15.4": WSXGA+ 1680x1050 v.s. WUXGA 1900x1200

Hey all.

I'm looking into picking up a Sager NP8662 after reviews come around for it, and I have all of the specs decided on except for this.

Other specs I decided on:
P9600 2.66ghz
4gb ram
Stock GTX 260M 1gb

I'm going to programming/gaming/everything else on it.

Stock: 15.4" WSXGA+ 1680x1050 glossy
v.s.
+$175: 15.4" WUXGA 1900x1200 matte

Is it worth the $175 to upgrade to the higher res? Will it be really difficult to read? Will is greatly impact performance in games? I already know the bigger res is an advantage for the programming.

Right now I'm using a 21" 1680x1050 and can read it perfectly fine, but I'm not sure how it translates to a 15.4".

 

The higher the resolution, the more graphics power required to play games at that resolution. Of course, with a GTX260M w/ 1GB of memory it should handle the task very well I'd say.

Go for the higher resolution if you can, it gives you more room to work with, not to mention 1080P quality for videos. Of course, if your not certain, visit a store and compare the two resolutions together and see which one you would prefer.

 

I wouldn't recommend 1900x1200 on 15.4" screens..
17" or bigger would be a ideal size for that..

 

WSXGA+ is already a pretty high resolution for a 15.4" screen. Higher resolution is great for programming and other things, but WUXGA on a 15.4" is just too small IMO.

 

I consider WUXGA too small for a 15.4''. On 17'' WUXGA is barely on edge.

 

i would go with 1680*1050 because 15 is alittle small for that.

 

Ill choose WUXGA matt. Personal taste.

 

I'd choose 1920x1200. I have 1650x1050 at work and i could have a bigger res. Espencially for programmering

 

Same here. Once you use the WUXGA, you never want to go back.

 

I wouldn't go more than 1650 on 15.4". it would be too small for normal work. You won't be programming all the time.

 

I think WUXGA looks great on my 15.4" screen.

 

I wont suggest 1900x1200 on 15.4 as it will require more GPU power to generate the quality. Also they dont offer SLI high end gpus on 15.4 so we need to downscale the game to 720p or other resolution. So whats the use of the screen which we wont be using at all?

 

The text with WUXGA on a 15.4 in would be just too small. Can't you just set a bigger external monitor to 1900x1200 if you really wanted that res? I use 1600x900 and its perfectly fine for me.

 

Seems like everyone's opinions are equally divided here. Just want to throw in my 2 cents.

WUXGA is just too much for a 15" screen. As everyone else has mentioned the text can be too small to read. I've tried it, and it just didn't feel right

I personally have 1440x900 on my 15.4 inch, and find it to be perfect

 

if your eyes can handle it, then get wuxga, if not, wsxga+ is still great. personally i would use wgxa+ on a 17'' screen, have used a wuxga screen before, i can only look at it in 20min periods.

 

I have WSXGA+ on my 15.4" screen and I like it but most people already say its too small to read. I can imagine 1900x1200 to be pretty hard on the eyes

 

The adavantage of having WUXGA is while gaming as we get the trued 1200p hd resolution. So if ur not using that then its worthless.

 

Went to a Best Buy nearby today to compare the different res on a 15.4" notebook.

It seems none of their notebooks went past 1400x900 res, so it was a waste of time.

There's really nowhere else nearby that I can check.

 

lol

Aren't there any G50vt at your best buy??

 

Personally I like WUXGA, but decided it was better on 17" screen so moved up a size. But this is all about personal preference; nobody else's opinion really matters; it's what you prefer.

If you're struggling to find examples, I can only suggest opening a browser and reducing the display text size to about 70% for a WUXGA screen on a WXGA one and about 80% for a WSXGA one.

 

The more dots per inch the better all images presented on the screen will be, as long as they are of equal size. It is often up to the user to configure the specific software to make the images the correct size. If it is too much trouble (sometimes even the software can't do it), then the more pixels the more trouble they are. On the other hand, the more pixels the clearer the image, at least potentially. Photographs are just unbeatable on HD, DVD's look just wonderful; text (of appropriate size) you can read all day and all night without eyestrain (the less the PPI the more work the eyes have to do to "convert" the pixelated text). Just consider that printed text on hard copy is 200+ PPI; a 15.4" WUXGA screen is 147 PPI; a 15.4" SXGA+ screen is 128.65 PPI.

The real problem IMHO is some OS's don't handle HD screens very well: Win98 was awful, XP a lot better, Vista better again. Ubuntu 8.10 is just fantastic. So you can see in which direction modern OS's are headed: towards HD-compliance.

To be fair, before this past 4.5 years of using this 15.4" WUXGA, I used a 15" UXGA (133 PPI), which is equivalent in PPI to a 17" WUXGA, and probably preferred it to the 15.4" WUXGA (147 PPI), so maybe once one gets to a certain level of HD other factors come into play (like the 15" UXGA is the same height as a 17" WUXGA). I would be interested to know what working on a 15.4" WSXGA+ (128.65 PPI) would be like in comparison with a WUXGA, but never have had the chance...they are certainly a lot cheaper to buy...

 

Trust me your screen is one of the most essential parts of your laptop and if you get an extended warranty you have to use that screen and notice it on a daily basis for years to come.

If you increase the DPI then the text is about the same as WSVGA but with higher resolution.

Also the WUVGA screen is matte which is better in my opinion.

But honestly monitors are all about personal preference. Whatever we says doesn't really matter to much because its what we prefer.

I'm just saying that WUVGA is great and the matte screen is perfect for us people who like to bring our laptops around. And a 15.4 inch is quite mobile.

Just my 2 cents.

 

It may sound a little dumb but I don't really understand why we don't get WUXGA for 15.4'' and then using it for watching movies with the setting of 1900x1200 resolution. Then we can change the setting to 1650x1050 resolution for other purposes such as reading, doing works, or playing games. Is there anything that prevents it to happen, losing quality perhaps?

 

With games and video you don't notice the quality difference from using a resolution other than your native resolution because things are moving on the screen so much, but with text you will notice a big difference between using your native resolution and a non-native resolution. I can't stand blurry text.

 

Can I ask you what happens if I watch HD movies on WSXGA+ 1680x1050? I know that HD movies are not supposed to watch on this kind of resolution but I would like to know whether or not there is a hug difference in image quality?

 

Almost all of the posters here have absolutely *no* clue what they're talking about. Its almost like we need a "15.4" WUXGA FAQ" because this line of questioning comes up all the time:

Q: Are things 'smaller' on WUXGA screens compared to WSXGA or WXGA?

A: Only if you don't adjust your dpi settings in Vista accordingly. 196dpi is a good setting for a 15.4" WUXGA screen under Vista.

Q: A 15.4" WUXGA screen, wouldn't that be hard on my eyes because the pixels are so small?

A: No. Because the resolution is higher, eyestrain is actually reduced because of a reduction in aliasing. The Nyquist-Shannon Theorem states that aliasing will occur when sampling rate is less than twice of signal bandwidth. A higher sampling rate, implicit in a WUXGA screen, hence will reduce aliasing, and will reduce eyestrain.

Q: Do 15.4" WUXGA screens consume more electricity?

A: Generally, yes. The tighter pitch of the pixels results in greater light attenuation, which means that, for acceptable image quality, one will need to turn their brightness up higher and/or the laptop's designer will need to use a stronger, more energy intensive backlighting system.

Also, CPU's and video chipsets will have to perform proportionally more calculations in order to display a WUXGA image. This consumes more energy, and hence, reduces battery life.

Q: Can I run my WUXGA screen in WSXGA+, or WXGA, as a reduced resolution?

A: You can, but pixels will be ommitted, text will look munged, and things will generally look ugly, unless you use the resolution of 960x600, whereby, 4 pixels on the WUXGA screen represent 1 pixel of a 960x600 image.

Q: Will web pages designed for 1024x768 or WXGA screens, "look funny" on my 15.4" WUXGA screen?

A: The latest version of Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 is able to properly scale bitmap graphics so nothing 'looks funny', and text is not out of place. This is an improvement over previous versions of Internet Explorer which did not properly render content in high-resolution screens, even if the 'scaling' function is used.

Q: What settings in IE8 work well for web browsing with a WUXGA 15.4" screen?

A: 150% zoom, or even 200% zoom will deliver a user experience with text similar in size to a WXGA screen running at 100% zoom. The text, of course, will be more richly defined and will have a reduction in discretization and aliasing, because of the higher sampling rate inherent in WUXGA technology.

Q: Should I buy a WUXGA screen for my new 15.4" laptop?

A: Yes, if you can live with the downside of reduced battery life. A 9-cell battery (or better) is pretty much mandatory because of the high power draw inherent in 15.4" WUXGA screens, and their associated hardware.