are all laptops now widescreen?

[James1]

Hi,

Just thinking about buying a new laptop and looking online, I notice that many of the 15.4" have resolution of 1280 x 800, which would be widescreen right?

I'm wondering if this is the standard now, and wether it would be good for web design.

I tend to still make sites fixed width and viewable for 800px width - which also look good on 1024px X 768 px like my pc monitor.

I'm thinking 1280x800 sounds like widescreen.

Are all laptops now widescreen?

Thanks,

James

[kaled]

I would hesitate to say all, but widescreen is certainly the norm for laptops and has been for a while now.

You are not alone in designing to a fixed with of 800 pixels (the BBC still does so) however, I don't think many would recommend continuing to do so.

Watch out for glossy screens on laptops. Some manufacturers are beginning to come to their senses but there are still more glossy screens out there than matt (Dell offer both). Be aware that glossy screens have names like "crystalbright" and may be described as "anti-reflective" (no kidding). Matt screens may be called "anti-glare".

Kaled.

[Grandmas Cookies]

Watch out for glossy screens on laptops. Some manufacturers are beginning to come to their senses but there are still more glossy screens out there than matt (Dell offer both). Be aware that glossy screens have names like "crystalbright" and may be described as "anti-reflective" (no kidding). Matt screens may be called "anti-glare".

glossy screens = crap

[shigamoto]

Well I think there are some business laptops from Dell that are not Widscreen (D520 for example).

[John_Blake]

What's the purpose of having a non-widescreen laptop?

[The Contractor]

What's the purpose of having a non-widescreen laptop?

A 15-inch non-widescreen has a larger viewing area than a 15-inch widescreen.

Most desktops do not use widescreens and as a web developer I would rather view/design something in the old standard resolutions of 1280x1024, 1024x800, 800x600, etc.

Sad thing is the new LCD's for desktops are now going widescreen which allows them to state 19-inch LCD, but the viewing area on a widescreen 19-inch is smaller than a standard 19-inch square LCD.

[kaled]

There is one advantage of 15.4" widescreen laptops that is largely overlooked - they are close to 96dpi. That means that a document viewed at 100% zoom will be very nearly the same size when it is printed.

I moved from a 15" standard laptop to a 15.4" widescreen laptop, six months ago. Although I found the text to annoyingly small at first, I now prefer it. (But this Dell keyboard is nowhere near as good as my old Thinkpad keyboard and I still prefer a trackpoint to a touchpad).

Kaled.