Laptop screen resolution, do extra pixels matter?

[DELTAprime]

I'm going to get a laptop and I've narrowed it down to one of 3 options, all 13" laptops. A Lenovo Yoga 900 which has a 3200 x 1800 display for $2200AUD and two HP Spectre X360's one with a 1440p screen for an ungodly high price of $3000 and one with a 1080p screen for a more reasonable $1800 to $2200. That $3000 laptop has some extra upgrades other than the screen, but I don't need an i7 for media playback and web browsing. I noticed when I was looking at all 3 in store that even with the different screen resolutions that the size of Windows UI elements and the text in Edge (they wouldn't let me see how Chrome looked) looked similar if not identical. So what's going on here? Is there a minimum test size or something? And since the text was about as small as I would want it even in tablet mode what are the extra pixels for in the first place?

[ShadowCaptain]

Honestly for screens below 15" 1080p is fine

[Moonzy]

i would go for 1080p...

higher res on a laptop just isnt a good idea

reason:

1) shorter battery life

2) higher performance needed to push such resolution

3) most contents are on 1080p anyway

[Javin]

It all depends on ppi(pixels per inch). If you take your T.V(1080p) then it has a count of 240ppi. But still pictures look brilliant as you see your television from far off and not notice the pixels whereas in phones the ppi has to be high, iphones have somewhere around 2000ppi because you tend to be close to the screen. For a laptop 1080p or a litle higher is more than enough. You also want to be seeing the specific hardware as it should be able to run your apps at that resolution smoothly. Hope this helped!

[GirlFromYonder]

You dont see the pixels at all thus it is extremely sharp. but keep in mind, higher resolutions take up more battery

[adm0n]

3 minutes ago, Javin said:

iphones have somewhere around 2000ppi

 

401ppi : D 

 

19 minutes ago, DELTAprime said:

media playback and web browsing

why would you need a over $1000 notebook then anyway? Do you require anything else? because I would go for something way cheaper if not...

[DELTAprime]

1 minute ago, adm0n said:

why would you need a over $1000 notebook then anyway? Do you require anything else? because I would go for something way cheaper if not...

I don't like cheap feeling laptops so I'm looking at ones with a premium feel and these are AUD prices, $1000 doesn't get you far in the laptop market in Australia unless you like crappy build quality.

[ShadowCaptain]

20 minutes ago, adm0n said:

 

401ppi : D 

 

why would you need a over $1000 notebook then anyway? Do you require anything else? because I would go for something way cheaper if not...

 

Some of us need nice premium powerful laptops

[Moonzy]

21 minutes ago, adm0n said:

why would you need a over $1000 notebook then anyway?

one word,

e-peen

[don_svetlio]

15.6' 1080p is the same as 22' 1440p monitor-wise. I'd say it's more than enough. You CAN go higher but it's honestly not worth it - text that doesn't scale correctly looks blurry, everything is tiny, it's an overall poor experience

[adm0n]

It actually seems to be difficult to find laptops in Australia ._.

You could still get one from the US. The top Laptop in most of the tests is the Dell XPS 13.

On ebay, you get it for about $1000AUD. If you know someone in the US, he could get it for you ... 

If you don't it might even be cheaper with import charges and shipping and it's better than the other notebooks you've mentioned

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/2016-DELL-XPS-13-9350-13-3-FHD-InfinityEdge-6th-gen-i5-6200U-8GB-128GB-SSD-WIFI-/301861781866?hash=item46485d416a:g:TlUAAOSwnLdWrjb5