Deciding between laptops...is 1080p worth it on a 15 inch laptop

[helgatheviking]

1. What is your budget?
$800-1200. yes that's a $400 range. i'd prefer to spend less, but since i am a web worker i spend all day on it and will spend more for a more comfortable viewing experience

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
15"-17". my last 2 hp dv7s were 17 behemoths. since the last one died i've been on a 15" macbook and the size seems ok, not too small like i feared

3. What screen resolution do you want?
unsure. i had been at 1600x900 and it seemed quite nice. there are 15inch laptops in 1080p now and idk if it'd be worth it. i have zero blurays to watch and don't foresee getting any. i also find myself zooming in to read text online as it is (damn designers with their small fonts). i do a lot of web coding so reading has to be super comfortable.

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
i've always been a more of a desktop replacement. mobile from bedroom to living room and back kind of mobile. hauled it all over the world, but its 1 day of pain in the airport and then plunked back down on a desk. that said, i'd like to get a little more mobile-friendly.

5. How much battery life do you need?
nothing spectacular. i'm almost always plugged in.

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
minesweeper is about advanced a game as i play and i don't even play that anymore. so, games, out.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
watch lots of tv/movies. run a local LAMP stack for wordpress development. run a couple of browsers w/ tons of tabs and a decent text editor

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
500gb+ i figure i can always upgrade my external hd (also 500gb) down the road if i need more space.

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
i'm trying to decide between these 2:
http/www.ebay.com/itm/Samsung-NP700Z5B-S01UB-Series-7-Laptop-15-6-LED-Intel-Core-i7-8GB-1TB-512MB-ATI-/180901796692?pt=Laptops_Nov05&hash=item2a1e965b54

http/www.xoticpc.com/sager-np6165-clevo-w150er-p-4344.html?wconfigure=yes

i saw the samsung in person this morning at best buy. i love that it is pretty lightweight and it "looks" a lot sexier than my old dv7 ever did. i also really liked the screen and keyboard and have mostly only seen good reviews about both. the 1TB hard drive is great, but i am worried that 8gb is the max ram so i couldn't upgrade it 2 years down the road. still, it is nearly doubling all the major specs from my old laptop: twice the processing speed, hd and ram while halving the weight. i'm not a super mobile user, but i'd like to try to become more so.

the sager i'd upgrade to the matte screen w/ 95% gamut. i would expect this to be a phenomenal screen, but i've never seen it so i can't compare and i guess i won't know what i'm missing out on either. i also don't know if 1080p will appear too small... i do NOT want to spend all day squinting to read code. also since i work on websites i know that there are very, very few sites designed at widths larger than 1400px. and will i notice that much color difference if i am not doing color/print design type of work?

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
3+ years min

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
i guess it should write dvds. occasionally i have the need (like making restore discs) but it is rare

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
have owned 2 hp pavillions. don't have anything against them really apart from their super shiny screens. i'd probably get it again if they had a matte screen option just b/c i'm in total paralysis by analysis mode now. they both lasted around 3 years before dying spectacularly.

13. What country do you live in?
USA

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
basically i am willing to spend more on a nice display that will be gentler on my eyes for extended sessions.

edit: one other major thing. i have been dual-booting windows and linux mint and i am strongly considering switching to mint completely... maybe running windows inside a virtual box when i absolutely need it (which is usually just to tell my parents how to use theirs). which will work better as a nix box or should i be looking at something else entirely (i've read lenovo is quite good with linux for instance)


i would appreciate any opinions on the matter! cheers!

 

[Alabalcho]

Are you going to connect external monitor to this laptop? If so, 1600x900 is pretty good for a laptop. But being a developer, you know that the code flows top-down, not left-right, so every vertical pixes counts.

 

[helgatheviking]

i'm a little too transient for an external monitor.... i never live in the same place for long enough. 1600x900 seemed pretty comfortable most of the time... only zooming on ridiculous 10-12px internet text.

i do a lot of side-by-side stuff and have yet to really notice a problem with just scrolling down to see more. (sometimes i will the same document so i can reference a point higher up in the file)