Comments on: The Widescreen Laptop Conspiracy

By: Sara

Sara — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 03:10:36 +0000

As a student who is on the computer writing papers and conducting onlive research all day i completely agree. it is really frustrating to work on these shiny wide screens and to constrain the eyes so much. i only started using a wide screen after my other 3:4 laptop crashed 4 months ago and i already need glasses.

By: Jeroen

Jeroen — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:45:52 +0000

Thanks for this blog post. As a software developer, I totally agree with your statement that a widescreen laptop is useless for any business purposes.

A few years ago, 15″ was phased out in favor of 15.4″. During that time, I switched jobs, which meant that I went from a 1024×768 15″ notebook to a 1280×800 15.4″ notebook. Although that was an improvement, it still doesn’t match up to my trusty Asus M6a which has a 1400×1050 screen.

I really HATE the 15.4″ screen of my notebook. 800 pixels is waaay to little for anything other than surfing the Internet. I dislike working at home or going to clients, just because I have to use that awful screen. (And I refuse to invest my salary in an extra screen to use my company-provided laptop at home.)

Anyway, now that my laptop is starting to age, I’m looking for a much better replacement. Quad-core processor, 4 Gig’s of ram and a 64-bit OS. And a screen with at least 1000 pixels in height. Guess what… The problem is getting worse! I noticed that 15.4″ screens are rare on new notebooks. Apparently, business users only want to use their laptops for watching movies in hotels or something, because 16:10 is being replaced with 16:9. This means that where 1280×800 was the default resolution last year, you now get 1366×768. That’s worse. Period. If you upgrade, you’ll get 1600×900, which is worse than 1680×1050. If you spend a lot of money, you might get 1920×1080, but then the pixel density is too high for working comfortably for 8 hours a day.

I think I’m going to write some letters to a few producers of notebooks. (Asus, HP, Dell, Apple, Toshiba, maybe even Acer). I’ll print it in landscape with a tiny font and I’ll end the letter with a statement like: “If this was annoying to read, imagine what it’s like to work like this every day of the year.”

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:20:38 +0000

The wide screen laptops are truly terrible. I am a web developer and graphics maker and am going to buy a new notebook and when I look at all the wide screen options I just laugh at them.

Fortunately there are still normal screens found in the PC market.

The wide screens are very bad for web browsing and developing sites, you need to use the vertical scroll bars all the time and this is very poor.

The next funny thing is that all the vendors and the online shops are saying the wide screen laptops are great for watching DVDs but I hate watching them on my notebook as I already can use my DVD player at home, right?

As you have mentioned it is an economical trick and it’s great many people already know about this.

By: Surojit Das

Surojit Das — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 05:53:43 +0000

I totally agree for non-wide screen type. Wide Screen sucks. According to me one can go for tablet PC where you can easily rotate your screen etc.

Hows about it….

Mail me for comments.
Thanks and bye

By: Dave Ziffer

Dave Ziffer — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:31:12 +0000

You might find my ribbon/WXGA rant interesting:

http://www.projectpro.com/letters/usability.html

http://www.projectpro.com/letters/usability.docx

By: Arek

Arek — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:55:45 +0000

Seeing last post from yesterday it seems that problem is still alive. But I remain hopeful, someday one marketing guy will notice that he can sell 4:3 as premium for business and IT professionals and this day we will see great come back.

My next laptop will be 4:3 or there will be NO next laptop. I can buy used one if I really need new one.

By: Andy

Andy — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:38:08 +0000

I’m in the same boat as you – replacing a 5-year old laptop. I’m experiencing the same frustrations too! Widescreen displays for laptops are not for everyone. A year ago I purchased a 15.6 inch laptop for my daughter in college. The screen was 8 1/4″ high and 13″ wide (6:9) – down from 9 X 13″ I now have. Now however, a 15.6″ is barely 7″ high. Where there used to be an area in front of the keyboard to rest my plams there is barely room for a touchpad. These new models suck. The industry seems to be shoving them down our throats. Totally disgusted.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:00:27 +0000

My laptop is literally starting to fall apart (has pieces of plastic chipped off, keys are loose, etc. accidents happen when you have tons of cords laying around). It’s five years old, I take it every where because I’m in college and I spend most of my time on it. I’ve been searching for a really long time for a new laptop but refuse to buy a widescreen. 4:3 is definitely better for all the reasons above (I don’t think they need to be repeated) and I don’t watch movies on my laptop… I do work on it. One additional factor for me that may not be important to most people but widescreen laptops are damn big! I don’t want to carry around a huge widescreen laptop all day long! That’s the point of a laptop. Something light and compact for use anyway. I walk around all day and need my laptop for every class… I see people with widescreens and I just don’t get it. A widescreen laptop wouldn’t even fit in my backpack. So hopefully they’ll bring them back some day. Companies seem to be forgetting about the “computer” people (programmers, business people, college students, etc.) and are doing everything to make cheap laptops for the everyday user. I’m definitely willing to pay more for a 4:3 screen. So please bring them back!

By: Jefferson Baker

Jefferson Baker — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 06:03:03 +0000

Your eyeballs are round.
that means they see in a circle JUST as high as wide.
Close one eye and try it. you see just as high as wide (maybe higher depending on how big your nose is) Now. you have two round eyballs for “stereo” depth perception – that is all.
Not for super wide viewing. If that was the case your eyes would be more like a birds, out to to side or even on opposite sides of your head.
Humans easily need vertical view as much as horizontal view.
I’d rather watch a rocket launch in 4:3 than 16:9. Things do go up and down, not just side to side.
and when you look at someone, do you “side to side” them, or “up and down” them.

People do not see or only look at the world in this strange 16:9 side to side view. More of a circular view like the shape of your eyeballs and circular pupils that are only a couple of inches apart.
Having two eyes set merely inches apart is purely for stereo depth, not super-wide, no vertical view.

By: J Anderson

J Anderson — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 03:29:35 +0000

As a graphic artist and illustrator, being told to work on a wide short canvas is ridiculous.
Adding to some of the insightful comments that MentalRectangle made about cameras and imax,
graphics tablets are still 4:3 as well (thank god)
Tell any artist that now they can only paint on a wide, short canvas.
I have heard this argument that because our eyes are side by side instead of one on top of the other that we “see” in 16:9. What a crock. Really go look around outside. it’s really about a 4:3 field of vision.
after all, we stand upright. We are not short and wide. (hopefully)\

We WILL get the top 1/3 of our monitors back.

16:9 was just a gimmick to get people back to the theaters in the 50’s during the TV revolution. It was dreamed up by the exact same guy that came up with “smell-o-vision” No kidding. Michael Todd. Widescreen and Smell-o-Vision creator.
Maybe the widescreen people that just play with computers and watch movies should demand smell-o-vision with their widescreen as well.
http://www.retrofuture.com/index.php/2009/03/05/smell-o-vision/