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  • Non-widescreen laptops are becoming an endangered species

    Devin Coldewey

    Devin Coldewey is a Seattle-based writer and photographer. He has written for the TechCrunch network since 2007. Some posts he’d like you to read: The Dangers of Externalizing Knowledge | Generation i | Surveillant Society | Choose Two | Frame Wars | The User’s Manifesto | Our Great Sin His personal website is coldewey.cc. → Learn More

    Monday, April 21st, 2008


    As Lenovo retires its last line of non-widescreen laptops, it sounds like one of the final nails being hammered into the squarish aspect ratio screens we grew up with. I think that the move to 16:10 and related aspect ratios is a good thing, but I mourn the passing of the standard aspect ratio (SAR) screen as I mourned my old SAR NEC monitor when I moved to a sweet new 16:10 Dell LCD. While it’s arguable that SAR’s value is that it gives you more vertical space to work in (essential for coding), I think the increased screen real estate provided by increased resolution more than makes up for it. Plus as the laptop is increasingly a media platform as well as a tiny workstation, the wide aspect ratio makes for good movie watchin’. Yes, widescreen is great, but a moment of silence if you please for SXGA.

    And check out this awesome chart:

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