17" Wide Screen Notebook Coming from Sony?

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.engadget.com/entry/2500628962884728/' target='_blank'>http://www.engadget.com/entry/2500628962884728/</a><br /><br /></div>"Second stunner from Sony today: there’s nothing official yet, but Sony will follow the lead of just about every other manufacturer and introduce a 17-inch wide-screen laptop that will supposedly come with either a 1.8GHz or 2.0GHz processor, an 80GB hard drive, and an 128MB video card. More details are sure to come."<br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/sony17inch-small.jpg" /> <br /><br />engadget has a brief blurb about a rumoured Sony laptop, and this is good news for those of you who have been looking for a Memory-stick compatible mobile media editing device. I use the term "mobile" tongue-in-cheek though when talking about laptop with a massive 17" screen. What I found most interesting about this news is the mention of a 1.8 Ghz or 2.0 Ghz CPU - I have this strong hunch that it will be one of the new <a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1006_3-5209069.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=news">Dothan processors</a>, the follow-up CPU to the Pentium 4M, what we've seen in most Centrino-based notebooks. <br /><br />This is a departure from the strategy of other 17" notebook vendors who have paired the massive laptops with top-end desktop CPUs. You get more power, but at the cost of battery life. Battery life has been the hallmark of many Sony products, so it's logical to assume that they feel a 2.0 Ghz Dothan CPU with 2 MB of cache, which should perform similarly to a 3.0 Ghz P4, is close enough in the performance department to make power-hungry users happy while still being more battery friendly than a desktop P4 chip. The next few months will be very interesting for those of use who are looking for big-screen laptops with processing-crunching power. When I encode WMV files on my P5010D, I'm reminded of why a 900 mhz processor just doesn't cut it for video rendering, so I'm looking forward with great anticipation to what laptop vendors have planned for the new Dothan chips.

[OSUKid7]

Other than a Tablet PC, a widescreen laptop would be the only type of laptop I would even consider now.

[Jason Dunn]

Other than a Tablet PC, a widescreen laptop would be the only type of laptop I would even consider now.

Yeah, I'm the same way - I'm disappointed when I see new laptops being announced that AREN'T widescreen. Widescreen rules....except when it comes to gaming, which is why I still have square screens on my desktop. :?

[OSUKid7]

Other than a Tablet PC, a widescreen laptop would be the only type of laptop I would even consider now.

Yeah, I'm the same way - I'm disappointed when I see new laptops being announced that AREN'T widescreen. Widescreen rules....except when it comes to gaming, which is why I still have square screens on my desktop. :?
lol...weird, right after I posted I thought about the problem with gaming. How do most games handle widescreen resolutions? Do they just cut off the sides like an HDTV?

[Jason Dunn]

lol...weird, right after I posted I thought about the problem with gaming. How do most games handle widescreen resolutions? Do they just cut off the sides like an HDTV?

Yup. So you either end up with big black sidebars (ugly) or you "fit to screen" and the game is horizontally stretched (ugly). Kind of a lose/lose scenario. I hope that this year we'll start to see games support that resolution natively, but I somehow doubt it...

[Suhit Gupta]

Well, the problem is - how exactly would it work in widescreen mode? Would a gamer then have a wider field of view if looking at it on a widescreen display? In that case, it is probably that a player using a widescreen display would have an advantage over a player that isn't.

Suhit

[Jason Dunn]

Well, the problem is - how exactly would it work in widescreen mode? Would a gamer then have a wider field of view if looking at it on a widescreen display? In that case, it is probably that a player using a widescreen display would have an advantage over a player that isn't.

Suhit

Good point! The problem with widescreen is that it changes the aspect ratio, so you're right, it would change the way the game looks. But what other option is there?

[OSUKid7]

Well, the problem is - how exactly would it work in widescreen mode? Would a gamer then have a wider field of view if looking at it on a widescreen display? In that case, it is probably that a player using a widescreen display would have an advantage over a player that isn't.
Right, but don't players with larger screen resolutions already have a wider viewing angle?

[Suhit Gupta]

Well, the problem is - how exactly would it work in widescreen mode? Would a gamer then have a wider field of view if looking at it on a widescreen display? In that case, it is probably that a player using a widescreen display would have an advantage over a player that isn't.
Right, but don't players with larger screen resolutions already have a wider viewing angle?
Not really, at least not in most FPS games. I just started up Quake III, Unreal Tournament, Unreal Tournament 2003, Unreal Tournament 2004, Serious Sam and Serious Sam II and they all have the same viewing angle in both 640x480 and 1600x1200. Note that in the 640x480, all the textures were ridiculously pixelated (obviously). Different gaming genres may be different, though I am about to test it out on Rise of Nations and Age of Mythology (strategy games) and will report if there is something different.

Suhit

[Kacey Green]

I know that laptops from '99 '00 supported the black bars mode, but from my understanding running laptops or desktops outside of native resolution causes upscaling and pixelation? is this true or is it a hidden setting, I'd much prefer black bars to upscaling. Just about the only thing keeping me from an LCD right now.

[Suhit Gupta]

Just about the only thing keeping me from an LCD right now.
What resolution do you run at, that you can't find the right LCD? :)

Suhit

[Kacey Green]

I'll run at whatever the native is, but when I have to drop below the native (games, movies, other machines, etc.) will I have the option of the Black bars? or will they stretch everything?

[OSUKid7]

I'll run at whatever the native is, but when I have to drop below the native (games, movies, other machines, etc.) will I have the option of the Black bars? or will they stretch everything?
Black bars? You'll only get black bars if you get a widescreen LCD. Regular LCDs work just like CRTs. (mine does at least)

[Suhit Gupta]

I'll run at whatever the native is, but when I have to drop below the native (games, movies, other machines, etc.) will I have the option of the Black bars? or will they stretch everything?
Black bars? You'll only get black bars if you get a widescreen LCD. Regular LCDs work just like CRTs. (mine does at least)
Yeah, same here. Kacey, I don't think I get your point/question.

Suhit

[Jason Dunn]

I'll run at whatever the native is, but when I have to drop below the native (games, movies, other machines, etc.) will I have the option of the Black bars? or will they stretch everything?

LCD monitors "stretch to fit" non-native resolutions, interpolating the image up/down in resolution. No black bars.

[Suhit Gupta]

I'll run at whatever the native is, but when I have to drop below the native (games, movies, other machines, etc.) will I have the option of the Black bars? or will they stretch everything?
LCD monitors "stretch to fit" non-native resolutions, interpolating the image up/down in resolution. No black bars.
Isn't this application specific? I am pretty sure that I have seen a 640x480 application on my old Thinkpad at just that resolution even though the laptop was running at 1024x768.

Suhit

[Suhit Gupta]

I'll run at whatever the native is, but when I have to drop below the native (games, movies, other machines, etc.) will I have the option of the Black bars? or will they stretch everything?
LCD monitors "stretch to fit" non-native resolutions, interpolating the image up/down in resolution. No black bars.
Isn't this application specific? I am pretty sure that I have seen a 640x480 application on my old Thinkpad at just that resolution even though the laptop was running at 1024x768.
Though, now that I think about it, the application was probably still running as 1024x768. :?

Suhit

[Kacey Green]

I'll run at whatever the native is, but when I have to drop below the native (games, movies, other machines, etc.) will I have the option of the Black bars? or will they stretch everything?

LCD monitors "stretch to fit" non-native resolutions, interpolating the image up/down in resolution. No black bars.

So there is no way to turn the interpolation off?
Would a geforce fx 5200 be decent to run the 19 in" LCDs at native res.?

[Suhit Gupta]

I'll run at whatever the native is, but when I have to drop below the native (games, movies, other machines, etc.) will I have the option of the Black bars? or will they stretch everything?

LCD monitors "stretch to fit" non-native resolutions, interpolating the image up/down in resolution. No black bars.

So there is no way to turn the interpolation off?
Would a geforce fx 5200 be decent to run the 19 in" LCDs at native res.?
I definitely think so. The 5200 is only a generation behind the current state of the art. And AFAIK, 19" LCDs typically run at 1280x1024 for native resolution. The 5200 will be just fine.

Suhit

[Jason Dunn]

Isn't this application specific? I am pretty sure that I have seen a 640x480 application on my old Thinkpad at just that resolution even though the laptop was running at 1024x768.

He was asking about desktop LCDs, not laptop LCDs. ;-) Laptops typically have a "fit to screen" function that you can toggle on and off - try it at boot time and you can see the XP logo go big or small - but I've never seen a desktop LCD with a hardware toggle for resolution, hence I've never seen black bars on a desktop LCD. AFAIK, it's a matter of hardware, not software.

[Jason Dunn]

So there is no way to turn the interpolation off?
Would a geforce fx 5200 be decent to run the 19 in" LCDs at native res.?

No, you can't turn the interpolation off (unless there are monitors out there that allow this, but I've never seen it), but you don't really want to anyway - the game would be tiny on your screen.

Most 19" run at 1280 x 1024, and assuming you have a decent CPU and system to match that 5200, it should work just fine. I have a Radeon 9600 with a 2.8 Ghz P4 and I can play City of Heroes at 1280 x 1024, and it's very smooth.

[marlof]

More details on this notebook over at notebookreview (http://www.notebookreview.com/default.aspx?newsID=1854). It might also come in a 15.4" variety. Which means that this enters high on the short list for my future notebook, since I was looking for a 15.4" notebook that has enough processing power to help me get through my Photoshop activities wherever I am. So where can I order one, with that cool looking port replicator. ;)

[Jason Dunn]

Hah! I was just about to post on that link!

Here's the thing I really, really don't like: with a 17" notebook and all the space it has, why the HECK should you need a port replicator? According to the photo on that site, there's nothing on the back of the 17" notebook, which seems like a huge waste to me. :?

Oh well, what do I care, it's not like I'd buy this anyway. :lol:

[marlof]

As soon as you move a laptop around, I can see the use of a replicator. After all, my desk has the connections to my scanner, my external (second) monitor, my loudspeakers, my power cord, my printer, etc. Plugging everything in and out all the time is not my favorite pastime. BTW: the backside does show some flip thing, so there will be ports behind that.

But I can't see myself moving a 17" around a lot, not even in the house. That's why I said I wanted the 15.4", not the 17". I simply find those too big to carry around, and I'd much rather have a desktop (more bangs for the bucks) if it would be static. The Japanese Sony Site (http://www.jp.sonystyle.com/Style-a/Product/index.html) currently shows the full range. The 13.3" S and the 17" A17 look widescreen, but the A15 looks 4:3 to me, so that's a downside. I guess I will have to wait until something I can actually read is published on these so I can see if one of these would do everything I'd like it to do. They do look cool to me, but then again I'm pretty partial to Sony design. And have had great experiences with my Sony desktops and laptop so far.