How to convince Dell that customers prefer the 16:10 ratio on laptop screens

You can ask any joe schmoe off the street, what he cares about, how fast his computer is or what screen resolution his computer has, and 99/100 will say he wants a faster computer. That is the inevitable truth, people screamed for faster computers with more features for cheaper. Well you can have, speed, cheapness and quality, pick 2 outta 3, cause you can't have them all. Again perfectly explains why IBM sold off it's PC market, there is no profit in the PC market. Who can make the cheapest crap and sell the most of it pretty much describes consumer PC's.

 

I know, but there should exist a choice in the market for people who follow different criteria when they buy a computer. I can't believe that those who prefer better screens and build quality at the expense of a bit lesser processing power and/or premium price are so few that companies don't find profitable to sell such products. There are even those mobile phones covered with diamonds for those who demmand them, Vartu is the company that sells them if i recall well, but buying laptops with 16:10 screens will be impossible when Apple eventually runs out of stock. I'm afraid that now that IBM and HP/Compaq are out of the hardware business, quality of computers will never be the same again. I hope Dell won't be the next one to quit the business. Probably they have not done it yet just because it's practically their sole activity unlike more diversified companies like HP.

 

Well of course there should be a choice. The only good thing about 16:9 is it offers 1080p to laptops that would have never gotten 1080p. But for large 17" laptops it reduced WUXGA to 1920x1080p.

Again, most consumers screamed for cheapest crap they could get, and unforunately we are stuck with 16:9. Even business laptops have gone 16:9 because businesses demanded cheaper laptops, and to not sacrifice speed and features they reduce build quality/screen resolution to do that.

I'm not saying I praise 16:9, but that is the unfortunately truth. Thankfully my needs have not required jumping to the newest laptop and going 16:9, I only have 4:3 and 16:10 laptops for now.

 

The funny thing is... not many mainstream laptops over 15" actually do 1080p... they do the crappy bane of my existence 720p 1366x768 or if you're lucky, 1600x900.

How did this happen anyways? Just a few years ago, laptops screen standards were just moving away from XGA 1024x768, going to Wxxx resolutions, standardizing on 1280x800 and slowly moving to 1440x900... then some bozo says... oh wait... let's give them less pixels and go to 1366x768.

The Dell Latitudes still had WUXGA 1920x1200 as an option on their Latitudes until their last refresh and now the business laptops are stuck at 1080p... losing screen real estate.

What notebooks even do 1920x1200 anymore? MacBookPro 17"?

Does anyone find it ironic that mobile 4.x" phone screens are increasing their resolution? They are already up to 1280x720. 7" to 10" tablets run 1280x800... and if the iPad 3 gets 2048x1536 next year... that will be an insult to any notebook with a 10" screen or higher.

 

I'm glad I got the E6410, it's not only one of the last 16:10 laptops, but also one of the few with Core i-series.

2048x1536 just will not work on any size PC screen unless you go 24+". They are not using higher resolution to display more content, they are using it to allow 720p HD video playback, as well as sharper text and images (which requires the OS to be designed around that). You will be using magnifying glass if that was in a laptop.

Since phones are used much closer to users' eyes and detail work is rarely done, higher resolution is OK.

 

Yeah, something weird happen here - I guess they decided to reduce the number of variants available? In 16:10 you had 1280*800, 1440*900, 1680*1050, 1920*1080. In 16:9 the first two are replaced by one 1366*768 which is actually matching the 1280*800. There is no real alternative to the "middle" 1440*900 resolution now.

I find it appalling that most 16:9 14" and 15,6" screens come with the basic 1366*768 resolution!? I have that on my 11,6" and it's a good match. I'd say it's tolerable up to 13,3" and after that it's just a waste of screen size (and thus the laptop size and weight).

 

1280x800 -> 1366x768
1440x900 -> 1600x900
1680x1050 -> 1920x1080
1920x1200 -> 2048x1152 (only desktop monitors)[/QUOTE]

 

1920x1080 is 16:9 by the way. 1920x1200 (WUXGA) is 16:10.

Again, huge government contracts drive the market. They cringe over a 25 dollar upgrade as if you buy 10000 laptops, that is alot of money. Most people don't about screen resolution as a Dell Latitude handed to them at work is a work laptop. Also being on Notebook Review skews things out of perspective, we are not big government contract buyers.

Case in point, my mom had an old Compaq 1280x800 laptop, she got a new E6400 with 1440x900, and she doesn't care as it is a work laptop.

 

[/QUOTE]


For laptops a slightly more accurate scenario is:

1280x800 -> 1366x768
1440x900/1680x1050 -> 1600x900
1920x1200 > 1920x1080


I think where laptops are hurting the most is the 14/15" notebooks. The vast, and I mean absolute vast majority of these notebooks are rocking the abysmal 13x7 resolution. At the very least, 1600x900 please manufacturers. Give that option.