PCA Forums

I'm looking at getting a new laptop . Is it worth the extra dollars to get SXGA or is XGA fine ?

Thanks

Depends on what resolution you normally use. I believe (I could be wrong) that it goes like this :

VGA = 800x600
SVGA = 1024x768
XGA = 1280x1024
SXGA = 1600x1200

I coudl be wrong, but thought I saw that someplace..

eGo

XGA = 1024 x 768
SXGA = 1400 x 1050
UXGA = 1600 x 1200

A lot depends on your tastes and how much desktop you like to use.

Most people can live with 1024x768 just fine. I'm a power user and like to have a lot of windows open so I always feel cramped on an XGA laptop.

On a 15" LCD anything beyond SXGA is pretty much a waste. You'll also have serious problems with small fonts in Windows dialog messages.

I went from an XGA to a UXGA lappy and I love it, but I'm a freak - I love a big desktop. Particularly nice when I'm using Photoshop on the lappy. However, 1600 x 1200 is really too high - I would have been happy enough with SXGA. Took quite a bit of playing with the desktop settings - and also Dell has a nice desktop app that rescales some things that Windows doesn't - to get almost all my text and icons to be large enough to be readable. I still get VERY tiny system dialog text but I can live with it. I also had to find a VERY LARGE icon skin for Firefox (the standard icons were almost useless they were so small).

I am looking at either a Dell 600m or 700m . Just not sure if I should spend the extra loot on sxga or upgrade from 32MB video to 64 MB video .


BTW , what do you guys like , the 600m or 700m ?

I would spend the upgrade money on the vid card - I got a lappy with the XGA and some kind of 128 mb 9600 pro - if you want to use it for movies and games you want a faster card than a 32 mb generic

also the pentium m with a lot of caches keeps up with the p4 rigs in most apps but uses a lot less juice - if you search over at AT around october 2004 when dell had those 750 off coupons, there's a lot of good info in those threads about the various options available

My work laptop is a Compaq Evo N610c, with a 14" SXGA+ (1400x1050) screen. IMO, that resolution is perfect for me. 1024x768 is too "cramped."

I would ASSUME you're not interested in gaming if you're looking at a 600m or 700m. These are not performance laptops - they're light weight with what would be considered mid range CPUS (1.6 - 2.0 Ghz).

If you're not doing 3D gaming (and these are not gaming rigs), then the extra video memory does you no good whatsoever. You don't need it for playing videos.

If you do want to do gaming then you should consider one of their more powerful laptops running at least 2.4Ghz with a high end video chipset. It'll also be heavier.

As I said before - the higher resolution is strictly a personal taste thing. If you don't feel cramp in a 1024x768 desktop then there's no reason to go better than XGA.

Originally posted by Jim Z
My work laptop is a Compaq Evo N610c, with a 14" SXGA+ (1400x1050) screen. IMO, that resolution is perfect for me. 1024x768 is too "cramped."

I also have a 14" SXGA screen on my Dell Latitude D600 and I think the resolution is perfect.


And eGo:

VGA = 640x480
SVGA = 800x600
XGA = 1024x768
WXGA = 1366x768
SXGA = 1280x1024
SXGA+ = 1400x1050
UXGA = 1600x1200
QXGA = 2048x1536

Of course some companies have widescreen displays which just alters the aspect ratio and the appropriate pixel values.

No , I will not be gaming on it , mainly surfing and , using excel , word , watching a DVD , etc .

Thanks for the replies