Thinkpads Forum

Google searching reveals a few websites reporting that the T61P will be available in either a WUXGA 1920x1200 screen or a WSXGA(+?)(1680x1050) screen.

Can some people explain the pros and cons of these two screens (and any other likely candidate screen options) for the T61P? If they are both wide screen, is the higher resolution screen backwards compatible/reversible to the lower resolution screen? If so, why not get the best of both worlds for your choosing with the higher res screen? If this is wrong and/or it is not just a matter of resolution that can be reset as I tried to describe, can some people set the matter straight/explain it to me like I'm a six year old?

t41user wrote:If they are both wide screen, is the higher resolution screen backwards compatible/reversible to the lower resolution screen?

Yes.

t41user wrote:If so, why not get the best of both worlds for your choosing with the higher res screen?

Three reasons:

1) The higher res screen is more expensive.

2) The higher res screen is slightly heavier.

3) Running 1680x1050 on the WUXGA screen makes things on the screen look fuzzy. So, it's best to use a display at its native (i.e. highest) resolution.

Piano's got it pretty much down. Also, the higher-res screen will usually use more battery life; it needs to power more transistors, marginally taxes the video chipset more, and may (or may not, depending on the model) require a stronger backlight to maintain the same brightness.

A good point to highlight is that an LCD will ALWAYS be fuzzy at any resolution that's not native. It will be less noticeable with higher resolutions, but will always be visible.

I actually hate how LCDs aren't smart enough to do exact scaling at half-resolutions. Why my 1600x1200 screen is still fuzzy at 800x600 I just don't know.

Kenn wrote:I actually hate how LCDs aren't smart enough to do exact scaling at half-resolutions. Why my 1600x1200 screen is still fuzzy at 800x600 I just don't know.

Is this because the link between LCD and GPU is analog vs. digital?

t41user wrote:Google searching reveals a few websites reporting that the T61P will be available in either a WUXGA 1920x1200 screen or a WSXGA(+?)(1680x1050) screen.

Additionally there will be a 14.1" 1400x1050 SXGA+ display option.

onix wrote:Is this because the link between LCD and GPU is analog vs. digital?

On the notebook itself, GPU to LCD connection is pure digital. The same is true of an external LCD connected through DVI.

If you hook up an LCD through the VGA port, it's still crisp at native and fuzzy 1/2 resolution.

This is an issue with how the LCD's hardware interpolates non-native signals, and has nothing to do with the video card output.

Kenn wrote:A good point to highlight is that an LCD will ALWAYS be fuzzy at any resolution that's not native. It will be less noticeable with higher resolutions, but will always be visible.

How much fuzzier is a WSXGA+ screen at a lower resolution? Is it a lot fuzzier or just a little that is not very noticable?

mdougal wrote:How much fuzzier is a WSXGA+ screen at a lower resolution? Is it a lot fuzzier or just a little that is not very noticable?

It really depends on how sensitive/snooty you are to these kinds of things.

I recommend going to Best buy or costco and try changing the resolutions on one of their computers (desktop or laptop). You'll quickly see the difference in sharpness between native and non-native.

I saw somewhere that on Vista, the nonnative resolutions look just about as good as the native resolution. Is that true?

mdougal wrote:I saw somewhere that on Vista, the nonnative resolutions look just about as good as the native resolution. Is that true?

it has nothing to do with software.

tomh009 wrote:Additionally there will be a 14.1" 1400x1050 SXGA+ display option.

You sure about that? Nothing so far in the tabook (July) but I still hold out hope of more 4:3, 14.1" T61 models than the one so far on offer.

Also with vista you can scale fonts, objects etc quite well, there's a dial to adjust dpi if you find things too small

GarryF wrote:Also with vista you can scale fonts, objects etc quite well, there's a dial to adjust dpi if you find things too small

That's one of the things I want to try with Vista. I've heard horror stories with XP's scaling, even with 3rd party apps like Liquid.

And now Apple's dropped ALL mention of resolution independence from Leopard as well, which I was really hoping to see. Maybe the time is not yet ripe for sharp zooming, swooping UIs.

Any idea when we'll be able to order the T61P with the WSXGA+ screen?

I personally choose WSXGA+ over WUXGA because WUXGA would cause screen fonts to be too small. Also, games will have a much harder time running at WUXGA than WSXGA+.

Not quite true.
Vista's main improvement is scaleable font support. This essentially means you run the laptop at full resolution 1920x1200, but that you can enlarge text smoothly for readability. XP had this ability, but looked horrible. Vista does it much, much better. On a QXGA R50p (2048x1560), its a thing of beauty!

So, if you're going to run Vista (and on new laptops, its a no brainer), then get the highest screen resolution you can. Personally, I refuse to even consider anything less than WSXGA+.

Proteus wrote:Vista does it much, much better.

That's not my experience with Vista RC2, which scales just a little bit better than XP Pro. The final release could be better though.

I think all those people are missing the real point here. If you want a T61p, it's mainly for its graphic card and its 3D capabilities. So you might want to get the lower resolution screen to have higher frame rate at native resolution. Because even if Vista gets a good font scalability etc etc... Your 3D will still remain fuzzy if you're not in native resolution.

Kel Ghu wrote:I think all those people are missing the real point here. If you want a T61p, it's mainly for its graphic card and its 3D capabilities. So you might want to get the lower resolution screen to have higher frame rate at native resolution. Because even if Vista gets a good font scalability etc etc... Your 3D will still remain fuzzy if you're not in native resolution.

Yep, my reasoning exactly.