T60 SXGA+ vs. T61 WXGA+ 14.1"

I am trying to decide between the T60 14.1" w/ SXGA+ and the T61 14.1" WXGA+.

If I get the T60, I would get the X1400, since it doesn't seem to hurt the battery life (can still get ~5 hrs w/ 9 cell). For the T61, I would stick w/ integrated graphics and 7 cell.

Besides battery life, I am also deciding between wide and standard screen. I have been using a 15.4" widescreen laptop w/ 1680x1050, but I am not sure if I will be able to go back to standard screens.

Anyone went back to standard after using widescreen? I'll appreciate any comments/opinions on this. Thanks

 

Well, the integrated graphics will give you a better battery life...that is for sure.

I regularly use screens of both 16:10 and 4:3 aspect types, and switch between the two on a daily basis. I prefer widescreen any day.

 

the x1400 graphics card will hurt your battery life on the t60. my guess is that the t61 with integrated graphics will get better batery life.

IMO, the main reason for the T60 is you can get 4:3. But since you prefer widescreen, it's a no-brain IMO to get the T61. You probably want WXGA+. Get XP if you want better performance and battery life, otherwise with vista you'll need 2gb ram.

 

I personally prefer SXGA+ for a 14" since SXGA+ is almost as wide and much taller. For things like Office and Internet the extra vertical resolution is nice. For 15" they are both 1050 so it's not a huge deal. I guess it depends on what you are doing.

 

The x1400 will hurt battery life on T60, but I should still be able to get ~5 hrs with the 9 cell and XP right? This is the number I've seen from reviews w/ the x1400. So with the T60, I could get a dedicated video card, so I don't have to share memory, and the battery life will still be exceptional.

With the T61, I have only seen the battery life for Vista. I'm hoping someone tests the battery life using XP and integrated and/or dedicated video cards soon. But I have a feeling that even w/ XP and integrated video card, the battery life will still be less than T60 w/ XP and x1400.

Does anyone know where any screen comparisons of different resolutions can be found? I saw the numbers and charts of the area and pixels, and noticed that SXGA+ is higher than WXGA+ in both. When you say that SXGA+ is almost as wide as WXGA+, is that difference of 40 for the vertical really that close?

 

I think it is unlikely you will get five hours. I have the R60 with the six cell and modular batteries for a total of nine. I get a little over four and half with both batteries with the screen on 4/7 with WiFi on doing pretty basic stuff. I have the Intel card so I think five is unlikely with the x1400 unless you are willing to dim the screen some more. The difference in what you can see is very small between WXGA+ and SXGA+ horzontally. A lot of web pages are white space anyway, but the extra tallness of SXGA+ does have more tangible results.

 

With the T60 9cell you should easily be able to squeeze 4 hours of battery life out of it. With normal usage (normal being relative, I usually have word or excel, AIM, and the internet running with the screen at 5/7 brightness) I can get about 4hours 30min maybe 5hours if I try. With wifi off 6hours easy.

Edit: I also have the x1400