. For web browsing I am doing a lot of ctrl + because everything is pretty small and I'm not used to it.

I think that for 15" 1600*900 is probably the best. But echo what Moeks said wrt panel quality, mine is DELL ultrasharp and the colours on it are gorgeous, I doubt they'd be as good on the lower end screens.
 
depends on the screen size and personal preference really, I quite like 1366x758 on my 15.6" and 13.3" but I wouldn't object to a higher res.

for gaming, unless you have a really decent graphics card, 1080p may be too high to enable the full detail and AA so you would definitely want a Nvidia GT555m or equivalent minimum.
 
I've just had this debate with myself and ended up going for 1600x900 on a 17" with a GT555m because i just want a bit of extra when gaming. Res at that size was fine for me but can understand why people would prefer a 1080 display.
 
Too me even 1920x1080 is too small... I'm used to 2560x1600, down to one now... but had three at one time. That was nice.

These are just too small for what i want to fit on the same screen... I like multi-tasking and 1920x1080 is just that little bit too small for it imo.

Heck of a lot better than the days of 1024x768 though!
 
I can't stand 768 vertial resolutions... Back to the old days of 1024x768 essentially because other than films most things you do on a laptop are just as good/better with a thinner but deeper (relative) display. 16x9 is the spawn of the devil on Laptops, you need at least 800 vertical pixels.

With that in mind definitely go for a 1600x900 screen if you can get it, not too sure about a 1080p screen over that though, although on a laptop as big as yours it may be worth it.
 
Amp34 said:
I can't stand 768 vertial resolutions... Back to the old days of 1024x768 essentially because other than films most things you do on a laptop are just as good/better with a thinner but deeper (relative) display. 16x9 is the spawn of the devil on Laptops, you need at least 800 vertical pixels.

With that in mind definitely go for a 1600x900 screen if you can get it, not too sure about a 1080p screen over that though, although on a laptop as big as yours it may be worth it.
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I agree and Im surprised by the number of relatively high spec laptops with a screen size smaller than 17" that have 1024x768.
 
900p or 1080p are both fine - as long as its not 720p. That said, my 15" vaio also has a 1080p screen and laptops that have anything less now annoy me
 
I've got an Acer 6930G which has a 1366 x 768 display and I find it really annoying. You just can't fit enough on the screen and it makes it feel very cramped. When I ordered my new Dell XPS15 I made sure it had the 1080p display, and I'm glad I did - it is a fantastic screen. It is just so sharp it means that even small text is easily readable. As for games I only really play WoW so the 540M graphics card can easily handle that at the native res.
 
RobK said:
I've got an Acer 6930G which has a 1366 x 768 display and I find it really annoying. You just can't fit enough on the screen and it makes it feel very cramped. When I ordered my new Dell XPS15 I made sure it had the 1080p display, and I'm glad I did - it is a fantastic screen. It is just so sharp it means that even small text is easily readable. As for games I only really play WoW so the 540M graphics card can easily handle that at the native res.
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I came on here because I've just received my new Dell XPS15 with "15.6"(40 cm) FHD B+RGLED TL (1920x1080) 1080p" screen...I've only had it for half a day but I'm already getting annoyed with it and I came on here for advice on whether to return it or not.

Great for games - just played COD2 on native and full graphics

But the reality is that I'll be using it mostly for the web - and all web pages just look really weird. I don't mind doing the CTRL+scroll, to see the detail - but it just seems like pictures and graphics are blurry/distorted. Not in a really obvious way, but blurry enough to be annoying.

Thoughts? Put up with it or return it and go with a 1400x900 screen and save some money?
 
Vinni3 @H|H said:
Increasing the DPI in Windows will help massively.
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I increased it from the standard 125% setting to 150% - now it just looks worse. I've changed it back to standard everything looks much crisper.

The images on facebook, and the graphics on certain websites remain blurry no matter the DPI. Doesn't matter if it can play awesome bluray and great games...if the internet is a pain to look at then it sort of sucks big time. I guess I'll just have to get used to blurring around the interwebz...
 
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