1080p resolution with a 15.6" screen. Text size too small?

Based on what I've been reading on this forum, the 1080p resolutions are better than the 1366x768 resolutions in every way. Better viewing angles, better color gamut, better black levels, usually matte screen, etc.

But the one thing that concerns me is the text size.

I know in Windows 7/8 you can up the DPI and the fonts and icons will look bigger, but I know this doesn't work for every program.

And I know that for browsing I'll have to use a program like nosquint.

I guess my question is, to anyone who uses a 1080p res on a 15" screen, does all the zooming and scaling make the text look "good"? Or will it look huge like how I set up my grandmas computer?

 

First, to correct your statement, there is nothing about 1080p resolution that makes the display have better viewing angles or color gamut. It is just that usually when manufacturers insert 1080p displays in their notebooks, they tend to use displays that have high color gamuts and sRGB color accuracy. Once again, it is not the resolution that makes the display have a better viewing experience- it is just that there is a correlation between high resolution displays and displays that have good color gamut, viewing angles, and brightness.

To answer your main question though, 1080p will look fine on a 15 inch notebook display. While I don't personally own a 1080p notebook, I have extensively worked on a friend's and found that (for my eyes at least) there was not any need to increase the fonts and icons via Windows scaling. However, if you choose to scale it, then do so at 125% (or 150% tops) - any more than this and you will begin to lose the advantages of the 1080p display (meaning that it will look like the display on your grandma's computer).

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks WindOS. I see from you sig that you have a 1366x768 15" screen. How do you like it? Everyone around here seems to think of the 768 as the worst resolution ever created.

 

I have seen 1080p on a 15" display first hand and it isn't a problem for me either, but it would a problem for my aging parents. As for everyone here thinking that 1366x768 is the worst resolution created, it is due to multiple factors. There is nothing wrong with it per say, but once you start working with multiple windows you feel the lack of real estate afforded by the low res pretty fast. Also, most 768p displays are crap because lcd manufacturers make them to be cheap (and it shows), not all are though. Finally pixel density matters to a lot of us, personally, I consider 1366x768 on a 15" display to be a crime because you can have a 1600x900 display which is sort of the middle ground and still not have anything looking very small for people with eyesight problems while having higher screen real estate.

 

Awesome tijo.

My eyes suck, but I wear glasses. The only decision left for my laptop purchase is the screen resolution. 1366x768 or 1080p+zooming and scaling? Decisions, decisions.

 

I wear glasses too, for myopia, if you're in the same situation as me, 1080p will not be a problem.

 

I dislike having the 768p screen on my 15incher greatly. Everything is too big, there is not enough scrolling space, and I can't multitask well enough with two windows side-by-side.

I have young eyes, so 1080p on almost any screen is fine with me. Right now I am typing on a 12.5" Elitebook with a 768p screen and find it to be none-too-shabby. People tend to rage against 768p screens in general, but it is all about the resolution in relation to the screen size (DPI). Typically, the larger the screen, the higher the resolution should be.

There are many exceptions to that, though, and a lot of it is based on personal preference and eyesight, but going though each and every one of these cases would take a lot of time and typing. If you need further clarification though, I am happy to help.

However, on a side note, why not go with 900p on a 15 inch screen? That way you get a happy medium between 768p and 1080p!

 

haha, for the same reason you were saying wasn't true, but it actually is true. The viewing angles and color quality.

I mean if you just wanted a car with leather seats, and cars were uh, priced between 60 and 100$, you might as well just get a Porsche am I right?

My eyes aren't that good and I use a 13.1" 1080p screen with no DPI scaling. But I guess my laptop is kinda close to my face most of the time.

 

Just going to chime my two cents in here:

My eyes suck pretty bad as well (-4.5, nearsighted, as far as I know), and before owning my 1080p W520, I had a 768p Toshiba Satellite 15.6" laptop. Used the latter for ~2 years before that died, and I'd never used any high-res displays before my W520 (desktops have a 1440 * 900, 19" display and a 1280 * 768, 15" display). Back then, my vision was slightly less nearsighted as well. When I first used the W520, it was by default set to a DPI of 125% (text was slightly bigger), though I turned it to 100% immediately to get the full benefit of 1080p (imo). Took a day or two to get use to the difference between the two resolutions on the same-sized laptop display, though on Day Zero I was perfectly able to read text at 100% DPI.

I've tried out 15.6", 900p displays before when I was doing freelance hardware reviews (see my Extended Signature for links), though imo they look too similar to 768p displays for my liking. Though I'm also probably biased in this regard since I've had my 1080p beauty for awhile by this point.

 

blind in one eye here and use reading glasses as well. ive got 1920x1080 screen and i just zoom in a couple of clicks with ctrl and mouse wheel and everything is easy to read for me.

 

I am a bit confused....care to explain?

 

Its just that this statement almost contradicts itself:

You're right that resolution in this context, by definition, not at all related to colors and its a valid clarification. But laptop manufacturers, or rather screen manufacturers ARE what make 1080p laptop screens have better color quality.


To put it more simply, they don't make 1080p laptop screens with really bad color quality, and they don't make 768p laptop screens with good color quality. You might already know this. What you might not know is, I don't THINK they make higher resolutions gradually have better color quality as well. So, in that sense a 900p screen isn't a happy medium between 1080p and 768p

I guess you could argue that in my analogy one could be buying a ford f-150 in hopes of it having leather seats, but its not really like that, uh I don't really know cars...

And yeah, I might seem pretty obsessed with color quality... because I am! I think its extremely important, more important than most of the other laptop components to some extent. I prefer gaming without anti aliasing on a screen with better colors. Once you see a screen with really nice colors, you'll never want to go back.

 

I'm going to have to point out the one exception I know of for 1366x768: the IPS display for the X230 is a very good panel.

Good 1366x768 are super rare, but they do in fact exist, same goes for crappy 1920x1080 panels, crappy ones are very rare, but they also do exist. 1600x900 panels vary in quality as well.

 

Oh yeah, I guess you're right. I forgot about that one. But there are some definite trends out there. Personally I haven't seen any 900p panels that were as good color quality as the stock 1080p panel from my w870cu, except for the 900p 13.1" panel from the sony Z series.

 

My W860CU has a 15.6" 1080p screen, really close to my M17x 1200p 17.1", it does have higher PPI though.

 

I find 900p on a 15.6'' a good compromise between 768p and 1080p, 1080p on 15.6'' will make long time reading, text editing a tiring work unless you've got excellet eyes. Sure you can increase DPI to make icons/texts a bit larger, but why not go with something a bit lower?

 

SpinalTarp, it would help to know which NB you have or are considering buying. Personally I when I got a Full HD laptop (17.3" screen) I had to get a new set of glassses to see clearly without scaling. Is there anyway you can test before purchase (maybe in a big box store)?

 

I am nearsighted, astigmatic and wear glasses. Recently I got myself an Asus UX32VD with a 13", 1080P IPS panel. Windows has automatically set itself to %125 during the installation. At %100, I would say it is small. At %125, it is still small but I am content since the extra gain in sharpness compensates for the small size text so that now, I don't have problem reading text on the laptop.

After having the experience of this display, I don't think I would ever want to go down to a lower quality display. This display is simply amazing better than anything I have experienced so far . I am sure having 1080P on a 15" display is also beneficiary. However, this is not just about the resolution. The color reproduction, brightness and viewing angles as well as the matte finish all contribute to its visual greatness.

 

Hey JOSEA. I'm thinking of either an HP dv6t or a Lenovo Y580.

I've been to Staples, Best Buy, and Costco, and all of them only had the 1366x768 res.

When it comes to looking at websites on your Full HD laptop, do you have to do any zooming? If so, how do the sites look?

 

I can say that I don't have to zoom into any webpage with my FHD display. A lot of the websites I visit (NBR included) simply fills the extra content with more information. For example, what might be a 10-line comment here for a 768p display will take less lines on a FHD display (maybe 4?) since NBR uses the extra width properly. Some websites won't though and are a set pixel width (Cracked does this, and a few others); however, its still as readable as any other FHD text.

 

get fhd. i am basically blind (-9 in both eyes) and use glasses but i love 1080p screen. After going to it i cant bear to look at lower res screens they annoy the crap outta me. im using 100% dpi... if u really need to u can use 125 and thats fine too u dont wanna sacrifice display quality for the hassle of zooming. it isnt a hassle if a website is small i just use pinch to zoom and bam its fixed no problems