4 ms·

See also the almost complete takeover of 16:9 aspect ratios from 16:10 or 4:3, often with horrible 1366x768 resolution.

pkamb 15y ago
This. It kills me that the new top-of-the-line Thinkpad ultraportables have the same vertical resolution as my x40 from 5+ years ago. Not much incentive to upgrade...
- jrockway 15y ago
  This is because Lenovo has some obsession with buying the worst LCD panels available. Something about them not liking Korea or Japan suppliers, since the Chinese government is their largest shareholder. I ordered a T61 back in the day, expecting a 1920x1200 LCD as specified. After decades of delay, I got my laptop, and they substituted a shitty 1440x900 screen instead. Not as ordered. Thinkpads are still my favorite model of laptop for a variety of reasons, but their shitty fulfillment system and their shitty displays make a new Thinkpad purchase very unlikely. (In retrospect, they were just as bad when IBM owned them. Remember how the DVI ports couldn't do more than 1280x1024 because that is the maximum resolution that DVI is spec'd to handle. SIGH.)
- jamesbritt 15y ago
  I poked around and found a W500 thinkpad on the lenovo outlet site earlier this year. Too used to 16:10, 1920x1200 and do not to lug around a 17" laptop. Kills me that business tools are being spec'ed for entertainment consumption.
hcurtiss 15y ago
Yes. Why will nobody listen to these complaints? Reiterating the point I made above, this is a big issue for me. Lawyers don't need horizontal resolution. They need vertical resolution. Hell, almost every lawyer in my office (a few hundred attorneys) has dual 4:3 screens ROTATED 90 DEGREES (3:4). 16:9 is going in exactly the wrong direction.
- rawsyntax 15y ago
  Why not take 16:9 and do portrait orientation?
  - damncabbage 15y ago
    Ever viewed one from more than 15 degrees off-axis? It starts looking strange really quickly. (I realise these guys would get the same problem with the 3:4 arrangement, but let this at least be a warning to anybody eyeing up a potential vertical 16:9 setup.)
    - superkarn 15y ago
      Get IPS panels. They have much better viewing angles and look fine when rotated 90 degrees.
  - hcurtiss 15y ago
    The desktop setup was just an example, and you're right that we could rotate any screen, as long as the horizontal resolution (vertical resolution at 0 degrees) is at least 1024. In the laptop world (per the article), it's difficult to do portrait orientation and still type. :)
kylec 15y ago
This. Glossy I can deal with, but it's very annoying that it's difficult to find an affordable portable with good vertical resolution. Time I spend viewing web pages, coding, editing docs, using a terminal, etc and would benefit from increased vertical resolution: a lot. Time I spend watching movies or TV shows on my laptop: almost never.
forensic 15y ago
It's all about what makes The Incredibles look the best on the showroom floor. People don't buy the steak they buy the sizzle.
aidenn0 15y ago
I don't care what the aspect ratio is, I can't move back from 1200 vertical lines. Dell offers some nice laptops in the 1920x1200, but they are expensive.
- rawsyntax 15y ago
  I also find 16:9 to be way more common than 16:10, such that all the high resolution 27" monitors I found were all 16:9!!! I prefer 16:10 fir the extra vertical space. More lines of code
pkamb 15y ago
Here's the blog post from Lenovo/Thinkpad as to why they switched to 16:9 screens: http://www.lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/2009/04/display-ratio-change-again/ http://www.lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/2009/04/display-rati... They say that PC makers have no say in the issue, screen manufacturers are all wide-screen these days. Yet Apple had no problem sourcing 4:3 displays for their iPad? I guess when there's a will there's a way.
- protomyth 15y ago
  Apple has the money and volume to get whatever size they want.
- kgermino 15y ago
  Aren't iPads 16:10? Honestly curious, I can't tell if 4:3 was a typo or if there's something I'm missuing.
  - orangecat 15y ago
    iPads are 4:3 (1024x768). Apple's laptops are still 16:10, but iMacs have unfortunately moved to 16:9.
  - eridius 15y ago
    Funnily enough, Daring Fireball just had a bit on the 4:3 aspect ratio today: http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/05/24/tall-and-narrow http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/05/24/tall-and-narrow

pkamb 15y ago

This. It kills me that the new top-of-the-line Thinkpad ultraportables have the same vertical resolution as my x40 from 5+ years ago. Not much incentive to upgrade...

jrockway 15y ago
This is because Lenovo has some obsession with buying the worst LCD panels available. Something about them not liking Korea or Japan suppliers, since the Chinese government is their largest shareholder. I ordered a T61 back in the day, expecting a 1920x1200 LCD as specified. After decades of delay, I got my laptop, and they substituted a shitty 1440x900 screen instead. Not as ordered. Thinkpads are still my favorite model of laptop for a variety of reasons, but their shitty fulfillment system and their shitty displays make a new Thinkpad purchase very unlikely. (In retrospect, they were just as bad when IBM owned them. Remember how the DVI ports couldn't do more than 1280x1024 because that is the maximum resolution that DVI is spec'd to handle. SIGH.)
jamesbritt 15y ago
I poked around and found a W500 thinkpad on the lenovo outlet site earlier this year. Too used to 16:10, 1920x1200 and do not to lug around a 17" laptop. Kills me that business tools are being spec'ed for entertainment consumption.

hcurtiss 15y ago

Yes. Why will nobody listen to these complaints? Reiterating the point I made above, this is a big issue for me. Lawyers don't need horizontal resolution. They need vertical resolution. Hell, almost every lawyer in my office (a few hundred attorneys) has dual 4:3 screens ROTATED 90 DEGREES (3:4). 16:9 is going in exactly the wrong direction.

rawsyntax 15y ago
Why not take 16:9 and do portrait orientation?
- damncabbage 15y ago
  Ever viewed one from more than 15 degrees off-axis? It starts looking strange really quickly. (I realise these guys would get the same problem with the 3:4 arrangement, but let this at least be a warning to anybody eyeing up a potential vertical 16:9 setup.)
  - superkarn 15y ago
    Get IPS panels. They have much better viewing angles and look fine when rotated 90 degrees.
- hcurtiss 15y ago
  The desktop setup was just an example, and you're right that we could rotate any screen, as long as the horizontal resolution (vertical resolution at 0 degrees) is at least 1024. In the laptop world (per the article), it's difficult to do portrait orientation and still type. :)

kylec 15y ago

This. Glossy I can deal with, but it's very annoying that it's difficult to find an affordable portable with good vertical resolution. Time I spend viewing web pages, coding, editing docs, using a terminal, etc and would benefit from increased vertical resolution: a lot. Time I spend watching movies or TV shows on my laptop: almost never.

forensic 15y ago

It's all about what makes The Incredibles look the best on the showroom floor. People don't buy the steak they buy the sizzle.

aidenn0 15y ago

I don't care what the aspect ratio is, I can't move back from 1200 vertical lines. Dell offers some nice laptops in the 1920x1200, but they are expensive.

rawsyntax 15y ago
I also find 16:9 to be way more common than 16:10, such that all the high resolution 27" monitors I found were all 16:9!!! I prefer 16:10 fir the extra vertical space. More lines of code

pkamb 15y ago

Here's the blog post from Lenovo/Thinkpad as to why they switched to 16:9 screens: http://www.lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/2009/04/display-ratio-change-again/ http://www.lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/2009/04/display-rati... They say that PC makers have no say in the issue, screen manufacturers are all wide-screen these days. Yet Apple had no problem sourcing 4:3 displays for their iPad? I guess when there's a will there's a way.

protomyth 15y ago
Apple has the money and volume to get whatever size they want.
kgermino 15y ago
Aren't iPads 16:10? Honestly curious, I can't tell if 4:3 was a typo or if there's something I'm missuing.
- orangecat 15y ago
  iPads are 4:3 (1024x768). Apple's laptops are still 16:10, but iMacs have unfortunately moved to 16:9.
- eridius 15y ago
  Funnily enough, Daring Fireball just had a bit on the 4:3 aspect ratio today: http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/05/24/tall-and-narrow http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/05/24/tall-and-narrow