Solved! 17inch better than 15.6?

[hiuhiu]

Hello,

How does 17 inch compare to a 15.6 inch laptop.
Who went to 17 inch and won’t go back, regrets?
Usage regular tekst/mail, movie, foto editing, showing workpictures to customers (on the road).

laptops gets used multiple times a day and sometimes 4 hours in a row (on the move).

 

[Barty1884]

For extended use, a slightly larger monitor is probably beneficial for your use case(s)..... but the trade off is a bit of portability.

BUT, size alone isn't the only consideration.... what kind of panel? Resolution? Colour accuracy etc?

All else being equal, I'd likely opt for a 17" myself........ but if you have the option to use a (good) secondary monitor for editing, the the smaller 15.6" would be a little more portable.

 

[10tacle]

I have had two 17" laptops, a Dell 1920x1200 and an HP 1600x900 resolution. I loved that Dell (now outdated and unused) but it was HEAVY as a powerful desktop replacement (dedicated video card, two drives, etc.). The HP is more of a main stream laptop.

If you are not connecting the laptop two an external monitor and you are not carrying it around a lot, then you'll be much better off with more screen display real estate - especially if you go with 1080p resolution. Again though, they are much bigger and require a bigger case to carry them around in. It's rather hard to manage trying to remove out of the case on an airliner seat and put it on the fold down seat tray.

 

[SkyBill40]

It's going to depend on what you're doing, to be honest. As a non-gaming machine and for general use, a larger screen is a nice thing to have. We got my wife an HP laptop several years ago with a 17" screen and it's nice; however, the trade off is that finding travel bags for that size (and one that SHE likes - I don't care) aren't what I'd call easy. So, if you're going to be carrying it around, that's a consideration. As it's only traveled with me on a few occasions, it's not that big of a deal.

If you're going to be gaming on it regularly, there's even more to consider: screen resolution, refresh rate, etc. Portability and finding a suitable carry bag won't be an issue. Given what you've mentioned as the primary use(s), I'd say a 17" display at a good resolution would be your sweet spot.

 

[hiuhiu]

Mostly used at home in the sofa or at the firestation (work for my business, watching movie/youtube) when i'm on nightshift.

 

[SkyBill40]

If that's the case, you may as well get the 17" and enjoy the larger screen. I'm sure there are some decent finds to be had and some significantly spendier ones as well if gaming is going to factor into your use. It's all about your budget then at this point.

 

[hiuhiu]

Hi skybill, never owned a 17 inch but because i do a lot of voluntary standby time in firedepartment, i tought 17 inch would be the way to go, than i could watch movies in bedroom.
Would probably play a game once in awhile, but mostly youtube or dvd.
Its also getting hard to find a 15.6inch with dvd drive.

Most important is batterylife.
Budget 2000euro/dollar, live in europe.

 

[SkyBill40]

With a budget of that amount, you could get just about anything though given your main purposes there's no reason to vastly overspend on something.

 

[10tacle]

Most important is batterylife.

Well the larger 17.3" screen is definitely going eat into the battery life over a 15.6" display. It simply requires more power. Not sure why battery life is a high priority if you are mostly going to be indoors. If outlet distance or a cord getting in your way s a concern, just get an extension cord to run the AC power adapter behind the sofa, under the bed, etc. I do this and it doesn't bother me. Bottom line: don't expect more than about 2 hours of battery time. Even less if you are gaming and what you choose has a dedicated video card.

Edit: one other thought. I chose the glossy screen on both laptops over the glare-reducing matte screen. It makes movies and photos (and games) pop more in color. The downside is that if you are in a brightly lit room, you will get glare reflection.

 

[SkyBill40]

Agreed. If you're indoors and don't need to run on battery power, this shouldn't even be a primary consideration unless AC power isn't a guarantee all the time.

 

[hiuhiu]

Not always a power source around, so need at least 4-5 hours run time. Rather spend some more to get a decend build system (durable, use 5 years), keep my latops until i drop them.
Lenovo is of the list as repair and support is terrible (in my experience) in europe.

 

[10tacle]

Not always a power source around, so need at least 4-5 hours run time.

Well you aren't going to see that with a 17" laptop in use. Maybe at idle with the screen in sleep mode but that's about it! Even a 15" would be borderline on that for movie watching and whatnot. Turning down display brightness and making sure all non-use apps are temporarily disabled helps battery life to an extent.

 

[SkyBill40]

I'm thinking you're not going to find a laptop anywhere with the screen size you've mentioned and seem to have settled on with a battery life coming close to approaching the 4-5 hour mark. That's just not realistic.

 

[USAFRet]

My son went from a 17" back to a 15", for college.
The 17" was simply too much to lug around all day.

 

[hiuhiu]

My Lenovo T550 15.6inch uhd 3k screen lasted +-9 hours (could be stretched by dimming screen to 10 hours plus) on a charge, does a 17 inch fhd drain that much more?