Thinking about a 1520 with 1200x800 res, but have a res question.

Hi guys, I'm thinking of getting a 1520 with the non glossy 1200x800 option. What I am wondering though is how much you can see vertically on a 1200x800 sceen? To give you background, I currently have been using a 14.1" standard screen on my current notebook which I've had for 6 years now. For me it has the perfect amount of vertical viewing space at 1024x768. At that res it fits 9 icons vertically. I am curious as to how many icons that a 1200x800 screen can display vertically as that would give me an idea of how much vertical real estate I would be gaining/losing.

I'll admit I don't know as much about the technical details of the resolution settings as I should. I know the widescreen gives you more horizontal screen viewing because 1200 > 1024. Does that logic also mean though that I'll get more (albeit a fraction more) vertical viewing from a widescreen because 800 > 768?

I'd appreciate any input on this because I'm a bit out of the widescreen loop.

Thanks in advance for any answers to my questions anyone is able to provide.

 

With my 15 inch screen and 1024 x 768 resolution and XP, it fits 9 icons.

With Vista 15.4, it fits 7 icons, but I feel like the icons are wider apart from each other.

 

Go for the 1400x900. Trust me. I just got mine and it looks AMAZING. Just be good and wait the extra 5 days for it. It's WELL worth it. And in the future you may regret it as you can't upgrade that...or at least not cheap, voiding the warranty and difficult.

 

If you'll look at this FAQ, you can compare the relative size of things by dots per inch. Your old laptop had a DPI of 91, and the 1520 with WXGA (1280x800) gives you a DPI of 98. Because you have almost the same amount of vertical pixels, you should probably be able to fit just as many icons, unless Vista's icons are bigger. Things will look a little smaller but not that much.

Personally, I recommend the WSXGA+ because I enjoy having much more desktop space, but I don't know how you would handle the 91 DPI to 129 DPI increase.

 

10 icons down and 17 across on my e1505 1280 x 800 res.

EDIT: On windows XP

 

Hey thanks for all the replies guys! That was exactly the kind of information I was looking for. I had wondered if Vista had wider spacing or larger icons because when I looked at one with a 1280x800 display running vista I only counted 7 icons going vertically so I thought I would be losing vertical space. As for the OS I will most likely put WinXP on the machine.

To ps2cho, I actually am really tempted on the 1400x900 as it does sound like a good mid ground between wxga and wuxga but the only thing I'm hesitant of is the fact that I can not get that in the non-glossy alternative. Both my current laptop and my new 19" lcd samsung monitor for my desktop are the matte finish kind and I have gotten very used to that. I wish the whole industry wouldn't have just switched over like crazy to this glossy stuff. It didn't even seem like it was a gradual shift, basically everyone decided to just go glossy with whatever their next product was going to be and never look back.

I will take all your input and suggestions with me as I contemplate my purchase. Thanks a lot guys.