jk2317

Oh hell, and while I'm just full of advice...

If you decide on the high-res, and therefore have to custom order, I recommend the following (unrelated to screen):

- Consensus at notebookreview.com seems to be that the Atheros wireless card is better than the Intel.

- I really like my ThinkPad's "eraser head" pointing device (Fujitsu calls it "quick point"). I alternate between it and the touchpad, just depending on how I'm sitting and holding the laptop.

- My ThinkPad's fingerprint reader is a cute novelty at best, annoying joke at worst. It looks stupid too, interrupting the otherwise clean front panel. I'd save the $50, personally.

Let us know what you decide!

h_united

http://www2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs...00000000005702

3.4lbs with 6 Hours battery life. Pricey though!

gof

I'll throw in my 2 cents (with a T43p with the fingeprint reader).

1) I like my 1600x1200 screen. Even better with the ATI chip it supports dual screen do at my desktop I can keep my lappy open on the dock and use it to "park" windows for reference. It's a bt further back than my 21" screen (alas, CRT) but it's handy at times, plus when I'm not using it it keeps me happy with background photos (I use free AWC at http://awc.smurphy.co.uk/). I'd vote for as much pixel density as you can see clearly and easily. If you're having to strain, it's counter productive. Just get a second larger screen for your desk (again, what does the graphics chipset support and get the mongo monitor to match).

2) With regard to the fingerprint reader, I find it useful about 90% of the time. It does get impacted on occasion by environment. At my desk at work it reads perhaps 95% first try, 99% second. At home that drops to 80% and 90%. Occasionally though it's more like 10% at home for some odd reason. But since we are mandated with 10 minute autolocks on the screen saver, it helps a lot to avoid typing in passwords. Plus I usually dn't have to type my password on an airplane where you can't really "hide" what you're typing.

Richard60

So I'm going to say that a 15.4 wide screen is about the same height as the 14 inch normal screen.
That said I'm currently using a Dell 15.4 at 1680x1050 WXGA+ ?. This should be very close to a 14 inch at 1400x1050.

I use mine at the native 1680x1050 but with the DPI setting at 'Large size (120 DPI) 125% of normal size' under the 'Display Properties / Settings / Advanced' menu. (in Windows XP)

I'm old enough to use bifocals now, but find my notebook quite OK with this setting. I've seen younger guys prefer the normal setting but thats too small for me.

By the way, this setting makes fonts, icons, menus, etc. all a bit larger. But nothing is blurry. If you change your screen resolution from the native resolution, that can enlarge things but I found that they were blurry.

So an older guy with reading glasses votes for the higher res.
I think 1024x768 would be a disappointment.

Non-NonRev

Update: This message is being typed on my new Fujitsu notebook - and the SXGA screen is GRRRREAT!!

Thanks to everyone who offered excellent, sage advice :-: :-: :-:

h_united

Hi:

Is the Hard drive user replaceable?

sllevin

It's exactly the same font size, etc...just 280 pixels wider.

Steve