1680X1050 vs 1440X900 on New Inspirons

Dell in their new Inspiron line offers both 1680X1050 and 1440X900 high resolution wide screen displays. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each? Can one adjust down the 1680X1050 to 1440X900 and/or can one adjust up the 1440X900 to 1680X1050?

Thanks


Gary

 

You should be able to adjust 1680X1050 down to 1440X900 but it might look fuzzy/you want to keep your screen at native res if possible.

1440x900 to 1680x1050 would be impossible.

 

Ok...one thing at a time:

What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?

The higher the screen resolution, the more info you can put on the screen. But the smaller the text and graphics appear to be. So it really just comes down to pixel space v. readability.

Can one adjust down the 1680X1050 to 1440X900

Yes, but unless you are adjusting down for games the screen will not look good at all. Text, pictures, etc...will all be blurry and not look sharp when you are running at non-native resolution. Games work fine because their graphics were designed to deal with that kind of thing...

can one adjust up the 1440X900 to 1680X1050?

This you cannot do.

 

first, search is your friend.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=138162
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=139385
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=139719
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=137467
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=137468
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=135569
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=135225
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=134566

next, you can go lower but it won't be as sharp (lcds look best at their native resolutions). you can not increase the resolution though.

 

Great minds think alike

 

larger resolutions on the same size screen means that each pixel is going to be smaller, but the total number of pixels is larger.

you follow that.

now, text, pictures, etc, are drawn with a certain number of pixels. that means that on the higher resolution screen, things are going to be drawn smaller.

however, at the same time, you will have more space to work with on screen.

its a pretty direct trade off. at about 15" either choice is a good one.

you can display 1440x900 on a 1680x1050 screen, but it will look blurry (multiple pixels have to act as one, and there is no perfect way to do it)

you can also display 1680x1050 on a 1440x900 display, but you wont be able to see all the image at one time. you put your cursor on an edge and it scrolls across.

neither solution is optimal. check out which resolution is better for you beforehand at a retail store like bestbuy or something.


EDIT:

you actually CAN display 1440x900 perfectly on the larger screen, with those black bars that you see on movies on all sides. you will be looking at what functionally is a smaller screen, but it can display it perfectly.

 

To continue with my questions. What are prefered settings for a 15'4" and a 14'1"

Thanks


Gary

 

on a 15" LCD i would always buy 1680x1050.
on a 14" LCD i would always buy 1440x900
anything smaller, 1280x800

i find it funny how all these laptops at staples and such all, for the most part have 1280x800. even on most of the 15"s. For people that just do light stuff on a computer thats one thing, but for most computer enthusiasts, its best to usually get a bump up.

that said. It may not be best to bump up to the next highest resolution, if for example, say i dont know DELL is backordered for weeks on the better screens!!!! Come on dell

usually with the higher res option, you get a better quality screen too. I mean, manufacturers usually sell them as sharper, brighter, that kinda thing.

its all personal preference too. I just sold my C2D 15" Macbook pro on ebay. One reason i just wasnt happy with it was the fact that it was 15"s and 1440x900. to me, that just didnt seem to shout "PRO"