Professionals still lament the 4:3 laptop
I got an email today asking if I knew where to find a 4:3 laptop. I thought it would be easy enough to find, but I quickly remembered seeing that Lenovo cancelled its last 4:3 about a year and a half ago. The only other option after 2007 was a Dell Latitude, and now that’s gone too.
For a lot of professionals, a widescreen just doesn’t make sense. When you spend most of your time working with spreadsheets, text documents, and web browsers, you want a higher resolution with a longer page. Widescreen laptops are actually lower resolution and cheaper to manufacture, so it kind of makes sense for someone like Lenovo or Dell to go this route.
Unfortunately, a lot of business people would still prefer a 4:3 screen. In a few quick searches I found hundreds of pages of results dedicated to finding 4:3 laptops, rebuilding exisiting 4:3 laptops, and discussing the lack of 4:3 laptops. From digging through a few of the posts, it seems a big part of the disappearance is consumer ignorance. Manufacturers have actually convinced the world that widescreen is better. I’ll leave you with a quote from one of the malinformed: “widescreen is better for reading text because your eyes are side by side not up and down so its easier to read left to right.” Yes, someone actually wrote that.
Posted in: Computers
Tags: 4:3 laptop, 4:3 screen, headlines, laptop resolution, laptops, standard resolution laptop, sxga, widescreen laptop, wxga
my laptop is old now (compaq m2000) using it for 5 years now i feel to buy new one but pain to see non availablity of 4:3. If you know anyone still making then then mail me their model number.
Let it go, it is never going to happen. Your only option is to go with the higher resolution widescreens with enough vertical pixels. Brace yourselves, they are expensive ..
Please sign the petition and let the laptop vendors know there is a demand for 4:3 laptops -
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/BringBack43Laptops/
I am also look for a modern laptop with 4:3 screen
I have been searching for a 4:3 Laptop for AT LEAST 6 months now. I am so frustrated and irritated that the “Market” has been forcing widescreen on EVERYONE!
From computer monitors (I’m glad I bought mine when I did, because they were phasing out quickly around that time), to Television screens (I have no problem and EVEN prefer my 4:3 Television that happens to be a tube TV. When asked why I don’t replace it for a widescreen, I have two answers…1. My TV still works. 2. I can’t stand the widescreens.), to Laptop computers, to regular television programming.
I WANT A 4:3 screen laptop. I guess if my television ever dies, I will probably go without until I can find a 4:3 TV I want.
I keep hearing, “but you can see more”. HUH? As if we have been missing so much for all this time. I don’t feel I have missed anything of importance.
I just heard from a Best Buy employee, young as he was, that the widescreens are better because studies show we “see” more and better with a wide screen.
I don’t see how! I personally don’t like scrolling from left to right reading anything on the internet or in a document for ever. I feel that it slows my reading speed down. Our brains have become accustom to reading materials from left to right in short spans before moving on to the next line. Widescrren doesn’t provide taht.
I DON’T like the widescreens. I DON’T want a widescreen. How can we get the 4:3 back, ESPECIALLY in laptops since I am actively TRYING to find a laptop?
I have been searching for a 4:3 Laptop for AT LEAST 6 months now. I am so frustrated and irritated that the “Market” has been forcing widescreen on EVERYONE!
From computer monitors (I’m glad I bought mine when I did, because they were phasing out quickly around that time), to Television screens (I have no problem and EVEN prefer my 4:3 Television that happens to be a tube TV. When asked why I don’t replace it for a widescreen, I have two answers…1. My TV still works. 2. I can’t stand the widescreens.), to Laptop computers, to regular television programming.
I WANT A 4:3 screen laptop. I guess if my television ever dies, I will probably go without until I can find a 4:3 TV I want.
I keep hearing, “but you can see more”. HUH? As if we have been missing so much for all this time. I don’t feel I have missed anything of importance.
I just heard from a Best Buy employee, young as he was, that the widescreens are better because studies show we “see” more and better with a wide screen.
I don’t see how! I personally don’t like scrolling from left to right reading anything on the internet or in a document for ever. I feel that it slows my reading speed down. Our brains have become accustom to reading materials from left to right in short spans before moving on to the next line. Widescrren doesn’t provide taht.
I DON’T like the widescreens. I DON’T want a widescreen. How can we get the 4:3 back, ESPECIALLY in laptops since I am actively TRYING to find a laptop?
I, too, never knew that the 4:3 passed until I “upgraded” from my 5 yr old Sony to a Dell. Spent hours fighting with Tech Support about how crappy the screen looked. Now I come to find its becasue of the 4:3 to 16:9 change. Because of the 16:9, a 13.3″ is “really” more like a. 11″-12″ screen
Yes, I’d just like to see shopping sites where you could clearly shop by vertical pixels & vertical inches… it’s all I care about. I have to break out the freaking Pythagorean Theorem to figure out how much vertical document the screen will let me see!!
It’s marketing.
Manufacturers report the length of the diagonal.
Now, a 15″ 4:3 screen is actually a larger area (108 sq in) then a 15.4″ 19:10 screen (~106.6 sq in) or a 15.6″ HD screen (~104 sq in).
So as screens get wider and wider manufacturers claim larger and larger diagonals while actually setting less real estate to the ignorant customers.
I love the SXGA+ (1400×1050) display on my 14″ Dell Latitude. Other than when watching videos we live in the portrait world of web pages and documents so 4:3 makes more sense.
With a few tweaks the D600 can still do the job. I upgraded the processor (2GHz), added a 7200 RPM drive and maxed out the memory at 2GB. It runs XP or Ubuntu very well. The 32MB video card doesn’t handle some web sites very well, although generally You Tube is fine. The older machines use more power so the battery life is limited. However for doing “work” it is great. You should be able to get one on eBay for around $200. They are easy to work on and upgrade.
Good that I bought three 20 inch 4:3 LCD’s before they got phased out–keeping 2 as spares. I too am looking for a 4:3 laptop. I ended up getting a Dell M6400 for the 1920 x 1200 WUXGA screen. I have 7 Dell Inspiron 8200′s with the 4:3 1600 x 1200 UXGA screen, I maxed out the RAM at 2 GB, upgraded to 320 HD but cannot upgrade video beyong 64–that was the limiting factor. The wide screens only work well for watching movies/videos, although I still prefer 4:3, widescreens are not for business use. A shame that nobody makes them anymore.
The 16:9 “widescreen” isn’t really wider; it’s just shorter. So people prefer to watch a film on a “widescreen” because instead of having two strips of black pixels on top and bottom of the image they have a strip of black plastic at the bottom. Ha, ha, ha, ha… how moronic is that?
Unbelievable… I can’t buy a 4:3 laptop anymore? That’s absurd! I’m a writer, and I need to see the layout of a full page. I HATE working on widescreen, unless it’s very very large, say 22″ or more, which allows me to see a full page. Obviously, laptops are too small, and as I go up in screen size, they become unbearably heavy.
I am looking too for a replacement for my old and tired ThinkPad T41. I have seen great machines, but the only thing I cannot stand is widescreen screen. Heck, I want a laptop to actually work on it, not watch movies. I think I will definitively go for a 4:3 T6x or stick with mine until it actualy dies -it can run Win7, VS2010 and MSSQL 2005 pretty good so far-
Work got me a new Dell E6510 with 16:9 screen and I cannot set it up in any mode which I like it.
I’ll need to keep my old Dell C840 running as long as I can an buy another for a spare.
This is sad. If Dell ever made another 4:3 laptop, I’d be all over it.
This is so sad ! ! !
I have three year old Asus G1 with 1680*1050.
Did not know at the time that it would still be my top choice in 2010. The screen is just amazing in my daily use.
Now added memory to 4 Gb from 2 and disk to 500/7200 from 160. Works like a dream.
Try to find it from eBay.
I have been following NotionInk Adam tablet. They had to go 16:9 due to lack of screens. Apple iPad is 4:3 and therefore will be the first choice for serious buyers.
I tried to use a wide screen monitor. I’m very near sighted (-8 diopter perscription), and the colors at the left and right extrems color shift with my glasses. With CAD work that I do, that is not acceptible. My next laptop will likely be used with a 4:3 monitor.
Widescreen? Why don’t they call it what it really is – “Short Screen”, or for the politically correct amongst us, “Vertically Challenged Screen”.
On the other hand, A 17 inch widescreen actually has 10% fewer square inches than a 17 inch scree on the 4:3 format; and so the phrase, “Smaller than you thought Screen”, might be appropriate.
I also find it funny, after all the arguments that the wider ‘golden rectangle’ ratio is easier on the eye, that these same people extole the virtues of wide-screen on the grounds that you can put two windows side by side. Isn’t that an admission in itself that taller, and not wider formats are more useful?
Count me in, I want a 4:3 brand new laptop, too!
The move to 16:10 resolution was OK. My 1600×1200 UXGA display was replaced with a 1920×1200 WUXGA display. I had my original screen real estate, along with an additional 20 percent added on the side. But then some marketing genius decided they could remove 10 percent of the pixels from the bottom, making it 1920×1080, and advertise it as “Full 1080P HD Widescreen.” It was a sleazy gimmick, but that’s what big business does. What was really upsetting was that so many people fell for it. Now the computer manufacturers are right up there with cell phone companies in giving people less and convincing them that they’re getting more.
I still have hope though. Over the years, true high resolution screens have been under constant assault. Multiple times, I’ve seen the highest resolution displays of the day get discontinued, sometimes for a couple years. But they come back eventually, with even higher resolutions. We pixel junkies are a small minority but we’re resilient, and when we start getting withdrawal symptoms, someone comes to our rescue.
I am so glad I found this page! I thought I was alone with my wish of finding a laptop with a decent vertical resolution.
My current laptop, Acer TM803 with 1400×1050 has served me well but it is simply worn out now. The right hinge is broken and it is only attached at the left hinge which is also cracked. And the pagedown key is dead. Not to speak of the battery which lasts 15 minutes.
Last week I bought a Lenovo L512. When I unpacked it and turned it on, I suddenly realized that the resolution of 1366×768 was totally unacceptable. I am a programmer and want to see as much of my code as possible, and 768p in the height is way too little; after menubar, toolbar and statusbar has taken what it needs, there are only a narrow stripe left for real content. Also, web page are built in the height, not in the width.
Fortunately I had a return option, but when I then started to search for laptops with decent vertical resolution I soon learned that it is next to impossible nowadays. And this is really really sad, because as several people have pointed out, those modern screens aren’t any wider, they are just shorter.
After finding this page I am more relieved. At least I now know I am not alone with my “strange syndrom”
Btw, I am considering the 2 yr old Lenowo W500 with 1920×1200 and 1680×1050 display modes.
Me too… I demand 4:3!
I have an IBM T60p that needs to be replaced, but I prefer working on this than giving in for the 16:9 thyranny.
I simply dont understand, why the manufacturers totally overhear the market demand. I am even willing to pay a premium price for the 4:3.
What will be the next? Books in 16:9?
I’m also in the market for a new laptop. I’ve got a 5 1/2 year old HP Pavilion dv4000. It’s held up pretty well, but some media rich websites really slow it down, and sometimes freeze it.
It’s got a 1280×800 resolution, which is 16:10. I really like the 16:10. I find it gives me a little more space on the sides, which I don’t mind. Trying to find a new 16:10 is almost as impossible as finding a 4:3. Everything has gone to 16:9, mostly with fewer than 800 vertical pixels. If they just wanted to make the screen wider, that would be one thing, but they don’t; they want to make the screen shorter.
If anyone knows of any new 4:3 laptops, please post them here.
I’ve been shopping for new 4:3 laptops for a couple years now, and there’s nothing. I’m a business user who writes documents, and I need vertical resolution for this. I am willing to pay a 30% price premium for 4:3, but I can’t find anything.
My employer issued me a Macbook pro with a 16:10 resolution for a while, but I found that I was slouching more to read text because the display was shorter, and it started to hurt my neck. So I just went back to my older, slower 4:3 SXGA+ laptop. It’s sad that even 16:10 is hard to find now. I believe only Apple and Lenovo manufacture 16:10 in laptops that are sized in the 14″ to 16″ range.
So I’ll continue to use my 5-year old fujitsu S7020 because it’s easier on my back and neck and more productive for my regular workloads.
…tragic board i’ve stumbled upon….my 8 year old c840 just died today…hours later i’m now typing this from a ‘fancy’ (glossy) 16:9 screen and absolutely hating it….to be honest it strains the eye to have to read that far from left to right, it’s now turned into watching a tennis match from mid court….boooo….marketing (cheapening) bs….the end is near…..rant over….
Second that! I want a 4:3 screen laptop, and price is (almost) not a concern.
I definitely need 4:3 screen. 4:3 is more comfortable for me.
I want to buy 4:3 screen regardless how expensive it is. However, the problem is where can I guy it?
The first manufacturer to make one will get all the goodies …
I too want a 4:3 screen laptop, and would gladly pay a premium of up to $1000 for one. But none are to be found. Luckily, I did manage to buy one of the last 16:10 notebooks (a T410), as shortly only 16:9 will be available.
I sarcastically have adopted the expression “Squatter is better !” to make my point that it isn’t, unless all you do is watch video.
Having used both, I will admit, I actually prefer 16:10. The first time I used a widescreen, I thought, “that’s really cool”. The first time I saw a 16:9, though, I thought, “that’s horribly ugly”. I also grabbed one of the last 16:10s (MSI GX740)… I really hope it lasts until at least one manufacturer wakes up and starts selling us options again.
I definitely agree, though, that there should be more options. If people want 4:3, why does nobody offer it?
I salvaged my grandma’s 4:3 Lenovo ThinkPad when she got a new Dell widescreen, It has become my new work computer since the only processing power i use is for running multiple web-pages and Vim
Lenovo T60 with 15.0 inch IPS 1400×1050 display is probably the best one you can get right now. It has pretty much everything, Core2 Duo, 256 meg ATI card, gigabit ethernet, wlan, bluetooth. You can upgrade it with SATA SSD, and it will run faster than “modern” widescreen laptops. You can put in wireless WAN card in addition to wlan card, and can upgrade cd-rw to blue-ray / dvd-rw.
The best part is probably IPS display. It’s a professional grade panel, not some cheap TN panel everyone puts in laptops now. You get virtually no color degradation from looking at different angles. The downsides – it takes more power, so battery life is kinda average.
I would pay Double to have a new laptop with a 4:3 screen!!! IS THERE ANYONE FROM THE COMPUTER COMPANIES LISTENING!!!
Absolutely can’t stand widescreens. I just can’t figure out why in this competitive industry all the pc makers jam together to make pretty much identical widescreen machines. Why there wouldn’t be one maker who is smart enough to offer a different kind? How do we make them know there is demand for 4:3? Why do they assume everyone plays games and watch movies with their laptops? I was lucky to buy the last 4:3 — a Lenovo T61 in late 2007. Hope it never dies.
Ultraportables are the width of the keyboard,
that is, the distance between the Q and P keys, so
a 9:16 screen is not wider, it is shorter. Let’s
ditch the propaganda and call these things what they
really are: lowscreen laptops.
Lowscreen is for low (self) esteem.
Love to see 4:3 come out again.
I have a x61 which still outperforms my athlon x4 desktop for startup and shutdown, but its not always going to be that way.
Even an option to refurbish the x61 series with newer processors or refit a newer motherboard would work.
wide screen is a misnomer, they should be called ‘short screens’ as all they have done is chop the top of a 4:3 then said “Look now its wider!”
Programmers need more vertical space.
I prefer 4:3 screen,my laptop has used 6 years,it’s so slow now,i want to change,but there is no 4:3 screen in China marketing,sb told me u.s market is 4:3,so,any one can give me a on line shopping with laptop of 4:3 screen?
HP NC6320.
It’s the nuts, (4:3 of course).
Started a new job recently and have used my own laptop rather than the supplied Dell Inspiron widescreen rubbish. Don’t like Windows 7 either!
Please join fanpage for 4:3 laptops
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bring-Back-43-Laptops/158361044226104
I’m typing this on a 4:3 “T60″ (aka the T62p++)
Resolution is 2048×1536 with an IPS screen (retro modded in) on this bad boy. I’ve recently also
replaced the original motherboard with a T61p motherboard (14.1″ model motherboards fit with some minor modification to one of the screw slots) so I can have 8G ram, and newer 64bit cpu’s
Still plenty fine for use.
Should last another few years too.
I’ve mostly moved to Mac now though, but this is still a great work machine for my odd bit of development work
all this widescreen laptop is making me extremely dizzy and pain in the eyes, I couldnt even stands to look at in for more than an hours. I HATE WIDESCREEN LAPTOP FEEL LIKE WANNA BOMB THEM INTO PIECES THEY SUX SUX SUX SUX SUX
Laptop Manufacturers:
WORLD HATES YOUR LATEST 16:9 Laptops ATTACK !
WE WANT 4:3 Laptops BACK INTO PRODUCTION !
TODAY !
STOP SPREADING YOUR 16:9 GARBAGE WORLDWIDE,
oN WHICH PEOPLE GET ONLY A HEADACHES !
Michael – Land Down Under
(message written proudly on 4:3 screen laptop).
I’ve been struggling with that very dilemma for going on a year now. having searched far and wide for a 4:3 laptop, I finally realized I was left with two choices: refurbish my battered, virus-ridden Thinkpad T42, or pick up that Getac B300 that was on offer with 50% off. The T42 route would have taken a long time and forced me endure the agony of the widescreen display of my wife’s Satellite U500 for a little longer, so I decided to two both. I picked up the Getac, which has already paid for itself by now. Later on, I felt that the Getac’s 13.3″ display is just a tad too small for extended use, so I found the time to do a clean system install on my T42, which took a couple of days including driver installation and what not. Now I’m reading and writing this on the glorious 14.1″ display of the T42, which no widescreen display can ever match.
I forgot to mention that there are still a few (very few) choices of 4:3 laptops available out there. Most of them are expensive beyond the reach of the average user, and all are H.E.A.V.Y! My B300 weighs some four kilograms. Besides the Getac, there are the Panasonic Toughbook 74 and 31. I also stumbled upon a couple of military-grade contraptions from SCS Technologies (with a third model having a widescreen 17″ display.) But the laptop with largest 4:3 display I could find available new is the Getac M230, with a choice of 14.1″ and 15″.
I actually want a 3:4 display instead of a 4:3. Imagine a 4:3 screen that pivots on its edge (*) so you can make it a 3:4 when you work on documents.
Hey manufacturers: is it so hard to convince yourselves that once you introduce this product, then business consumers would realize this is what they needed all along?!
(*) of course the pivot point would slide in a rail to make the screen centered.
Keep up the pressure and maybe a manufacturer will listen. I work in publishing, and I want to see a whole A4 page without scrolling. Higher resolution (and a reduced-size image) is not an answer because I’d need glasses to read it.
I though MacPro was not widescreen. But I was wrong. Now I have to use my 6years old Compaq nx6110.
“Evolution” :
T400 & T500 are both 16:10
Lenovo ThinkPad T410 14.1-inch WXGA+ (1440 x 900)
Lenovo ThinkPad T510 15.6-inch HD+ (1600×900)
Lenovo ThinkPad T420 14.0-inch WXGA+ (1600 x 900)
Lenovo ThinkPad T520 15.6 inch (1366×768, 1600×900, 1920×1080 pixel)
I miss 4:3 – I am holing on to my T60 for as long as possible – I’ve already got a second one on the shelf waiting. Screw you laptop manufacturers, you don’t make what I want. I’m NOT buying.
It is a great shame that 4:3 screens are not available on laptops now. Anyone who does actual work on a laptop will know they are better than 16:10 widescreen. Also what goes unmentioned is that when on a 4:3 your work area is already “wide” because the top has the window title bar plus the menus and the bottom has the task bar; so the actual work area is quite wide anyway! On a 16:10 display the work area gets ludicrously narrow because of this! Also the amount of verticl scrolling drives me nuts on a small widescreen. The marketing men win as always. But it is a real shame to see that even ThinkPad no longer make 4:3 – they have always claimed to be the professionals choice. Give us a choice of something as fundamental as the screen ratio! However, the only widescreen that I like is the 22 inch desktop size. That size gives you the best of both as the vertical height is sufficient to emulate a good 4:3 and the width great for side by side windows or simply leaving exposed desktop. Anyway, for now I am holding on to my 4:3 ThinkPad until it dies (which is hopefully never).
I use a 19 inch 4×3 monitor connected to my widescreen laptop. Not as good as a 4×3 laptop but seems as though they’ve gone for ever.
I’m really feeling the hurt of this widescreen business. My problem is that I want something portable. Due to the width of widescreen laptops they are pretty cumbersome when you pay for a screen that you can read, and a smaller more portable screen is just trash. I wonder whats going to happen?
This is capitalism, why hasn’t a company tapped this market? Really, I think if a 4:3 laptop hit the market I would sell a kidney to buy 3.
Yup my ancient (2003?) Dell Inspiron 5100 struggles to cope with today’s processing requirements but its 15″ 1400 x 1050 screen is one of the main reasons I keep it. 9″ (23cm) vertical display dimension. Beat that!
Probably I’ll have to get a new laptop in the next year, and maybe use an external monitor when I’m using it at home, which I usually am.
I have been asking several manufacturers if they could start producting non-widescreen laptops again. Some manufacturers don’t respond at all to the question. 16:9 aspect ratio is useless when trying to do some work. I would like to have a laptop with 4:3 or 16:10 aspect ratios.
Marko, go buy some brand-new quality 16:10 device.
They are disappearing very fast.
I had a Lenovo x220 in the shopping cart ready to drop about $1300 when I got to thinking about the odd looking short screens on today’s notebooks. Even though the IPS screen and Sandy Bridge processor with usb 3.0 support was tempting, I just couldn’t do it and decided to keep the money and stick with my still-working Toshiba satellite with a 4:3 screen. Manufacturer’s: Please dispense with the goofy filmstrip screens: I watch widescreen movies on my hdtv.
Same here, I desperately to find 4:3 screen laptops. Pls bring them back.
Guys let’s keep the pressure!!!
Manufacturers will not produce it again if they do not realize there is a BIG demand of the product and a BIG price option.
I personally would spend up to 5.000 Euro for a brand new ThinkPad with 4:3 monitor (even with a 1024×768 resolution) and a powerful processor.
Hope Lenovo will understand our requests sooner or later.
Bye from Rome
I strongly support 4:3 screens. The Lenovo T60p seems the best option and a dying dynosaur in the AGE of the STUPID. I am surprised that Dell or Fujitsu do not see the need for such screen for the WORKING world.
Not to be racist, but is it because widescreens are better for Chinese people who write vertically and right to left? So with a widescreen a person writing in the traditional Chinese way can actually see more.
Fact: Widescreen lapstops are HOPELESS for work. It’s like peering through a letterbox after the menu taskbars have grabbed even more vertical space. The amount of vertical scrolling is driving me, my finger and my mouse crazy! It is no joke.
Even when using maps, if you are interested only in east-west, then great. North-south is hopeless!
But maybe in this stupid world we live in a DVD player will be produced with a 4:3 screen and keyboard. Then we can use that for work and the laptop for movies.
BRING BACK THE 4:3!
Isn’t there anyone out there to manufacture 4:3 laptops?
Currently, I own 2 ThinkPad T60s. Both have (1400×1050) SXGA+ resolution.
I don’t understand why companies are completely ignoring the business world?
We need 4:3 ratio laptops.
I signed the petition.
The width of a qwerty keyboard with 19mm (standard)
pitch keys is about 26cm. An elite laptop should
not be wider; at 4:3, screen height can be maximum
19.5cm, at 9:16, 14.5cm. The 4:3 is 35% taller.
Since the width is defined by our human hands, the
word widescreen is a misnomer. More accurate would
be shortscreen. Let’s popularize the positive term
“tallscreen”, and tell manufacturers we want them!
God this is depressing. I just can’t believe commonsense has given way to fashion and cost quite so easily.
It just goes to show, people can be force-fed anything in the name of ‘tech’. I’ve trawled everywhere for a non-widescreen laptop and found nothing. This is glaringly poor end user design.
Absolutely hate these low resolution 16:9 and 16:10 aspect ratio panels.
I’ve called all the laptop manufacturers and told them I’m a businessman and I need 150 15″ laptops with 4:3 aspect ratio and UXGA resolution.
People – please call laptop manufacturers and complain about the absence of 4:3 aspect ratio laptops. Soon, people who actually work on their laptops will wake up and start complaining.
Also, try to be persuasive about it.
Lenovo sales person listened to me for good 15 minutes. That was nice!
I just received new Lenovo L520 and I’m very disappointed with its elongated 16:9 display. Going back to my old dell 1501. All business laptops need to have 4:3 displays.
A standard typed page is 8.5X11. That is .77 ratio or almost exactly .75 which is 4:3. I do not plan to watch Netflix. I just want a computer for work. A wide and short screen is not what I want. The iPad is close to 4:3 but I do not want to be locked into Apple and get sued. It is not a work commputer anyway. I would pay a premium for a 4:3 display.
It’s a big “entertainment” push perpetuated by micro$$oft, google-U-tube, yahoo, and every other rich arrogant tech company. Annoying one power user at a time. Productivity is actually way down the list with these change-for-no-reason technology-based companies. Technology-pushers and software candy and a love for money (with quality and reliability 5th or 6th not FIRST).
Having the same problem, I had to go back to a 2010 model to get a 15.4″ 1280 x 800 screen. It a little wider than 3:4 but I can live with it. I bough 3 Lenovo T500′s to get these screens. Nothing made in 2012 is available that I can use.
I have this PPI (pixels per inch) calculator which helps you shop for the resoltuion you want. To keep the menu and toolbar font big enough look for PPI less than 100.
http://baylake.net/pp1
such an f***in shame!
for my eyes even a switch from 4:3 to 16:10 caused major problems back then in 2007, and to imagine a new one with even NARROWER(not wider) screen is simply unbearable!
Please sign the following petition to restore a standard option for 4:3 laptop display aspects:
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/BringBack43Laptops/
It’s all becoming entertainment, rather than productivity.
I am also looking for 4:3 for work. Wide screen is totally useless. I stretching the life of Dell latitude. I may try tablet and use it in portrait mode.
Give me a 4×3 just like my almost 8 year old IBM thinkpad T42! This move to widescreen reminds me of Idiocracy.
I loved my old Toshiba with a beautiful big square screen. It just wasn’t cutting it anymore and after buying a new one I am disgusted with its crappy short display. I’m not interested in shrinking down documents so that I can have more than a paragraph on the screen. The result of this is crappy tiny text which makes work unnecessarily difficult. Why can’t these moron manufactures understand that their product sucks? They know what helps people get their work done but they don’t want to sell it to us. They want to just tell us how much we should like their new inferior product. “Here you go, here’s some crap salad. Eat it, you loser. How can you be so stupid not to like crap salad?!?! You jerk! It’s delicious! Buy my crap salad and EAT IT!!!”
I used a Dell d620 for 6 years before switching to hew HP Crap, for processor power reasons etc, my dell had 4:3, mate display with anti reflection, the new crap though build my programs quicker and compiles easily, so here what i did, i CONNECTED the two carry on programming on dell and send the build command to the HP Crap, only need to look at the Crap when i take it aways from office.
I’ve been looking for this site.
Really, laptop manufacturers, the 4:3 ratio is so much better for work. Last year I’ve bought external monitor with 16:10 ratio to my R51 laptop, and it is nice to have some more pixels, but the ratio is not as good as 4:3.
Especially when the lines of text in web-browser or editor get ridiculously wide. Resizing windows and zooming the text is a constant pain in the ass.
Some tricks to help to fight this: I found out that in Xfce one can restrict the maximized windows to certain area – I use 4:3 rectangle. For writing code, I rotate my monitor to 10:16 ratio, and it helps a lot – I can see a good part of the source code – but it is just not the real thing.
Wide format for movies was a good invention, but we want to work on our computers! And work means, for most of us, a lot of text and that requires height, not width. So, let’s articulate this!
I have been using my Lenovo Thinkpad T400 since November 2008 and am thinking of buying a new laptop with higher processing speed running the latest OS and applications. I have been searching for 4/3 laptop to my disappointment. Let’s keep up the pressure on the manufacturers.