4K vs 1080p on a laptop?

[Cy-Fy]

Hey guys I am going to buy a laptop and I will use it for engineering so I imagine programs like Solidworks, matlab etc as well as maybe a few games and the usual entertainment stuff. I am able to get the Dell 7569 4K version for about the same price as the Dell XPS 15 1080p version. The 7569 seems to have slightly better performance and the only reason I'm considering the 4K is because it's 1080p panel is crap and I won't do a diy installation of the IPS panel.

 

My question is, is 4K a good resolution for a 15 inch laptop? For watching movies and browsing sure sounds great but in terms of every day usability with software will scaling be an issue? will it take away from the experience of using a powerful laptop and will it affect other aspects too much like maybe the 1050ti card won't be enough for a 4k screen for long (especially since I expect this to last me at least 5 years)?

 

Thank you very much!

[PineyCreek]

If you're going to use it for engineering and CAD I would get the 1080 model with a graphics card powerful enough to drive a good external monitor.  4K on a laptop is going to be annoying on a small screen I would think.

[MercuryRain]

4K on a screen that small is just annoying to me - windows display scaling sucks and if you have to scale everything up 250% to be able to see it you're kind of defeating the point of having the 4K, in my mind.

[5ushi]

Also, 4k screens use more battery because when they are in use, they drive the GPU harder.

[Cy-Fy]

12 minutes ago, PineyCreek said:

If you're going to use it for engineering and CAD I would get the 1080 model with a graphics card powerful enough to drive a good external monitor.  4K on a laptop is going to be annoying on a small screen I would think.

 

8 minutes ago, CerberusLabrat said:

4K on a screen that small is just annoying to me - windows display scaling sucks and if you have to scale everything up 250% to be able to see it you're kind of defeating the point of having the 4K, in my mind.

 

4 minutes ago, 5ushi said:

Also, 4k screens use more battery because when they are in use, they drive the GPU harder.

 

2 minutes ago, huilun02 said:

4K is pointless on a mobile device

I'd rather take the slimmer and lighter XPS

Unless you find something else with a more powerful CPU/GPU

 

 

Thanks very much! It seems that the general consensus is that 1080p is always better at 15". My worry was that the 1080p screen on the XPS 15 wouldn't be good enough in terms of colours and quality but looking at notebookcheck it seems that the screen is actually very nice!!! One last thing is this Dell only comes with a 1050 4gb as opposed to 1050ti. With a focus on work and not gaming but still some light gaming do you think this laptop will last the 5 years I am intending it too? Also what have you heard about quality of XPS laptops?

 

Thanks again for all the help.

[Princess Luna]

4k resolution on a 15,6 inch screen sounds like an awful deal to me personally, hells I'm satisfied with 1366x768p for such resolution since the screen size really is so small.... 1920x1080p suffices more than enough... 4k is a 27inch and beyond resolution otherwise you're paying premium for no real benefit.

[MercuryRain]

8 minutes ago, Cy-Fy said:

 

 

 

 

Thanks very much! It seems that the general consensus is that 1080p is always better at 15". My worry was that the 1080p screen on the XPS 15 wouldn't be good enough in terms of colours and quality but looking at notebookcheck it seems that the screen is actually very nice!!! One last thing is this Dell only comes with a 1050 4gb as opposed to 1050ti. With a focus on work and not gaming but still some light gaming do you think this laptop will last the 5 years I am intending it too? Also what have you heard about quality of XPS laptops?

 

Thanks again for all the help.

 

For solidworks/matlab, etc, the 1050 will be fine. Quadro would be better for solidworks, but the 1050 will be fine.  For gaming purposes it really depends on what you play. League/Overwatch/Rocket League/Dota? You're probably fine with a 1050. 

 

I went for a 1060 on my new laptop because the 1070 is a tiny bit of overkill for 1080p right now and I preferred to have something smaller.

[Cy-Fy]

9 minutes ago, Princess Cadence said:

4k resolution on a 15,6 inch screen sounds like an awful deal to me personally, hells I'm satisfied with 1366x768p for such resolution since the screen size really is so small.... 1920x1080p suffices more than enough... 4k is a 27inch and beyond resolution otherwise you're paying premium for no real benefit.

Yeah that's true thanks!

5 minutes ago, CerberusLabrat said:

 

For solidworks/matlab, etc, the 1050 will be fine. Quadro would be better for solidworks, but the 1050 will be fine.  For gaming purposes it really depends on what you play. League/Overwatch/Rocket League/Dota? You're probably fine with a 1050. 

 

I went for a 1060 on my new laptop because the 1070 is a tiny bit of overkill for 1080p right now and I preferred to have something smaller.

Perfect! may I ask what laptop you got?

 

[MercuryRain]

I got the Alienware 13.

 

Spent a little bit of a premium because I could have gotten an MSI GS63VR for a little bit cheaper, but I got the Alienware on financing (even though it's going to be paid off in like a month regardless) and I like having the option to get a graphics amplifier later and just use a desktop graphics card to keep it up to snuff.

[Pendragon]

10 hours ago, CerberusLabrat said:

For solidworks/matlab, etc, the 1050 will be fine. Quadro would be better for solidworks, but the 1050 will be fine.

not really. solidworks is so quadro optimized it's not funny. gtx cards barely function on solidworks. Quadro K620 beats out 980ti cards (so basically 1070s). 

 

11 hours ago, Cy-Fy said:

My question is, is 4K a good resolution for a 15 inch laptop? For watching movies and browsing sure sounds great but in terms of every day usability with software will scaling be an issue? will it take away from the experience of using a powerful laptop and will it affect other aspects too much like maybe the 1050ti card won't be enough for a 4k screen for long (especially since I expect this to last me at least 5 years)?

2

a 1050ti card isn't enough for 4k games today.

 

and i use a 4k screen with my 15in laptop daily. its fine mostly when it works. a pain in the ass when it doesn't. battery life drain is real as fuck. if you're going into engineering and you KNOW you're going to use solidworks, you need to stay the fuck away from GTX cards. a M1000M will out solidworks a titan xp because of how solidworks works. you should be looking at the precision 5510 for quadro cards. get them on dell outlet or ebay refurb. gaming will be bad, but solidworks will be good.