14z 900p resolution question

Hi,

I have been using my 14z for the past week. The main problem I have with it is that the 1600x900 resolution on a 14" screen is too difficult to see for me. I have tried to change the resolution setting by choosing the defaults and by creating custom resolutions but any resolution other than 1600x900 is fuzzy and not clear.

Is there something I'm missing? Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Misoc

 

It will always appear fuzzy, unless there is a whole number of real pixels (the 1600x900 of the screen) to virtual pixels (how many it displays). so unless you find some setting somewhere for 800x450 - a really odd resolution to begin with, you may be out of luck.

You could try raising the dpi of text in the control panel - it would make it a bit more bearable. Other apps will allow you to zoom in without changing anything, i.e. internet browsers.

 

LCD screens are not like older CRT screens where you could set any supported resolution that you wanted. LCD screens have only 1 resolution (called "native resolution") which renders the best picture. Anything other than that resolution results in a "fuzzy and not clear" picture as you say.
Your only option is to change the DPI settings. It's not the best option, but you can try. Normally, you should have gone with a lower resolution screen. By the way, I have 14z with 1600x900 screen, and it's simply beautiful. I already got used to the text size and have no problems with that. Maybe you'll get used to it as well?

 

Nothing beats going into a retail outlet and looking at the various display sizes beforehand though, I always recommend it wherever I can. If you've only been using it for a week then you may be able to return it and re-order it, or simply order a new display from Dell and put your old one on eBay. You might also be able to find lower res ones on eBay. Replacing your display is not massively complicated, but it can be delicate and time consuming, and you might have to take apart a fair amount of the notebook to access different parts; so you might not be comfortable with this option.

As has been said, anything other than native resolution on an LCD display will not look quite right. Changing DPI settings might make it better for you, but unfortunately these do not work in all applications - heck, not even everything in windows works 100% right if you change the DPI. By this I mean sometimes text goes off the screen, or in a dialog box it is larger than has been allowed for so you might only see the top or bottom of the text.

I've played around with it in Windows 7 and it looks like they have got it a bit closer to being right, but there were still a few places that didn't quite scale properly; but they might be fixed with the final release version.

 

Looking at various resolutions in a store is great, but not many stores have such options. At two local Best Buy stores, literally every laptop they had on display was 720p (1366x768) or WXGA (1280x800). Even Micro Center had only one single laptop with a different resolution, which was an Alienware M17X at 1920x1200. So if the stores where misoc lives are anything like the ones around here, he wouldn't get much help.