Will 16:9 screen become the new standard?

Will other manufacturers follow Sony steps and start offering screens with 16:9 aspect ratio?

 

Acer already did months ago with their 16" and 18.4" notebooks.

 

It would make sense; many hd movies are shot in 16:9 format so I think this is a plausible step to take for notebook manufacturers.

 

Funny thing is that I never needed widescreen, I was happy with 4:3. I never watch movies on my laptop.

 

Neither do I PhilFlow but I personally find widescreen more comfortable to view, seems more natural to me. Isn't our natural vision "widescreen"?

My only complaint of them is getting some older software, games to play on them, either having unsightly bars on the sides or being stretched out and ugly.

 

The funny thing is IMAX use standard 4:3 screen, instead of 16:9 wide screen that most movie theaters use.

 

I mostly surf on my PC (as you may have noticed )

And surfing I find much more comfortable in 4:3. I have a 22" widescreen 1680*1050 (16:10 aspect ratio) I'll show you how i use it!

 

Of course, most websites are geared for 4:3 screens as still many desktops use this ratio. This may change in the future as desktops are also going to widescreen as most laptops have. Right now with widescreen displays, we have to do more scrolling in most web pages than with a 4:3 display.

 

Well reading text on a 22" is just annoying if you ask me, unless the text is in the middle. I often think 'why did i sell my 20" LCD?'.

It will be ok on a 13" but it will take more scrolling then necessary.

 

It strange with screens, I used a Medion laptop for 3 years and I liked the 4:3 aspect. I hated the 16:10 or 14:9 (whichever it is) on my mothers laptop.
Now this june I finally got an SZ7 and I can't see the problem with the widescreen - seems strange to me
So if the industrty decides to force the new screen format of 16:9 onto customers it will become the new standard... but how could we stop that? Stop buying computers for 2 to 3 years globally and complain about thre new aspect ratio...
So we are possibly doomed to accept this development...

And speaking about games, I do agree, they get distorted.

Or their setings are for 1280*768 instead of 1280*800, so even though computers are built with 16:10 or 14:9 games are programmed in 16:9.

But I doubt we can help it...

 

Me neither... but I prefer wide over tall. Much easier to scroll down than to scroll sideways.

 

You are the opposite of me. I always watch movies with my laptop. I don't have TV and never use a stand alone DVD player in my whole life. So, having a laptop suited for both general use and movies is important.

 

I haven't got a TV at home, but I do prefer to watch DVDs in front of my nose too, thus in a laptop scrren.
(Haven't got a Desktop, what for anyway??)

But I'm perfectly fine with the SZ's resolution.

 

I don't think that the push to 16:9 is coming from Sony but from the makers of LCD screens. It's definitely due to the growing popularity of HDTV screens worldwide, remembering that video engineers in Taiwan or Korea don't have as much exposure to widescreen programming as we do.

To Rahul's point, most web designers these days are moving toward 1000-pixel-wide sites, which are optimized for 1280-wide screens. Expect to see more sites follow this trend.

 

is VAIO SR wide screen 4:3 or 6:9 ??

and how to know ??

 

I don't think a 6:9 is commonly available - anyway, this screen would be higher than it is wide.

I think you mean 4:3 and 16:9.
Now a lot of computers are 14:9 or 16:10 - for whatever reason.

But 14:9 - 16:9 - 16:10 are all widescreen, while 4:3 isn't.

I.e. you see it.

I think the Sony SR is 16:10 ...

 

Sorry I mean 16:10 not 6:10 !!

 

The problem is people blowing their apps up full screen.
When using many smaller windows, it is no problem.
I tend to have 4-5 open and partially overlapping windows open. Right now I can see a compile going on in the background, the instant messenger window my wife might type to me in, the status of an ongoing DVD rip, a text editor I can paste stuff into, and a web browser window where I type this.
Blowing up anything but games full screen is not an option.