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I agree with gsyb. You can't really bring into the conversation models for specialized medical use, ones only available offshore, or noshed together. No, the true apogee was in 08 - 09, with the Dell Precision, the Thinkpad, or my Clevo M860TU. They all had WUXGA displays at a gorgeous 146 DPI, and 16:10 ratio, with matte surface. And, of course, decent video subsystems.
Honourable mention to the Thinkpads with 1600x1200 displays. I thought their 4:3 ratios were the best for productivity, but their video chips were lacking.
The culprit is the stupid 16:9 ratio the screen manufacturing monopoly forces on us. Even the modern 16:9 1920x1080 look lame at 15.6 size. The use of 1366x768 is almost criminal!
I say bring back 4:3 screens! Boost resolutions to 2400x1800 or better, and give me a reason to upgrade. Now, I live in fearcthat if my trusty Clevis were to die tommorow, my only choice is the MacBook Pro, at a paltry wsxga 1680x1050!
I guess the problem is there just aren't enough of us to justify the cost to keep the 16:10 with high resolution screens alive.
Sure I settled for 1680x1050 on the MBP, which is less than the 1920x1080 I could have had, but when I customized the Lenovo systems to match what I got on the MBP (remember I bought refurb and saved a LOT over the list price), the MBP proved to be a better value for me.
If the Lenovo had offered 1920x1200 screen (or better) in the 15.4-15.6 form factor, I would have paid the the price and bought the Lenovo in a heartbeat. Especially in the W series with 4 DIMMs for memory expansion and a max capacity of 32 gb.
I almost went for the 17" MBP just to get that same screen resolution, except sanity finally took hold and I realized just how big of a beast that would have been. The 15" machine is big enough to make using it on an airplane a challenge at times, the 17" would have been insane in that circumstance.
Now there's an interesting thought. A battery powered, headless Mac Mini server with a MacBook Air as a remote screen. Power and portability, leave the mini in the bag, just pull out the Air.
http://bhtooefr.ath.cx/images/IMG_1260.jpg
Here's the zenith of desktop LCDs (3840x2400, 22.2", IPS) *AND* the zenith of laptop LCDs in the same shot, being driven by the same machine: http://bhtooefr.ath.cx/images/IMG_1334.jpg
This isn't mine, but here's a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CMpzOSSIhs
Member since:
2009-02-19
Your 3 year old ThinkPad wasn't the zenith.
The zenith consisted of 6-10 year old NEC laptops (I forget the models, but most were Japanese market only) and a very rare medical configuration of a 7 year old ThinkPad (based on the R50p).
I've actually got that panel, a 2048x1536 15.0" IPS panel, swapped into a T60p chassis, along with a T61p motherboard (because Lenovo never made a 15.0" 4:3 T61p, but the 14.1" 4:3 T61p motherboard fits in any T60p chassis after filing some metal away, although without the dialup modem card).