Well, you’ve probably seen a lot of talk about 1080p (Full HD) screens and if not, it’s time that you’ll hear some because there is a considerable difference between the two in practice, however the small difference in name that doesn’t tell us anything besides the native resolution of the screen.
This article is aimed mainly to talk about 1080p screens compared to 768p because these are the most common resolutions in 15.6″ gaming laptops. Most 15.6″ laptops will have 768p. Some will have 1080p screens as an upgrade option or just as another model. Most or even all 15.6″ or 17.3″ gaming laptops, will have either 768p (15.6″) / 900p (17.3″) screen or 1080p screen – you’ll find it hard to see 15.6″ laptop with high gaming capabilities with 900p screen for example and you won’t see a 17.3″ with 768p screen, probably. About 14.0″ gaming laptops – if you find one with 900p screen, you should be happy.
So, we are really talking here about the difference between the default screen most gaming laptops come with and the 1080p screen option.
1080p plus the same screen size means more details
Maybe obvious.
You squeeze more pixels into the same area. That means that the pixels themselves are smaller, so details look look more smooth. Moreover, you simply get more details as you have more “detail units” at your service – and just to illustrate the point, instead of having 40 pixel to show a nose, you have about 80, so more refined details can be show, like the little hairs and all the vicious microorganisms and stuff. As a rule of thumb, the higher pixel density you have, the more fluid/smooth the image would look.
However, much higher resolution means many things will look smaller by default. You’ll have to set the font and icons to a bigger size in your OS.
More space
More pixels will give you more space – more working space, more movie space, more anything space. You’ll be able to use more windows comfortably (good, for example, for programmers) and movies in 1080p formats will fit the screen which is awesome because it will look better.
Beyond the resolution – 1080ps’ higher quality
Well, that’s the part you can’t just get and calculate by understanding the math. In practice, you see, the 1080p screens used by the manufacturers usually of higher quality in various aspects. The manufacturers tend to use higher quality panels in their 1080p option or maybe more accurately, they use lousy 768p/900p screens (the 1080p screen options aren’t that more expensive even if you buy them yourselves).
In what aspects do the 1080p screens are better?
- Viewing angles are usually better.
- Contrast and brightness are usually better.
- Color coverage is higher.
- Blacks and white are better.
For example, see this list from Anandtech: All higher contrast LCDs are 1080p ones, maybe except one. If you check notebookcheck reviews for laptops with high gaming capabilities (say even GT 630M/ 7670M and up) that also have a good screen by their measures, you’ll find that almost all are 1080p screens and those which are not probably have some very low gaming performance.
Now, not all the 768p screens are like that, but the thumb rule is that 1080p screens you’ll get will be better. If you want to check specific model – either go and see it with your eyes and decide if it’s good enough for you or check the reviews / ask in the forums over the web. For example, the Asus UX32A has several versions and cheapest ones are the ones with 768p screen which is not as awful as other 768p screens because it has good brightness and contrast levels (review - read the “display” section), but the color coverage is narrow and the viewing angles are something like bad.
Why should it matter to me?
The most problematic part with most 768p screens might be the viewing angles. Usually you’ll find that rotating the screen horizontally or vertically will quickly result in faded image and colors. That is really irritating – whether you are a gamer or just want to read, surf the web and watch movies, this issue could be very annoying.
But that’s not all. The contrast in many cases is low making the black colors look pale and unconvincing. It also impacts the reading experience because the fonts will be less distinguishable from the background.
Color coverage is less important for most. Unless you need it for photography or something like that, it won’t really hurt you.
Conclusion
Don’t really have much to say – try grabbing the higher quality screens models. In 15.6″ and 17.3″ gaming laptops it will probably the 1080p screen option. Sometimes, like in the case of the HP dv6t, you can change the panel yourself, but usually you won’t have such an option as the manufacturers themselves make it hard to do, like in the Lenovo Y580 case.
If you have an external monitor, for example, you can save money and get one of the none-1080p screens, like the HP dv4t-5100 which gives you a lot of power for the money or the dv6t-7000 without choosing the 1080p screen option.
It all depends on what you’re using your screen for and how large it is, but I just upgraded my 17.3″ gaming laptop from 900p to 1080p and the difference is huge. The colors are more vibrant and vivid and the text looks much nicer, making for a better browsing experience and even up-resed 720p content looks better for whatever reason. I spent $200 upgrading to SSD and that’s awesome, but the $100 I spent upgrading to full 1080p was, by far, the best money I’ve spent on the thing. It’s like an entirely new system. Every aspect of the UI, multimedia and web browsing experiences is dramatically improved by the higher resolution.
A lot of people say that for screens under 32″ or so, 1080p is wasted because a 32″ running 720p has about the same pixel density as a 47″ running 1080p, but it all depends on what you’re using the screen for. And what’s more, it’s assuming that a 47″ running 1080p is ideal pixel density in all circumstances. Personally, I’d take the 1080p every time, regardless of screen size, assuming that the premium wasn’t more than 15 or 20% extra, but as a bedroom TV within a 10 foot viewing distance or so and especially as a second computer monitor, anyone telling you that they can’t see the difference between 720p and 1080p is either a liar or is going blind. 1080p is more than twice the pixel density.
TVs require the lowest pixel density to look good because you’re usually 7-15 feet away from them. Laptops require significantly higher pixel densities because you’re usually only 2 or 3 feet away from the screen. And phones and tablets require even higher pixel densities than that because they’re usually only a foot or two away from you.
I actually spent a few hours in the various store over the summer comparing different screen resolutions on laptops. I even had one stupid clerk at a large store tell me that the 1080 on a laptop was “wasted”. After comparing different resolutions at different screen sizes my opinion is that 1080 makes a significant difference but only for everyday use. There was a lot less eye strain in reading the text because the fonts were sharper and clearer. For gaming, I didn’t see that much of a difference but it might be because the games I looked at couldn’t take full advantage of the 1080 screen.
I thought it was ironic because the cheaper 768 screens are usually marketed to students and it is they, because they will spend hours reading and typing on it, who would most benefit from the 1080 screen. A pure gaming machine IMO can get by with the 768p.
Which games did you check?
Do you have some screen shots from some game? Skyrim for example?
By the way, if you use 1080p resolution, but low settings, you might now see the advantages..