Before I let my Irish "L-ass-ittude" run wild on an ebay seller ... :P

[TessaH47]

I've purchased what was advertised as a 17.3 display on a HP laptop, but when I received it, it seemed to be the same size as my Asus, which is dying and I always found ran out of height space when doing my graphics with multiple apps open, which is ... yeah! Like, all the time? LOL

So, I came here and got the answer for what a true 17.3 screen should measure ... diagonally, but despite being advertised as 17.3 this otherwise great purple laptop only measures at 16.3 diagonally. Have the standards for measuring changed from being corner to corner of the active display screen size to now including the plastic surround as well?

Or were these guys, as I suspect, just too stupid to know how to measure it correctly? OR maybe thought I was too stupid to know better? Yeah, wanna know before I bring my Irish "L-ass-ittude" to bear all over them. And ... well, there is nothing worse than going all out Irish on someone only to find out you had it ALLLLLL WRONG. Been there, done that, got the ...
"pass the !*&#% ketchup so I can eat that gawd aweful crow" ... t-shirt, *blushes*

REALLY don't wanna revisit that meal, so Thanks in advance to ya'll!

tessa "-)

*blows kisses at all the tech-head boys ... and girls *winks*

 

[Someone Somewhere]

What model is the laptop? 16 point anything isn't a very common size; 17 is.

I just checked and a screen advertised as 17.3 does measure as 17.3 (well, 440mm).

 

[TessaH47]

Thank you, Someone ... and that is the active screen measurement, not including the plastic frame around it, correct?

If so, then it seems 16.3 is the new 17.3 size these days, but their not putting that as the size. I'm not sure how this got skewed since last I bought a laptop, but if you go on ebay you can see for yourself.if you look at the images you can see that the display lid simply is not high enough to accommodate a 17.3 inch screen. I thought maybe the images were just off when I was shopping, as can happen, but upon close inspection it seems that, except for a few much older models for sale, all the advertised 17.3 inch displays do not have the height to be a true blue 17.3 inches.

Even if we take into account the change to a strict rectangle shape of our monitors, which I always thought was stupid, that can be achieved, but they'd have to make the keyboard base bigger ... as big as they were in the early 2000's to accommodate the height, as they did when the display sizes went down to a standard advertised 15.6.

The reason I believe it was stupid to create the mailbox shape as a defined laptop size, is because they could have very simply made the display with black spaces above and below to retain that size, OR just make it auto reshape when one was watching movies, as that it usually when that size is needed. In gaming, graphic art works and even documents having more headspace within a display is necessary to work efficiently, AND I do believe these types of uses are and the most prominent use of a laptop. that's why people so got into the tablets. I never did. figured by the time you added the case to keep them safer, and a add on keyboard and a mouse ... well you were at the weight of a standard laptop in most cases, so I really didn't get the point of someone trading in their laptop for a tablet.

So, that begs the questions of, why is the community of laptop makers intentionally squeezing us down? They have had lightweight but very strong materials to make these break resistant well within the requirements for not trashing your laptop with one minor drop or even a major one. If I was given a credible reason for this shift as a whole, then I'd be ok with it, but I will NEVER be ok with being told a laptop for purchase is a 17.3 when in reality it's a full inch less. That is not truth in advertising, which I do believe crosses a very big legal line at the federal level.

hmmmm ... does that mean Trump needs to be called for inspection on his statements? He is a brand after all. Just saying. LOL

 

[TessaH47]

AN UPDATE:

I just typed in the model of my HP laptop on their site and they also list the screen size as 17.3 inch! I used a online screen detection app AND measured manually. The only way the display qualifies as such is if you include the black plastic frame, which I think is false advertisement, yes? Hasn't the diagonal measurements always been about the actual screen that "displays" content??? I'm like really NOT happy here. Calling HP to get an explanation. I will report back once.

 

[TessaH47]

opps .. forgot to put the make and model for you

hp 15-af029cl

 

[jbgarcia]

... before I bring my Irish "L-ass-ittude" to bear all over them ...

I think you would like this T-shirt haha

http/shop.wwe.com/becky-lynch-irish-pride-womens-t-shirt/W10844.html?dwvar_W10844_color=Black#start=24

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Yup, corner pixel to corner pixel.

Just checked a fairly recent HP and that's 15.55" (advertised 15.6", so measurement error).

You're 100% sure you're looking at the right model laptop? That's a 15.6" one. Check the model number on the bottom.

Aspect ratios have changed; 16:10 and 4:3 (squarer) used to be more common than the modern widescreen 16:9, so the same 'size' screen may be wider but less tall.

 

[1shado1]

All "HP 15" series laptops have always had 15.6" displays to the best of my knowledge. "HP 17" models have 17.3" displays.

That entry on the HP website is a typo.

Google "15-af029cl". Everywhere else except the HP website lists the display as 15.6".

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Huh, you're right. HP's website claims it's 17.3", and it looks like Walmart and a bunch of others copied it.

You should be able to complain either directly to the seller or to Ebay and get something - refund, exchange, discount, I don't know.

That said, physical size tends to be less important than resolution. Look for something ideally 1080p (1920x1080) or better.

Depending on where you use it, a second display could also be a great (fairly cheap) option.