What makes a screen a screen?

I apologise if I put this in the wrong place, but I couldn't find a better place.
My old laptop crashed. I don't have any requirements but one for my new laptop. I have to spend many hours reading on the internet. I love my old screen, it's highly readable, clear and lovely colours. I would like the same fonts too.
How can I get the same screen or something very similar? Do I have to buy the same brand, is it the resolution, the software(is there a difference in the fonts between Windows X and Windows 7?), the browser, the videocard, the screen size?

As you see, I'm a noob
I hope someone can help me, for me it's very important.

Thanks!

 

First, what is your computer, your current resolution, your choice of web browser and what O/S are you running?

All of this makes a difference - but as to the font's, this is mostly dictated by the websites you frequent.

For a new screen, look for a high contrast, high(er) resolution screen with good (wide) viewing angles. This will offer the most pleasant viewing experience now possible.

The size of the screen/notebook makes a difference too: 1440x900 is 'higher' resolution on a 12", 13.3" or even a 14" screen - whereas 1600x1200 might be considered avg. or even low resolution on a 17" or larger notebook.

The cost of the screen/notebook also is a good indication. Almost all sub $1K notebooks today offer very poor screens in terms of resolution, contrast and brightness (compared to the same or larger desktop monitor screen for a comparatively low amount of $$$).

To truly get 'state of the art' today you're looking at the very high end ($2K+) RGB LED screens or the HP Dreamcolour screens. No doubt these will more than likely surpass what you're used to - but anything below them will be a gamble you'll have to be prepared to face.

(Either try them in person, if you can. Or, buy with a good return policy).

Keep in mind that one person's 'good enough' monitor can be 'worst I've ever seen' for another. Seeing and judging them for yourself is the best advice to follow.

Good luck.

 

agreed with tilleroftheearth. I have an 1900x1200 RGB LED and it is the best sceen I have ever seen. Sharp and very vibrant. So it's all user preferance. My best suggestion is to stop by a best buy and look at screens to get an idea.

 

Please share specs of your old laptop. Chances are depending on how old it is, anything out there now will be just as crisp.

 

Well, if it's one of the old(er) 4:3 panels, chances are good it's actually better than most of the current crop.

 

+ the browser and the os. different browsers render fonts differently, and depending on the browser, use os-capabilities. which differ in each version.

an example is here: http://hauptstrasse48-2.homeserver.com/Davepermen/Random%20Stuff/ChromeVsFirefox4.PNG. don't look at the differing font sizes, thats another topic. but chrome has much worse font rendering in that example (different in others)

 

Agreed. My old Dell Latitude 8600 from 2004 spanks most every mainstream notebook panel I've seen in the last 3-4 years. 1680x1050 Dell UltraSharp was the option I had on it.

 

I'd say there's just anti aliasing turned off. I don't know why, maybe there's really a problem or the user simply prefers it this way. In any case, that picture alone doesn't qualify to judge anything.

 

the picture is done by ME. and no, nothing's off. it's normal that each browser renders fonts differently (and documented). sometimes slightly, sometimes massively.

firefox does not use os-native features f.e, so that it looks identical on all os. internet explorer obviously uses windows features (cleartype technology) so it depends on the os version. chrome i don't actually remember what it uses. looks near to cleartype to me, but (as in this example) has some font rendering implemented on it's own (has to, that font type is not implemented in the windows font renderer afaik).

anyways, even if something might be off in that pict, the fact itself stays. esp. with nonstandard fonts, rendering can be very different depending on browser(version) and os(version). i know that my webpage looks differently on firefox now than on firefox4 beta in terms of font rendering. at least it did when using a different font. this font now, less.

 

Thank you all for your advice!
My laptop was an HP 17 inch with a resolution 1440X990 with Windows XP. There are now better resolutions but I would like to have 17 inch laptop and I'm afraid that those higher resolutions will make the text smaller and more difficult to read. I'm not sure but I thought that for example a WUXGA resolution would make the text smaller.

 

That's easily corrected by using magnification features, which are pretty robust in Windows 7. You can basically set any text size you want. The first system in my signature has a 1680x1050 screen, and I have the icons and text set to 125%. That way the text is easy to read at a distance and doesn't look overly huge.

 

I disagree with that statement. LOTS of applications cause all sorts of grief when used with non-standard DPI settings. One of my remaining pet-peeves with Windows, including Win7 is the desktop rendering system that still causes issues of all sorts when DPI settings are changed. To be fair, a big part of the problem is support for legacy applications, but that doesn't change the fact that the problem exists.

My advice to the OP is to try and get a screen with the same resolution as the original one she liked. Most manufacturers offer laptops with that resolution and screen size.

 

Hm. 1440x900 would mean a 16:10 screen. This means that you'll probably want to be looking for a WSXGA resolution if you go for one of the newer models with a 16:9 screen (for 1600x900 resolution). Text will probably still look a little smaller compared to your old notebook (because 16:9 tends to have slightly "squashed" screens compared to 16:10), but the difference shouldn't be too bad. As for quality, well, I'm afraid in the end it tends to be a bit luck of the draw, unless you go for a higher end (and thus expensive) screen.

Another possible option, if you know the exact model of your HP, is that there may be refurbished or used specimens of that model available still. I'm not sure I can recommend that route, not knowing exactly how old the model is that we're talking about, but it is, at least, a theoretical option.

 

Indeed some of the older 4:3 screens on higher end laptops were quite nice, albeit perhaps not nearly as nice as some of the IPS options we have now a days.

@OP

There are so many LCD models, and it's very difficult for us to give you recommendations specially on unknown laptops. Even if we had your LCD's model numbers actual manufacturer specifications of LCDs would not be sufficient to point you towards the right direction. The best thing you can do, as recommended in a previous post, is to go ahead and go to best buy, Fry's, etc and check out the screens one by one.

Good luck.