Was I stupid for going with the normal WXGA screen on my i9300?

Just cancel your current order and place a new one with the components you want.. there's no penalty for cancelling before shipping. I have the WXGA and like it, although ideally, I'd like a 17" wsxga with truelife. Dell would sell a lot of those.

Just try ordering a new laptop online with the WUXGA (IMO, the only way to go - ever see 1920x1200 resolution before? It's breathtaking!!! Worth any trouble the screens may be..), and apply the coupon. This should ensure that it works for you? Anyone? Then you can call dell, cancel, and reorder five minutes later - and make sure they clear your credit card of any charges/precharges while you are on the phone. As for the kit - it'll be pricey I'm guessing. What you *may* be able to do is get your laptop, then call dell CS and see if they'll get you the wuxga kit for the $100 more and threaten them with the return...

that coupon is good through the 3/31.. if you're worried, configure your new system, apply the coupon when the discount shows and you have everything you want, order and pay for it. Then call customer service and tell them to cancel the other order number. Don't ask, tell, in a polite manner, ofcourse

That way, you'll know you've got your new system ordered while having the other one on the line, too. I did this three times until I knew I had the configuration I wanted.

Its OK. Dell isn't losing anything, nothing has been done yet.

Try my idea! I was in the same boat with the credit limit: so I had dell cs cancel the order, then called sales up and made sure they removed the charge and had the other order placed while I was ON the phone.

nothing wrong wit the uxga just your luck

If you do this after the fact, you'll pay the full price of the new screen and just have the old screen. It's going to be like $600. I don't know what's up with the coupon deal, but I'm sure something can be worked out, or just wait a couple of days.

On the other hand, if this is your first laptop, WXGA may be the way for you to go. Best bet is to go to some stores that have both and fiddle around with it. The biggest drawback of WUXGA is the text is really small. So when you go to the store pull up some help pages and see how comfortable each resolution is for you. That same drawback is a boon, too, if you're eyes can take it. You can have 2 full screen documents side by side and read them. Or work in one, and refere to the other, productivity stuff. Also, games and movies look sharper on the WUXGA. Also, the TrueLife is glossy which is awesome in my opinion. I'll never own another non-glossy laptop, now after I've used one for a bit.

Good luck.

I ordered the WXGA too. It was cheaper.

I'm a sucker for high-resolution. I used to run my old 14" CRT at 1024x768 because I liked having the real estate. I routinely run 17" and 19" monitors at 1600x1200 because I need the space for my DAW. 1900xWhatever is a bit too high for my CRT and graphics card, though; the refresh rate goes to crap, and on a CRT I can't read the text.

That said, I went over to my friend's house the other night. He has two Dells, one of them with a nice WSXGA+ screen (1680x1050, I think?). It's not glossy, but it's quite passable in a 15.4" screen (one of the 8xxx Inspirons). I toyed with it for a while, and I think the font sizes are, for my preferences, just about perfect. A WUXGA screen at 17" is just about the same font size as a WSXGA at 15.4", from what I can tell. And LCD screens tend to display text much more clearly than CRTs.

Then again, I program a lot. I work in white-on-black text windows a lot. And I do recording sessions a lot, which eats up a metric buttload of screen real estate. I'm used to running two monitors on most of my machines to get enough space to work. WUXGA is the right choice for me, but I think for most web/mail/game folks, it's overkill and may actually be counter-productive to their aims. Most people buying new computers are more impressed by their screen icons and fonts being larger, not smaller.

Hrmm..

I have a small question.. if I won't be using a resolution of 1920x1200, should I just go w/ the WXGA? My eyes aren't up to par like most people ( ) so I will be running it at a lower res. I ran a lower resolution would the 2 screen types look the same basically? (WXGA - WUXGA) Or is there a differance between the 2 even at lower resolutions?
I am just basically trying to figure out which to get since I will be running at a lower res.

-Thanks

Typically you only want to run an LCD at its native resolution (except perhaps when gaming) - otherwise you will see a drop in quality. LCD's are not like CRT's that can dynamically adjust pixel size. An LCD's pixel size is fixed. You can get the graphics card to simulate lower resolutions by doing pixel interpolation - but as stated the results will be less than optimum. So pick the LCD that uses the resolution you plan to use most.

hey anettis

hows that screen, i have similar system on the way?

thanks

Ummm - probably going back. I noticed the "sparkle effect" and the clarity at this resolution is not as good as I had hoped for. I will probably give the WUXGA screen a try - perhaps on the XPS 2.

do you know..

which screen type you received?

Ahh ok..

SO if I leave it on the native res.. I can still always jack my font up if I need to see better correct?

i went with WXGA+, saw no reason going with the WUXGA. But i also bought the 17" nushield which i'll be installing so I'll have "True Life" screen too

I will be ordering the 9300 soon and I am probably going to go with the WXGA since the WUXGA text is small, and the possibility of getting a sparkling lcd, plus, I really don't need all the extra space and am not a huge fan of the Truelife display.

yeah, just give it 120 dpi