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What's your ideal laptop screen size and why?

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14" is the best. More recent laptops have been able to squeeze a 14" screen into the form factor of a 13" laptop, which is probably the ideal compromise.
 
I can only comment based on my experience of work laptops (which have been Dell Precisions, and are generally huge because of the specs). I used to have 17" screens for years, but recently dropped down to 15" which is perfect. It's still weighty, but not overly-heavy like the 17" I used to carry, and the screen size is probably as small as I would want to use on a regular basis.
 
I have a 17" laptop and a Surface Pro 4 for work. Laptop generally stays put other than during travel. SP4 goes back and forth from home to work, and allows me to fulfill 80% of work duties if I need to.
 
with my miix 700 i've realized it isn't the screen size that matters but the resolution. i'm more comfortable working on this 12" ~1440p screen than my 1080p 23" / 900p 17" monitor and laptop.
 
I love my 13" Air, but I think I will be upgrading to a 15" Pro sometime in the future so the Air will become the around the house laptop.
 
12" 16:10 is perfect.. but the only notebook (that I know of) that fits that specification is the MacBook. Hopefully, it'll be less expensive in a few years.

Hey, OP, what do you do? If it's anything graphics-related, you probably do want a larger panel.
 
Honestly I think 15' screen size is perfect.

I had a 17' laptop but it was a pain to carry around.

15' offers me that screen real estate while still remaining portable.

13' is simply way too small.

At a time this was true, but in recent years laptops started offering increasing resolutions, increasing DPIs, which has had the effect of increasing screen real estate on smaller displays. To each their own preference, but you can get a lot more out of a 13" display now than you could 6-7 years ago.

For me, the main reason keeping 12-13" laptops as the minimum has less to do with the screen itself and more with the fact that sizes smaller often have cramped, unusable keyboards.
 
My first laptop had a 15 inch monitor in 2002. It was a Toshiba Satellite and it weighed 10 lbs.

https://www.cnet.com/products/toshiba-satellite-1900-series/review/

My current laptop has a 17 inch monitor and it weighs 6 pounds.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IS33JNK/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Yay Technology. Also note how much more expensive that Toshiba was as top of the line in its day, and my gaming laptop is actually middle-of-the-road.


And then you have modern reviews saying 4 pound 15 inch laptops aren't portable. Like, wat. I would have loved that in college.

I'm not used to 13" of screen space, seems to be more of a struggle with content.
 
I'm rocking a 12" rMBP.

It's fantastic on a plane or in an airport... but kind of sucks at the actual hotel.
 
14". Decent enough screen size for work and video games, and I can still comfortably move the laptop around with one hand if need be, since gaming laptops are usually a tad heavier.
 
13-14". I'll plug it on an external monitor if I need a bigger screen (almost never)
 
15" for me, although I wouldn't mind a 17" either as I can count on 1 hand the times I've had to take my laptop outside the house over the 5 years I've had it. Unfortunately I've never seen a 17-incher around here. If I had to lug it around with me everyday I would go with either a 13 or 14 inch ultra-thin portable.

As to why I have a laptop even if I hardly ever use it outside, I do move my laptop around the house so I prefer it over a desktop.
 
I've never owned a notebook computer, I've always been more of a desktop guy.

That being said, I did order a 13" Macbook Pro last week from Adorama which I'm waiting to come back into stock so it can get delivered.

15" is too big for me personally and I really liked the 12" Macbook but the Macbook Pro was the same price with better hardware so I ended up going with the Pro instead.
 
Is say 13" something is the best
Weight and portability is important with a laptop for me.

Heavy duty stuff is for my stationary PC
 
When I was younger and a student i liked 13" cos I had to carry it around. Now that my eyesight is worse I prefer 15" and I don't mind to carry it either.
 
14" with the footprint of a typical 13"
 
I use a 15" for work and couldn't imagine using something smaller for that but I do web stuff so that's a pretty specific use case. I mostly use my Surface Pro for other stuff, especially when I travel.
 
I had a 13" Air for a while and enjoyed the form factor of it but recently got a 15" MSI Stealth Pro laptop which I've grown accustomed to and like it more than the 13". It helps that the laptop is pretty thin (not close to an Air obviously) but I like having the extra screen real estate. 17" would definitely be too big but 15" works just about right.
 
13" for general purpose. 11 is fine for screwing around with at home, but it's not big enough to really work on most of the time.

Today's 15" (well, 15.6") laptops aren't much smaller than the old 17" one I used to have, and that thing was a monstrosity. At that point they're more desktop replacement than laptop.
 
I use an 11-incher now and it's pretty fucking perfect.
I couldn't imagine going above 13 at this point. 15/17 are behemoths
 
I currently have a 15" Retina MBP (2013 model) and I really like it. But sometimes I do miss the lighter 13" Air I used to have. Before that I had a 13" Pro (Pre-Retina) and a 13" white MacBook. I just really liked 13". I would love to go back to 13" one day but sadly Apple only puts the real Pro stuff in the 15". With a 13" all you get is dual core and no dGPU. And even on the 15" you only get a dGPU on the higher models. *sigh* What I wouldn't give for a 13" Pro with quad core and a dGPU.

So I guess 13" is my ideal even though I'm currently on a 15". I mean I like my 15" because it's still nice and light, and the new models are even lighter. Maybe I'll get another 15" when the time comes. I don't know. I might not even need the dGPU and quad core by that point and will be able to comfortably just get a 13". Hopefully my 15" lasts me another two years or more. (Even though it's starting to fall apart in every way except electronic hardware.)

The only thing I would really miss going back to 13" is 1200p desktop space. The 13" tops out at 1050p. But I could get used to it.
 
You mean 13" right?

Nope - 12".

apple-macbook-12inch-w-g010.jpg
 
Smaller the better.

If I need screen real estate then I hook it up to an external. When I want a portal device I want it to be as portable as I can reasonably get it.

15 is the absolute maximum and still above my preference. 17 is appalling.
 
I don't know if it's necessarily ideal, but I've been using 14-15" machines for a while now and it has worked pretty well for me. Gives a nice (relatively) large screen for video and occasionally gaming while not being super bulky.
 
I stopped using standard laptops after I realized a 12 inch Chromebook does everything I need out of a laptop. It's pretty nice if your needs align with mine (I browse the web and write using google docs).
 
Oh I just got a new laptop and had to think real hard about what I wanted.

Back when I didn't have a desktop the bigger the better (last one was 17"), but now that I do I definitely want something more portable but 11" is almost too small to be usable.

I think 13-14" is about right, I bought a 14".
 
Nope - 12".

apple-macbook-12inch-w-g010.jpg
Man, imagine how awesome it'd be if they could get the 13" into that case by making the side bezels even thinner (Edge to edge bezels on a laptop???) but keeping the same innards from a normal 13" MBP. The keyboard is practically edge to edge itself.

I would totally consider the 12" MacBook if it were more powerful. (However the resolution max would be a deal breaker for me. 13" maxes at 1680x1050R but the 12" is only 1440x900R which is just a bit too small for my tastes.)
 
My XPS 13 is roughly the same size my mom's 11 inch Asus, so I think the XPS 15 would also be of hassle-free dimensions. That bezellessness <3
 
Both the MBP @ 13" and the SurfaceBook feel just perfect to me. The thing bout developing on a laptop is that you more or less just have to get really good with virtual desktops no matter what unless you're hooking them up to external displays at your desk.

I've done the giant display thing before and it's best only if your doing all your work from the laptop screen even when you are at your office/desk.
 
17" or 15". The bigger the better.

BUT

I don't want a gaming laptop. All the computer manufacturers continue to insist that larger screen sizes must be paired with thick heavy chassis stuffed with the most expensive processors.

I would buy a 17"/15" Macbook Air or Macbook retina if Apple ever offered that.
 
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