1920x1080 Resolution on a Laptop: A Nightmare!

[HungFist]

I recently bought a new laptop... Asus N56V with 15 inch screen and 1920x1080 resolution. And what a nightmare it has been! Is there something I'm missing?

1920x1080 is obviously not suitable for a 15 inch screen: everything is so tiny you can't read the text. So, the options are:

1) Change the resolution. Outcome: everything becomes blurry. It seems laptop screens only give good performance with the native resolution (in this case 1920), everything else results in hazy image.

2) Keep the resolution and use scaling (125% or 150%). Outcome: works reasonably well for desktop and office programs, but everything else is problematic. In many programs text doesn't fit the screen anymore, Firefox image becomes blurry, Chrome becomes slightly over-sharpened + there's random bugs (certain images become ultra-blurry)

3) Increase fonts. Outcome: same as above: text no longer fits the screen.

So now I have a 1000€ laptop with options between blurry image and so small text that it cannot be read. Just great. And this was suppoed to be a bloody great machine according to reviews.

Am I missing something? I'm seriously considering selling this and buy a new one with 1366 resolution... and losing hundreds of € in the process. Never again a 1920x1080 laptop

[luckystars]

Can't you just increase the system fonts from the control panel

[HungFist]

Can't you just increase the system fonts from the control panel

I can, but that's only gonna help for Windows. The problems with internet browsing would remain: either too small text, or browser upscale with results in blurryness... The latter is a strange thing. I'm using firefox and I've set the scaling to (about:config --> layout.css.devPixelsPerPx) 1.3 (130%) and on bullets forum most parts are sharp but some are hazy (e.g. new topic, post reply, edit, quote buttons)

[Shingster]

I assume it's Win 7 or Win 8? Have you tried fiddling around with the font smoothing settings via ClearType tuner? With my old projector I found I got better results n 1080p if I turned ClerType off

[HungFist]

Windows 8

I tried that too, but actually the fonts are now quite ok, I'm having bigger problem with some images when using firefox. Large images are ok, small ones become often fuzzy.

Below is a comparison:

Chrome


Firefox


Of course I could switch to Chrome, but it features a different set of problems...

edit: the images I posted look bigger than they really are. I'm not sure if my browser is doing something and if I see them correctly... In reality the quality is better in both. But in any case, you can at least see the relative difference in sharpness between them

[luckystars]

Sorry I got no clue


This is why I have a mac

[Shingster]

What's the difference in your settings for those images Hung? Is one zoomed in/out via firefox or something?

[HungFist]

What's the difference in your settings for those images Hung? Is one zoomed in/out via firefox or something?

Both are zoomed in via browser, but chrome does notably better job.

I now have resolution set at 1920, scaling for windows at 125% and scaling for firefox also at 125% (windows and browser have to be scaled separately).

[luckystars]

Have you ever tried safari?

Before you shout at me ( ), it has a 'zoom text only' function on the mac version, so when you zoom...it scales everything beautifully and leaves the pictures normal sized

[HungFist]

Have you ever tried safari?

Before you shout at me ( ), it has a 'zoom text only' function on the mac version, so when you zoom...it scales everything beautifully and leaves the pictures normal sized

I tried.　Actually it's the "all zoom" that I need... with text only it would mess up web pages when the large font no longer fits where it's supposed to fit. And, I'd also like pictures to be big enough that I can see them... and webpages look good. Obviously a lot of sites have not been intended for 1920 as it tends to leave the sides completely empty with all the information in the middle 30%...

Safari's zoom is better than the others actually, but seems you cannot save the zoom level. Furthermore, seems that Safari is no longer being updated for Windows, so...

But thanks for trying to help.

Seriously, I may end up selling this laptop and buying a new one with 1366 resolution instead. I'm gonna miss the screen - no reflection, wonderful viewing angles, and onviously you do get extra sharpness in many places...

[Lourdes]

Read through this? http://www.microsoftfanboys.com/2013/02 ... i-screens/

I hate that sort of thing too as my eyes aren't great. It's why I like OS X and iOS, 'Retina' displays on all my stuff but a halved resolution with twice the pixel density and most applications support it.

[HungFist]

Thanks, but yes, tried that stuff.

[HungFist]

Ok, here we go. Had enough of this, will sell it and get a new one.

(actually, the resolution is not the only thing I disliked about this laptop... I didn't find the speakers very good, and the mic is so bad I cannot use it for skyping...)

Now the issue is cleaning the laptop of files and stuff. Windows 8 has a "remove everything and reinstall" feature which I already ran, but I'm not confident this will be enough. I'm thinking whether CCleaner's drive wiper with its overwrite free space function will do?

I know there are more powerful tools, but those will delete everything, Windows included. While I might be able to reinstal Windows, I'm afraid I might not be able to recover something essential, e.g. blu-ray player software (ASUS DVD, which is clearly manufactured by Corel/PowerDVD). Being a complete beginner with this stuff, the biggest worry is that I might delete permanently something I didn't realize was essential.

(to those who don't know what I'm talking about: deleting files from computer (and emptying trash bin) does not actually delete them. It just marks them as rewritable. Although they become invisible and you think your hard disc is empty, they actually remain there, and can be restored with specific programs and skills, until they have been overwritten with new data)

[HungFist]

Ran CCleaner with 7 time overwrite for free space. Then Recuva which did not manage to save anything except a couple of random pictures that came from some internet site after I did the clean. Good

[Lourdes]

The way to do it (in future) would be to boot from the install disk and do a full format as this will zero fill the partition. Or there are a ton of boot disks to do the same or a Linux distro.
You just need a single pass of anything, once overwritten data is completely gone.

HOWEVER. IF you have an SSD you need to use the SecureErase ATA command as not all blocks are presented by the drives firmware due to wear levelling and such, but this will clear the drive in moments. Again, Linux distros and the like.