Opinions on 14" or 15.6" for University

Greetings,

I am looking for advice on which size to pick. My concern is usage: how much of a benefit is the bigger one's 24% greater area than the smaller one for coding, math modeling, research/paper writing, as well as calendar and email usage?

I expect to do around 20 - 60% of my computer work just on this monitor. (The rest will be shared with an external monitor in the dorm room).

Weight is a minor factor (heaviest 15.6" I'm looking at is Dell M3800 at 4.5 lbs whereas the lightest 14" is Elitebook 840 at 3.5 lbs).

Finally, eye comfort is very important, though I can zoom in on the 14".

Any ideas will be helpful. Thanks!

 

I don't think you're taking everything into consideration:

Monitor size alone does not translate into greater monitor area unless one of your criteria is also compensating for poor eyesight.

Agree that weight also is irrelevant when ~1 lb is the range between them.


What you want to concern yourself with is:

1) the resolution of the monitor (higher is better; that is what gives you greater working area)

2) the Watt Hours of the battery (the 15.6" system should be able to more easily offer bigger capacity batteries)

and if the estimated runtime for the system on the battery is less than the time you need daily (don't forget to account for battery aging if you want to keep this system until you graduate):

3) the size and weight of the power supply (brick) of the system(s) considered.



So, on the above notes - If I was a younger person I would be looking for a 1920x1080p resolution monitor in a 14" size with a couple of batteries to last me the whole day (downside: having the discipline to charge two batteries every night).

That same 1920x1080p resolution would offer significant 'eye comfort' in a 15.6" chassis but two batteries (and/or carrying the power brick) would also be required as I would assume this system would offer higher performance than the 14" chassis could.


This all assumes though that the quality of the monitor panels are identical (and of high quality too, of course) between vastly different systems (hint: big assumptions).


Zooming is not a way to be productive; it is simply a way to wear out the keyboard needlessly.


Hope some of this helps.

Good luck.

 

Get the 15.6"


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Tiller is right about the screen; the two factors are the physical size (measured diagonally) and resolution. The resolution is your working area. I do a lot of text editing and programming on my notebook; my work just gave me a 14" notebook with a 1920x1080 resolution which replaced my 15.6" notebook that had a 1600x900 resolution. The text appears smaller on the new notebook but the resolution is higher and I can see more lines of code at the same time. It's also easier to work with two windows side-by-side.

Ideally you'll be able to see a notebook similar to the one you're looking at in person before buying. At the very least, try to see a notebook with the same size screen and resolution to make sure the text isn't too small. 14" 1920x1080 isn't for everyone. You can try to emulate a higher resolution on your current notebook; open a Word document and shrink the text size down to 60-70%; if it's comfortable, then you could probably go with a higher resolution sans issues. You can do this in a web browser too; press [Ctrl] and [+/-] to increase/decrease the zoom, respectively.

From a portability standpoint, weight is of a lesser concern than the actual physical size of the notebook. 14" is considerably more portable than 15.6". It's also easier to use in a smaller space e.g. a lap, airplane, crowded desk and so on.

Another notebook to add to your list is the HP ZBook 14 which we reviewed here:
http://www.notebookreview.com/noteb...the-workstation-that-thinks-its-an-ultrabook/

 

I personally wouldn't go with 1920x1080 on a 15.6" laptop, and definitely not on a 14.1" laptop. The pixel density is just too high to want to use for long periods of time (on a 15.6" - it would be worse on 14"), and particularly when I have the 15.6" 1920x1080 next to a good-sized external monitor, the text and icons are tiny. You may like it better, but unless you can see it in person, I'd recommend 1600x900 instead.

Since you'll have an external monitor, I'd lean towards the 14", all else being equal, assuming you find a 14" that has sufficiently high specs for your tastes. I went with a 15.4" myself, but the reason I didn't go smaller is that doing so would have entailed a significant loss of processing power, and the 15.4" screen was the only one I would have. If the 14" satisfies your processing power needs, and you'll often have an external monitor, it probably makes more sense due to the increased portability. If I were to buy a new laptop today, now having an external monitor and desktop, that would be my preferred size.

 

I used a 14" 1440x900 matte for the first two years of college and a 15.6" 1920x1080 glossy 95% NTSC for the last two years. You will probably be happy with whichever decision you make. I remember when I first got the second laptop, everything seemed tiny, but nowadays it looks normal and I can use it without DPI scaling for the whole day without eye strain.

The other posters are correct in saying that the main determinants of your decision should be factors that are influenced by screen size, but can still be independently changed. The main ones are resolution and chassis size/weight/power consumption.

14" screens are HD (1366x768), HD+ (1440x900), or FHD (1920x1080), while 15.6" screens are probably FHD (1920x1080) or QHD+ (3200x1800). I am almost certain that DPI scaling is mandatory on QHD+ screens (offered on the M3800), which in my opinion renders them gimmicky - although I've heard that everything still looks crisper, which makes sense because you have three pixels for every FHD pixel. HD screens are next-to-worthless, and I think HD+ screens are not worth it on 15.6" laptops (based on my personal experience of three years with an FHD and no problems).

If I was to go through college again, I think I would get a 14" FHD. The reason is that a 15.6" is easily movable in a backpack to class/library/work, but I personally feel that it's slightly large to be called truly portable - for example if you want to go around your dorm common area with the laptop open, head down to the dining hall, or just move it around a room while studying with people. A 14" is lighter, thinner, usually has higher battery life, and I don't play any graphics intensive games, so there is not much of a downside besides potential eye strain - which is why you have DPI scaling.

Edit: if you are not attached to Windows, I would actually recommend including Apple products into your list of possibilities. I think they offer a relatively price-competitive package around $1300-2000 for the student audience - they are very portable (thin, light, long battery life), have nice keyboards/touchpads and screens, and good overall build quality/aesthetics. Of course, they are only price-competitive if those things are important to you, not if you're a pure tech spec fiend (but why would you be looking at business line laptops if you were).

 

Either is fine imo, I will go with a 14 if you have something bigger when you need it.

 

Power: From what I read some IPS display can add >10W on the power consumption, the type of CPU, number of drives and RAM sticks should be considered when power drain is your main concern.

What dou you need it for = what CPU is used/do you need (ULV or mobile), number of RAM-Slots. A SSD for the OS and a HDD for storage is the best solution.

Keyboard/number-pad If you never enter large amounts of numbers a smaller keayboard without number-pad will suffice, if not think about the increase in size as also increase in input.

And since we're in the HW and compunent upgrade part of the bord

There are bits and pieces that make work easier It may be all the small small features, mSATA vs m.2 SATA SSD, optical drive which you can exchange for a 3rd drive, number and type of ports USB3 or also Thunderbolt (zBook 15), expresscard-slot, that make your decission easier then just looking at the display size.

It is not just the size of the screen, I went from a ligth 12" to 14" and my last two were 15.6" ~2.7 kg plus PS (Elitebook 8560p, zBook 15). You'll never get everything you desire, but in the sum all the small reasons, made me go for slightly more weight and size for ease of use, baclighted keyboard, touchpad and stick, plus the various connectivity options.