Is there something as the ideal screen size?

I've been wondering for quite some time now. Is there an ideal screen size for laptops, objectively speaking?

There is certainly a factor of personal opinion and preference involved. Some people like small screens, because the laptop will be more portable and lighter. Others prefer large screens, as they will provide more comfort. And some will prefer a balance between comfort and portability.

But is there some scientific or objective method of determining what the ideal screen size would be? I've never seen any studies or researches on that. Just polls...

When I look at my 13.3" 16:10 MacBook, for instance, I realize that I can capture the whole screen area in my eyesight at the distance I use my laptop. My 15.6 16:9 laptop, however, has a larger screen that may be more comfortable, but I can't just focus on the whole screen area (although the edges of the screen are visible at the same distance).

I've read somewhere that 13" would be the best size for laptop screens, but the text failed to give a credible explanation on this. Is there some objective degree of determining the ideal screen size for a device, or is it all a matter of personal opinion? What's your view on this?

 

There is no magical do it all screen size. There are however good combinations of screen size, resolution and viewing distance. What those are will depend on individual preferences as well, but you won't be staring at a 1920x1080 50" display 2ft from it and find it pleasant. Same thing goes for your 13" display, I wouldn't want to be 2 meters away from it. For me, if it's a laptop, 1440x900 is usually the minimum resolution I want unless it's an 11" display in which case 1366x768 is acceptable. I prefer having a larger display when I work though as you can see from the rigs in my sig.

 

That's for sure. But there are screen sizes that may fit better for laptops at typical viewing distances. As you mentioned, a 50" screen wouldn't be appropriate for a laptop.

 

There is no scientific absolute you ask for. You do a good job of mentioning some variables. So in the abstract I could say for productivity type apps the screen that did not exceed my field of vision might be best because we might assume the ability to see all info is important. On the flipside of that for say a movie we might want the screen to slightly exceed our field of vision to give the illusion of complete submersion.

There is real critera that is even scientific and could be quantified but it will never result in an answer of "what is best". Example what is better a sports car or a pick-up truck? Driving fast on a winding road sports car wins. Bringing tomato's to market the pick-up wins.

I can see you put some thought into this and already likely are aware of what I have said. So with that I think you could understand and contemplate that there are just too many variables to ever give a definitive scientific answer.

Best of luck.

 

I'd be appeased if I had a 15.4" 3840x2400 screen.

I'll settle for a 15.6" 3840x2160 screen though.

 

13, 15, 17 and 18 inches are all suited for the usual distance between a person and a laptop, at 11", I find it starts to be a tad small, but that's more a personal preference.

 

I'm happy with a 1080p 21.5" screen close to me on my desk. So I guess any laptop, no matter how large the screen is, would be good enough for me.

 

I think as other have mentioned is personal preferences in viewing habits. But if your doing video or gaming a higher resolution would be a good thing to have I have XPS m1710 1900x1200 for gaming and Dell 1525 1280x800 for regular everyday usage. So as you can see alot depends on the apps your going to use or what you plan on doing it with varies from computer to users. There is no scientific bases to know what screen size and resolution would fit your needs as there alot of other factors you have to take into account. You should go to your local retailer and test each setup and see what will best fit your computing need.

 

14.1 " 1400 X 1050 (4x3) - I can easily focus on the entire screen when I have Firefox open (or any single application) - personally I do not like the trend toward wide screens on notebooks.

Native resolution of course

 

Not for me its easier on the eyes to read and view...small screen with a high resolution tends to strain reading more then it helps...

 

I think that it's a subjective argument as to what is the "ideal screen size". Lots of people love netbooks, lots love 13'14", a whole lot love 15.6", and there are plenty of people who love 17.3"+. Is there anything wrong with those screen sizes? I don't think so. There are practical differences with those sizes, however: netbooks and 13-14" are great for being portable, whereas 15.6"+ are usually find 1080p+ resolutions as well as better GPUs and CPUs.

Ignoring physical display size (which, again, is a subjective preference), there can be an argument found in something like the "perfect" PPI or the "perfect" resolution (though those two are somewhat tied together, depending on physical display size). From what I read, humans can't distinguish different displays if they are 300PPI or above. Then there's the screen resolution; imo anything bigger than a 13.3" display must have at least a 900p display, and anything above 15.6" must have at least a 1080p display. Otherwise I think that the display is crap. There are also those that worry about the color quality of a display (high NTSC gamut, IPS, etc), but I personally don't care too much about that since I don't want to work professionally as an artist or the like; I'm just fine with my old Toshiba Satellite's colors as I am with my W520's 95% NTSC color gamut (though I agree that it looks better, but it's just a nice add-on rather than a must-have for me).

 

One "objective" way to measure this pertains to what your work is targeting. I recently developed an application that will be displayed on a 1080p TV screen. I had to travel to the client to do this, so my 15.6" 1080P screen was perfect for this. I find the default font size on 1080p to be quite small for text, but it was ideal for the work I was doing.

One of the testers was testing an alpha version on a 768P and 900P laptop screen. It was horrible due to scroll bars.

For a lot of people it isn't about personal preference. It's about asking if the screen size and resolution allows you to do your work properly. I have a W530 and there's plenty of stuff to dislike about the size. But when it comes to getting my work done and carrying it around during travel, it's a great fit.

 

Yes, a dream 16.6" touch panel IPS display with 1600 x 900 resolution and overall laptop weighing no more than 5.5 pounds IMO.

Portability and desktop replacement with a kick of tablet functionality.

 

And just to solidify the obvious. There is no scientific absolute. And that is not really a bad thing, it just is. What is scientifically the best color? That is my example of what is not scientifically definitive.