Thinkpads Forum

I am thinking of upgrading from a T40 SXGA+ 14 inch screen to the X60 Tablet SXGA+ 12 inch screen. I am concerned the text will be much smaller than and cause eye strain since I do a lot of text work every day (6+ hours).

How do people with the X60t SXGA+ screen like it? Also, is the smaller keyboard noticable? Reviews are welcome, as well as on the overall performance of the tablet.

thanks.

jingorm wrote:I am concerned the text will be much smaller than and cause eye strain since I do a lot of text work every day (6+ hours).

Your T40's SXGA+ has 124.1 DPI, whereas the X60 tablet has 144.6 dots per inch (DPI), which is very dense indeed. My Dell laptop is very similar (147.0 DPI) and it took me 3 months to adjust the extremely small text. During those 3 months, I kept debating whether or not to sell the laptop. But now I am fairly used to it and this Dell has become one of my all-time favorite laptops.

jingorm wrote:Also, is the smaller keyboard noticable?

Assuming that the X60 tablet has a similar keyboard as the X60s that I owned, yes, it's noticeably smaller than a T-series keyboard, but is still quite comfortable to type on.

I absolutely love my sxga 'I waited 2 months for it and it was worth it. It's definitely smaller text, but I don't think it's too small at all. And the extra virtual screen 'space is well worth it. And the keyboard is a decent size as far as I'm concerned, but I'm upgrading from a P1510D so it's bigger than my previous Keyboard

12' SXGA+ is too small for me
14" SXGA+.... loving it

I have been using my x60t with the 1400x1050 resolution for 3 days now, and have to say I really like both the resolution and the keyboard size. I am upgrading from a T30 with a 14.1" 1400x1050 monitor, and do not believe I could do without the high resoultion.

I do have 20/20 corrected vision, which may make a difference.

I was a little concerned about the keyboard size, but have not yet hit the wrong key. The layout is nearly identical to what I am used to, and have done well with the smaller CTRL, ALT and Backspace keys.

I always like the highest resolution I can get, but also have a co-worker who has a 19" LCD running interpolated at 1024x768. The real answer to your question, I believe, is personal preference. I'd probably error on the side of the higher resolution, since you can somewhat scale fonts if everything is too small for comfort.

Brian

I suggest you go to a store and try it (or try a laptop with similar text size) and you will know whether it is too small for you. Personally, I think it's too small.

ibear wrote:I suggest you go to a store and try it (or try a laptop with similar text size)

That's going to be hard because there are very few laptops with 12.1" SXGA+ resolution. Most manufacturers probably think it's too small for most people, so they don't even make such screens.

yes,
there is very rare to get a 12' SXGA+ Demo in most of the Laptop retail shops

still, you can adjust your font dpi resolution, right? maintain native resolution and screen real estate, but increase font readability some. are there any limitations on this?

cheeebs wrote:still, you can adjust your font dpi resolution, right? maintain native resolution and screen real estate, but increase font readability some. are there any limitations on this?

The limitation is that it takes a lot of tweaking to make everything look real nice. When I wanted to increase readability on my 15" SXGA+ screen, I had to tweak various settings at various places. In the end it's great, but it was a several stage process.

hm.. you can try it out yourself using pianowizards DPI numbers.

Make a print screen of your favorable program on your 14" SXGA+, resize it to 85,82% (= 124,1/144,6) and look if you can still read it. The size on the X60 SXGA+ will be exactly the same, but keep in mind that the resolution on X60+ is higher and the quality a little better than if you view the resized picture on your 14" SXGA+

I have a new X60t with the 12" SXGA screen. The text is too small for me. I'm waiting on my Vista upgrade to ship because that OS is supposed to have enhanced font scaling so I can make the fonts for apps, web pages, etc. larger.