Widescreen = Small Screen

For some reason widescreen monitors are all the rage, so that’s primarily what the stores are selling now and almost all laptops now have widescreens. I suppose that the HDTV-look influences it and just because it looks cool and new, etc. However, I think that the sizes that are advertised are deceptive. For me, and many users I support, vertical size is very important. For businesses, a website or a piece of paper are not wide, like a movie, but rather tall.

Unless you have a really good reason, I recommend going with a regular ratio monitor (4:3 or 5:4). I have put together some measurements below that give some perspective:

• Dell 1907FP 19 inch flat panel: 11.9 inches tall x 14.8 inches wide (5:4)
• Dell 16 inch CRT: 9.5 inches tall x 12.75 inches wide (4:3)
• 19 inch widescreen flat panel (calculated): 10.1 inches tall x 16.1 inches tall (16:10)

As you can see, a widescreen 19 inch monitor is actually 1.8 inches shorter than a regular 19 inch monitor. To match the height of a 19 inch regular ratio monitor in a widescreen, you’d need to buy larger than 22 inches. To go the other way, a 19 inch widescreen is as tall as a 17 inch regular flat panel monitor.

I found this GREAT website to figure it all out: tvcalculator.com and change the source image to none.