Laptop screen size.

[rickshaw92]

Does the 17 inch make that big a difference when compaired to a 15 inch?

[RangeRover83]

assuming widescreen yes, a big difference. the cost should be minimal anyway unless you are going crapple

[gnaruki]

Are you planning on lugging it around much? You might want to go with a 15" if you are, 17"s are kind of goofy to carry around all the time.

[rickshaw92]

It would most likelt be going cross contanent with me.

[Sparky]

The 17" is heavier to lug around and will use your battery faster. I have just upgraded my laptop to 15" from a 17" and quite frankly I wish I would have bought a 13 or 14. I guess it will all drill down on what you intend to use the computer for.

[rickshaw92]

Would be using it as an entertainment system for both at home in London where I move house a lot with little furnature and when travelling where I will be takin lots of photos.I would also be playin games. So far I think I have narrowed it down to these two.

This has 17 inch.

http://uk.computers.toshiba-europe.com/ ... p/false/#0

Or this with a 15.6 inch

http://uk.computers.toshiba-europe.com/ ... p/false/#0

[kilroy]

Would be using it as an entertainment system for both at home in London where I move house a lot with little furnature and when travelling where I will be takin lots of photos.I would also be playin games. So far I think I have narrowed it down to these two.

This has 17 inch.

http://uk.computers.toshiba-europe.com/ ... p/false/#0

Or this with a 15.6 inch

http://uk.computers.toshiba-europe.com/ ... p/false/#0

fyi those two links are identical. if you will be doing your entertainment watching on the laptop, it would be worth it to go with the 17 inch. 2 inches of screen won't add that much weight or space in addition to what you'd already need for the 15 inch. if you plan on hooking it to an external monitor or projector go 15 inch. for photos it makes no difference, really. as for 'gaming' it depends. if you are playing solitaire 15 inch is fine, but if you are playing call of duty or some other high resource demand/high resolution graphics games you'd probably want the 17 inch.

basically the more time you spend looking at the screen the more you'd opt for the 17. the more you care about conserving a couple cubic inches space in your luggage and a couple ounces weight on your back, the more you'd opt for the 15 inch. i realize that is a statement of the super obvious, but really you are the only one who can determine which is more important to you.

[rickshaw92]

Oops. Free internet is often shit internet. This is the other link to the 15.6 inch.

http://www.dell.com/uk/p/xps-15/pd?oc=n ... ps-15&~ck=

[rickshaw92]

As for gameing I was kinda hopin I could get old skool games like Pac Man and Donkey Kong but that Grand Theft Auto game looks way kewl.

[kilroy]

As for gameing I was kinda hopin I could get old skool games like Pac Man and Donkey Kong but that Grand Theft Auto game looks way kewl.

you sure can: http://www.emulator-zone.com/
MAME is for the old school arcade stuff. just go to any torrent site and you should get a buttload of results with 'arcade roms'

wierd. the 17 inch is actually lighter than the 15.6. but the 15.6 inch has better display capabilities. other than that and the screen size, they are mostly identical. the only huge difference (aside from the monitor of course) is the battery life. 3.5 hrs for the big guy and 5.5 for the little guy (9 if you get the bulky battery). as you go to some places where regular power sources are hit or miss, you may want to go with the one that has better battery life.

if it were me and those were the only two options, i'd go with the 15.6, but as they say, to each his own.

[JamesInTheWorld]

in a word Yes

I have a Tosh 17" widescreen that I hump around with me here in Iraq, it is not bad and the weight is no big deal, if it is too heavy for you then go to the gym

It makes a bug difference when watching movies or playing games, and even more when doing grafics or video editing


~JITW

[cowboycraig]

YES, but be sure to get one that also buys you a nicer keyboard layout. You can get almost a full size keyboard with number pad.
CC

[Kurt]

15.6 is almost as big as a 17". I cannot notice the difference when I use a 15.6 or a 17 like I can with a regular 15" compared to a 17".

Personally I like laptops to be small, I cannot see the point of a big one but that is because I actually have a workstation at home with two monitors, so I get a screen size fix if I need one.

I did buy a Toshiba laptop for the neighbor kid after his mom went through hell because the one they leased from Rent-A-Center broke and RAC blamed them and he uses it for school and games and has been for the past year and it has held up very well.

[thewalrus]

If you can afford it, get something with a *nice* 1920x1200 screen. It's not worth having 17" if it's some lesser resolution.

16:9 aspect ratio eats balls.

Many 17" PC laptops are very heavy and have only 1920x1080 screens. The Macbook Pro 17 is only 6.6 pounds, but expensive.

There is a whole category of sub $900 17" laptops which are more like folding desktops.

[redfax]

Get the 15 or smaller for travel. Then buy a 21 inch screen that does the HD thing for watching movies at home.
It'll probably cost you less then the 17inch laptop, and you don't have to lug all those pixels around.