Notebook - BrightView or High Res?

Greetings,
My apologies if this is posted in the wrong section (As you can see, this is my first post). I've been looking into getting a Compaq/HP notebook, and I've made up my mind on all the specs except the monitor choice. I'm torn between the:

15.4" WXGA BrightView Widescreen(1280x800)
or
15.4" WVA WUXGA (1920x1200)
WUXGA offers the highest resolution available for high definition images without losing or compressing any information (1080i or HD4 compatible).


Now the latter sounds enticing, But let me further explain. I really like the crisp glassy look of the BrightView monitor. I've never seen the WVA WUXGA 1920x1200 monitor before, but I've seen a standard HP/Compaq monitor with a native resolution of 1280x800 and the monitor simply looked "dull". I would order the 1920x1200 monitor in a heartbeat, but I have a strong fear that it would arrive and have that standard "dull" look, despite being so high-res.

I'll leave it up to you guys, great looking 1280x800 Brightview, or should I take the chance on the non-BrightView higher res?

Thank you very much in advance.

 

The Brightview is the obvious choice here. What you're complaining about is a poor LCD, it has nothing to do with the resolution. With the UXGA you'll probably end up squinting or sitting too close to the display...that high res is not suitable for most people. I'm confident that you'll love the brightness and clarity of the Brightview.

Editor in Chief http://www.bargainPDA.com and http://www.SPOTstop.com

 

BOOOO! i asked the same question a week ago!!

it was 15.4'' WXGA(1280x800) vs. 15.4'' WVA WUXGA (1920x1200)!

everybody said to go with the higher resolution. Now i'm finding out it sucks for games & that the lower resolution is better?

were they not offering brightview a week ago??

whats going on!!?? did i get screwed? what should i do?

My laptop was shipped this morning and is going to arrive tmrw or thursday.

 

I also agree, I think UXGA on a 15" is to much. I have a SXGA(1600 X 1050) on a 15.4" myself and its great for me but I know others find this a bit small. Thus between the two I would go the Briteview. However I doubt the high res UXGA would be dull. My SXGA is not a glossy brightview and I think its the better for it. It came with a piece of clear acetate over the screen, this simulated the brightview quite nicely, as essentially thats all it is...albeit much better quality plastic. Personally I prefered it without the gloss, the refected light became annoying for me, and there was no real improvement in image quality. Brightview can't make a crap screen good, nor does a great screen need brightview to be great.
a


ASUS M6Ne 15.4" WSXGA 1.7 PM ATI9700 80Gb HDD 512Mb RAM

 

EDIT: 15.4'' WVA WUXGA (1920x1200) was actually 15.4'' WVA WUXGA (1680 x 1050)

 

Why does a 1680x1050 suck for games?????

 

because if ur res. is 1680x then your lcd will look best when its @ that resolution, everything else is not as clear. Can you play games @ 1680x..most likely not..too much lag and vid card won't handle it..hence sucks for games.

I just ordered a lappy w/ the 1680x. Too bad i couldn't get the 1280x w/ brightview..brightview wasn't offered 5 days ago!!! BOOOOO HP!!!not to mention they not come with a 5400rpm hard drive option which wasn't there either! BOOO YOU!

 

I recommend the brightview. We've had our zx with brightview for a few weeks now. We absolutely love the brightview screen. Glare can be controlled with angle of the screen.

As for resolution, we have 1280x800 and it looks good with everything including games. I've heard the higher resolution is too small in general, unless you have a specific reason for wanting it etc.

HP zx5000 - P4 3.0HT, XP Home - 15.4" Brightview WXGA - 128mb ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 - 512MB SDRAM (1x512) - 60GB 5400 RPM Hard Drive - DVD/CD-RW Drive - 802.11b/g WLAN & Bluetooth

 

This resolution issue is one of the very reasons I purposely ordered my zv5000z with the standard 15.0 at 1024x768, since on a lappy, that would be (or maybe 1280x1024) the resolution that most 3D games would run best at. Also, with doing web design, 90%+ of people are still looking at web sites on 'standard format' screens. Since most clients are getting sites that are optimized for either 1024x768 or 800x600, it seemed to make sense to design them in as 'native' a format as possible. I know if I watched a bunch of DVDs on the lappy, though, that W I D E would totally rock.


Cheers,

Stevo


zv5000z: Ath64_3200+ (2.0GHz) - 1GB DDR - 80GB 5400rpm - 64MB 440 - 15.0" XGA - Win2k (tentatively)

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Fusionacid

 

Stevo,

I didn't play too many games on it, but the ones that I tried was Unreal Tournament 2003 & Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, but mainly Ravenshield. Prince of Persia did not play well at all, the graphics were corrupt in some areas. The GPU didn't seem to support a lot of the graphics requirements of the game. Unreal Tournament, if I remember, ran a bit slow, but then again, this was over 6 months ago.

I haven't tried Doom 3 on that notebook, if went back before the game came out.

What you can try, if you want, is to buy the notebook from HP and tri t out, if it doesn't look good then return it. They have a 30day return policy.

-Vb-

 

Hey Venombite,

Thanks for the info on Rainbow Six. I have been wondering if games get stretched out when you go fullscreen mode on a widesscreen lappy.
Have you (or anyone else reading this) played any other games (Quake 3, Elite Force, Half Life, etc.) in full screen mode on a WIDEscreen laptop and had them look s t r e t c h e d out? This is one of the concerns I had in choosing between a wide and standard format display. Thanks for everyone's input.


Cheers,

Stevo


zv5000z: Ath64_3200+ (2.0GHz) - 1GB DDR - 80GB 5400rpm - 64MB 440 - 15.0" XGA - Win2k (tentatively)

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Col. Stevo

 

This is the right section for the thread[ ]
It does not "suck" for games, I don't notice much of a difference in fuzziness at lower resolutions. I notice stairstepping and grainy surfaces, normal occurrances for low resolution playing, before I notice any degradation of LCD output. WSXGA (1680x1050 is perfect for me. It is right at what my video card can handle for UT2004. Was this HP/Compaq standard monitor recent? The glossy surface would definitely remedy any dullness you are talking about. I'd say go with the brightview, because it makes the screen such a joy to look at.

GPU cooling (100°C->75°C)* Inspiron 8600 * 1.8ghz Pentium M * 128 MB Radeon 9600 Pro Turbo (337/242 -> 400/300) * 2x512 MB DDR2700 SDRAM * Aquamark 3: 24058 * 3DMark'03: 3404 * 3DMark'01 SE: 13120