Of screen size and resolution on mobile PCs

We are entering an interesting time in the cycle of mobile PCs with the appearance of devices of all different sizes.  This fact was driven home to me over this past weekend as I was rebuilding the Sony U71 to send out to the winner of our Geekapalooza contest.  The first generation UMPCs all had 7 inch screens and ran at a native resolution of 800 x 480.  The Sony U runs at 800 x 600 on its 5 inch screen and having used one for several years my experience is that the resolution of the U is perfect for that screen size.  I have used other mobile PCs with a similar sized screen at different resolutions and all of them fell short in the usability department.  Read on to get my take on screen size and resolution.

There are two main factors relating to a good screen experience, sizeof course which plays the main role in determining the overall size ofa device and the video resolution which plays a big role in determininghow useful a device can be.  My experience with devices running a 5 inch screen has me firmly believing that 800 x 600 is the perfect resolution for that size.  I find I can use such a device for hours on end comfortably and be very production at the same time.  On the other hand I had a problem using the Sony UX devices with their sub-5 inch screen running at 1024 x 600.  The resolution is just too big for that small screen and usage of an hour or longer would cause severe eye strain.  It was not uncommon for me to get a headache at the one hour mark with the UX, something that is just not acceptable for my mobile usage pattern.  On the other hand I find the 800 x 480 resolution of the OQO Model 01 to be too small.  While the screen is very easy to read Windows is just not made for such a short resolution (480).  The dreaded problem of dialog boxes falling off the screen as a result is a major pain for prolific users.  Sure you can switch to a bigger resolution on UMPCs but native resolution is crisper and easier on the eyes than pixellated resolutions.

I have the same problem with UMPCs running 800 x 480 on a 7 inch screen.  The larger screen size just screams for a resolution bigger than that and I’m glad to see OEMs like Samsung step up and increase the resolution.  The Q1 Ultra runs a native resolution of 1024 x 600 which I believe will be perfect for that screen size.  I hope other OEMs follow suit as 1024 x 600 will increase user productivity by leaps and bounds on a 7 inch screen.  When I was using a Samsung Q1 I kept the resolution at 1024 x 600 almost all the time to see enough on the screen to be productive, but it was not the native resolution and thus a little fuzzy.  The more you can comfortably view on the screen at one time the more productive you will be.

The Fujitsu P1610 runs at an unusually large resolution of 1280 x 768 on its 8.9 inch screen, a resolution that while very productive can also be rather small at times.  It drives home my feelings about matching the screen size and resolution carefully.  I don’t get eyestrain using the Fuji but sometimes little bitty controls can be hard to hit with the finger, and fingertip control is something at which devices with a touchscreen should excel.  My desire to be as productive as possible with my mobile PC drives home to me that XGA (1024 x 768) resolution is not optimum for 12.1 inch screens like most Tablet PCs.  It’s good to see OEMS offer higher resolution options to take proper advantage of that big screen real estate.  The days of XGA are over as far as I’m concerned.

To recap, here’s a listing of various screen sizes and what my experience tells me is the optimum native resolution for them:

5 inch or slightly smaller-  800 x 600
7 inch-  1024 x 600
9 inch- 1280 x 768
12.1 inch- 1440 x 1050

Notice that 800 x 480 doesn’t appear on my list, it’s a horrible resolution under Windows of any flavor.

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