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Windows 8 and Screen Resolution: WXGA Still Most Popular
jones_supa writes "The Building Windows 8 blog comes up with a detailed post explaining the improved support of Windows 8 regarding different screen sizes, resolutions and pixel densities. Early on, the Windows team explored an inch-based scaling system, but found out that bitmaps would look blurry when scaled to unpredictable sizes. They ended up choosing three predefined scale percentages: 100%/140%/180%. The article goes on pondering the best solutions to make each app look good on different screens. Also shown: the distribution of resolutions being used today with Windows 7, 1366x768 having a huge lead at 42%."
I was shopping around a few months ago. ALL laptops have that resolution. Because it can be marketed as "HD". Either that, ir "FULL HD" 1920x1080.
So it's not "cheap". It's just what it is.
And it's not any better in the "affordable" desktop monitor realm either. I'm still sticking to a 17" 1280x1024 because i think it's stupid to get a 23"-27" with "only" 1920x1080.
That is correct. Older higher-end Thinkpads had like 1600x1200 or 1440x1050 even on smaller screens, like 14" and that was back in 2002-2003, so, by now everyone should have caught up as parts became cheaper(they did, right?). But it's 2012, and the standards haven't been raised by much. Maybe the arrival of the new iPad will improve things...
Actually 1366x768 is bad for almost everything except watching video. I had a nice dell laptop that I sold cheap because everything about it was great except the damn screen size. I actually went back to an older one because new laptops with decent screens are expensive. I'd actually love to have a new version of the D630 laptop with an i5 processor and a newer discrete nvidia graphics chip. Even the old T7500 in this one runs well with Mepis Linux but encoding video takes a while.