Dell Studio XPS 16 - 1920x1080 - DPI

Following up on some discussion of how small the text is on the RGBLED (pronounced R G Bleed?) in standard DPI, it's just too small for me. I would have preferred a resolution around the 1680x1050 range on a notebook this size.

The other standard definitions that are available are not 16:9 so they don't work well, and using other resolutions than the native LCD resolution generally results in a loss of sharpness.

It also occurs that using non-standard DPI settings result in skewing or lowering quality of images and page layouts in browsers and some desktop applications as well. Someone else can probably give a technical reason as to why this is. All I know is I see it. I see text running over into other text on web pages and text out of place on desktop applications (rarely), especially dialog boxes (more often). I'm sure this is due to the fact that the rendering program is expecting smaller text. What is happening, I think, is that the DPI setting is just changing the rendered size of the text, but the rest of the rendering (images, graphics, borders, window edges, etc.) is using standard dimensions/resolution.

The predefined 120 DPI setting labelled Large Scale in Windows does not look sharp to me. I fiddled around with this and found that 128 looks very sharp and is a nice improvement over the standard 96DPI. This is what I'm going with for now.

What are other people using? What does the SXPS 16 come set as with the RGBLED screen? (I reformatted mine without ever booting it.) At what resolution are you running your RGBLED SXPS 16?

Also, there is a program I've used to use called Power Strip that can define custom resolutions for your video card. I've had excellent results in similar situations in defining lower resolutions that match the screen ratio and also result in retaining (very nearly) the sharpness of the native resolution and being able to use the default DPI. If I find the 128 DPI setting doesn't work for me in the long run, I'm going to give this a try again.

 

DPI, in this context, is more than just text, but someone else can explain it better. A programmer decides how he wants his application/graphics to be sized, by what standards. Windows automatically does the rest, but each application has it's own laws and rules on pixel sizing however the dev wanted it.

Samsung happens to mention 138 DPI by this panel.
I'm curious what that would look like, it will likely give standard perspective (what default should be), just no idea how over blown some fonts may get.

I'm currently running 120 DPI, firefox can made to look alot better and fix some of the text issues both in look and spilling with it's font settings.

There's probably a way to make some text look better when using higher DPI with a tweak either by changing or forcing another font, just never looked into it.

 

I'm going to try 138.

One thing I was going by was when you go to the change DPI setting window, it shows you an example of the new DPI setting. At 120 and at 138 it looks jagged. At 128 it looks sharp again. I don't think this translates directly to what appears after you make the setting, though. The other DPIs looked sharp when I tried them and rebit (new term for rebooted).

After playing with it, I'm going to try the default 96 for a while. It was such a shock after using 1440x900 for months, it seemed like it would be too small. Besides having more screen space for coding, I like it when people walk up and say "how can you read that?" and then I think to myself, "I sure am glad boss can't read me editing my resume at work."

 

My resolution is 1920x1080 with 96 dpi and I'm loving it. I think it's perfect the way it is

 

I've been using 120 DPI for a couple days on my 24" panel 19x12.

So far I have no issues. I got my firefox dialed in, and if any sites are marred I just hit text size hotkey and it's a fine workaround. Only had to do it on one site.

So if 96 ends up too small, my eyes are still good, then 120 doesn't seem like it will be a problem to me.
I won't know till i get the lappy.

 

I was using the default 1900 x 1080 96dpi but was straining to see the text with the laptop on my lap. Adjusted it to 120dpi and its much better.