Eyes - Big screen vs small screen!

Hi there,

This is an unusual question but one that I would like to hear some different viewpoints!

Right now, I have two laptops in mind - M14x and M17x R3. Forget the specs, Forget the portability. I just want to talk about one thing - Eyes. I imagine most of you spend a lot of time in front of your laptops as I do! Unlike console gaming, laptops sit right in front of us. up close. Does a bigger screen or smaller screen have any sort of impact on our eyes? Is one better or more comfortable for the eyes? I see lot of users switching from M14x to M17x and vice versa - Notice any difference?

How many of you wear glasses? Do you come from a history of large screen laptops or small screen laptops? I know there are a lot of other factors when it comes to eye health but I was just wondering.

Thank you

 

I'm with glasses.....

I just switched from M11xR2 into M17xR3 so there is huge difference...... not to mention the different screen quality but after 6 month using a small screen, it seems not comfortable for the eye. Watching movies or play the game with reading subtitles is a pain. The way you keep your eyes more focus for read the small text,,,,,

for me personally, and I think the other same too. For gaming, the bigger screen is better....

 

I wear contacts/glasses (99% of the time contacts).

I had a gaming desktop; then realized I needed a laptop for grad school and sold the desktop. Had a 15.6" laptop, but sold that to get the 14" m14x (which is basically the size of any 15.6" mainstream laptop.

Anyway, the screen is perfect for me. I mean, just because the laptop sits in front of you, the fact that I need contacts, doesn't impact the screen size.

I'm sure if it was studied scientifically more thoroughly, the size of the screen may not make a difference, since all the screen's (whether 11" or 17") are sitting directly infront of the user, which is probably the most impacting or where most damage occurs.

And it seems like you can get a 13" laptop with 1366x768 resolution which has bigger fonts and such, while you can get a 15" or 17" with 1920x1080, with small text , albeit a larger screen.

Overall I think there are alot of factors and counterfactors that would need to be included if it were scientifically studied.

 

I've been as blind as a bat for ages and normally go for 17" screens. I recently got an M11x and I'm finding it to be too small when using it unplugged from my monitor. I feel strained and find myself bringing the screen closer for certain things. My 15" MBP is fine, but the bigger the better I feel. Hence why I'm sort of trying to trade my M11x and MBP for an M17x again.

 

Depends on screen resolution. I used to have a 23" monitor at a couple arms length gave me horrible eyestrain, res was 1080p. I use a 26" in 1080p and it works just fine. My current lappy is 15.6 and where it sits in relation to my eyeballs makes it work fine as well. However I plan to plug it back into my monitor asap.

 

I have 20/20 vision, and I found the 14" 900p screen on the Sony Vaio CW perfect. Never shoulda sold that baby

My Macbook Pro 17 had the 1080p screen, and I found everything a wee bit small. I had to change Chrome to 120% to make the page easy to read.

 

My doc told me small screens are not good because your straining your eyes to read and see something. Equally too big a screen if its too close to your face, is also not a good idea. Then your neck muscles and eye muscles are strained to look at that large area rolling your eye balls all over the screen space.

The right size maybe in the region of 17" to 23" inches or so if you use the screen up close.

I wear glasses. +1.2 left +1.25 right

 

Yeah, it sucks, I feel like my vision is actually getting worse as I get older (I'm only 25) though, but I don't know, maybe its genetics.

I mean, I stay a fair distance away from it.

And yeah, I have seen 17" with 1080p with the text very small where I have to somewhat squint, but then again I've seen the smaller 13" or 14" laptop with 1366x768 which gives the uglier, but BIGGER font on the smaller screen. So size + resolution play a factor, no doubt.

It would be really unfortunate and said if the future generations go blind or have horrible vision due to the technology boom where personal computers have taken over society (our generation), but deep down I fear it may have some validity to it.

 

In my opinion - bigger is better

 

^^^^^^ That's what she said........................ bazanga!!!!

 

I've got good eyesight - 20/20 and am equally comfortable with big or small screens. I find the quality matters a lot, and my small laptops have had great screens at high resolution so never had a problem with them. In order of acquisition they have been:

17.1" 1440x900
10.6" 1280x800
13.3" 1280x800
15.6" 1680x1050 (I think!)
11.6" 1366x768

The only time my eyes have gone a bit weird is if I get machines with the same resolution but different sizes (like when a client gives me a work laptop to use) which makes things look just weird when switching between two machines.

 

I've found the ideal screen size to be the one that gives about 100 pixels per inch. 120ppi is tolerable, but more than that and text gets tiny and you wind up having to run non-native settings to see. The stock low-res screens usually offered are actually the 'right' resolution for that particular screen size, it's when you HAVE to have a 1080p HD screen in a 14-17" size that you get the text-too-small problem.

Smaller notebooks with really low-res screens are okay, you just wind up having to scroll and mouse around a lot more to see an entire image or site, but that's probably preferable to not being able to read anything or the images being smaller than postage stamps.