10 inch netbook displays: 1024×600 vs 1366×768 px resolutions

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: 1024x600 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.

Photo via netbooked

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Tags: 10" netbook, HD

Last updated: February 23, 2010 | Published: February 23rd, 2010 | See the comments or add yours!