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Widescreen laptops are dumb

theverge.com

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Re: Widescreen laptops are dumb

#41

Post by nailer »

cup-of-tea wrote: post #32
mariusmg wrote: post #26

What a moronic article. More space is always better. On Windows/Linux just chuck the taskbar on the left/right of the screen and enjoy the extra visible space. The shit some people complain about , unbelieavable......

It's not more space. My 4:3 monitor has a resolution of 1600x1200. That's 180 lines of pixels more than a 1080p screen which is about 13 lines of text.

Those are oddly low resolutions for 2018, but: if it's the same height, just wider, then great.

Also The Verge seems to think everyone uses maximised windows all the time, which is very 'The Verge' of them.

Re: Widescreen laptops are dumb

#42

Post by jai_ »

pfooti wrote: post #36

Why do people say 16:10 when they could say 8:5? (Or worse, 19.5:9 over 39:18?) this one of those human things? Do you just really like numbers close to 9?

Because it's easily comparable to the more common 16:9 ratio

Re: Widescreen laptops are dumb

#43

Post by petecox »

Aspect ratios are one thing but a number of tasks are just better in portrait. For that purpose I have a desktop monitor stand that rotates 90 degrees.

Trickier on a laptop but can't someone design a 'convertible' with a rotate-able kickstand, so that a detachable typecover snaps into place regardless of whether the screen is in landscape or portrait?

Re: Widescreen laptops are dumb

#44

Post by Retric »

strmpnk wrote: post #15

The big problem I have started seeing is web design assuming you always browse using a maximized window. Combine this with a prevalent market of wide screens and most sites won’t look right without at least 1200px. So once you put anything like a toolbar or inspector on this side, you have a problem. Designers of many sites I have to use daily seem to assume I’d never want to see two windows at once, let alone rearra…

A 4.8 inch Galaxy S for example is 720x1280 or 1280x720. iPhone 6 1334 x 750 or 750 x 1334.

Really, a small resolution laptop is vastly less common than mobile on most websites. Looking ugly but working for group A is much better than not working for larger group B.

Re: Widescreen laptops are dumb

#45

Post by babygoat »

pfooti wrote: post #36

Why do people say 16:10 when they could say 8:5? (Or worse, 19.5:9 over 39:18?) this one of those human things? Do you just really like numbers close to 9?

Because 16:9 is a reference point that everyone is familiar with, and 16:10 is easier to understand in relation to that for most people than 8:5.

Re: Widescreen laptops are dumb

#46

Post by madmulita »

yscik wrote: post #19

Meanwhile the site has a fixed header taking away vertical space, like many others. Maybe interface design should accomodate the fact that every single desktop user uses a widescreen display and start putting navigation on the side. Vertical tabs and taskbars can also be done in most browsers and OSes. There would probably be a lot of friction if vendors made that the default, but it's still easier than replacing eve…

At least the header has something in it, the white margins are completely useless but eat a lot of real state.

Re: Widescreen laptops are dumb

#47

Post by 013a »

dman wrote: post #38
vvanders wrote: post #10

Happy to see the Surface line called out there, love the 3:2 screen on my Surface Book. So much more usable space than the traditional 16:9/10.

Really wish they did a 15 inch.

They... do. Surface Book 2 comes in 13.5 or 15" sizes, both 3:2 aspect ratio.

Re: Widescreen laptops are dumb

#48

Post by lamename »

Screens are visual, and human vision is biased to search lateral space over vertical space.

This is due to the nature of humans' visuospatial limitations. We're largely 2d animals in our movement: front/back & left/right, not so much up down. This is different from animals like birds and fish who constantly have to navigate all 3 dimensions to catch prey and avoid death.

We aren't ignorant of vertical space, but horizontal space is much more well attended to by the human brain, spatially and visually. (Video game designers encounter this problem in getting players to look up.)

Vertical screens for the masses started with mobile, because constraints of the hand matter more than the biases of vision in that case.

Of course as desktop screens become giant, lateral vs vertical space becomes a less important distinction, but understanding why "widescreen" came about over "square" is important. Of course, this all varies by task, but I imagine this is a big reason why 16:9 came about.

Re: Widescreen laptops are dumb

#49

Post by derekp7 »

cup-of-tea wrote: post #31

I don't know why this article is only about laptops. It's difficult to buy a square desktop monitor these days too. I've been complaining about it for years. Widescreen is a terrible shape for code. I don't need more horizontal space, I need more lines. What am I going to use horizontal space for? People say turn the monitor vertical but that's horrible too. The screen is designed to be viewed at a certain angle for…

The trade-off is that now we have more vertical pixels than ever before (4k monitors). It just comes with extra bonus pixels on the sides too. What I do is have a code window on one side, and a documentation window on the other.

Re: Widescreen laptops are dumb

#50

Post by cimmanom »

bsharitt wrote: post #34

I find 4:3 too square for both tablets and laptops as it seriously detracts from watching widescreen video content such as nearly all newer movies and TV shows, but 16:9 does have seem a bit too wide compared to height, especially on tablets when you try to use it in portrait mode and it seems ridiculously tall. I've found 16:10 to be a better than 16:9, and while I haven't had a 3:2 laptop, the 3:2 Nook HD+ from a f…

Sure, but a lot of us use our laptops for tasks besides watching video.
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