Maths/Resolution question

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I have a 15.4" display running at 1280X800

I'm looking at a laptop that runs a 1366 x 768 resolution on a 15.6" screen

I was hoping to change my res now to kind of 'demo' the newer display size, I guessed very roughly that if I lower mine to say 1280X768 it would kind of match the other screen? But my maths sucks in this area, and not sure what a decent res is to try it at? Any body here better at maths than I? ;)
 
Your monitor

1280x800 = 1024000 pixels total

1024000/15.4 = 66493.506 pixels per inch

Other monitor

1366 x 768 = 1049088 pixels total

1049088/15.6 = 67249.231 pixels per inch

Difference

67249.231/66492.506 = 1.0114 Pixels per inch extra

Your tested value

1280x768 = 983040 pixels total

983040/15.4 = 63833.766233 pixels per inch

This is LESS than the other monitor, not more.

I think that although it seems that the other monitor has a higher rez, but on a bigger screen, the pixels would appear larger. From the above, this appears to not be the case, and you would have to INCREASE your rez to simulate it, which you can't do.

Of course, dot pitch is not being factored in here. Furthermore, I am not a "monitor guru", I just looked at the numbers you posted and thought about the situation logically. I cannot seperate what rez you would need to simulate it correctly as the screen size is not seperated into horiz and vertical sizes, hence why I had to multiply both the vertical and horizontal values together to get a singular value (to compare apples to apples as it were).

Dunno if this helps.
 
I get where your coming from there, I think if I thought about it for a while I could crack it. I don;t think multiplying the values is what I want to do, rather just find the kind of ratio for it, eg my current monitor is 16X10 the other one is 16X9

so I know the overall size will be different, and pixel size too, but what res can I dial up to give a overall 16X9 picture to see if it is to small for regular browsing use. Just to get a feel for it you know?
 
You have the ratio, so just use a resolution that is 16:9. So...

16x9
32x18
64x36

etc etc until you find one that you can hit on your current laptop. It wont be anything like the same as the new one your getting though. Really the only difference between your current and future laptops is that you get more desktop real estate and tv is in 16:9 ratio, so you wont have to crop it or put up with black borders at the top and bottom. The text size difference will be minimal, personally I think the text is far too big on my 1280x800 rez on my 15" lappy :( wish it could go higher, like 1440xwhatever 17"ers do :D
 
Really the only difference between your current and future laptops is that you get more desktop real estate and tv is in 16:9 ratio, so you wont have to crop it or put up with black borders at the top and bottom.
Wrong, it's the other way around. On 16:10 screens 16:9 video is showed with black bars because screen can show more than picture contains.

But what's more important in normal use you'll need more vertical resolution than lower picture so there's no sense in going to still lower screen when vertical resolution of starting point is near masochism.
For good use wide screens make sense only after vertical resolution is at least 1200. (1050 for laptop)
Not forgetting that 4:3 screen is actually physically most fitting to laptops and in same diagonal size low screens (that's what they are) have both smaller physical image area and as rule also smaller usefull desktop space because of less pixels.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot_pitch
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Vector_Video_Standards2.svg
http://www.prismo.ch/comparisons/
 
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