XPS 15 720p screen good enough?

yo people... am looking at getting a new laptop with the xps 15 at the top of the list so far. had a look around and see many people not liking the 720p display and pretty much every one saying upgrade to the 1080p screen... thing is my eye sight is pretty rubbish and i would struggle to read icons on such a small display, also i have got a tight budget and £170 extra for a feature that would strain my eyes does not seem logical.

is there anywhere i can see images or videos showing the differences in the screens cos i have not seen any.

the laptop will be used for general use and maybe some movie watching and gaming.

so i cant justify getting the 1080p display, would i be making a horrible mistake?

 

Yes, the 720p screen is that bad, and if you buy this, the most important upgrade you should consider is the 1080p screen upgrade. If you'll be playing games and watching movies, even more of a reason to spend the extra money. You can always adjust the screen resolution down and the font up to make up for the 1080p, but you can't do squat with the 720p to make it look any better. My eyesight isn't the greatest without my glasses, and even I can tell a night and day difference between the two screens without my glasses on. Like I stated on another thread, the 720p screen looks worse than my 6 year old Inspiron 6000 screen at 1280x800 resolution.

 

I disagree.

The laptop I have at the moment is 720p and it's fine for all uses. 1080p isn't necessarily better for gaming. Games will run a lot smoother on a 720p display, meaning you can turn up the settings.
I mean what would you prefer: 720p at maximum settings or 1080p at medium.

Also, unless you have a blu-ray drive, films will not look any different.

If you have the money, and the laptop you're getting will be able to handle 1080p games well, then get the FHD screen. If not, then save your money.

You'd be much better off spending your £170 on a better processor or graphics card (if anything).

 

I have had first hand experiences with both screens and tell you that you will definately regret getting the 720p. Aside from the difference in resolution, the B+RGLED is all about much higher color gamut, contrast ratio, and better viewing angles. The difference is beyond night and day and in fact using the 720p made me feel like my eyesight was deteriorated because it was so grainy. I think it was egregious for Dell to offer the 720p as it is an absolute disgrace to not just the XPS line, but any notebook in today's technological age. It was so bad that I was willing to get on the phone for four hours to convince them to let me exchange without penalty.

 

hmmmm.... hey people thanks for input, yeah i get what u guys are saying but for me personally the laptop with 720p would cost £650 and with 1080p the same laptop would go up to £820... this is way to much for me to spend as i am a full time student and would be funding the purchase through savings...

to put this screen into perspective, before i was thinking of the xps i had a look at the sony e series notebooks which seemed pretty good but i went into the sony centre to take a look at the screen because people online mentioned it was not the greatest... yeah so the sony screen looked washed out to me and really put me off that laptop.

would anyone know how the dell 720p screen is compared to the ones on the sony e series?

from looking at the photos on the review on this sight i must say it does not look that bad but the review did mention it was a bad screen.

 

The sony screen is really bad, definitely don't get low budget sony's of screen is important. According to notebookcheck the screen had 150cd/m and measy contrast.
The xps 720p is slightly better according the datasheet.

 

The 1080p upgrade on the XPS 15 is by far the most important upgrade on the system. The colors are better and working space won't be so cramped. If you're getting an XPS 15, upgrade the display first thing and then figure out what else you can upgrade within your budget.

Reading text shouldn't strain your eyes, because you can change the font size "DPI setting" in Windows 7.

Seriously, if you'll be using this computer for quite some time, you'll want to put in the extra dough now to get it with a decent screen.

If you absolutely can't afford the XPS 15 with 1080p, don't get an XPS 15. You'll seriously regret that grainy 720p.
Consider one of these, this is my most recommended laptop:
Sager NP5160 Custom Laptop (Built on the Clevo W150HN) (get the 1920x1080 and the i7-2630QM, and be sure to scroll down and choose an Operating System)
The 1080p on this Sager isn't quite as good as the one on the XPS, but it's still a great screen with great contrast ratios, and way better than 1366x768/720p.