As I’m sure you’ve already noticed, more and more 10 inch netbooks come with HD ready displays nowadays. That means that they no longer bring the standard 1024 x 600 px resolution, but the 1366 x 768 px one. However, this new bigger resolution, while having its strong points, does come with a couple of disadvantages. That’s why i’ve decided to write this short post, mentioning the pros and cons of each of the two standard resolutions found in 10 inch mini laptops at the moment.
1024 x 600 px resolution
- provides a smaller working area
- overall image quality is less crisp (because of the lower DPI of the screen)
- texts and content are fairly easy to read
- might add horizontal scroll bar to you web-browser, although most sites are meant to be properly displayed on 1024 px
- displaying content needs less resources and this is important if you consider netbooks don’t excel in this segment
- 10 inch displays with this resolution are cheaper
1366 x 768 px resolution
- offer quite an increased working area, and on a 10 inch display, this means a lot more in terms of productivity
- images are smoother and way crisp, because of the increased DPI
- because of the bigger resolution, everything is smaller, including icons, images, texts. Thus, reading content on this resolution will be a strain to your eyes, at least for most persons
- browsing will be more pleasant, because of the wider space available (also, less scrolling in a plus )
- displaying content needs more resources. Also, with Atom powered netbooks incapable of playing 720p video (or higher), you won’t see any advantage when watching movies or clips
- 10 inch HD ready displays are actually more expensive
Same webpage on 10 inch displays: 1024×600 px (left) and 1366 x 768 px (right)
Besides these standard resolutions, there’s also the 1280 x 720 used by only a few devices, like Nokia’s Booklet 3G .
For the time being, i did not got my hands on any of the 10 inch HD ready displays, but i did on a couple of 11.6 inch ones. Even on those i found the big resolution disturbing when using the computer for reading and browsing. And no, i don’t wear glasses and i have close to perfect sight. And since i don’t plan to use it, i wouldn’t recommend going for a HD ready resolution on any display smaller than 13.3 inches.
These are only my 2 cents based on previous experience and the fact that i place my good health in front of everything else. Of course, the best way to get a decisions is testing a HD ready display for at least 15 minutes. Some of you might like it, especially youngsters. But I’m pretty sure most of you won’t.
Mayday
July 4, 2010 at 5:37 am
This is by far the best comparison of the two resolutions! Itz a very difficult decision for coz i’ll be buying a 10″ netbook later today and i guess your review made my mind for 1024×600 res. Coz i find most people complaining about the extremely small text size in 10″ HD displays!
Hal
September 25, 2010 at 4:14 am
I disagree. Ive used 9 and 10″ netbooks with 1024×600 and for the past half year ive had an 11.6″ (acer 751) with 1366×768 res and i cant go back! Im pretty badly nearsighted already@ the tender age of 29 but text is incredibly crisp and legible. In those circumstances where a websites text is too small i just zoom but thats the exception.
This machine is hardware accelerated for high def content (with a little coaxing) and is IMHO worth it if one so desires.
the only disadvantage for me is its 1 step less portable… and what led me to this site was a google search to see whats out there as far as 10″ high def netbooks.
thats what it would take for me to go smaller than 11″ @ this point…and for that matter, i dont think I could justify a parallel move smaller unless i got 1366×768, a backlit keyboard, twice the performance, and 6 hours or more “real usage” battery life im a 10 incher.
Am i asking too much? will my dream netbook never happen or will it cost me $1000?
In short: if hi res text is too small for you, a netbook is probably a bad idea on the whole. If not, get the most of what you can!
Hal
Andrei Girbea
September 25, 2010 at 9:57 am
Hal, I’ve got an 11.6 incher with 1366×768 px too. The whole post was about 10 inchers with that resolution, there’s a really big difference, at least for me eyes.
Now, on the device you want… i think the only problem is that backlit keyboard. Everything else should be available in 10 inchers in 6-9 months. still, the new 1015PN might be an option too. Will come with N550 dual-core proc, Nvidia ION and supposedly HD display like you want. So you could check that out…
Guest
March 30, 2011 at 2:08 am
if your findings are true then you have saved time of lots of people and they will really appreciate you while taking their decision for new netbook.