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I'm I correct in assuming that the size of text etc will be the same on:

  1. 17.3" screen with native resolution of 1600x900
  2. 15.6" screen with native resolution of 1366x768

The DPI for screen 1 is 106; for screen 2 it's 100 which is near enough the same.

So the only real difference is that I could get more text (of the same size) on each line and more lines on the 17.3" screen????

Have I understood this correctly?

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2 Answers

No. Text size has nothing to do with screen size, it depends solely on the dots per inch (dpi) of the monitor (for equal font settings, obviously). Since those are not the same, the screens will not have the same font size. Since the dpi of the screens is pretty close, I don't think it'll be much of an issue though. The lower the dpi, the bigger the pixels, so the bigger the text will be.

The amount of text on a line is something different altogether, and does depend on the resolution (in pixels) of the screen. The more pixels horizontally, the more characters per line. The more pixels vertically, the more lines fit on the screen.

The physical size (in inches) of the screen does not have much to do with this at all (although you can assume that the bigger the physical size of the screen, the higher the resolution).

So in your specific case, If you want more text on your screen, go with option I.

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Yes. Since the physical DPIs are (roughly) the same, your 17.3" monitor will display more text horizontally and vertically at the same physical text size. Also, there's a chance the keyboard on the 17.3" laptop will be larger and spaced more like a desktop keyboard.

These are reasons I'll never buy a 10" Netbook.

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