Can I decrease the screen resolution?

I'm considering getting an HP HDX16t.

Not sure whether the highest resolution will be too small for my liking -- if I get the 1920x1080 screen can I decrease the resolution without any problems if it turns out I don't like the highest resolution?

 

yes you can decrease the screen resolution

 

Thanks Euquility.

 

You can, but it won't look as sharp, as it's not the screen's native resolution.

 

Ah well, I just ordered one with the 1920x1080 screen ... hopefully I'll like that resolution, or if not I hope the decreased resolution won't look bad.

 

It will work at a lower resolution. However, LCD's only have a single native resolution and the scaler in most notebooks is pretty poor. LCDs have a fixed number of pixels and if you run at anything but native, the display must try and fit a wrong number of pixels into the space provided (not sharp, and can cause some weird effects); this only works perfectly if you can run at exactly half resolution (960x540 in your case) as it can turn every pixel into a 2x2 array on the LCD.

If you do run it at a lower resolution, make sure you choose something of the same aspect ratio or everything will be out of perspective. Since your screen is 1920x1080, you need to use a 16:9 resolution.

Good choices:
1600x900
1366x768
1280x720
960x540

Fair choices:
1680x1050
1440x900
1280x800

Horrible choices:
1400x1050
1280x1024
1024x768

 

On my old laptop I used to always have it set at a lower resolution, and I got used to it. Now I run my newer one at native and it is much nicer. Unsure which is better for my eyes.

For games it works well though, extra anti-aliasing.

 

just increase the dpi in windows

 

I agree. Even when I decrease the resolution on my desktop monitor it looks like crap.. Its even more so on notebooks. But increasing the dpi is the answer if the print is too small to read.

 

i realized that with most newew laptops and desktops - YEAH, they'll work at lower resolutions but the picture is never as crisp as it is on the 'manufacturer reccommended' resolution... and that sucks.....

you can lower the resolution and play with every setting available but i still have not gotten anything close to a crisp resolution this way.

it sucks!

 

I'm loving 1680x1050 on my dv7 (its the same resolution I've been using on my 17" monitor for ages, so it wasn't a jump for me at all) and I'd probably really like a higher resolution personally. Give it a chance, up the dpi if necessary, and enjoy the heck out of all the extra room =)