I dispise widescreen...

I like the Wide view on my sony for viewing Spreadsheets for work.

-my 2 cents

When you say nine times "Widescreen is better" to yourself, you will believe it the tenth time! Try it!

Whats the use of having more vertical space when the extra horizontal space can be made use of in more constructive ways(viewing 2 spreadsheets...)
The advantages of widescreen outweigh its disadvantages...

Perhaps if your eyes were aligned vertically more vertical space would make sense but our natural field of view is wide. Besides the entire industry is moving that way with HDTV on the horizon and the convergence of PC and media it only makes sense to move in that direction.

I use to think I wouldn't care much for widescreen but I finally got one and I just love it. I honestly don't think I will ever be buying a non wide screen again. I want a 15-17" LCD monitor but I'm waiting for someone to make a widescreen version in that size range that has good specs.. I really don't want to have to buy a non widescreen.

As far as the image being stretched.. thats only true if you are taking a square image and trying to make it fit the whole screen on a widescreen display, what else would anyone expect to happen? The reason I like widescreen so much is because of how natural it feels.. wider than taller is how our eyes seem to work anyway.

Of course a 17" widescreen is superior, as it is the same height as a standard 15" screen, but has the extra width.

A 15.4" widescreen has less overall area than a standard 15" (yes, you read correctly), and has a shorter height than a standard 14.1". Couple that with super high resolutions and it's a wonder you can make anything out on the screen at all!

Uhh... there is the exact same vertical space. Lets see...
They have the same vertical space. And the pixels are not a different size. As in, the pixels arent squished into a smaller vertical space. The phyiscal height is the same, but the width is different (thats what the 15.1" vs 15.4" accounts for).

That's slightly misleading. Let's have a look at the actual dimensions.

15.0" (4:3 screen):
Width: 12.0"
Height: 9.0"

15.4" (16:10 screen):
Width: 13.1"
Height: 8.2"

So the wide screen is actually 0.8" smaller in the vertical dimension.
Note that you can put any number of pixels on the screen just by reducing their pitch, but it will also reduce the size of text and images on the screen.
You should also note that the pixel density on a 15.4" WUXGA screen (147 PPI) is much higher than that on a 15.0" UXGA screen (133 PPI).

I don't know what models you have been looking at, but my 15.4" widescreen is the same exact heigth as a 15", but wider. Comparison made between an Acer Sempron machine and my m6809. No vertical space lost here. Same vertical measurement, wider horizontal measurement. Also 1280x800 vs 1024x768. More realestate at a higher res.

Also most GPU drivers have the ability to turn the stretching off. ATI's, for example, is in the advanced display properties under the "Displays" tab.

Widescreen "feels" wider because we read left-to-right. When we compare two documents, we put them side-by-side. It's all about how our brain interprets things.



Reading this line, left-to-right, makes it feel like it takes up less space...



than
this
line
which
is
written
vertically.


Add on top of that, widescreen laptops support widescreen DVDs, one of the major uses for a laptop for many people. Widescreen laptops also let notebook manufacturers build a wider chassis, allowing use of larger full-size keyboard keys.

Native Windows applications will use the resolution of the desktop, so native support for widescreen resolutions already exist for Windows apps, and support for widescreen support in games is growing tremendously.

Widescreen is more natural for the eyes to view. I love mine.

If you dont like it Dont buy a widescreen

de·spise

1. To regard with contempt or scorn: despised all cowards and flatterers.
2. To dislike intensely; loathe: despised the frigid weather in January.
3. To regard as unworthy of one's interest or concern: despised any thought of their own safety.

Now that I've gone wide, I don't think I could go back to normal. I love being able to have two windows open side-by-side, or have one window open and still be able to see Xfire, IRC, and Ventrilo on the other side.

Then you have two very peculiar machines, which defy the laws of Euclidian geometry. You can't have a laptop that has a 15.4" diagonal and 16:10 aspect ratio which has the same height as a screen with a 15" diagonal and 4:3 aspect ratio. Either you are wrong, you are using non-Euclidian geometry, or your laptops have been designed by highly advanced aliens.

Hi BNeit,

Ignoring pixel-sizes, both the physicial widths and heights are different. The 15.4" and 15.1" measurements come from the hypotenuse (the longest dimension - ie. corner to corner), not the width singly.

Believe it or not, a widescreen 15.4" has less physical screen area (in centimetres squared) than a regular 15.1". The 15.1" screen has a more square shape (4:3) so the diagonal measurement has the tendency to be biased more efficiently, so comparing both diagonal LCD figures are meaningless without comparing physical X and Y measurements.

I could say I have a 100" screen, but it could still be only 1" tall, depending on how long it is. The diagonal measurement itself, on its own, is misleading.

Even the 17" widescreen only has the same physical screen height (9") as a standard 15.1" LCD.

So, the pixels are indeed more squished vertically on a 15.4" widescreen than a 15.1" by nearly an inch (0.8"), and therefore a comparitively similar vertical resolution on a 15.4" widescreen will be even tinier (smaller) than on a 15.1". The LCD diagonal figure is misleading in these cases, as the greater width of the 15.4" brings out a higher number even at the expense of the vertical height of a 15.1".

The physical height a of a 15.4" widescreen is slightly smaller than a standard 14.1" screen. So, in other words, a 15.4" widescreen is effectively a 14" screen but with the width extended.

That's why I'm going for a 17" widescreen, as I don't want to lose the height of a 15.1", but still want to have more space horizontally.

Lol, that guy is really biased and doesn't know what WSXGA+ is ...

??

WSXGA+ is 1680 x 1050