The tired SXGA+ question

[Kenn]

Hey everyone! I'm just a T-series owner here hopping in to heap some praise on your x-series. I occasionally see other students at school with X41s, and they're gorgeous and extremely compact machines.

I'd really consider giving up the perks of having a huge screen if the X came in SXGA+ (I know this is often-rehashed and contentious). I've seen the Toshiba tablet and that's the best thing going for it. Also, coming from 15" UXGA, I think the pixel pitch of 12" @ 1400x1050 should be quite similar.

Probably just a pipe-dream at this point, but I'll keep crossing my fingers!

[brainpicker]

Oh to be young and have good eyes! To me the XGA on a 12" is so perfect. I can barely use SXGA+ on my 14" T40. If I had a 12" SXGA+ and no super-dooper reading glasses it would be useless to me, so until they come with a slot to keep my glasses I'd have to pass. But I agree for you young ones it would be great! I wonder what the typical age of a Thinkpad buyer is these days? It could be that the X appeals to a younger demographic.

Yak

[bhtooefr]

I was under the impression that Dell appealed to the younger demographic, R appealed to cheap businesses and college kids who know the crap from the good stuff, T appealed to professionals, and X appealed to executives (USUALLY - I'm an HS/college kid). Oh, and G appealed to... um... nobody?

That said, I think 1280x1024 (or, if you want 4:3, 1280x960) is the perfect resolution. Not so high that the older people can't read it, not so low that you have an overcrowded screen. (FWIW, I run my 17" CRTs at 1280x1024 @ 60Hz.)

I've got a Sony Clie PEG-SJ22, with a 320x320 screen, and everybody I show it to says that they can't read tiny fonts on it (I use Pilot-DB, and the default font is the smallest possible font on a Palm).

[Kenn]

Oh to be young and have good eyes! To me the XGA on a 12" is so perfect. I can barely use SXGA+ on my 14" T40. If I had a 12" SXGA+ and no super-dooper reading glasses it would be useless to me, so until they come with a slot to keep my glasses I'd have to pass. But I agree for you young ones it would be great! I wonder what the typical age of a Thinkpad buyer is these days? It could be that the X appeals to a younger demographic.

Yak

That's one of the nice things about the T-series. 14 or 15", three resolutions to choose from (XGA, SXGA+, UXGA). Different strokes for different folks. I think it would be a huge mistake to replace the X with an SXGA+ only screen, but offering it as an option would make me think long and hard about my next upgrade!!

The X does appeal to students, but it's very expensive compared to Dell and other budget-conscious brands. Small laptops are easy to carry with large textbooks, and fit on tiny desks and cafe tables...but then again I think small appeals to just about everyone, unless you really need screen real estate and it's going to be your only machine.

[bhtooefr]

but then again I think small appeals to just about everyone, unless you really need screen real estate and it's going to be your only machine.

My solution? Just run another monitor...

MaxiVista is fun

[Kenn]

but then again I think small appeals to just about everyone, unless you really need screen real estate and it's going to be your only machine.

My solution? Just run another monitor...

MaxiVista is fun

And then you can even dual-monitor! Though I doubt you'll want to look at the small 12" screen if you have a 19-20" widescreen hooked up right next to it

[bhtooefr]

12" XGA on the left, 17" 1280x1024 CRT on the right.

Due to the fact that the CRT has to run at 60Hz at that resolution, the Google Sidebar, Task Manager, and a command prompt are stashed on that monitor.

[ragefury32]

*cough*. The T is great for professionals, the R is good for normal users, the X is great for sales geeks and college kids who know their stuff...and the G is good for assassins. You can probably beat someone to death with one.

[Kenn]

*cough*. The T is great for professionals, the R is good for normal users, the X is great for sales geeks and college kids who know their stuff...and the G is good for assassins. You can probably beat someone to death with one.

Haha, I've never seen a G, but from the description, it sounds like that kind of brute-force, ham-fisted approach would better suite the Mob than a ninja trying to scale a wall

All in good fun...

[bhtooefr]

A G series, with power brick (the G series gets a bigger-than-normal brick), weighs 10 pounds.

However, everybody knows that the 5 pound Model M is the preferred weapon of choice by assassins who work in the IT industry.

[Tan Mann]

Yak[
________________
I hate (no... REALLY, REALLY HATE) "Len-Oh-No!"quote]

Yak,
I see by your signature, that you are hate Lenovo...might I ask why???
I have had great experiences with them...I had some minor perturberations with them due to delays in stock of TPs during(and immediately after) the transition from IBM, but nothing to cause me such grief as you seemingly are experiencing.

Just curious.

Tan

[bhtooefr]

After over 2 months of waiting and all the customs issues I finally received one of my Tablets as we are about to be leaving on our trip. The other is still lost in Alaska. Absolutely horrible screen!!! Not only does it have bad pixels, but the left side has areas that have large amounts of light coming through and this is not acceptable on a $2500 retail product. It's as if flashlights are shining in from the left, and since this light protrudes in about an inch it's very bothersome. Naturally I have e-mails off to my sales rep and I tried waiting on the phone but after 45-minutes I'm giving up. And ol' Phil thinks it unacceptable to say things like Len-Oh-No! can't do anything right? Phil, they are worse that anything I could have expected from this buyout. Now I'm waiting to be told that this is not a legit reason for an exchange (but they will be glad to accept my return and have me re-order for $900 more than what I paid for this one!). That's 4 laptops in a row that had horrible quality. Maybe I'll have one of you place an order for me as they must really hate me to send off such crap time after time after time. Unacceptable!!!

That's from another thread, but the bolding shows why he calls it Len-Oh-No!

[AlphaKilo470]

Maybe it's a thing you have to see to understand but I think 1400 by whatever is just too high for a 12" screen. I think the ideal resoultion on 12" is 800x600 for legibility or 1024x768 for screen real estate. Then again, my vision's not the greatest. Even on my desktop's 19" Samsung CRT, I have to be wearing my glasses or contacts (and everything is perfect when I do) but if I'm not wearing them, even 640x480 is illegible unless I hunch over the screen so close I have to move aorund to see the different parts.

[Kenn]

Maybe it's a thing you have to see to understand but I think 1400 by whatever is just too high for a 12" screen.

I thought 1400x1050 on the Toshiba Portege tablet's screen was just fine for readability. In reality, the pixel pitch isn't bad at all, and nearly all 10-13in widescreen laptops have higher pixel densities nowadays.

In the end, it's not very useful saying any resolution is "too high" or "too low" for a given screen size, as it's all about personal preference. Some like their XGA, others SXGA, still others, even higher. The best thing to do is to provide options, so you can choose what suits you best!