Choice between 2 laptops: 17 inch or 18 inch?

[Jumbo744]

Hello,

I'm having a hard time chosing between those 2 laptops that have the exact same characteristics except that one has a 17inch screen and the other a 18.4 inch screen. The first one is 1100 euros, the second one is 1440 euros. Is the difference worth it? I'm affraid a 18 inch laptop would be too big and heavy to carry, but at the same time I love to have a big screen.

The 2 models are:

ASUS M70VN-7T087C
ACER Aspire 8930G-944G64BN

Anyone has experience with a 18.4 inch laptop?

Thanks :ok:

[green granite]

No but my wife has an acer with a 17" screen and it's perfectly adequate. The price difference seems an awful lot so screen quality may well come into it as well as size.

[seacue]

You may wind that the more-expensive screen has a wider viewing angle.

[Bushfiva]

Good grief, they're monsters. The Asus is 1920 x 1200 pixels (WUXGA+), the Acer is 1920 x 1080 (WUXGA) so both fine for HD movies. The Acer is a (maybe) a bigger hard drive and faster CPU: I see 500GB and 640GB listed under the same Asus part number, so I dunno what's going on there. I have played with the previous version of the Acer and quite liked it.

Does the Asus have a DVBT tuner?

Gosh. a 4kg notebook with a subwoofer 8-). How could one resist??

[Jumbo744]

thanks guys!
Bushfiva, actually I gave the wrong reference for the ASUS. The one I want to buy is the same model but with a Core 2 duo T9400 2.53Ghz and 4go RAM.
Still undecided!!! thanks for your help :ok:

[eg6racer]

I'd go for the 17' screen, price of the 18' for me is not worth it...

[eightyknots]

My last one had a 17" screen. It was too big to carry around so I've gone back to 15.4" which is just right.

You get a better spec for the same price if you go for a smaller screen!

[Jumbo744]

thanks a lot!

I will buy the ASUS then. 1000 euros is fine. I can always build myself a desktop with a 30 inch LCD for my house later....

Thanks for the advices guys!

[Jumbo744]

ASFKAP good points! thanks a lot! :ok:

[Keef]

As they say! Think "portable?"

A friend of mine bought a laptop, a fine thing with a lovely big screen.
It's too big to carry around, so he effectively has two desktop machines, one in his study and one on the dining room table (much to his wife's annoyance).

Now he's looking to buy a real laptop that he can carry around and use.

Mine's got a 13 inch screen, and I find it ideal. (It's sold as some other size, but the folks who measure TV and pooter screens use different inches to the rest of us).

[mixture]

I used to own an Apple laptop with a 17" screen.

Yes it was nice to have the extra real estate, but it was also big and largely impossible to use it on your lap comfortably, hence making it a desktop. The larger screen will also drain battery life quicker, I found myself traveling with two batteries !

When time came to replace it I went for one of their 15" models instead and have not looked back since.

[JayEmKay]

Small is beautiful, as I constantly remind Mrs Asfkap....http://static.pprune.org/images/smilies/smile.gifSo is Mrs Asfkap looking for a 17" one then? :O

.

[Jofm5]

Both screens look good but have you considered the following....

1) The power required to power the screens will be different and will impact battery life. If you are using as a portable desktop this is not an issue but with large screens such as these you will be lucky to get near 2hrs battery life and may require carrying spare batteries if you need to use portable (extra weight and expense).

2) The graphics card will need to perform more work to drive the larger screen - the 9700m is a good card but will give off alot of heat under load. This will require the inbuilt cooling system (the fans) to perform more work in dissipating the heat and may lead to a noisier machine (not familiar with either so cant say which will be noisier).

3) How good is your eyesight, although 17"/18" seems quite large those resolutions are normally suited to 22-24" monitors so whilst working on the laptops at their native resolutions the default fonts will be quite small. I dont find it uncomfortable on my toshiba but I know plenty of people that do.

4) Portability - My tosh has a 17" screen and just fits inside the laptop rucksack that I have for carrying it around - they are a godsend as these beasts are heavy. I found it quite hard to get a decent protective case for a 17" laptop - you may find it near impossible for an 18.4".

If money is not an issue and some of the above is then you may do better to look at a totally different laptop. If battery life is of concern (and money isnt) then look for one that has solid state disks (SSD) as these require less power and perform much better (speed wise) than the traditional laptop winchester disk. Also if battery life is of concern go for as smaller screen as your comfortable with at the best resolution for your eyesight - easy way to find this out is take a trip to your local computer store(s) and find what your comfortable with - then do your research online to find best price/performance combination.

Cheers

Jof.

[Jumbo744]

wow Jof, thanks so much for your reply!