Personally glad I didn't get SXGA+

[lilserenity]

Hiya,

I picked up my 17" monitor today, just one of them old CRT things it's a Fujitsu ErgoPro x174a - not too bad actually, about a 16" viewable area with 0.26 dot pitch, quite a crisp picture at 75Hz with 1280x1024.

However it is just fine on this monitor, easy to read etc., and I know LCDs are much crisper (well than this monitor - it's good but not a super duper one, after all £20 only goes so far - the price of it btw!)

However it has struck me that for me, SXGA+ on a 14.1" TFT would be too small for my liking so I am glad that in the end I settled for a T41 with the extras. (ibm multiburned dvd writing thing, and port replicator).

I guess everyone's mileage varies and having two displays is nice. I'm using IE on it now with Mozilla thunderbird on the T23's XGA display which I think is for me just right.

Have to say though, Photoshop is much better at 1280x1024.

Just thought I'd share this. Just got to finally get the T41 now, 25 days till I get my hands on it when arrive in the USA

Vicky

[akerman]

Remember - you sit farther away from your CRT, than from your notebook screen (unless you use external keyboard).

I'm running 1600x1200@85hz on my 19" (18" viewable) CRT - and the text on it is actually harder to see for me, than the text on my 14.1" SXGA+ thnkpad.

[DrGrafix]

Actually, my desktop setup is a dual-monitor deal... a Sony 21" with a .24 dot pitch (19.8" viewable) and a Nanao 17" with a .25 dot pitch (16.8" viewable) IIRC. Ideal for graphics work using a Matrox G400 Millenium Dual-Head. Not a great card for gaming, but I'm not a gamer. Graphics are awesome. But I don't think _any_ notebook measures up to a desktop IMHO.

OTH, I think that once you use the SXGA+ on a 14.1" format, you get used to it as long as it's _not_ your primary device for graphics work. I love the TP, but honestly... it's not a graphics workstation. I found SXGA+ weird at first, but now would never change. I just don't like big notebooks and the 14.1" TP is for me at least... the perfect portable.

Mike

[hausman]

How good is the colour fidelity on the T41? In my experience CRTs still have a major advantage over LCDs in that respect. (I don't know if that applies even to the latest Flexview displays, but the T41 lacks that in any case.)

If you do a lot of PhotoShop, I'd imagine this distinction is very important and may well override the XGA vs SXGA+ one.

[lilserenity]

Hiya,

Yes it is true that probably after seeing an SXGA+ screen I would get on with it fine, however when I have my ThinkPad on my person when out and about, it's safe to say that I am not working in Photoshop and doing stuff that is just fine in XGA.

When I am at home, now I can hook up the CRT monitor and work very nicely on a dual display system. Sure and LCD external display would be nice but I'd laugh if someone said I could get a SXGA capable TFT LCD external display for £25 (what I got this CRT for).

As for the colour quality, I'm not sure what it is like on the T41 yet as I won't have my hands on it for 24 days yet (when I arrive in the USA woooo!), as for the T23, it's not too bad. However it can be hard to get things rights on the LCD display, and sometimes the colours are just a bit too saturated in my experience.

This is the advantage of the CRT vs. internal T23 display in my case, gives me a much more accurate representation of the colours and that is quite necessary. I have often been surprised with some of my work when it has been printed out as I look at it and think "blimey didn't know the colour was so dark there", such as the flesh etc. On the CRT I can get a pretty accurate representation of what I want.

That said looking at this SXGA screen on this monitor and then glancing at the XGA display on the T23 does make it look somewhat big and 'clunky'...

Indecisive as ever

Vicky