Laptop Screens Buying Guide

Valuable tips to help you purchase the perfect laptop screens.

The scoop on laptop displays

There are numerous options to consider in laptop screens when shopping for a portable computer these days. You will have choices to make including screen size, widescreen vs. standard, pixel resolution, and glossy vs. anti-glare.

Despite all these options picking the right laptop screen is actually pretty straight forward. We are going to show you just how easy it is to find the perfect laptop screens throughout this buying guide, so lets continue shall we?


Laptop Screen Size Compared

A laptop screens size should always be your starting point because when the screen is larger the physical size of the laptop also increases. 

In today’s mobile world some common screen sizes include 12.1, 13.3, 14.1, 15.4, and 17-inches. 

In fact there are even 20-inch behemoth sized laptops these days. So as you see there are choices to be made.

Did you notice the additional number after the period for the majority of the laptop screens listed above? 

This is in fact because we've only included widescreen laptop screens in the list.

Why you might ask? Well the industry trend these days is a wide aspect ratio screen so that is why we specifically decided to exclude standard 4:3 aspect ratio laptop screens.

Of course if you don’t know the difference just yet, keep reading for we will cover widescreen and standard aspect ratio laptop screens in our next section.

But before we move forward to aspect ratios, we recommend you check out our Laptop Comparison page if you haven’t done so already. In this page we overview the different laptop types such as ultra-portable, thin & light, midsize, and desktop replacement laptops. Because each of these laptop types includes different screen size options we feel this Laptop Comparisons guide is a perfect compliment to this page.


Widescreen vs. Standard Aspect Ratio

Ok, so we’ve already briefly mentioned them, but because you may still encounter standard 4:3 aspect ratio screens when shopping for a laptop these days, we do feel it is necessary to elaborate just a bit more.

So what’s this 4:3 aspect ratio thing mean anyways? To make things simple, a 4:3 aspect ratio screen is pretty much one that is square. 

In comparison a widescreen display will have a 16:9 aspect ratio and in fact the screen will be more of a rectangle. Pretty straight forward right?

The industry has all but pushed 4:3 screens into history but we do see some floating around out there so be aware. We advise you to stay away from a 4:3 aspect ratio screen because widescreens are simply the better option for a number of reasons. Trust us.

Movies, games, and even day to day multitasking are much improved on a widescreen display. Remember the days of VHS, well then the world was 4:3 but in our digital HD world today widescreen is king.

Screen Resolution

In a nutshell a laptop screens resolution is the amount of physical pixels on the screen itself. 

Screen resolution is listed by horizontal pixels first and vertical pixels second. 

For example, a common screen size today is 1680 x 1050 pixels. When you multiply these values together you get the actual pixel count on the screen. 

So using this example above we have  1,764,000 pixels total.  These values multiplied together can also simply be called the screens megapixel count. Using this example again we can say it is a 1.76 megapixel screen.

Ok, so how does all this pixel talk benefit you?  For the most part more pixels is technically always better. You will have a sharper overall image, and also at the same time you will in fact have more desktop space to layout multiple applications on screen. High-definition movies and 3D games will also visually benefit from a higher pixel count.

Of course there are pros and cons to everything and one drawback often to more pixels is that on screen elements are smaller. Because of this text for example will be much smaller and harder to read for some depending on the laptop screens size.

While there is a way to up what’s called a DPI setting on your computer to increase the size of on screen elements, increasing the DPI will have mixed results with many of you, and this mixed result will often be determined by the physical screen size. As time moves forward font size and screen resolution won’t matter, but we aren’t quite there yet so we advise you choose your resolution wisely.

For example, a 1920 x 1200 HD class resolution on a 15.4 screen will make on screen elements tiny compared to the same resolution on a 17 or 20-inch display. Yes you can increase the DPI setting in the operating system, but if you have the option of going for a 15.4 inch screen with 1680 x 1050 pixels it will be a better decision in our opinion then mucking around with the DPI setting. The choice of course is ultimately up to you, but do keep yourself alert to the various options.


Glossy vs. Anti-Glare

One more thing to consider in laptop screens is whether or not to go for a glossy or anti-glare display. Most laptop manufacturers these days have jumped on the glossy bandwagon so you won’t always have the choice, but as of this writing we do still see the option from time to time, especially with business laptops. So we do recommend you pay attention to available options.

So what’s the difference between a glossy display and an anti-glare? Glossy displays for the most part do not have an anti-glare coating so they are in fact brighter, and more vivid. Anti-glare screens on the other hand have anti-glare properties to restrict glare from external light sources.

Manufacturers of LCD’s decided to strip the anti-glare from displays to increase overall brightness and color vividness. We are personally not big fans of glossy displays and aren’t thrilled with the LCD manufacturer’s decision, but it looks like we will all have to live with it for it looks to be the ongoing trend these days, at least with consumer laptops.

While this vividness is great for photos and movies, if you are outdoors or where there is a lot of glare a glossy screen is in our opinion frustrating because things are harder to see for the screen is like a mirror. But when inside your home watching a movie or viewing family photos, we will have to admit however that a glossy does often look pretty sweet.


Final Thoughts

When it comes to laptop screens we are all very picky here at Laptop-Computer-Comparison.com for various reasons. While we won’t go into details, just remember the screen is what you will be looking at day after day and so it only makes perfect sense to buy a laptop with a screen that you are very comfortable using, right? Picking the wrong screen in our opinion can very well make or break a great laptop purchase.

On a final note always remember to look very closely at your screen options when shopping for a new laptop. In fact if you will be purchasing a laptop online we recommend you take a drive to your local retailer such as Circuit City or Best Buy to get some real first hand experience with the different screen sizes and resolutions. This little bit of preparation will be worth your time, trust us.

Happy purchasing!

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