Why Dolby Vision on a 14" laptop?

I'm looking at options on the new Thinkpad Carbon X1 6th gen, and I see their high end option for graphics is 14" HDR WQHD (2560 x 1440) IPS anti-glare with Dolby Vision, 500 nits. I'd prefer a FHD screen for the better battery life (though I wonder what the difference will be) and I don't feel a need for the 2560x1440 on a small screen like that.

My main question, however, is why would anyone want Dolby Vision on a 14" laptop?

 

It's just a brand name for one type of HDR. Why wouldn't someone like to watch latest Netflix HDR titles on their laptop?

 

To address your question in a different way: I see that some laptops offer 2-in-1 functionality. Why would anyone want that when I think tablets are better?

 

I just wonder if you can really see a significant difference on a small screen like a 14". I am not saying you can't, that's why I'm asking the question.

 

Hi KLF,

I apologize for the spam, I can't for the life of me see when I can PM you.
Anyway, after careful consideration, I would like to delete this account. Are you able to help me out with this? Would it also be possible to change my username into a random string of letters and numbers please?

Thanks a lot for your help!

 

To answer your question I think that we'll need to wait for OS level HDR support (looks like it is already available on Windows Insiders Builds). Having said that, even without HDR support enabled, the bright and colourful screen of the X1 Carbon 6th Gen puts my other 120hz G-Sync Gaming Display to shame. Heck, even when comparing it to my 4K HDR TV I feel that colours look better (for now it's just missing sime contrast due to the lack of HDR support). HDR has less to do with screen size and more to do with colour and contrast. Darker shadows, brighter light spots, vivid colours, you don't need a big screen to notice the difference. Honestly I expect to see many laptops with Dolby Vision and HDR+ support in the near future.

 

I only had two misgivings about the higher res screen: 1, battery life vs. the 1080 screen, and 2. some programs not displaying well (Windows 10) with the higher res screen. Any observations on those two issues? Thanks

 

Unfortunately I might not be the best guy to answer that since I never owned a 1080p X1 Carbon and spent a little bit less than half an hour on Windows 10 (just enough to shrink the partition so that I could install linux). Having said that, Windows 10 did look fine (I've reduced scaling from 200% to 125% and it felt similar to the my 1080p display without scaling). KDE Plasma and all my favourite applications scaled perfectly and after some initial tweaking I basically forgot that I was using a QHD display.

Battery is also amazing. I've installed PowerTop and TLP and in most days battery will last the entire day. I get at least 6 hours of heavy usage (i.e., IDE, docker containers, etc) and often 8 to 9 hours of regular usage.

 

Thanks for that feedback.