Travel Mate 8100 Screen Question

I have the 8104 and I am generally happy with it. I did not think that P-M's are so fast! I changed from an old Celeron 1.8 (not mobile) and was amazed that P-M at 800MHz (the slowest option) is faster than my old laptop! In games it does also a very good job (but in native resolution is somewhat too slow, unless you like low/med details ).
If you are going to do a lot of gaming I would recommend a computer with a 4:3 screen... Not only will the res be lower (and thus faster at native) but also you won't have to worry if the game supports widescreen or not (if not, you get less than 14" I guess...).
I must admit that I don't like this high res in it. Everything (in windows) seems too small for me with normal 96dpi - my eyes got quickly tired. I have to use 120dpi and some programs don't look good with it (if they have much graphics, boarders etc. the text goes beyond them and you don't see it all). But I know that some people love it at 96dpi so you should take a look at the shop if possible (I couldn't )
The screen is not glossy and I like it that it isn't. I saw some laptops with those shiny screens and it didn't appeal to me. Again - a matter of taste.

I hope that and didn't confuse you even more

There are VGA to DVI adapter I believe but that kinda defeats the purpose of a cleaner and better connection. But it will do the job.

Too high resolution ?

I have Acer 8102, and I have serious problems to descide if the
resolution is too high or not. In one hand you get plenty of space, possibilty to have word and explorer side by side. In other hand it can be diffcult to read the web pages. I have started to use morazilla browser supporting adjustable character size. I set the minimum size of the character so I can read it. This is actually quite nice .. Try it.

So overall more pros than cons I would say. The 17" option is there, but such laptop is hardly portable anymore.

If you don't like the text to be so small, just adjust the resolution! I had my DPI set at 120 for a while (native resolution), but noticed the same problems listed above: the letters would be missing the bottom halves, text would be hard to read, etc.

SO... when I game, I prefer the higher resolution (1680x1050), but otherwise while doing my school work, etc, I just change it to 1200X800 (wxga settings) and work with it from there. I don't notice any loss in looks, though I admit that the TruBrite screen on the Toshiba Satellite that my wife has is amazing to look at compared to this notebook. I admit that if I could swap out this higher resolution for a reflective screen (even if it was lower resolution) I would probably do it... for the better looks and colors.

But I'm still very happy with it, and the fact that the screen isn't quite as colorful/sharp as my old notebook keeps my wife from disliking the hand-me-down notebook that I gave her, when her photos (she does professional quality photo work) come out looking so good on hers, compared to mine. (of course, hers gets 680 in 3dmark03)

Oh, and I'd never go back to regular screens, when widescreens have so much more to offer. XGA might be better compatible with SOME things, but in the long run, it's not nearly as good as WXGA.

Well, nuff said on my part.

-Ransom