1080p Laptop screens. Are they cutting the mustard these days?

[Dos_Box]

This isn't a rant as such, but more of an observation.

During lockdown I needed a new work laptop and settled for a Dell Vostro (laptop prices being sky-high at the time), and all in all (apart from the SSD dying just after the warranty running out) I'm pleased with it.

But in the past two years I have noticed that whilst it is fine for Office apps etc, browsing on its 1080p screen is getting a little awkward with some sites designed in such a way that almost a full third of the screen can be taken up with a mess of menus and header blocks, and depending on the font size used you can acutally see very little in the way of content. I'm pretty sure many sites are now tyring to be mobile freindly without having a special mode for phones.

this is becoming annoying!

I do think a 1440p screen will be a better option dowwn the line, but this is something I've been noticing for a while now and seems to be a weird trend where handheld devices such as phones and tablets are being catered for now more than 'regular' screens.

[psydii]

I wonder if UI designers are getting ahead of themselves as the trend is looking like 16:9 may be on its way out for laptops…

 

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/are-16-9-laptops-on-their-way-out/

 

Having finally got 16:9 screens in all my classrooms, I was caught out when the next batch of laptops we bought were 3:2

 

1080p I find increasing needs to be run in100% mode rather than 150% in order to leave enough working space when working with larger documents or tabulated data.

[Norphy]

This isn't a rant as such, but more of an observation.

During lockdown I needed a new work laptop and settled for a Dell Vostro (laptop prices being sky-high at the time), and all in all (apart from the SSD dying just after the warranty running out) I'm pleased with it.

But in the past two years I have noticed that whilst it is fine for Office apps etc, browsing on its 1080p screen is getting a little awkward with some sites designed in such a way that almost a full third of the screen can be taken up with a mess of menus and header blocks, and depending on the font size used you can acutally see very little in the way of content. I'm pretty sure many sites are now tyring to be mobile freindly without having a special mode for phones.

this is becoming annoying!

I do think a 1440p screen will be a better option dowwn the line, but this is something I've been noticing for a while now and seems to be a weird trend where handheld devices such as phones and tablets are being catered for now more than 'regular' screens.

 

Depends on the size of the screen, I think.

 

On Windows at least, I think that 1080P on a 13" or 14" screen is too dense for most people without some sort of scaling going on. For me, 1080p on 15" without scaling is fine but my eyesight is above average.

[Dos_Box]

Depends on the size of the screen, I think.

 

On Windows at least, I think that 1080P on a 13" or 14" screen is too dense for most people without some sort of scaling going on. For me, 1080p on 15" without scaling is fine but my eyesight is above average.

 

Well, my eyes are definately not as good as they used to be. I had an XPS 13 before the Vostro and (apart from the screen hinges coming loose every month or so), the screen was very good (can't remember the resolution, but way higher then 1080p) but getting far too small for my eyes.

The Vostro has a 14 inch screen and is much better. I have gone off the idea of having a HUGE laptop these days as many years of lugging them around is not something I care to do these days.

[Rob_D]

. I had an XPS 13 before the Vostro and (apart from the screen hinges coming loose every month or so), the screen was very good (can't remember the resolution, but way higher then 1080p) but getting far too small for my eyes.

Dell make some very nice screens. The AFAIK 2014 or newer XPS laptops have mostly 4k screens (which I pretty overkill IMO).

 

The rule of thumb I've seen for resolution for computer screens is 1080p up to about 24", 1440p 25-27" and 4K 28"> (based on recommended optimum viewing distances of 2-3feet). While that's all about image quality and avoiding the "screen door effect" on the one side and not paying for things you that won't make a visible difference on the other, I think it's probably worth following this rule (at least until some new-shiny comes along and makes it defunct) and then using the windows scaling to get things to a comfortable size.

 

With regards to optimizing for mobile. All the web developers we've been speaking to about redoing our website talk about the site design needing to be "mobile first", and how 90odd % of all traffic comes from mobiles now. So I think you're right, more and more, websites are being designed for mobiles and then "scaled up" for computer screens rather than the old model of being made for the computer and then adapted/scaled down for phone screens.

 

And there's that habit web designers have of not using the full width of 16:9 widescreens.

[DalekSec]

With laptops i think its more of aspect ratio than screen res, often said you dont need more than 1080p on a 13" screen. It's more aspect ratio for me, 3:2 seems to me a lot better on a laptop, get as much screen real estate as possible!

[PotNoodleTech]

I think the main issue is that a 14" screen is not physically large enough to display 1080p or more compfrtably without it just all resorting to tiny text and you having to use the zoom feature in windows. What's the point of having 1440p and paying extra just to then turn the zoom up to 150% and negate it all?

 

Frankly I don't even like using 1080p on anything smaller than a 24" 1440p I go 32"

[Norphy]

I think the main issue is that a 14" screen is not physically large enough to display 1080p or more compfrtably without it just all resorting to tiny text and you having to use the zoom feature in windows. What's the point of having 1440p and paying extra just to then turn the zoom up to 150% and negate it all?

 

Frankly I don't even like using 1080p on anything smaller than a 24" 1440p I go 32"

 

You're not negating the purpose of a higher DPI screen by turning on display scaling though. Yes, there's the same working area as the lower DPI screen, but text on the screen is sharper and you have more detail in images. Again though, I suppose that depends on how good your eyes to decide if that's a benefit or not. I think the best illustration of that is when Apple went over to "Retina" displays on their products. There is a huge difference between 165 DPI and 330 DPI, but all of the interface elements remained the same size.

[mikes]

a 4K display on a 13" laptop would need display scaling on to be usable but it would look much nicer and crisper than a 1080p or less display at that screen size. Unfortunately though you get some software that doesn't scale well, so for a teacher they might load an old SIMS module only for it to be tiny.

 

Anyway for me I really need a 4K resolution screen to be properly productive. I have 3 1080p screens here in work, at home I have 1 4K 55" and 1 1080p 32" (I prefer big screens being sat a bit further back) - at home I find I can be much more productive purely due to the 4K screenspace.

Of course for teachers they all require laptops and tbh I think 1080p is fine for most of them