So, the missus is wanting a new laptop - which suits me as her existing one only has 2GB of RAM, has a German version of Windows 7 on it, and a German keyboard (with the "Y" and "Z" swapped over). She's wanting it mainly for work, not for movies or anything like that.

So, not a problem I thinks! Should be fairly straight-forward to find a £500-£700 or so laptop with a 15" 16:10 matte screen, an average CPU, 4GB of RAM and a capapble battery.

Wrong.

Seems that since I was last in the laptop market, all the manufacturers have decided that people exclusively use their laptops for watching films and playing games and that nobody ever wants to do productive things. As a result, NONE of the main manufacturers make a single 16:10 laptop any more. Not one. Even the Dell Precision laptops, Lenovo Thinkpads and the other more business oriented ones all have shite multi-media oriented 16:9 screens. As a result, her creaking, 3-year-old Lenovo actually has a better screen than almost anything I could find today.

Well, with one exception. Seems there is one company that still produces 16:10 laptops, but that company is Apple, and the MacBook Pros start at around £1,500 for the 15" ones.

So great. I've either got to pay £1,500+ for a MacBook, or I've got to buy her a new laptop with a worse screen than her old one. Dell, Lenovo, HP, Acer: You're all a bunch of stupid, cheapskate fuckers :-(

So buy an old one.

And would you like to explain the point of replacing an old laptop with an old laptop?

Samsung series 7 chronos. £650ish on amazon, can either have it with decent graphics* or decent CPU**, not both.

*ish
**Ivy Bridge ones seem to only have Intel HD graphics.

I'm saddened to hear that Apple make laptops with screens that are shite for films and gaming. No, really I am.

16:10 is better for gaming.

In fact 16:10 is just better. It is a closer fit to my (and most other humans') field of vision. Films tend to be wider than either so you get letterboxing either way.

But yeah, I don't see it as a big deal. 16:9 is only marginally inferior, you'll get used to it.

13.3" rather than 15" but the HP Pro books aren't bad and are a 16:10 screen albeit at a slightly disappointing 1366x768 resolution the same as a 13 inch MacBook.
http://www8.hp.com/uk/en/products/laptops/product-detail.html?oid=5211503

http://www.hardware.com/store/hp/LG652EA or this one which is 15.5", slightly over your original budget though.

I /am/ used to it. I don't really care. Especially since I watch a lot of films in non-current standard formats (e.g. 1930s-1950s)

It bothers me a bit. 16:10 is just /nicer/ (better approximation of the golden ratio) and it's frustrating that these things are being dictated by the entertainment industry when most of us spend most of our time on our computers doing things other than consuming TV/films. Man, that was a badly written sentence.

But yeah, I managed with 4:3 for years and either is better than that so it's no big deal.

Because you seem to think the old ones are better?

Sorry, but 1366x768 is a 16:9 resolution :-(

As I say, I don't mind 16:9 being the common and cheaper aspect ratio. My big irritation is that 16:10 is literally not available at all - even on so-called premium laptops. Her old laptop has a decent 1400x900 screen res and it wasn't a premium model.

My guess is that 16:9 obviously became cheaper to make - what with the entertainment industry and everything, and as it became more popular, 16:10 screens became more expensive. As the margins are better with 16:9 screens, the manufacturers obviously thought that if they shifted EVERYTHING to 16:9, we'd have to buy them, and they'd make more profit as a result. The exception is Apple, as they can charge what they like and still sell things - plus the excellent screens are one of the MacBook's unique features these days.

Dan: Old laptop *screens* are better, but with an older CPU, slower memory, ageing battery and all the rest of it, the laptop is in need of replacement. I want a *new* laptop but with a good screen. Unfortunately, that's not possible unless I buy an Apple laptop. I don't really want to buy a laptop and know that it's deliberately got a sub-standard screen, just to help that manufacturer's profits.

Well, I'm not being sarcastic. I mean buy an old model new (i.e., not used) or maybe refurb, or in 'like new' condition, if you can find one. Sure the latest cpu and faster memory are nice, but maybe not all they're cracked up to be, or really needed by your wife for her computing purposes. And you can usually get a replacement battery.

Just buy a 16:9 laptop. She'll get used it. I moved from 16:10 to 16:9. It was a bit annoying but the benefits of a new much better laptop certainly outweighed the screen res change.

The problem is that unless we spend an arm and a leg, she'll get a drop in resolution from her old laptop (1400x900 to 1366x768). And as she finds the screen to be an important part, she's not overly fussed on having an enforced downgrade.

And of course even if she can get used to it, there's always that annoyance of knowing that you've got a deliberately poorer screen, just to help the laptop manufacturer make more profit at your expense. Kind of leaves a nasty taste in your mouth.

How about a desktop? :Y

(or at least an external monitor for when using it at home)

Just get a laptop with a 15" 16:9 1920x1080 screen.

Yes you've lost the extra vertical dimension but you've gained many more pixels otherwise.

In the end she's gone for a 13.3" Samsung Series 9 Ultrabook. 1600x900 res (so although she'll lose vertical space, she's not losing resolution), 128GB SSD, and it only weighs 1.1kg. Looks very nice. In fact, IMO if it had a 16:10 screen, it'd have been perfect. Still, apart from that it looks like a nice bit of kit!

Good - I was fearing that you were slowly turning into PB :|

Same laptop I have, you'll want to do some partition fiddling with it as it comes with 90Gb useable out of the box they've put so much recovery shite on there!