Z Owners: Any regrets with 1920x1080p? Any regrets with 1600x900p?

the 1080p definitely takes some adjustment. The problem for me putting the DPI higher is that Google Chrome looks all blurry.. they haven't incorporated higher DPI settings in it yet.

Lots of space to do work and things but the text is indeed very small at 125% i'm probably just use to having 2x26" monitors staring at me

 

Those monitors have spoiled you.

 

You can turn off DPI scaling for individual programs: Right-click the program's icon, choose properties, then from the compatibility tab, check "disable high DPI scaling for this application".
I'm not familiar with Google Chrome, but I'm pretty sure you can set default and minimum font size for the browser to compensate.

 

I took some photos of the two screens last night, discovered that getting photos of LCD screens is really hard! Hopefully I can sort and post the useful ones tonight. I did note some facts about the two displays:

1) Sony only seem to have one color profile for both types of screens. Not sure how that sits with the 1920 being the 96% Adobe RGB one.

2) Even with everything set to default and using that Sony profile, the same image looks quite different, bluer sky on the 1600 for instance.

3) 1600x900 on a 1920 screen was not as horrible as I imagined it would be. Obviously not ideal but usable should you have some app that's just not going to scale another way.

4) As others have said, the 1920 on maximum brightness is comparable to the 1600 on one step below maximum. Still a bright display. This is because the light transmitting part of the pixels is smaller, but there still has to be a black part where the transistor is and the gap between pixels. The 1920 already has a 30% brighter backlight to end up with a similar brightness display. This will mostly account for the reduced battery life with the 1920 display I think.

5) Banding. The 6bit 1600 panel shows some on the lagom.nl gradient test page. The 8bit 1920 looks smoother.

6) Viewing angles seemed very much the same, just a little bit better when vertically off axis on the 1920.

7) They really are both amazing displays.

So hopefully some photos up later then, though actually the full hd video of them both in the Sony store in Japan that you can find on you tube covers most of what you'd want to know. I do have some Visual Studio shots though.

 

The 1920 screen is 8 bit?

 

Thank you. Very detailed. Looking forward to getting mine and comparing the two.

 

for those have 1080p display, when you set it to 1600x900 do you still get full screen? if i set mine to 1600x900 i don't get a fullscreen in my 1080p screen.. the windows stays in the middle not occupying the 1080p screen.

thanks!

 

yes it's full screen but it's a bit blurry for me.

 

Go to nVidia's control panel, choose something else other than 'Do Not Scale':

 

That's cool, Tofu. Thanks.

 

Brilliant thread folks - keep it comin'!

 

thanks tofu! will try that..

 

I don't know if you can call it regret, but I do use my VAIO Z at 1600 X 900 resolution as a secondary monitor when I plug in my 24" LCD as my main monitor.

The viewing distance is a lot longer when I am using my 24" LCD than when I am just using my VAIO Z as a laptop. The font is simply way too small on the VAIO Z when I leave the DPI at 125%. However, if I turn it up to 150% the font is way too big on my 24"...

I really wish Microsoft would let me set different DPI for different monitors.. Isn't it obvious that people will have different size monitors? I really doubt I would use 1600 X 900 if there is a way to set different DPI for different monitors, because it's a bit blurry at 1600 X 900 compared to the stunning sharpness at 1920 X 1080. I didn't try too hard looking for a 3rd party software solution, so if there is one please let me know, and I would stop using 1600 X 900 on my Z and maybe the OP would have one less thing to worry about.

PS. Just to clarify, I do use it at 1920 X 1080 when I unplug it from my 24" LCD and use it as a laptop.

 

I just ordered a 1920x1080 Z on Monday. I can't wait. I'll let you guys know how the resolution looks under linux.

 

you probably know this already but if 150% is too big you can set it at 135 or 140 if you'd like.

 

If I follow what you are saying (and I'm not sure I do). I think you are saying that you have a 1920x1080 Z and a 1920x1080 external 24" monitor. And that you set the Z to 1600x900 @ 150dpi when you use it as a secondary monitor.
But that when you do the 24" appears to be too large.

If that is the case, welcome to the real world. I don't think I have ever had a laptop/external monitor combination the worked well in the sense of the laptop just being a natural extension of the main monitor.

I use a 1920x1200 25" Asus monitor and, for me, the laptop monitor just becomes a place where things are slid that are not being immediately used but want to keep an eye on, or where the resource monitor goes to keep track of cpu usage, or it's where Pandora goes when listening to music, etc.

But it's not particularly useful as a direct work area. Just a matter of expectations I guess.

 

Bingo. This is EXACTLY what I was asking about here.

 

Paradyne said:

2) Even with everything set to default and using that Sony profile, the same image looks quite different, bluer sky on the 1600 for instance.


Thanks so much for your comparison, Paradyne. Which screen is better, in your opinion, as far as colors? Are you saying that the 1600 screen has more vibrant colors? How would you describe the colors on the 1080p screen?

 

That's a pic of my setup. Currently the Z's screen is set at 1600 X 900 and my 24" is set at 1920 X 1080 both with DPI at 125%. This setup is really working for me, As you can see I only use my Z's monitor to chat, check my uTorrent status and sometimes display iTunes's music library. For some reason the font sizes just works out perfectly.

I got the 1080p screen because in HK if you want the i7 Processor you have to get the model with the 1080p screen. I really don't prefer one over the other, but I hear the 1600 X 900 screens are brighter which is definitely something I am interested in. However when I am out, browsing on a 1080p screen and gaming/watching a 1080p youtube video is definitely something I will miss.

PS. This screen is definitely bright enough for indoor use, and the black on this monitor is really amazing.

 

Here's an nVidia setting for 'digital vibrance':

 

Sorry for the delay, life you know

I've put the images on my skydrive because I want to to be able to see the original camera files and zoom right in (so you can see the screen pixel structure). I found it really hard to get completely clear pictures but hopefully this will be of use to someone. There are comments there for each photo.

Photos on Skydrive

With regard to the colour difference, after looking at the same images on my Dell 30" IPS screen I think the 1920 is the better one, but I expect a proper calibration would be best for either one if you care about exact colours.

Let me know if there are any other comparison questions I can answer, or if you are interested in a used but perfect UK spec Z11X9E with 1600x900 screen

 

Great comparison pictures. What font and size did you use for the Visual Studio comparison?

 

Paradyne,

Thanks so much for the pictures - they are very helpful!

One question: For the viewing angle test (pics 27 & 28), did you take the picture dead-on or at some angle? And if so, what angle degree, more or less?

I noticed that the word "lagom" disappears near the top of the page for the 900p screen. Does this mean that, when the 900p screen is viewed dead-on, the text from Microsoft Word documents (for example) will disappear as well?

 

So, according to you, all Vaio P owners have myopia?

 

so i've been using the screen for the last week and while at first it was a bit too small to my liking, now i love it. i actually look forward to going from my desktop with 2x high quality 26" lcds to my Z. it's a really beautiful display and if the text is too small on some sites it takes a few seconds to make it readable. for videos, movies and games it's hard to beat this screen.

so yea, the fhd is definitely a must.

 

No. It's supposed to disappear. That the text "lagom" shows as red or green text depending on the viewing angle is a flaw with TN displays. For the "correct" viewing angle on a TN display, the grey should be in the middle, and the less colours you see, the better.

See my avatar image for a similar example. On a cheap TN display, it changes colour quite radically if you tilt the screen or move your head up and down. On an IPS display (or CRT), it stays the same.

"Normal" text that won't have this problem -- it's really a problem for photo work, where you want colours (and greys) to look the same whether at the top of the screen or the bottom.

 

Thank you!!!

 

Is there a good reason to choose the 1080p screen if I'm NOT going to get the Blu-Ray? Are there other things besides Blu-Ray which tangibly benefit from that extra level of detail?

The reason I hestitate is that using CTO to add 1080p + Blu-Ray adds almost $1000 onto the price (when you include sales tax) versus what I see on Amazon.com for a pre-built model without those two options. Almost $1000 is a LOT of money... I could get a stand-alone Blu Ray player and a 1080p TV for that kind of cash!

 

I don't think you're going to be able to tell much of a difference between the 1080p screen and the 900 if you're watching a blu-ray. You'll need a much larger display before the resolution difference is noticeable.

I wouldn't get the blu-ray player just because you get the hi-def screen. There are much cheaper blu-ray options. You can get a portable USB blu-ray player for about $100-$150. And yes, I think there are plenty of people who would argue that the hi-def screen is a must, regardless of your ODD decision. You'll have more real-estate on the 1080 screen and things will just look crisper. That being said, I am totally satisfied with the 900 resolution on my Z.

 

for 1k i'd skip on the display. You also get a higher resolution with the HD screen, keep that in mind. the colors are slightly better on it but not 1k better.

 

Getting blu-ray drive is not a good reason to get the 1080p screen over the 900 one. Blu-ray movies will look equally stunning and nearly indistinguishable on either screen.

The main reasons to get 1080p over 900 is if you have good vision and don't mind extremely small text, then 1080p gives you more screen real estate.

Otherwise, you can use 1080p screen with 120% DPI scaling to get more sharp/crisp image and text.

 

Well I got my Z. Basically if you can read an iPhone, you'll be able to handle text on a D screen. The screen is dimmer than most laptop screens which creates a bit of a dilemma...screen brightness or battery life.

 

Except that I hold my iPhone a lot closer to my face.

 

Ah, yes well there is that. I have excellent medium distance vision so it works out pretty good for me. The thing I'm trying to figure out is whether the Z12 is a significant upgrade over my Z890 for an end-user like me. For a business man, I don't know. I got the Z90 from SonyStyle discount, in perfect condition, with a Blu-Ray for $1500. That might be a better option for those on a budget...if one can get by the whole "yesterdays technology" thrust.

The Z12 is fast I have the i7. But it still took forever to download a 4 gig Adobe file because of limitations in cable and router speeds I'd guess.

By the way, those who ordered the Adobe bundle...it looks like its the full package...no crippling.

Finally, there is not too much bloatware. I checked it against my fresh start machine and only had to uninstall a few programs i wouldn't use. Otherwise it was a match with the fresh start.

 

Does anyone here use their Z as a software development machine? I'm wondering how it is to program on such a small screen with a large resolution...

 

How to program on such a small screen with large resolution? Well, I do it. But I don't do anything special really. I just call up Eclipse or Visual Studio or whatever and utilize the screen real estate available to me.

Also, when I am at my desk I use an external 1920x1200 monitor plugged into the vga, in addition to the laptop screen. At that time I just drag things I am not immediately using over to the laptop screen with the external as the main, working area.

But then maybe I don't really understand your question...

 

Getting Blu-ray I would DEFINITELY get the 1080P screen.

 

I do. No problems at all with the resolution. Just set your font size to a comfortable value, and the text is more readable than on a lower res display.

 

Haha, sorry.

I asked the question because I understand that using a large resolution on a small screen would produce small text. I've read that some people were having problems with 1440x900, as it produced small text. So I could only imagine how it would be with 1600 or a 1920 resolution, but you guys answered that.

 

I also do development with a 1920x1080, and I also have no problems whatsoever (@140%).

 

Not trying to take anything from the OP - I'm sure the 1080p is amazing. Here are my reasons for going 900p:
- I've had a z555 for 2 years. I know the res and it works for me.
- I'm getting BD but I'm confident that I won't miss the 120p on 13" of screen
- 1080p res for fonts even with dpi adjustment is not my cup of tea for 13"

and *drum roll* THE most important reason (that I either missed in this thread or has been missed):
- if you think the 330m card struggles on 900p res frame rates WILL be slower on 1080p

I didn't buy this as a gaming system but i like to have the option when i can't get to my Blackbird 002 and Sony XBR5 52" monitor. If I need 1080p I'll plug into the xBR5.

And I can guarantee there'll be some who think I made a bad call. I don't but I did consider the 1080p seriously. The rep tried to sell me too. I just know that the FPS difference between 1080p and 900p will mean lowering down the detail and draw distance sliders.

 

I don't think you can go wrong either way. The 900p is still premium on a laptop this small. I don't think you made a bad choice.

 

Agreed. The 900p on my z555 has been the best I've had ever. And this screen is just as good if not better. The screen on this really is world class. The colours are still bright and lovely.

 

For some reason the above makes me wince. It reads like "the sound is still loud and thumping". I'd be happier with less bright but more accurate colours, instead of having the video equivalent of a boom box on steroids.

 

Ah, the joys of context and syntax. Yes, the colours are rich. I do the occasional bit of photo-editing and find the colour integrity to be top notch. The smoothness of games is a treat for the eyes. The crispness of the screen works for me. I hope that helps clarify a little more. It doesn't capture all that I've felt over the past 2 years about the quality of the screen but it'll do as a single forum response.