Quick question about screen resolution on m1530

I never owned a laptop before so please excuse the newbie question but...

Is the screen working the same way an LCD screen in digital mode is? Meaning it is always best to leave the screen at a native resolution? They now offer the Dell m1530 in 1680x1050 so I was wondering if that wouldn't be too high for such a small screen (my 22 inches is running at that resolution). Can you actually change the resolution without losing any image quality?

 

There are lots of posts about this, so you might want to do a search. LCDs look best when operated at their native resolution. You can change the resolution, but the text will likely look less crisp. I think the real issue is pixels per inch. So if your 22 inch monitor has the same resolution, the 15 inch laptop should have much smaller text. I think that 1680x1050 equates to about 130 pixels per inch. I opted for the 1440x900 resolution which is equivalent to about 110 pixels per inch, which is still somewhat denser than my 24 inch 1920x1200 monitor. This resolution looks fine to me, but it's a matter of personal preference.

 

1680x1050 is way too small. You do gain a lot of room, but I guess it would depend on who is using this. Changing the screen settings to another resolution will make the text look blurry. I would suggest a 1280x800 or 1440x900. You could see the difference by going to any computer store and playing with the screen settings to get a good idea what yours would be like.

 

It really is a personal choice.

You need to see the resolutions in person, not necessarily on the exact laptop you want to get, any will do. Find out what works best for you.

 

I've got a somewhat related question. I've got an XPS on the way and it's got the 1280x800 screen. I switched my desktop PC to that resolution just to see how it looked and it was terrible. I'm hoping it will look better on a machine that optimizes that resolution, but I'm a little worried. Ok, so on to the question:

If I called Dell and told them I wanted to either send back my laptop, or have them send me a new screen, is it possible to just swap out the 1280 for the 1440? In other words, is there hardware/software within the system that would prevent this from working, or is all the hardware within the screen itself? I can't believe I don't know this, but any help would be appreciated. It may not be a possibility, from a warranty standpoint, etc but I just thought I would see if it would even be possible. Thanks.

 

1. must run in native res
2. changing resolution from native means loss of quality
3. only YOU can decide if you want wsxga+ on a 15" LCD. how can anybody here make that decision for you?