Widescreen laptops, yay or nay?

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r_holmes22

Limp Gawd
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Jan 29, 2002
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I’m considering upgrading my laptop, but looking round my local consumer electronics store the majority on display are widescreen. Although I can imagine widescreen displays are nice for watching DVD’s, I am concerned about how the dimensions might affect the display in other applications; especially games. Do modern graphics cards/drivers offer native support for widescreen displays, or will I find all my applications simply look elongated?

Could somebody please indicate the advantages of a widescreen display (either spcifically relating to laptops or any TFT monitor) and whether there are any disadvantages?

Many thanks.
 
They are nice for gaming but only under certain conditions:

1. The graphics card has enough memory to effectively run the game at the native resolution (commonly 1280 x 800). I'd suggest at least 128 mb.
2. The game supports widescreen resolutions. There are sometimes ways around this, but not always. If not, your aspect ratio is skewed.
3. DVDs
4. General use, it is better, imho

I own an emachines m6805 with a mobility 9600 64 MB. It isnt bad, but it isnt great anymore either. The 64 MB kinda kills it.

If I were you, I would invest in a 256 MB card. I think sager makes them. It will be worth the purchase, unless you dont mind your games looking squished or running slow.
 
When i owned my widescreen laptop i loved it. It had the m10p (mobility 9600 pro), and after using it for 1 month or so, i dont think i'll go back to the normal fullscreen view (4:3).

But that is just my opinion, i guess it is all up to personal preference.

-Jcc2k4
 
i think it sucks... 1200x800 is a horrible resolution. If you want widescreen, find something that's wider, not shorter.

Notice that 800 pixels is NOT a lot of height. If it were 1800x1200 then we're talking. Give me more space -- not less.
 
potroast said:
i think it sucks... 1200x800 is a horrible resolution. If you want widescreen, find something that's wider, not shorter.

Notice that 800 pixels is NOT a lot of height. If it were 1800x1200 then we're talking. Give me more space -- not less.
Click to expand...

Initially I thought the same thing. 1280x800 looks very natural, however, on many 15.4'' laptops. I am saying this through first-hand experience.

But hey, you are always entitled to your own opinion :p

Now, if you are talking about a LCD screen or a larger laptop screen, such as a 17'', then yeah, I can understand your arguement.
 
I don't like 1280x800 (WSXGA) either. That was the only reason I didn't buy an Emachines 68xx laptop.

I currently have a 1680x1050 (WSXGA+) 15.4" screen and it's perfect. I wouldn't want a 1920x1200 (UWXGA) since the non-resizeable elements on the screen are way too small (almost 150dpi).
 
I like the 1280x800 of my M6811. I think it's pretty much "just right." Every great once in a while I see something I wish I had a little taller screen for, but not very often.
 
I regularly play City of Heroes at 1920x1200 on my XPS. I LOVE IT! I like it so much that I rarely play on my 19" CRT equiped desktop. Honestly for most gaming the 12x8 option is fine and runs very well. I use this machine for gaming and java development. It is really REALLY nice to have so much screen for the eclipse IDE (1920x1200). Honestly though, 1280x800 isn't enough to run eclipse very well... it's just to 'short'. So I guess WUXGA = goodness, anything less and you'll be bound by the 800 pixel hight a bit.
 
Hupp2it said:
So I guess WUXGA = goodness, anything less and you'll be bound by the 800 pixel hight a bit.
Click to expand...
WSXGA+ = 1680x1050. I didn't like UXGA on 4:3 screens and I don't like WUXGA on 16:10 screens. :(
 
potroast said:
i think it sucks... 1200x800 is a horrible resolution. If you want widescreen, find something that's wider, not shorter.

Notice that 800 pixels is NOT a lot of height. If it were 1800x1200 then we're talking. Give me more space -- not less.
Click to expand...

Have you actually used a notebook at 1200x800? It's quite good, and i think i would rather have 1200x800 rather than 1280x1024. You would lose some resolution of course, but the widescreen just seems so much more natural for the eyes.

EDIT: This wasn't gaming or movie watching, simply browsing and reading documents.
 
i really love to game in widescreen, but it is really annoying when i have to play at non widescreen resolutions. i like widescreen movies also, and those are nice on a widescreen display.
 
pxc said:
I don't like 1280x800 (WSXGA) either. That was the only reason I didn't buy an Emachines 68xx laptop.

I currently have a 1680x1050 (WSXGA+) 15.4" screen and it's perfect. I wouldn't want a 1920x1200 (UWXGA) since the non-resizeable elements on the screen are way too small (almost 150dpi).
Click to expand...
actually 1280x800 is not WSXGA, it is WXGA. WSXGA is 1680x1050 i think. i would have to agree that the 800 px height is limiting sometimes. i wish i had gotten the WSXGA, but oh well 1280x800 is good for gaming with decent fps
 
Many thanks to all of you for your contributions; I appreciate it. I feel a lot happier about the prospect of taking the plunge and getting a new laptop now.

YellowPeril, your spec looks similar to what I'm aiming for. How do games run on your rig? I know the likes of Far Cry and Doom 3 would need a lot of detail turned off, but I'm looking at things like Splinter Cell (the original), Grand Theft Auto 3, and perhaps Max Payne 2? I'm not a heavy gamer anymore, so am just looking for reasonable smoothness at 1200*800.
 
YellowPeril said:
actually 1280x800 is not WSXGA, it is WXGA. WSXGA is 1680x1050 i think. i would have to agree that the 800 px height is limiting sometimes. i wish i had gotten the WSXGA, but oh well 1280x800 is good for gaming with decent fps
Click to expand...
oops. yeah, WXGA is 1280x800 and WSXGA+ is 1680x1050.
 
Just another thought...how do you find viewing digital photographs on a widescreen display? If viewing them in a full-screen slideshow (such as that built into Windows XP), does it stretch the image horizontally slightly and muck up the aspect ratio?
 
WUXGA (1920x1200) is hella awesome.

The only thing that would be better than a widescreen laptop, is a widescreen laptop with the resolution of a 23" apple flat pannel display.

I really like this rez, as i can do the whole two pages of text on the screen at the same time. lots of people find the text is too small, so that is something to consider. This can be fixed by bumping up the windows font size
 
bringerofwar said:
WUXGA (1920x1200) is hella awesome.

The only thing that would be better than a widescreen laptop, is a widescreen laptop with the resolution of a 23" apple flat pannel display.

I really like this rez, as i can do the whole two pages of text on the screen at the same time. lots of people find the text is too small, so that is something to consider. This can be fixed by bumping up the windows font size
Click to expand...

The 23" Cinema Display is 1920x1200, and tons of laptops offer this resolution already. As for picture distortion in Windows, of course ther isn't any, do you think pictures distort on a 1280x1024 display vs a 1600x1200 panel? Widescreens aren't some scary foreign thing, it's just another resolution to Windows.
 
can I just say that I like normal UXGA resolution?

/me wants more laptops with UXGA instead of Wxxxx
 
I definitely love the 1280x800 widescreen. For example, as a student i like to "dock" the AIM buddy window to the side, and i still have pretty standard looking web pages (i.e. not tall slim), and plenty of room to work on papers or whatever. It seems that more and more games allow for "widescreen" modes and support 1280x800, or more of these wide resolutions. Additionally, those few that don't, really don't seem to stretched when running 1024x768 or whatever. I know I will probably never go back to a 4:3 "box" style in a notebook.
 
Most responses have been very encouraging. Thank you. I have no hesitation about getting one now.

Cheers.
 
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