Dell XPS 15 9500 FHD vs UHD

[cloroxtoast]

Hey everyone, I need a laptop for university and have chosen the Dell XPS 15 9500. However, I need help deciding between the FHD screen and the UHD screen. I'm a computer science student so naturally I will be using programs such as Python and Java. On the side however, I will be watching movies, youtube videos, and playing a few light games on the laptop. Any advice would be much appreciated!

[jaslion]

I would really reconcider your laptop choice as the xps is very very know for thermal issue.

 

That being said the FHD version. Screen is too small to notice a difference between 4K and 1080p.

[Darkseth]

stick to 1080p, unless you NEED that 4k Oled (it is oled, right?) for anything professional.

 

4k impacts battery life alot, the sharpness isn't THAT noticeable unless you go extremely close.

[Roswell]

8 hours ago, jaslion said:

I would really reconcider your laptop choice as the xps is very very know for thermal issue.

 

That being said the FHD version. Screen is too small to notice a difference between 4K and 1080p.

You can tell a significant difference between 1080p and 4K on a 15 inch laptop.

[Lord Vile]

49 minutes ago, Vitamanic said:

You can tell a significant difference between 1080p and 4K on a 15 inch laptop.

1440p sure, 4k not so much. Macbook 16" isn't 4K and that's retina 

[Lord Vile]

9 hours ago, cloroxtoast said:

Hey everyone, I need a laptop for university and have chosen the Dell XPS 15 9500. However, I need help deciding between the FHD screen and the UHD screen. I'm a computer science student so naturally I will be using programs such as Python and Java. On the side however, I will be watching movies, youtube videos, and playing a few light games on the laptop. Any advice would be much appreciated!

What are you studying? The XPS is just a poor mans Macbook 

[jaslion]

5 hours ago, Vitamanic said:

You can tell a significant difference between 1080p and 4K on a 15 inch laptop.

I could tell the difference when I was hunched over being really really close to the screen but from a normal angle of work on the laptop there may as well have been no difference. The 4k panel also brings along with it noticeable lower battery life for barely a visual improvement.

 

For me the main issue with the 4k panel was scaling. It was TERRIBLE. At 4k half of the icons were tiny even with scaling at 200% and stuff was blurry and just whack. I turned it to 1080p which due to it not being the panels native resolution was less sharp than a normal 1080p panel and my issues were fixed. I was glad when I just got a regular 1080 screen again.

[cloroxtoast]

7 hours ago, Lord Vile said:

What are you studying? The XPS is just a poor mans Macbook 

I'm studying computer science

[Roswell]

3 hours ago, jaslion said:

I could tell the difference when I was hunched over being really really close to the screen but from a normal angle of work on the laptop there may as well have been no difference. The 4k panel also brings along with it noticeable lower battery life for barely a visual improvement.

 

For me the main issue with the 4k panel was scaling. It was TERRIBLE. At 4k half of the icons were tiny even with scaling at 200% and stuff was blurry and just whack. I turned it to 1080p which due to it not being the panels native resolution was less sharp than a normal 1080p panel and my issues were fixed. I was glad when I just got a regular 1080 screen again.

1080p on a 15 inch laptop is the same PPI as 480p on a 6 inch phone. If you can’t notice a difference at a normal distance you may have vision problems, I don’t know.

[jaslion]

1 minute ago, Vitamanic said:

1080p on a 15 inch laptop is the same PPI as 480p on a 6 inch phone. If you can’t notice a difference at a normal distance you may have vision problems, I don’t know.

The difference is distance too. You sit half a meter away from a latop easily. Sure the ppi isn't massive but still you don't notice a difference. Also phones and laptops are used in a much different way too.

[Lord Vile]

12 minutes ago, Vitamanic said:

1080p on a 15 inch laptop is the same PPI as 480p on a 6 inch phone. If you can’t notice a difference at a normal distance you may have vision problems, I don’t know.

Distance is key

[Roswell]

36 minutes ago, jaslion said:

The difference is distance too. You sit half a meter away from a latop easily. Sure the ppi isn't massive but still you don't notice a difference. Also phones and laptops are used in a much different way too.

 

29 minutes ago, Lord Vile said:

Distance is key

The difference in viewing distance from a phone to notebook isn’t drastic.

 

If you can’t tell the difference between 1080p and 4K on a laptop, there’s something wrong with your vision. I can easily pick out pixels on a 1080p laptop while working. I work in design and literally look at varying degrees of resolution all day.

[Lord Vile]

13 minutes ago, Vitamanic said:

 

The difference in viewing distance from a phone to notebook isn’t drastic.

 

If you can’t tell the difference between 1080p and 4K on a laptop, there’s something wrong with your vision. I can easily pick out pixels on a 1080p laptop while working. I work in design and literally look at varying degrees of resolution all day.

Yes it is, I literally said 1440p sure but not 4K 

[pilot35]

16 hours ago, Lord Vile said:

What are you studying? The XPS is just a poor mans Macbook 

So you basically pay more for soldered SSD and even worse cooling.

[Lord Vile]

4 hours ago, pilot35 said:

So you basically pay more for soldered SSD and even worse cooling.

More a functional OS

[Roswell]

15 hours ago, pilot35 said:

So you basically pay more for soldered SSD and even worse cooling.

Eh... better screen, better GPU and thermals are really similar after the 2019 refresh.

[imcaspar]

As a Computer Science student it is likely that you'll have to do things in CLI before having started any Display Server, so no scaling.
Would definitely recommend 1080p in that case.