The LaVie G, NEC's ultrahigh resolution laptop

You can quit bitching about how you can't get an ultrahigh resolution laptop—at least if you live in Japan, that is. NEC's coming out with a new laptop called the LaVie G that sports a 15-inch display with a staggeringly high resolution of 2048 x 1536 (get ready to squint…). Oddly enough, the fanciness begins and ends with the LCD, since the rest of the specs on this thing are good, but nothing all that spectactular: 1.73GHz processor, 256MB of DDR2 RAM (expandable up to 1GB), 40GB hard drive, and a CD-ROM drive (?!).

[Foof @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

For about $1200 extra, you could always get a CTO IBM T42 with QXGA (2048x1536), or buy the screen from IBM separately for that much more. And that's right here in the states.

[TechJapan @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

This machine comes with a 2.13GHz processor - not a 1.73 GHz. Furthermore, the specs you list are the MINIMUM specifications available. The machine is available with up to 2GB RAM (not 1GB), a 100GB HDD and a DVD Super-Multi drive if you wish. See the following link for confirmation:

http://www.nec.co.jp/press/ja/0504/1102-02.html

[Peter Rojas @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

Akihabara News has it wrong then, we're going off what they had listed.

[Jason @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

15" diagonal is, at 4:3, 12"x9", making this a 225 dpi display. You may recall from IBM's spin a few years back that 200 dpi is a bit of a magic number for the human eye. At that dot pitch, eye strain is purported to drop off dramatically.
Now unfortunately, to the 'squint' comment, desktop operating systems have not been keeping on top of the run-up in DPI. From my experience on the 140 dpi display that ships on some of the ultraportable laptops, things are close but no cigar. Sure, you can change the default font set, which mostly helps, but some things web pages will pop up painfully small text, and of course images and icons can be at the edge of reason. I imagine that at 225 dpi, this situation become quite unpleasant.

[rob mayoff @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

It's 171 dpi, not 225 dpi.

[Riskable @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

I can't vouch for many web pages, but if you're using KDE in Linux, you can take your dpi as high as you want and all KDE apps will display fonts properly. Just make sure you set your "DisplaySize" variable in your X configuration.

Note that when I say "display fonts properly" I mean that all fonts are supposed to follow the 72-points-in-an-inch. If you increase your resolution and your fonts get smaller, you're in an environment that doesn't properly display fonts.

Example: If you print out some text and hold it up to your monitor, the text on the page should be precisely the same size as the text on-screen (unless you're zooming).

[Ari @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

I'm really more interested in a 30" inch lcd screen that supports this resolution than a 15inch laptop monitor.

[Razek @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

Hi
I need this laptop for it LCD QXGA(2048x1536)native res.
Can any body tell me how can I get it?

[Razek @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

Hi
I need this laptop for it LCD QXGA(2048x1536)native res.
Can any body tell me how can I get it?
[e-mail]

[MN @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

I've been using a 1920x1200 17" widescreen display on my Sony vaio laptop for half a year. At first I thought the DPI was too high (can someone please calculate the DPI?), but now I'm used to it and find it hard to sit in front of a regular laptop screen. Some texts on homepages are a problem sometimes, though, and the whole right side is always empty on every homepage when the window is maximized. Such a waste of screen real-estate.