Samsung SyncMaster 213T and T42P
I’ve experimented for a few months with using just the notebook computer, rather than docking to a desktop monitor, keyboard, and mouse, with mixed results, and am shifting back to a full desktop dock setup again.
Good points of notebook-only:
- It’s easy to pick up the notebook computer and go to a meeting, or simply to move to a different location to write
- Got rid of the immense CRT sitting on my desk (20 inches, 65+ pounds)
- Consistent user interface and keyboard set up for travel and office, don’t have to make changes
Bad points of notebook-only:
- The native LCD resolution on my T42 (1400×1050, 14″) makes everything too small to work with for very long. It gives me a huge headache if I use it for more than a few minutes. As a workaround, there’s a handy utility to shift the screen resolution to something lower, but non-native resolutions are predictably a little fuzzy.
- The T42 keyboard and pointing stick are nice, but I find that I get achy wrists after extended periods of typing and clicking
I resumed using a full size keyboard and ergonomic mouse a while ago, and just set up a new Samsung SyncMaster 213T LCD monitor, which is 21 inches, with a native resolution of 1600×1200. This is much better. The T42 can drive 1600×1200 without scaling, and the analog VGA mode already looks pretty good, will try the DVI mode later.
In just a few hours of returning to a larger display, I can tell this is a big win. In theory it shouldn’t make that much difference, but I feel like my brain is getting a little uncramped. I’m already contemplating getting a couple more displays to get back to a multi-screen set up again and really get some space to work, but I’ll wait until the novelty wears off before committing to more equipment on the desktop.
Google Earth looks great in full screen mode! Plus it gives the graphics accelerator something to do.
Tags: hardware, computers
