Higher screen res

Nymins · 19 Mar 2013 at 14:35

Hello,

I currently use an Inspiron 14z, which has been nothing but brilliant since I got it. Problem is, I'm getting more into design, so I'm after a screen with a higher resolution. 1366x768 is becoming a bit limiting.

I've found a couple of 1600x900 laptops, but was wondering if anyone could recommend one?

After a couple of things:

Decent cpu (i5 minimum)
13-14" screen (don't really want anything bigger)
Good build quality
Not too bothered about dedicated GPU or anything.

Don't really fancy an ultra book, just due to the CPU being a lot slower. But if the price is right and make is good, then I'd definitely consider it.

As for price, I don't want to pay more than £600-700 ideally.

Cheers folks!

L33 · 19 Mar 2013 at 14:50

I'd imagine 1600x900 to be fairly limiting too, it isn't that much more screen estate over 1366x768. Without sounding like captain obvious, is an external monitor an option?

Nymins · 19 Mar 2013 at 16:10

L33 said:
I'd imagine 1600x900 to be fairly limiting too, it isn't that much more screen estate over 1366x768. Without sounding like captain obvious, is an external monitor an option?

I do have a 1920x1080 monitor that I can hook the laptop up to (its currently being used for my desktop), but I prefer working more mobile really!

Schizophonic · 19 Mar 2013 at 16:14

higher res screen = bigger sized laptop. Can you make the change?
There are other laptops like the Dell XPS 10 which has a 1080 res but the screen is small so pixel size is going to be small as well.

Nymins · 19 Mar 2013 at 16:27

I've gotten quite use to 13-14" sizes, unless the overall dimensions of a 15" would be the same as say my 14z, then I'd prefer not to go that high.

I'm probably just partly in an impulse buy mode as well. My brother got a Macbook Air 13", and even though its just 1440x900, then sharpness seems quite noticeable and there is a decent amount of a space available.

Yea I've seen very high res laptops, like 1080 as you say, and everything does seem very small. 1600x900 seems like quite a good balance.

Nymins · 20 Mar 2013 at 20:37

Found the Sony S13 which seems quite nice. Student discount brings this down to around £715:

i5 3230m
Nvidia 640m LE 1GB
13.3" 1600x900 Matte Screen
4GB Ram

I have an SSD and extra ram, so thats not a problem.

Also seen the Gigabyte U2442N for around £670:

i5 3210m
8GB ram
Nvidia 640M 1GB
14" 1600x900 Matte.
128GB SSD + 750GB HDD

Better specced overall, but unsure of the build quality? The S13 seems pretty good quality wise.

EDIT: I've been reading that the Sony S series seems to have issues with its SATA connections. Seems a bios release makes them run at SATA2 speeds for some reason? Hmmm, puts a bit of spanner in the works for that suggestion!