Laptop Screen Size 7

[WIstructural]

The engineering department at my company is finally starting to get laptop. I was wondering what people thoughts are on screen size. The laptops will mostly be used in the office with docking stations and two 24 in monitors. The primary reason to get laptops is to allow some flexibility in work locations, like working from home. The engineering staff does not travel much so weight is not a high priority. We run 2D CAD, RISA, other genral programs. My initial thought was 17 in screens, but my IT department thinks I am nuts and thinks we should get 15 in. My previous experience with "engineering" laptops was using 17 in screens. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[ehbadger]

My company is rolling out 14.1" laptops, full 1080p. Stuff is so tiny, My eyes are fine and I still zoom in on everything. I'd say 15" is a good compromise; still portable but not huge, and not so small @ native resolution that you cant read anything.

 

[JohnRBaker]

Note that screen size alone is not the culprit when it comes to having on-screen "stuff" being so "tiny". Even if there are no future changes in physical screen sizes, as display resolution continues to go up (it will soon be common to see 4K and even 5K displays), text and icons continue to appear smaller and smaller because they are all pixel-based. Now it's fairly easy to increase the size of the fonts used on-screen, but often the size of icons are controlled only by the application and not the OS. And of course as WE get older our ability to even see the on-screen objects is impacted, so you might have to bite-the-bullet and simply switch the display resolution to something LESS than the maximum possible.

John R. Baker, P.E.
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[IRstuff]

"it will soon be common to see 4K and even 5K displays"

Already common, sort of; the Asus laptop cited above is a 4K, as are 6 others of the 39 laptops Costco sells only

TTFN
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!
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[TehMightyEngineer]

I have a ultra-high resolution Lenovo right now (terrible quality control on their laptops but they're cheap for the performance). I scaled it back to a normal 1080p resolution as none of the engineering software played nice with it. Nobody has written their programs to scale properly when you go to these high DPI monitors. I'm sure they'll catch up eventually, though.

Professional and Structural Engineer (ME, NH)
American Concrete Industries

http://www.americanconcrete.com

 

[JohnRBaker]

Speaking for my former employer, the next version of Siemens PLM's workhorse CAD system, NX 11.0 (which will be released this summer), has been enhanced to work well with these new ultra-highresolution displays.

John R. Baker, P.E.
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[dvd]

I just got a new laptop with 13" screen - it seems huge compared with my old 11" screen. I like the small size computers for their portability. I used the 11" for cad work with no problems. It is just a matter of getting used to something.

 

[allgoodnamestaken]

I used a 17" laptop for years and liked it, since portability wasn't an issue.

Nowadays you'd have to take my dual 24" monitors away from my cold dead hands, though.

 

[controlsdude]

I travel a lot and only like 15" laptops. 17" are too heavy and heat up too much and burn out before its time because of the heat.

Just be aware if you carry your docking station laptop on site in dirty environment somewhere make sure you cover the docking station pin outs on the bottom of the laptop with electrical tape. I had the problem with dust or whatever shorting out the laptop because the docking station on bottom is exposed.

 

[EdStainless]

A 15-15.5" is great, but even 1080 is the low end for resolution.
I must be an IPS screen (no TFT allowed) and 1200 line resolution is good, 1440 would be better.
You can always scale the display to show things the size that you want.
The crispness and clarity of a 1200 line IPS screen makes 15" more than usable.

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P.E. Metallurgy, Plymouth Tube

 

[SAITAETGrad]

Summation: If you want to get work done on the road, get the 17". If getting work is not as important as carrying convenience, get the 15". CAD on 15" is zoom zoom pan pan pan hell.

 

[BUGGAR]

I know an Architect who takes his laptop to his client's homes and plugs into his client's television to show the family his work on their home and edit on the spot.

 

[JohnRBaker]

Yea, and I've done software demos in front of a thousand people in a hotel ballroom hooked to multiple projected displays, but I would never want to actually work that way everyday

Off topic comment: The most interesting venues where I've given demonstrations and presentations were in a fire department in Golden, CO and the "Hall of the Young Pioneers" in Kiev, Ukraine.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[ColinPearson]

Depends to me mostly on whether the manufacturer offers a 10-key pad in the size(s) you're considering. You may or may not like them, but I can't function without one. If you are in the market, I'd also suggest a Tom Bihn bag; you pay for them, but they are super nice (no relation).