I’ve been using a Dell Latitude D830 (15-inch screen), and I have the screen resolution set at the highest available, 1680 X 1050. I really like this resolution a lot, even though things are small. I have good eyesight, and I can get lots of stuff on the screen at the same time. I can have two Word documents open side-by-side with no trouble.
I just got a new Dell laptop, an XPS with a 17-inch screen, and the highest I can go with the screen resolution is 1600 X 900. The sounds like it should be almost the same, but au contraire, everything on the screen is HUGE, compared to what I’m used to. Although the physical screen is bigger, I can’t get as much stuff on it.
My research on the internet says I can’t increase the screen resolution beyond the highest native resolution, so I have three questions:
Is that true?
How come everything looks so different even though the screen resolution settings between the two computers is pretty close?
Is there some workaround so I can get lots of stuff on the screen at the same time?
I do a lot of graphics work and I like to have Illustrator, Photoshop, and Bridge all open at the same time. *[The new computer has 16G of RAM- hehe- so that will be noooo problem.] * At home I have a second monitor, but when I work away from home, I just like lots of available real estate on my screen. I don’t mind if my icons and type are small.
True. And even if you could fool the OS into thinking you have a higher resolution, what’s the point? The amount of detail you can see is still limited by the screen.
There are two issues here. One is the “resolution”, i.e. how many pixels are on the display. The other is the DPI setting, which controls the size of characters, window borders, etc. This can be adjusted. On Windows-7, right click on the desktop, then click on “screen resolution”, then select the “Make text and other items larger or smaller”. If it’s already on “Smaller”, select the “set custom text size (DPI)” option on the left side.
By the way, I feel your pain. It’s wonderful to have a high pixel density, and it’s very unfortunate that it’s become so difficult to find a high-resolution screen. I wonder if it’s partly because many users don’t know hwo adjust the DPI setting to make text larger on the screen, and complained about their text being too small.
If my search fields are correct, that is a pretty expensive laptop. That is ridiculous it doesn’t support 1080p, I didn’t read too much about it but is it supposed to be a gaming laptop? Resolution is pretty important to gamers and generally everyone soon. Any laptop over a grand should have 1080p in my opinion.
My problem is that I want images to also be larger, and they look like crap when you different DPI than they are set for. CRTs can handle a 120% increase in size easily, but LCD has way too sharp of corners.
Everything is huge because you’re distributing the same number of pixels across a larger area. It’s like a mosaic: Using the same tiles but adjusting the space between them, you can cover a 10 square foot area or a 20 square foot area; the 20 foot mosaic will look “bigger” but less sharp.
Return the Dell and get an Asus, Sager, Apple, or perhaps Alienware (now owned by Dell but still more gamer-ific than XPS) and look for something with a higher-res screen, at least 1920x1080. The 17" Macbook Pro is 1920x1200, but the graphics card sucks by modern standards. In comparison, the Sager and Asus are better values and more powerful machines, but their screens are only 1920x1080. There may be other options if you keep looking.
Or get an external monitor/HDTV and a keyboard + mouse. Laptop keyboards are seldom ergonomic enough for long gaming sessions anyway. Maybe also a docking station if you don’t want to fiddle with wires every time.
Oops, I misread Hennessy’s post; you’re not a gamer, so ignore that part… but the rest still applies. You unfortunately chose the wrong machine for high-res design work, so your best bet is to return it and get something else or couple it with an external monitor.
You could also consider buying an LCD laptop screen and modifying your notebook yourself, but I wouldn’t recommend that if you’ve had no electronics tinkering experience. It’ll likely electrocute your dog and burn down your house. And maybe void your warranty too.
I’ve been reading some of the threads y’all referred me to. I NEVER would have found that info on my own! Thank you so much… it’s what I love about this BB.
Apparently this is a concern of other Dell users. There was one thread that gave a very clear sit of instructions WITH PHOTOS for swapping out the screen… hehe. I will research this some more.
1080p is a $100 upgrade (at least on the Canadian site; I imagine it’s in the same ballpark on the US site) for that model. The 1080p screen can also be upgraded to 3D.
The other thing is that not only did your screen get larger, but you actually lost pixels in the vertical direction.
Since everyone has been going 16:9, the screen is less useful for just about everything except movies (because what else would you want to do on a laptop?) :rolleyes:
