Display Resolution

Message

Matt · #1 Post by **Matt** » Tue May 18, 2004 10:32 pm

This just dawned on my while perusing the tabook but I thought it was worth mentioning in case others missed the point: NONE of the non-p T42 15" models offer UXGA resolution (1600 x 1200)--it's available only in the T42p models. All the T42 15" ones are either XGA (1024 x 768) or SXGA+ (1400 x 1050).

Lmax · #2 Post by **Lmax** » Wed May 19, 2004 1:52 pm

Yeah, I noticed. I think you would be hard pressed to even be able to read text on the UXGA 15", at least I would and I have good vision.

Max

fox_napier · #3 Post by **fox_napier** » Wed May 19, 2004 2:24 pm

I would have to concur with Max on this. I used to have a 15" UXGA (1600 x 1200) laptop, in fact one of the first released with such a screen. Albeit it was not Flexview, since this IPS technology came around later.

I will tell you that 1600 x 1200 on a 15" LCD isn't all that it's cracked up to be (pardon the LCD pun). Yes, it gave me ample desktop space. But in Windows the icons, toolbars and page fonts end up tiny. I have excellent vision but after 6 hours straight working on the machine I end up getting frustrated at the tiny graphics. Don't get me started on fixing this during my Linux sessions.

Many of you will chime in at this point and say that the icon and toolbar sizes can be customized under display setting in Windows. Yes, I've tried all kinds of solutions like this, but to no avail. The problem is that such changes don't impact all applications universally or with great results. For example, after making these customizations and loading a webpage in IE or Mozilla, the text is still too small. If you change the default text sizes or View -> Text Size -> Largest, the fonts become too artifically large for the surrounding frames so the webpage looks out of whack. Also some fonts get larger while other stay the same size.

Others will chime in and advise just reducing the overall resolution in display settings to say 1280x1024. This works great on CRTs but remember that LCDs come with one fixed resolution. So, if you change to another resolution the video chip has to interpolate or extrapolate and as a result the overall image on the LCD is smeared out. ATI chips are getting better and better and providing this interpolation, but it doesn't beat running an LCD at its native resolution.

So, bottom line: get an LCD you are comfortable with not for a few minutes but one you can stare at for a while. it may look super-sharp and with oodles of desktop space, but imagine using it for 6 hours straight...

Lmax wrote:Yeah, I noticed. I think you would be hard pressed to even be able to read text on the UXGA 15", at least I would and I have good vision.

Max

geobel · #4 Post by **geobel** » Wed May 19, 2004 5:18 pm

I would add that changing DPI settings scales everything but still is not the perfect solution... The problem is in scaling a line. When you scale fonts, the vertical and horizontal dimensions of a letter are scaled but the thickness of the line is not. What you get is large letter drawn by hair-thin line that looks weird and difficult to read (eventually line is scaled to two pixels but you get huge font then). If you can bear Cleartype you are lucky as it will partially correct line thickness. Unfortunately for me Cleartype is unacceptable (makes me mad by some reason ...).

Gosha

Udayan · #5 Post by **Udayan** » Wed May 19, 2004 5:28 pm

Many of you will chime in at this point and say that the icon and toolbar sizes can be customized under display setting in Windows. Yes, I've tried all kinds of solutions like this, but to no avail. The problem is that such changes don't impact all applications universally or with great results.

I used to have a Dell Inspiron 8100 with a 1600X1200 15" display. The screen real estate was priceless (I'm now working on 1024X768) and everything displayed fine except for the text. The way to solve this problem and make UXGA worthwhile is simple -- increase the font size under display settings, advanced, and set font size to something bigger than 96dpi -- experiment with what is best.

I would add that changing DPI settings scales everything but still is not the perfect solution... The problem is in scaling a line.

I haven't experienced this problem. The pen scaling might have been off, but if so, it wasn't enough for me to notice it. I was using Windows XP, so maybe that had something to do with it.

Conmee · #6 Post by **Conmee** » Wed May 19, 2004 8:03 pm

Perhaps the 15" SXGA+ Flexviews will be a good compromise... good amount of screen real estate, easier to read than UXGA or 14" SXGA+.

fox_napier · #7 Post by **fox_napier** » Wed May 19, 2004 9:14 pm

I'm also interested in this model. Let me know how the battery life is and if the 5400 HD and Radeon 9600 can keep up with gaming.

Conmee wrote:Perhaps the 15" SXGA+ Flexviews will be a good compromise... good amount of screen real estate, easier to read than UXGA or 14" SXGA+.

Lmax · #8 Post by **Lmax** » Wed May 19, 2004 11:56 pm

Couldn't have said it better myself, fox.

Max

(Please refrain from quoting lengthy posts in a "me too" response! JHEM)

#9 Post by **BillMorrow** » Thu May 20, 2004 2:58 am

i prefer the UXGA 15 inch flexview..
especially when doing photo editing..
the color is superior and the pixel pitch is very fine.. like looking at a photograph..

but then i don't work at it 8 hours straight..

i DO wear glasses..

pennster · #10 Post by **pennster** » Sun May 23, 2004 2:47 pm

I had same resolution problem when I got my T41p. I tried eveything to adjust it but not a single solution is perfect (DPI, Contrast, font, icon). Then I download Mozilla FireFox and everyting which is related to internet browsing is fine with me. It is very easy to adjust the font size and it is more powerfull than IE at least I think so. Of course it just fixed my internet browsing problem. But most of my other applications can do the adjustment from the inside function of applications.

Display Resolution

Display Resolution

1600X1200 -- Not so bad

Who is online