Is it worth the upgrade from a 15.6" 1600x900 res display to 1920x1080

Would there be a big enough difference to make it worth upgrading. Can it be expensive. All I know is that the 1080p display will be $180. This is a lenovo T520 I have. Would I have more than enough relastate to work with. Will the text be within reasonable reading size without me having to mess with the computer display features. Is everything going to be too tiny. Will the 1080p display be too bright? These are all concerns I have heard of but I like to here your perspective on the matter and what you think I should. Or better yet what would you do?

 

The short answer is it is all about taste. I would advice you to stop by a computer shop and check laptops with a 1920x1080 15.6" or 16" screens. I personally find the text and icons too small even with 1600x900.

 

i would stay with 1600x900 one and invest 180$ in ram or ssd. If i would have 1024/768 or somethink similar - then it will make a difference and is more noticable.

 

The reason the upgrade is so expensive is because the T520's 1080p display is one of the best around. The colors are extremely vibrant because it's a 95% gamut display.

 

tbh, Is this person likely to respond? I'd be suprised.

Thanks guys I thought it was pretty useful stuff, Will take it on board when I'm shopping for new laptop.

 

Surprise, Pengy! And uh thanks for everyone's feedback so far, I do appreciate it. I think if I had gotten the 1080p to start with, then down graidng would have been a simpler decision because I could decrease the 1080p res to see what a 900p would be like. Plus I don't know if the 1080p will strain my eyes over long periods of time from reading and writing alot. Also I am only 20 so will my eyes be able to handle the 1080p without having to mess with the res display features all the time. I heard it can all really come down to one's eye-sight. this is tough its hard to know what to do.

 

C'mon, Really? What is the best res for a 15.6" to one's eyes or view?

 

I would say it depends what you will use the laptop for. Personally i can't live without a 1920x1080 res display as i use applications that have a lot of icons on the screen (illustrator, rhinoceros etc.) and the higher res, the bigger working space you have. I have no problems reading text etc. and if you have, you can just scale text and icons to fit your personal preference (windows setting).

 

Well most people say there's not much to loose by going with the 1080p display, except probably 30 min - 1hr of battery life. Also I have an i7 and discrete graphics card so i know if I am to upgrade everything would still be on same level of par. I can see just fine though on the 900p right now. But I too work with many windows for reading and typing when it comes hw and research. I will probably call lenovo and ask how expensive the upgrad will be. If it is over $450, then forget it. I will live with the 900p and call it a day if that be the case.
Please guys, share your thoughts on the subject. I'd like to also know if anyone thinks a 1080p is horrid on a 15.6" laptop.

 

The 'best res' for any monitor is to be able to display font sizes on screen at their printed (actual) sizes accurately. At the proper/normal viewing distance of the monitor in question. Depending on the resolution of the display and the actual size of the viewing area.

Anything else is arbitrary.

When the screen output (with no scaling involved...) matches real world dimensions (eg. an 8.5"x11" page is displayed at 8.5" width (not really important if the monitor can display the length fully - but it does help with productivity though...) then that is the optimum in regards to resolution vs. actual size displayed.

This is not something I would be looking to find on a notebook screen though (I would gladly take it though!).

 

so you favor the 900p on a 15.6" laptop, I'm assuming?

 

I would favour a 2560x1440 18" or 20" more.

(When producing/creating content - resolution is king).

 

Hmmm, I am starting to think that maybe th 1600x900 is the best display for a 15.6" but i am still undecided.

 

no, i was fine with 720 then 1080 for uber satisfaction. but 900p is a good size for people saying that 1080 screen are hard to read on

 

I'd definitely say it's worth it, but it does come down to personal preference. A lot of folk here talk about productivity increasing with fast SSDs or extra RAM, but I reckon that a high def screen increases productivity far more.

Have you tried increasing/decreasing the view size in your browser to see how it looks to you?

 

Don't forget that the 'more capable' a display is the more important it is to calibrate the display properly......

 

I can't upgrade but I can get a new t520 with the FHD and compare both of them. I will then return the one that isn't the most staisfying. Also since there is a lack of info and pictures on the internet about the screens I will probably post a picture of both of them in this thread later to here all your opinions about it. I wandt to thank everyone so far who has expressed their opinion in this thread. And I am still ranked as Newbie, NICE!

 

I have my rgbled screen with 1920 x 1080 on a 16 inch screen and i find it to be perfect. At 120% color gamut and the res everything pops out of the screen i can fit to web documents full paged and there is no pixelation. I will not go anyless then 1920 x 1080 on 15 or 16 inch. If the T520's 1080p display is half as good as the one i have there is no doubt its worth the upgrade. I payed 300$ on top of my laptop for the display upgrade and will do it again

 

i have a 15.6 inh and 1680x1050. Sometimes i wish the resolution was smaller. I certainly wouldnt go above to 1080p.

 

you can always use an external screen if you want a higher resolution

 

If i did want an external screen this thread wouldn't exist, plus my desk is not big enough.

 

Personally, I don't think it's worth it. IMO, 15.6" is too small for 1080p.

 

Have you tried using a 15" screen at that resolution? Some folks are fine with how tiny the text starts getting with that high a pixel density. But I deliberately went with a 1600x900 14" setup, for two reasons. One being a 14" machine fits a lot better on an airplane tray table. The other being trying to read a screen with any higher a resolution is hard on the eyes. Sure, it might have everything to do with age. When you're young it might not be a big deal, but as time passes it's annoying trying to read text when it's that small.

And, no, software (windows) does a crappy job of scaling text, so don't try that argument.

It's all a matter of preference. For my desktop I would never, ever give up my 1920x1200 24" display. But for a portable setup I'm very happy with 1600x900 at 14".

 

I would suggest going to a local computer store likely to carry 15.6" 1920x1080 laptops (Fry's Electronics usually has some) and see if you're comfortable with it. For me, I would unquestionably get 1920x1080 if I were to get a new 15.6" laptop--the T520's FHD screen also has better contrast and colors than the other two panel options.

 

On top of screen/gpu driver calibration, you're going to also have to learn how to configure the windows desktop settings so that things aren't 'too small' and to learn the equiv application-specific settings.

A fair number of people who buy high res screens end up force-running them at a lower resolution just because they can't figure out how to take best advantage of the higher resolution.

In general, you don't want to run flat panels at anything other than their native resolution. Things start to look distorted when you do that.

 

One's native resolution should stay native.

 

My question is basically the same as OP's, except I'm wondering if it's worth it to upgrade from 1366x768 to 1600x900.
I am currently looking for a business/education class laptop and on Dell outlet they seem to have some very good deals for M4500.
Here's the catch, though: the cheapest M4500's with 1600x900 or 1920x1080 screens are significantly more expensive and their other specs (processor, HDD) are lower than those of M4500's with 1366x768 screen.
I currently have a 14" laptop with 1366x768 resolution and the prospect of having a 15.6" screen with the same res does not make me feel very warm and fuzzy. Is this resolution on 15.6" as bad as it sounds? If the resolution is the same on my 14" and these 15.6", is it better to buy a more powerful 14" laptop?

 

I find 1080p on 15.6 just about the perfect DPI. I wouldn't want any higher, but 1080p is just perfect.

 

Ahhh! The frustration. I want to see a 1080p on a 15.6" computer.