14 inch screen vs. 15 inch screen vs. 17 inch screen for college

Please forgive me if I asked this in the wrong place.

Ive been just casually looking at different notebooks for college. The main issue is that I'm really unsure about which screen size to get. Here's what's going through my head right now:

17 inch screen-The Everex XT5000T is interesting due to the attractive pricing, and large screen, but I'm concerned that it is simply too large to carry around campus and squeeze into lecture halls. Keep in mind that I haven't really used a 17 inch notebook before. Battery life is also an issue.

15 inch screen-The advantage in my eyes is that most are in my price range, and that they are relatively efficient (I think) However, a couple weeks ago at my high school, I used a Inspiron 6000, and was a little surprised at how large the whole notebook seemed to be. (Those white "bumpers" didn't help matters) Almost all the other notebooks I used there were 14/15 inch standard aspect ratio Latitudes, so I'm not sure if it's just me or the Inspiron is really that big.

14 inch screen- I used a MacBook before, again in my high school, and liked the size of the system. Are Dell's and HP's close to this size. My main concern is that the screen would be too small for comfortable viewing.

Does anyone have any suggestions to help me pick a good size?

Thanks!

 

If you need portability, I saw 14" or under is the way to go.

 

Do you game? If so, look at the ASUS A8Js, most powerful GPU in a 14.1" package and at decent price.

 

Depends on your needs. I had a 15.4 machine which I lobbed around before I switched to the 13" Macbook. I discovered that the Macbook is about ten times easier to lob around even if the size difference is only 2 inches.

 

Doesn't sound much but there is a big difference between the 3

If you are required to use your laptop on your course; in the lecture theatre or in the classroom, I would only consider 13.3", 14.1" or at most a thin and light 15.4". Ideally one of the first two sizes. Being honest, 15.4" is just a little, tiny bit too much

And forget 17" laptops. Too big to carry for long periods around campus and you won't fit anything else on your desk!

Depends on your course. If you don't need it for studying, then perhaps you could get away with having a 17" and leaving it on your desk, but that would include not taking it around and using wi-fi for example

 

Macbooks are 13,3".

Weight is actually a more deciding factor than size (if comparing sub-17" lappys). 14" laptops are (IMO) the bes combination of performance and portability. You get the power of 15,4" in a thin and light package. 13,3" laptops trade off performance (the GPU) for portability. There are light 15,4" (ex. Macbook pro 2.54 kg/5.6 lb) and heavy-ish 13,3" (ex. Macbook 2.36 kg/5.2 lb). My A8Js weighs very clos to a macbook (2,4 kg/5.25 lbs). A W3J is like 2,2 kg/4,85 lb with an 8-cell battery and 2 kg/4,4 lb with a four-cell (info from Asus' swedish site).

 

I recommend Thinkpads, Latitudes and HP business laptops. All three are good choices and I always recommend a 14.1" laptop for portability. A 17" laptop is far too big and a 15.4" laptop adds more weight and a larger base than the small gain in screen size.

 

I would take the 17 incher because it's just so much easier on your eyes... its true that it isn't the most portable, but small screens can get REALLY annoying. I know from personal experience and I would never get anything but a 17 inch again.

 

Apert from the extra desk space needed by a bigger notebook, bigger displays need more power for the backlight.

If I were in your situation then I would think of a 13.3" machine for carrying around with possibly a 17" TFT monitor for the dorm if you want a bigger display.

Weight is an important consideration. I would note that 2kg for the W3J is with a small battery and no optical drive. A couple of years ago I bought a W3A because of the low weight and discovered that it was actually 2.5kg with the standard battery and the optical drive. Check also the size and weight of the PSU of a prospective computer. That needs to be added in to the travel weight.

John

 

Unless you are 6' 8", 280lbs, can bench press 410lbs forget about those 17" monsters. They may be great for gaming, but lugging to class for a few days you will regret buying that 12lb beast. The 14" to 15" range is much more reasonable, leaning more to the 14" size. Weight and battery life are most important when considering a laptop for the classroom. Find one you like and you will be amazed how quickly you adapt to the smaller screen size. If the screen still feels alittle small, you can always buy a monitor for when you are in your dorm.

 

i think 17inch will be fine if you won't be taking it around much. I'd reccomend 14-15.4

 

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Thanks everyone for their input, it really put things in perspective. I went to Circuit City today because I realized that the best way to determine which size was right for me, was to view and touch the notebooks in person. One look at a 17 inch and I knew that they were not for me.:smile: I then moved on to view a couple 15.4's there were many more of these around from all the big names (Acer, Lenovo, etc.) I liked these more than the 17's but some were more bulky than others. Then, I almost walked past it, I found "the one".

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It was a 14-inch Gateway and from that moment I knew that 14.1 inches was the screen size I wanted, and that I would focus on that when looking around. Not too small like the 12 inch Sony that was beside it, but not huge either. I played with it for a while, typed in Word 2007, browsed the web, etc. to see if the smaller screen was uncomfortable, and found no real disadvantages. The notebook itself was pretty good too, although I wish they had one with a Core 2 Duo processor. I forgot where to find the WEI score (I thought it was in the Welcome Center...) but the Pentium Dual Core, ATI integrated graphics and 1 gig of RAM seemed "OK" but not great.

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Finally, I expected to be surrounded by sales people given that I was a 17/18 year old looking at notebooks, but I was surprised that they took a mostly hands off approach, with someone always at the information desk to answer questions. Only one sales person came up to me and was very low pressure, nice. He explained that most people think that 15.4 inches is the sweet spot and that 17 inchers can be a pain to carry around but never tried to push a machine on me. I plan to buy online, so it was nice that the store understood that sometimes people just want to look.

 

14" is what I aim for in notebooks....but then I will have a desktop for gaming and such.
But the screen size should not affect you much as monitor prices are low enough for you to pick up a 19" model for ~$150 if display size is an issue.

 

Screen size can be a limiter of other features however, such as the graphics card, the ports available, etc.

The jump isn't quite so extreme between 14" and 15.4" as it is between 15.4" and 17", since there are some 14" that can match the best of the 15.4", but those still are relatively rare, and don't always necessarily match the build quality of a similar 15.4" system.

 

I also agree that 14 seems like the sweet spot for mobility. 15.4 does come close but I think it'll be a little to big to be shifting around on a desk with books and papers.

I do think that the lighter 15.4 can be just as or close to mobile, one of that comes to mind is a widescreen T60. It's one of the lightest and thinest 15.4 widescreens around.

I'm stuck on standard vs. widescreen for school work though. If your writing a paper I don't think widescreen would add any benefit since your working on a fixed paper size. Widescreen should help in programing though, but in my case I'm not sure how much I'm going to be doing that.

 

Remember that there are no good 14" wxga+ screens (and you'll need all the pixels you can get if working with two documents beside eachother), but there are a lot of good 15" wsxga+ screens, which made me switch my 2.2 kg HP NC6400 for a 2.5kg 6715b.

 

Well, I've just purchased 3 laptops. A 14", a 15.4" and a 17". The 14" & 15" are Lenovo ThinkPads - very portable, durable and each has Centrino Pro which connects very well on WIFI - wireless LANs. The 14" model is really portable and would be fine for Office applications, email etc. The 15.4" WSXGA+ (1680x1050) model is still quite portable, but is more handy at playing DVD movies and handling multiple documents (applications). The 17" 1920 x 1200 model by Alienware is a real powerhouse, but with that size also comes much greater weight. It's still portable but may quickly become cumbersome for taking to classes and such. I would buy a 14" for a girl and its basically a matter of preference if you want the 15.4".