Is the 14" WXGA+ too small for text?

Is the 14" WXGA+ screen too small for reading text? I really don't really want to get the 14" WXGA+ T61 but I've heard the screen is brighter than the 14" WXGA. I don't really have any need for the WXGA+

 

You can increase your dpi and increase text size (ctrl-+). Only bad thing that might happen is web pages might be screwed up, but I think its worth it.

 

No. I'm typing this on a 14" sxga+ which is slighty smaller than the screen you are considering and I like the extra real estate. Of course this is a matter of personal preference.

 

I have the wxga+ and my eyes are about 2 feet from the sceen away from my screen and it is plenty big. The DPI for a 14.1 in with WXGA+ is 120.4. The 15.4 with WSXGA+ is 128.6. So the fonts there might seem a little small for me.

From what I have found, 120 dpi or less is the most comfortable to me, although that is just my personal taste. Now if I use a WXGA on a 14.1, everything seems way to big to me.

 

I also have the wxga+ and it reminds of 1600X1200 on a 21" monitor. Not everyone likes that resolution, but I think it's great and I have no issues reading everything on monitor.

 

i love ultra high resolutions and small text.

 

I was also worried but it is actually very nice.

 

Is there anyone out there who got the lower resolution 14" T61?

 

To see what 14.1" WXGA is like, you can go to any big box store. That res/format is very common. But it'll probably be glossy models in the store instead of a matte screen like on the thinkpad.

In 14.1", I strongly prefer 4:3 over 16:10 because the 4:3 screen is larger and has significantly greater vertical resolution (which I find to be more useful to me than horizontal resolution)

 

I was also worried that WXGA+ would make text too small, but I was pleasantly surprised - it's perfect for my eyes.

 

Having worked with a 14" WXGA screen I was also worried going to WXGA+ (aging eyes). Now that I've seen them side by side, the difference isn't all that drastic and I'm happy with my decision.

Furthermore, if you look in the T61 Hardware Manual (parts list), the WXGA panels are not as bright as the WXGA+.

 

Does anyone have any pics showing the difference?

 

I've been running a WXGA+ Z61t for almost a year now, and I couldn't be more happy with it. I'm a linux guy and run stuff in terminal windows almost exclusively except for browsing. A major use of the laptop is email (mutt in xterm) and writing (emacs). 7x14 fonts are no problem.

............... Larger version of above photo.

 

What he said.

I have the same setup, and I'm quite happy with it. Being able to have two full-width 'rxvt' terminals next to each other is very nice.

Schwab

 

That was a deciding factor for me, too. I can run two non-overlapping xterm/emacs/firefox windows of a usable aspect ratio side by side.

-z

 

Well not exactly but somewhat, I have a standard format screen 14 inch XGA screen and got it specifically because I wanted text to be nice and big and the web pages to fit well without me expanding the text. I used to do that on my imac and it didn't look as nice expanding the text. Just a personal preference. But I don't game at all on this and don't miss the extra screen real estate. I have never seen a SXGA+ screen so I can't honestly compare though, I just made my choice based on my mainly text based needs.

 

Everyone has different needs and preferences. Your choice is valid and sound for you. You'd probably be an unhappy surfer with anything other than the XGA you wanted. Web pages are designed for XGA, and although any pages work fine in SXGA+ (and you can adjust the size), there are some issues with that.

My guess is that eventually most web pages will be designed for best viewing with WXGA, but we're a long way from that yet.

Many people on these boards have other needs and so they'd hate XGA, but that doesn't diminish the fact that for some folks XGA is perfectly fine still.

 

I think I used SXGA (1280 × 1024) 17 inch dsektop LCD and XGA (1024 x 768) 15 inch laptop too long. Even the fonts in WXGA now look small. I know it is just me.

Either way, you eyes will be adjusted to it pretty soon.