Why are there so few good gaming laptops?

[lostandwandering]

That's not really true; a 1600 x 1200 screen is generally 4:3 ratio and as of such much more 'square' and taller than a 1600 x 1080 screen -- you can't just squish "more pixels" into a widescreen display; the ratio has to match. Now, you definitely wouldn't want a 4:3 ratio in a 16:10 screen, but I imagine there might be some fudge with 16:10 vs 16:9?

That tends to be more of a difference between a standard screen and a widescreen. As you said, you don't typically find one type of resolution on another's screen shape.

Like I said before, I think most companies are just sticking with the 1080p screens because of HD and blu-ray. But I agree with you, I don't think you are missing a lot by losing those extra 120 pixels.

@Lotri, what is your screen res? My 1920x1200 laptop is still more rectangular than it is square.

 

[lotri]

I think the 120 pixels accounts for about 3/4" on my screen vertically. Although if you're watching a 1080p picture, you just get the extra black space to simulate a movie theater screen.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

I guess I'm a little uncomfortable with the no-name Asian company,

Those no name asian companies are the ones building every single laptop sold by Dell, HP, Apple, Toshiba, Lenovo, Compaq and every name you every heard of ....

* Quanta sells to (among others) HP/Compaq, Dell, Toshiba, Sony, Fujitsu, Acer, NEC, Gateway and Lenovo/IBM - note that Quanta is currently (as of August, 2007) the largest manufacturer of notebook computers in the world.
* Compal sells to Toshiba, HP/Compaq, Acer, and Dell.
* Wistron (former manufacturing & design division of Acer) sells to HP/Compaq, Dell, IBM, NEC, Acer, and Lenovo/IBM.
* Flextronics (former Arima Computer Corporation notebook division) sells to HP/Compaq, NEC, and Dell.
* ECS sells to IBM, Fujitsu, and Dell.
* Asus sells to Apple (iBook), Sony, and Samsung.
* Inventec sells to HP/Compaq, Toshiba, and BenQ.
* Uniwill sells to Lenovo/IBM and Fujitsu.

But man... I've been burned in the past by random Asian companies with no customer support and very little recourse, ya know?

Prostar repaired my 1st laptop I purchased from them when I had a problem, 39 months after I bought it.....3 months after warranty expired. I just bought my 6th one.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

I think the 120 pixels accounts for about 3/4" on my screen vertically. Although if you're watching a 1080p picture, you just get the extra black space to simulate a movie theater screen.

Those 120 pixels rock.....love being able to play games at 1920 x 1080 and still have full access to my taskbar and screen bottom for a player and other goodies.