A Walk on the Wide Side
Wide-screen notebooks make standard-screen portables look totally square.Carla Thornton
Wide open for work: Compaq's Presario V2000 (left) has a 14.1-inch wide screen, while the Gateway M460X offers a 15.4-inch wide screen.
There's a new angle in screens these days--wide angle. You can choose a wide-angle flat-panel monitor to grace your desktop, or a wide-aspect flat-panel LCD TV for your living room or to hang on the boardroom wall. And now, three years after Apple introduced the first wide-screen laptop, wide-screen notebook PCs are really coming into vogue.
The standard, squarish laptop screen has a width-to-height ratio that's usually expressed as 4:3 or 1.3:1, about the same as a television set. In contrast, a wide screen is more rectangular, with a ratio of 16:10 or 1.6:1. The wider shape permits you to keep more documents on screen at once so you can avoid having to toggle through them. You can also comparison-shop easily at two Web sites positioned side-by-side, for example, or you can see more of the data in a large spreadsheet.
But a bigger display area is not the only benefit that wide-screen laptops provide. They usually have larger keyboards than their standard counterparts offer; some 17-inch wide-screen units even include a separate numerical keypad, which number crunchers may find very handy.
We examined seven recent wide-screen notebooks, including two 14.1-inch models from Compaq and Gateway; four 15.4-inch units, from Dell, Gateway, HP, and Micro Express; and a humongous 17-inch laptop from Fujitsu. Though we enjoyed seeing more on each screen, we found that users do have to make a few compromises. For example, the wide screens make the units a bit more difficult to tote.
Wide-screen notebooks don't make great out-of-the-box gaming machines, because of their wide aspect ratio; however, you may be able to avoid a stretched picture by using some games' command-line settings or your video card options to switch the aspect ratio to 16:10. If you plan to show projector presentations prepared on a wide-screen laptop, be careful. You'll need either to create the presentation in a standard resolution or to set the correct aspect ratio on the projector.
Will you have more fun with a wide screen? Unless you come across a DVD recorded at an aspect ratio of 1.6:1 or 1.78:1 (as opposed to the 1.85:1-to-2.35:1 range that Hollywood prefers), a wide screen won't spare you from the letterbox effect. On the bright side, though, a letterboxed DVD movie plays larger overall and is easy to watch on a wide screen because the screen's dimensions approximate the shape of the picture more accurately.
A Wider Share
Thanks to the wide-screen LCD television boom, wide-screen laptops should be in abundant supply for the foreseeable future, according to John Jacobs, who is director of notebook market research at flat-panel market research and consulting company DisplaySearch, based in Austin, Texas. Large glass producers such as Samsung and LG Philips are ramping up their production primarily to accommodate the TV market, but plenty of material remains for wide-screen laptop manufacturers, too. It doesn't hurt that wide screens are less expensive to produce than standard portable screens because they waste less LCD motherglass.
After a slow start, wide-screen laptops have begun to steal some sales from their standard-screen-size brethren. According to Jacobs, wide-screen notebooks accounted for only 7.5 percent of worldwide sales in the fourth quarter of 2003, but a year later they claimed almost 20 percent of all laptop sales. The 15.4-inch laptop is the best-selling size, garnering about 22 percent of overall wide-screen sales, followed (in order of popularity) by 17-inch, 14.1- and 14-inch, and 12.1-inch models. Even so, currently you can expect to pay a premium of $50 to $60 for a wide-screen laptop, according to Ken Dulaney of Gartner Research.
Though hard market numbers are scarce, currently more consumers than business buyers are embracing wide screens. "Consumers tend to accept them as full-fledged entertainment centers, especially the 17-inch wide screen," says Dulaney. "For example, a student takes one of these to their dorm and they have a TV and almost everything else they need to keep themselves occupied outside of studying."
Dulaney believes that notebooks with standard, conventional screens won't disappear any time soon--especially not in the corporate world, where no-frills portables have traditionally enjoyed considerable popularity--at least among bosses.
It's Hip to Be Wide
It's easy to see the height difference between the 15.4-inch Dell Inspiron 6000 (left) and the 14.1-inch Gateway M210S.
Judging from our tests, laptops with wider-than-average screens have no particular disadvantage compared with standard laptops, unless you count the difficulty of balancing a wide-screen unit on your lap or finding a carrying case that fits perfectly. For instance, we noticed no significant drain on battery life. In fact, the average battery life in our test group was a respectable 3.9 hours, almost half an hour longer than the average of 3.5 hours posted by laptops tested for our monthly Top 15 Notebook PCs review.
And unless you opt for a gargantuan 17-inch wide-screen notebook, which can easily surpass 10 pounds, weight should not be a big concern, either. The average weight of the seven wide screens in our group (not including the 17-incher) was just 6.1 pounds.
Wide-screen notebooks come with the same types of laptop processors and connections as their regular-size counterparts do. The ones we reviewed run the gamut of portables, but our favorites of the group are both HP models: the Compaq Presario V2000, which carries a 14.1-inch screen; and the HP Compaq NC8230, which has a 15.4-inch screen.
We liked almost everything about the Compaq Presario V2000. In fact, we think that it would make the ideal laptop for travel. The V2000's convenient slanted keyboard is easy to type on, and you can connect the machine to HP's Xb2000, an excellent multimedia docking station that's equipped with speakers and a drive bay. Its 6.1-pound weight, 5.8-hour battery life, and compact screen perfectly suit it for hitting the road. A 14.1-inch wide screen is as broad from side to side as a standard 15-inch display and yet it's shorter than a standard 14.1-inch screen, making the Compaq easier to open in tight spaces, such as on an airplane tray table. The V2000's native resolution of 1280 by 768 is just right for squeezing in extra details or documents while keeping icons easily readable.
We liked the Gateway M210S's keyboard and the convenient size of its readable, 14.1-inch screen, too. Like the Compaq's display, it has a native resolution of 1280 by 768, which ensures that you won't have to squint to to see icons or text.
The M210S is lighter than the Presario, at 5.3 pounds, and less expensive. However, it lacks the V2000's long battery life and good built-in sound. It would make a terrific starter wide-screen laptop.
Going Wider
Despite having the same-size screen, HP Compaq's NC8230 (left) and Micro Express's 259iA1 differ slightly in height.
Wide screens measuring 15.4 inches or more put you at risk of invading your neighbor's airplane tray table. On the positive side, they offer higher resolutions (up to 1920 by 1200 pixels) and impressive width--the same as you'd get with a standard 17-inch laptop's screen. The height is a little less than that of a standard-width 15-inch notebook's screen.
Of the four 15.4-inch wide-screen models we looked at, we liked the HP Compaq NC8230 best. Its native resolution of 1680 by 1050 fits in plenty for you to view, and its 5-plus hours of battery life would carry you through a cross-country flight. Besides offering comfortable dual pointing devices (a touchpad and an easy-to-guide nub), it supports pleasant typing. Travelers will appreciate the unit's 6.3-pound weight and its presentation button for getting talks off to a smooth start.
Unfortunately, keyboard or pointing-device shortcomings plagued the other three 15.4-inch wide screens we looked at. The Dell Inspiron 6000 has a lot to offer: It has the sharpest, most detailed screen of the entire group, with a stunning native resolution of 1920 by 1200, making it ideal for seeing more spreadsheet columns or tiled documents. It also has an attractive and accessible case, and over 5 hours of battery life. We're not sure, however, that we could coexist long-term with the Inspiron 6000's excessively stiff keyboard: We had to type quite forcefully to make sure that we didn't leave the spacebar and other keys undepressed.
The Gateway M460X has an easy-to-read native resolution of 1200 by 800 pixels, but its screen seemed less detailed than the others. Though this sleek model performed well, we had trouble getting the pointing stick to calibrate properly and we found the keyboard a bit mushier than we would have liked.
The Micro Express 259iA1 is a big, thin, stylish 15.4-inch wide-screen model. It's also the fastest performer of the group. However, the unit we looked at had an unfortunate pointing control problem in our tests: Even after we reset its sensitivity and speed several times, the cursor exhibited flighty behavior. On the other hand, the keyboard was a dream to type on, and this $1799 unit's instant-on DVD feature permits you to play movies without having to launch Windows beforehand.
Wide-Screen Entertainers
Fujitsu's LifeBook N6010 comes with a remote control that allows you to easily access its varied multimedia capabilities.
17-inch wide-screen laptops are for people who want maximum-size screens. Many 17-inchers, such as the $2459 Fujitsu N6010 in our group, include a built-in TV tuner. The striking, tritone, 10.2-pound N6010 comes with a blue-hued Media Center-like application that lets you watch, pause, and record live TV and view DVDs without booting Windows. A short coaxial cable adapter is included, along with RCA and S-Video-in ports to hook up peripherals such as a CD player or a camcorder. The keyboard, which has a separate numerical keypad, is very comfortable to type on. The huge screen is beautiful and easy to read, thanks to its native resolution of 1400 by 900 pixels.
Fujitsu's multimedia software, Instant MyMedia, has a few neat features. One is called Browse, which creates thumbnails of all the TV stations the notebook has found, showing freeze frames of the live picture. You can view them before deciding which station to watch. The N6010 may have the best speakers of any laptop we've reviewed, too. They're loud and booming, perfect for TV or movies, both of which look good on the 17-inch screen.
So, are you vertically or horizontally inclined? If most of your work consists of word processing and other vertical documents, a wide-screen notebook may not be ideal for you. But if seeing more at once horizontally and toggling less between windows appeals to you, a wide screen would be a great investment.