Why do all retail laptops have 1280x800...

There's plenty of decent laptops out there in Best Buy, CompUSA, etc...but every single one seems to have the 1280x800 resolution. Is the average consumer that ignorant about pixel count or something?

I even went into Best Buy to ask if they had anything higher and the guy simply says, "Well resolution is the number of pixels you have, so larger screens have more pixels." Ugh. They actually stocked a sweet Sony FZ notebook with Blu-ray for $1999...but of course, it is only 1280x800. It has a Full HD sticker on it, which is really misleading.

Looks like anyone wanting a high-res screen is forced to custom order something online. WSXGA+ and WUXGA+ is just not available through normal retail brick and mortar stores I guess.

Anyone have some insight?

 

My guess is that people who buy at retail stores such as Best Buy are not your typical computer enthusiasts so they don't know exactly what to buy/what they are buying

 

Lol yeah I went with a friend to best buy who was buying dvds and I was like let me check out the laptops though I already had my c90 ordered. One girl was like "no daddy this one isn't cute" and the dad just read the specs of the processor without knowing what the hell he was talking about. They just basically went buy which one looked the best or should I say "cutest"?

 

LOL yeah, most consumer who buy lappies at B&M stores mostly based their decision on the "cuteness", size, or brand, or some other crazy factor. If you put an Asus or Compal or Clevo laptop next to the laptops on display, they will probably go with the "name brand" laptops until they look at the specs(if they even understand how the spec relate to performance.


I would only buy a lappy from a retail store if i needed a laptop "now" and plan to do basic tasks on it.

P.S. Try looking for a laptop with dedicated/discrete graphics and a high res screens... that should be a fun scavenger hunt

 

Are you able to read anything on a WUXGA 14.1" wide screen?

 

They don't exist.

 

Word, the only retail laptops with discrete graphics are some of the 17". There is like one 15" one I saw at Best Buy, but it was a GeForce 7300.

You're right though, most people go there and buy either the best-looking, the cheapest, or the lightest one.

Even the Dells at Costco are all low-res panels.

 

no one but true geeks who lurk/post around on tech forums crib about the non availability of 1440X900 on 12.1" or would not touch a 1280X800 15.4" with a bargepole

for the rest of the world (98.5%?), the resolution of the screen does not matter 1 bit
as long as it's a name brand and looks good, it will sell....

On a side note, a friend of mine managed to sell his relic of a laptop (a HP 15" XGA with a P -IV 3.2 ghz or similar for 32K INR (~$800 ) on ebay

Idon't blame my friend for selling it at that high a price since it was an auction that attracted an amazingly high number of bids... In fact The buyer was sooo happy that he got a 2.8 Ghz machine when all that the market currently offers is laptops with 50-60 % the speed of the "bargain" buy he got!

 

Even at 1280x800, I find the font a little bit small. So it is not always the case that more pixel are better.

 

lmaooooo i work at Best Buy,i'll be the last one to ever use my employee's discount on a laptop...Can't wait for my Sager 2090

 

it just goes to show that most people find that "Most People" that need a laptop find that Res good enough so the Corporates say lets be cheap and sell these laptops at this res

I know i bought a 1280x800 but it is a CBB laptop and is upgradeable

 

Didn't check the resolutions at the Best Buy or Micro Center I went to - that wasn't my main concern. I actually prefer the 1280x800 resolution to higher resolutions on widescreens. On desktops, I still prefer 1024x768, even on the 16-inch display I'm using now. My 14-inch display I leave in 640x480!

But at the Dell kiosk I went to, the e1705 they had on display was 1920x1200 resolution. So not every laptop on the retail market is the smallest resolution.

 

Does anyone think 1440*900 is still too low for a 15'4 inch laptop screen?

 

Yeah I like 1680x1050 on 15.4". At least 1440x900 wxga+ would be a step up from 1280x800; it's tolerable

 

I would consider myself a bit of a laptop geek and resolution doesn't really bother me. Then again I am kinda strange.

 

I'd wager that price is a factor - as noted, people buying laptops at Best Buy aren't likely to be the most tech-savvy people. They aren't likely to be looking for a high-res screen. Competition is pretty fierce amongst brands for shelf space in retail stores so price definitely matters. The brands aren't going to equip the notebooks they send to retail stores with features that the average consumer (read: non-geek) isn't going to notice/care about.

 

1280*800 isnt that bad, id be happy with that on a 15.4 inch screen, im getting a laptop with 1440*900 res though. 1680*1050 seems too high for a laptop with at 15 inch screen, sure it will look good for games but in windows environment at that native resolution the text and icons will be too small.

 

That what my Macbook Pro is and it's too low.

My Dell has a 1680x1050 and that's much better on a 15.4"

 

I just got one with 1280x800, and it should be in in a week or two...hope its not too small for a 15.4", but I'm used to 1280x1024 on a 4:3 17" monitor, so it shouldn't be that different, right?

 

I got a really noob question... i looked at the hp website and their dv6000t 15.4" monitor says the resolution is 1280x800. is that because the default graphics card is GMA950? so if i upgrade it to the 256MB NVIDIA GeForce card, should i be able to increase it's resolution? Thanks in advance.

 

Yeah these aren't absolutes. "too small" for some people, but there are no universals for any given screen size and resolution being too high or low- completely depends on personal preferences. For instance, I like wsxga+ on 15.4", you find it too small, then again people with wUxga on a 15.4" find 1680x1050 on the same size too big lol. Not to mention the freaks around here who have Qxga on their old 15" R series! Now those would be some small icons!

 

For people like me who do not play games or watch HD movies on their laptop 1280x800 is fine and I am not what I would call the average customer.

Also theres always external displays and the fact most movie enthusiasts will have a HDTV w/ Blu-ray player for hi-def movies....

Of course you may be talking about for games etc? For most tasks it doesn't make much difference.

 

Unfortunately no. What graphics card you have does not change the screen resolution. The HP dv6000 series/dv6500t is only offered with a WXGA resolution display. If you want higher-res for around the same price, take a look at the Dell 1520.

 

That's funny. I always run my games in lower resolutions for performance, and have the resolution at native for desktop apps where I want the real estate..

I can tolerate 1440x900 most of the time. My comfort zone starts at 1680x1050. I don't like the 1280x800 on my macbook, but since I'm rarely "seriously" working on it -- usually only reading text or something, I can live with it.

I'll bet Chaz is dead on. Average consumer doesn't even know what pixels are, but $50 cheaper than the one next to it... that's significant. Heh... wouldn't it be great if schools gave up teaching students to get good scores on standardized tests, and instead taught them to be discriminating consumers, so I had less crap to put up with?

(no offense / doesn't apply if you like 1280x800)

 

Not for games/movies, but just to fit more on your screen. I don't watch movies or game on my notebook either, and love high resolution, ymmv.

All preferences.