Is it even possible to get a laptop without a widescreen?

[AmyRose]

Seriously, come on. I can't find ANY new laptop without a widescreen anymore. I don't like wide screens. They aren't very useful for the majority of computing tasks. It's suddenly as if all laptops are used for anymore is watching movies. When I watched movies on my old laptop (with a 4:3 screen), I didn't mind the black bars. My desktop system has a new 17" non-widescreen LCD and I love it. Why can't I buy a laptop with a 4:3 or 5:4 screen anymore? Just 4 years ago I could have gotten a 15" laptop with 1400×1050 or 1600×1200. Now I can't find one anywhere for a reasonable price (actually, not at all, really).

I understand it's to cut costs. But come on, do they not think anyone is willing to spend a little extra to get a more useful screen?

[zipperback]

HUH? There are numerous laptops that are available without a widescreen.

I don't understand why a widescreen would bother you though, it just gives you more screen real estate to display information.

You can buy laptops with the older style of display still. I was just at walmart last week and they had 5 different laptop brands available for sale. 3 were wide screen and 2 were not wide screen. Apple also makes laptops which are available in the screen style you want. There are also numerous other manufacturers too.

Perhaps if you let us know what your required specifications are for your laptop we can help you find one that will work for your needs.

-zipperback

[RabbitWho]

You'll get used to it in like 2 days.

Anyway it's practical, look at the size and shape of the keyboard and the... finger.. area... What's that called.. The other shapes waste space.

[hanzomon4]

Hard to avoid everything in media is moving to 16:9, it's the future. You can always get older laptops like a good powerbook.

[inobe]

wide isn't worth it unless it's 1920x1080 P


no up scaling neither

[AmyRose]

HUH? There are numerous laptops that are available without a widescreen.

I don't understand why a widescreen would bother you though, it just gives you more screen real estate to display information.

You can buy laptops with the older style of display still. I was just at walmart last week and they had 5 different laptop brands available for sale. 3 were wide screen and 2 were not wide screen. Apple also makes laptops which are available in the screen style you want. There are also numerous other manufacturers too.

Show me any NEW laptop without a widescreen. I have looked for a couple of years and have not seen any since 2006.

Most of my computer use requires vertical space, like web pages, email, scripting, retrogaming, etc. A widescreen does not help with any of those things. They are also not usually wide enough to fit two windows side-by-side.

Hard to avoid everything in media is moving to 16:9, it's the future. You can always get older laptops like a good powerbook.

My first post stated that I do not watch movies on my laptop very often. And the letterboxing never bothered me. I use my TV for watching movies. This does not justify a transition to widescreen. And I stated I was looking for a NEW laptop without a widescreen.

You'll get used to it in like 2 days.

Anyway it's practical, look at the size and shape of the keyboard and the... finger.. area... What's that called.. The other shapes waste space.

I'll give you that, but I'll gladly waste some space to get some more vertical screen real estate.

[hessiess]

If applications were developed with vertical interfaces wide screen would make a lot more scence. Personally I just use DWM with the stack master aprox 4:3 and the stack tacking up the rest.

[darthmob]

I know where you are coming from. It's ridiculous with smaller screens (like 10"-13"). You don't really use that horizontal space and have to scroll a lot on the internet.
Personally I have firefox in permament fullscreen because of that on my 13" vostro and plugins to view the important bars.

I'm pretty sure that some lenovo thinkpads have no widescreen. But they are quite expensive.

[JillSwift]

I found a couple:

http://www.topmicrousa.com/ass5nsincela.html
http://salestores.com/lenovo13.html

Painfully low resolution for the price - both are XGA ( 1024x768 ). You'd likely be better off getting a wide-screen, even if the growth of the width outpaces the growth of the height.


You know what's really too bad about the 16:9 migration? No way to rotate the screen on a laptop for 9:16. Now, that would be fantastic for document and word processing.

[HavocXphere]

The "problem" lies not with the laptop but rather the LCD manufacturers. And the name of the game with LCD manufacturing is economies of scale. Plus Widescreen is perceived to be a feature.

The other problem is that the manufacturer needs more pixels per inch of advertizable screensize. i.e. A 21 inch widescreen has less physical pixels than a 21 inch 4:3 screen.

I reckon you'll just have to make your peace with it 'cause wide is here to stay. I rebelled against it too at the beginning. Then I saw the light. Now 4:3 screens annoy me.

wide isn't worth it unless it's 1920x1080 P

eh, we are talking about laptops. Very few laptops support full hd.