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Are higher resolution upgrades usually always worth the money?

kyrax12

Platinum Member
I am currently looking at the Lenovo Thinkpad T440p and it cost about $250 to get the display to 1920x1080p.

For a 14 inch screen, would 1920x1080p be an awesome upgrade for the price?
 
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Depends on what your upgrading from....

Edit: Looks like standard native resolution for that model is 1366x768 so its a fairly big step up, however wether its worth $250 or not depends on what you'll be using it for. My opinion is that money would be better spent either upgrading to an SSD or snagging a bigger SSD if you were already getting one.
 
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At 14" I'd probably go with the 1080p. More than that, the 1080p screen appears to be using an IPS panel, which is definitely worth the cost alone. The 768 and 900 are garbage TN panels.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Lenovo-ThinkPad-T440p-20AN-006VGE-Notebook.108423.0.html
Display

Lenovo offers three different matte displays for this ThinkPad T440p. The entry-level option is a TN HD display (1366x768 pixels), moving up through the TN HD+ display (1600x900, online price 97 Euros, ~$130) to the IPS FHD display, which at 136 Euros (~$185) is still quite affordable. In our test update on the Lenovo ThinkPad T440s, we will be putting the IPS display under the microscope
 
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Once you start using high res IPS 1080p panels on your computer, you'll really notice it once you compare side by side. Reading text on my iPad 3 is so much better compared to the iPad 1 for example.

Everything supports 1080p these days. It's the new standard, so there should be no scaling issues. Remember you can adjust the DPI in Windows.
 
720P screens are nearly 100% suck. Some 1080P screens suck too (Screendoor, Dim, poor viewing angle) but at least you can fit a spreadsheet on them...
 
Remember you can adjust the DPI in Windows.

Yeah, but it does a terrible job of it compared to something like Android.

That is my major beef with small high resolution displays, Windows lacks resolution-independent continual resize. I hope that is on the menu for Windows 10.
 
1366x768 is about the right resolution for laptops until Microsoft delivers decent scaling functionality. I am hoping for it in Windows 10.
 
Once you start using high res IPS 1080p panels on your computer, you'll really notice it once you compare side by side. Reading text on my iPad 3 is so much better compared to the iPad 1 for example.

Everything supports 1080p these days. It's the new standard, so there should be no scaling issues. Remember you can adjust the DPI in Windows.

The difference there is the iPad 1 and the iPad 3 have the exact same size text and OS elements.

The problem on Windows is that going to a higher resolution means everything looks smaller, which sucks IMO. Same goes for the MacBook Airs. The OS isn't truly resolution independent so they do a half assed job of compensating for those higher ppi screens. The difference is the Retina Pro screens which get around it by choosing a resolution that is exactly 4X the ergonomically "right" resolution, which is exactly what they did going from the iPad 2 to iPad 3.

To put it another way:

2560x1600 13" MacBook Pro >> 1280x800 13" MacBook Pro > 1440x900 13" MacBook Air.

Plus the screen quality isn't determined by resolution alone.
 
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For a computer, hell yeah. You can never have too much resolution. It gives you more screen real estate to multi task better. Multi monitors can get flacky especially in Linux, it would be awesome if they made monitors that are like 10,000 pixels by 3,000 pixels or something crazy like that and pretty much replace the need for multi monitor. Imagine playing games on something like that, too. Video cards have gotten so crazy powerful I'm sure it would not really be an issue. Heck I recall playing games at 1024*768 on like a 32MB card. Screen res these days is not really that much higher than that yet video cards are in the GBs and have processors that require huge heat sinks and multiple fans. Either they've gotten that much more powerful, or just less efficient. 😛

Too bad something like this would be considered niche so no one really wants to make it and we're stuck at 1920*1080.
 
Windows 8 can blow up anything to make it huge. High resolution is totally worth it, regardless of your eyesight. The panels are better for color and view angles, too.

To me, the screen is the most important part of a laptop, then the battery life, then the durability. So basically, a Thinkpad.

Enjoy it. Fantastic laptops.
 
Good God, yes. I have a W520 with a 1920x1080 screen, and I can't imagine having to stare at something low-res all day.
 
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