Poll: 15.4 inch or 17 inch for college/gaming

the_geico said it'd be spanking if the other 15.4 v. 17 inch thread were a poll, so now it will be!

Considering if someone were to be attending college but still hoped to game once in a while, which size would you recommend?

 

It's like a dream come true... thanks I guess, lol .. It is pretty spankin!

Anywho, I vote for 15.4 inch considering this is college, but really if you look at them side by side you notice no major difference in size, I just went to best buy and looked at them both next to each other and I can't see why a 17 inch should be all that much better, so IMO 15.4 inch it is!

 

15.4 = lighter. Extra mobility makes it easier to carry around on college.

 

I'm not voting yet but I'm in the same situation as you. I don't know yet whether the extra size and weight would actually hurt or not. I honestly don't know how much walking around I will be doing with my notebook so I can't tell if I need the portabiliby or the better graphics card. That's what it's going to come down to (8600GT vs 7950GTX).

 

i vote for 17" !
carrying around the college is really not an issue with me...
and yeah i work in the area of graphics/vision so this gives me more real estate...

 

Or you could go with a high res screen on a 15.4" The 17 inch isn't exactly a cinch to carry around, unless you work out 5 days a week...

 

Carrying around is not a big issue, as long as it fits in the backpack. It's once you get it OUT, and situating yourself with it, or have to use it on tiny desks or while eating, etc that every inch of a smaller footprint counts.

I'd say if it's going anywhere than from desk to desk, 15.4".

 

Definitely 15.4" unless the smaller screen hurts your eyes. You save at least a little money, get a 2-3 pound lighter machine, and the same performance as a 17".

 

Best bet is to go with a 14.1" formfactor for gaming and classes. Some 14.1" have gaming cards (X1600's!!!), for instance Asus has them.

15.4" laptops are definitely mobile, but you will not want to carry it around too much as it feels like an extra two or three standard sized textbooks in your pack.

 

it isn't that bad. you definately notice the weight, but unless you have puny textbooks, i would say about 1 extra textbook in weight (if all other aspects are the same. like battery, hdd, gpu).

 

I find the weight to be no issue, a good backpack takes care of that. If you are not planning on taking it to class then I say by all means get the 17". but if you are going to take it to class, and on a more or less regualar basis then the 15.4" is choice. yes, the 17" will offer a better performance from the GFX card since they tend to offer the higher end ones. The reason I say go with the 15.4" for class is the fact that you don't usually have a decent desk to put it on. Usually you get a semi-cramped to cramped chair and even a 15.4" laptop is mildly large for that situation. With the 15.4" you will still be able to get a decent GFX card and the battery life will be somewhat better. there are other reasons but I don't feel like typing them at the moment.

 

20 inch for me. 17 is not adequate anymore. my eyes are on HP Pavilion HDX9000

 

well, a 20" is truely the desktop replacement since it's size is enormous.

 

Well, I've gone with the 80% majority and got the 15.4-inch. I'm glad this wasn't another 50-50 poll...as it was it helped cement my decision.

And 20-inch is gigantic. I saw an Acer 20-inch at the store. It looks gorgeous, but I wouldn't want to be taking that to class every day. As Phillip said, truly a desktop replacement.

 

That is exactly what I need. Everybody in my family, particularly my mom, my uncle and sister think that I am nut. :lol: They looked at my current laptop (17 inch), and laughed.

Acer?? Is it out in UK? I just want to have a look before I buy HP Pavilion HDX (probably in October 2007). I know dell 20 inch is out in UK, but I haven't seen it.
I'm away from the UK for a month

 

I've checked out a few 17" and bigger notebooks (like the Sony VGN-AR590E, DANG!) I'd prefer a larger screen, but most of the ones past 15" go up steeply in price, and weight! Even my 6lb (7lb with power supply) Lenovo gets a bit heavy at the end of a day. I would hazard to say that the success of the vanilla macbooks hinges quite a bit on putting a decent amount of preformance into a small package. And those have what, 13" screens?

 

I vote for 17". You want a laptop and not a desktop so that moving each spring and fall is that much easier. You want 17" because you're going to spending a lot of hours on that thing doing homework (and the occasional game ). You're not going to be a big dork and carry the thing around with you every day - it's just going to sit on your desk for months on end, so size/weight is not that much of an issue. Do your hands and eyes a favor and get the 17".

 

15.4 inch so you can carry it around and game on the plane. And get a projector - so you can play games on your virtual 100" monitor on a blank wall when you are at home.

 

I'm in college and carrying my 17" laptop is hardly an issue when it comes to weight (it weights 7 pounds, compared to other 17" notebooks that are like 10 pounds and more). Although the res is 1440x900 it's a pretty nice screen. And, cmon guys, is 7 pounds really that much to carry? I have text books that are much more heavier than my notebook and I dont complain.

 

Projectors are amazing! One of my friends has a $5000 projector that we play Halo on at parties with a 140-inch display (dependent on wall space of course), and now even big screen TVs seem small next to it. But I don't plan to get one for college.

I don't think 7 pounds is that much - the 15.4-incher I'm getting is more than that. But each pound and inch does decrease portability - and after a point adds to the cost in pounds as well!

 

If you have serious willpower you could get a 17" and get a slightly more powerful GPU than a 15.4". If you don't plan on carrying the laptop around very much, 17" is ok. If you plan to take this laptop to ANY classes on any regular basis, a 15.4" is a MUCH MUCH MUCH better choice. Also, because 15.4" generally run at lower resolution than 17" laptops, you'll get similar graphics performance running at native resolutions.

I was in the 17" for college camp for a VERY long time. The thing is, its not the weight that gets you, its the bulk. Even very thin 17" (MacBook Pro 17" for example) laptops are JUST over the limit for what real mobility is. A 15.4" is even too big for a lot of people. I think 15.4" is the sweet spot for portability/power, even if the weight isn't much different the slight decrease in size allows you to fit it on a normal desk without looking like giant.