XGA or SXGA+

on 14" IBM T61?
is SXGA+ it to small for that screen?
my eye site isn't perfect.

 

SXGA+ would not be my preference on a 14" screen, but to each his own. Why not check out the notebooks at local stores like BB or CompUSA and see for yourself what your own eyes prefer?

 

Hmm, screen size is highly subjective. The only way to "compare" would be by doing a dpi calculation. And yeah text is gonna be tiny but gives you more screen real estate. Which means you can have more stuff on screen

 

What screen size and resolution are you used to? Also remeber that if you're using Vista or Linux, you'll be able to change the DPI settings to increase the size of text and icons.

 

What are you using now? what do you like? I can convert, not that hard. If you know what you like resolution wise and what size you are on. I can tell you what you might want to buy. I would not think of changing DPI, buy what you need. And bmwrob is correct, going to BB is the best way to decide.

 

Most likely you won't find a SXGA+ in a 14" notebook at BB. I'd suggest running over to a whitebox computer store after running to BB/and similar. One of those small single-store companies. They might possibly have a high resolution laptop screen to show you.

 

I'm currently using 15.4" 1280x800 and it is good for me in XP
os will be vista
I'm not from US and with screen 14" there is only XGA. I'm ordering it from US.

 

In that case I'd say get the XGA. If you are used to 1280*800 on 15.4" then everything on a 14" SXGA+ will appear to be tiny and strain your eyes. I have a 15" SXGA+ and it can cause some strain to me. I prefer big text that you get with XGA/WXGA.

 

I have a 14" T61 with SXGA+. If your eye sight is not great, I suggest you go for the XGA. SXGA+ is pretty small on a 14" screen.

 

I'd say it's not so bad. I have a portégé m200 with sxga+ on a 12" screen... and it's not SO bad, so 14" would be nice. Go for it.

 

A 14" screen with XGA will have even larger icons and text than your current screen. If you value screen real estate at all (for pictures, movies, games, etc.) then I recommend you get the SXGA+. If you find that text and icons are too small, you can always either change the DPI settings in Vista, or even lower the resolution (though that's not as recommended, as to many people it causes the screen to look blurry).

 

will the programs be affected by DPI change in vista?
I mean corel, office, internet.....

 

and how will games look on larger DPI?

 

Yes, all the desktop programs will increase text size accordingly with your DPI settings.

3d games won't be affected, some older 2.5D or 2D windows-based games might show enlarged text and icons.

 

You may find the resolution guide helpful. The link is in my sig.

 

15.4" at WXGA has as standard 98dpi. 14.1" at XGA has 91dpi whilst SXGA+ would have 124dpi. So the XGA will be closest to what he is used to, having slightly larger icons etc. whereas the SXGA+ will have much smaller icons. The difference is 7dpi vs 26 dpi.

You can change the dpi settings of course but this generally looks awful especially if you're lowering the dpi to make things look bigger on screen. So if you like what you are used to, go XGA. If you want to strain your eyes go for SXGA+.

 

I'm not exactly sure what you're reffering to by saying that it "looks awful". The issues with text overlapping on menus and such is greatly reduced in Vista and Linux as compared to XP (where changing DPI settings wasn't really practical, due to the way it was implemented).

 

XGA resolution but with smaller DPI so icons are smaller?

 

I used to think SXGA+ would be too small. It took a bit to adjust to it, but it seems normal now though if I am tired it can be more bothersome. I would agree resolution is a personal preference and you should check some out if you can. DPI in Vista works a lot better than XP, if you are planning on getting Vista.

 

In XP, as you say, things overlap and text is too large, that's what I mean. It just doesn't look natural.