The Point of Wide Screen Displays?

[TEG]

There two reasons for the widescreen displays...

1) More screen space (typically) for the same vertical height, more pixels, and often higher resolutions.

2) Videos and Games - DVDs look much better when they are taking up more of the screen, and most games have the option to change the resolution to fit the screen, in which case you get a bigger area to play the game. It is very handy in games like SC4.

As a Bonus, most Widescreen displays have DVI, and can act a screens for HD receivers.

TEG

 

[nutmac]

That's not a good comparison since your comparing, typically bigger screens with smaller screens.

WXGA is like 15" and XGA is only 13"
WXGA+ is like 19" and XGA+ is only 15"
WSXGA+ is like 20" and SXGA+ is only 19"
WUXGA is like 24" and UXGA is only 20"

And these are typical sizes, not laptop screen sizes.

15" WXGA = 101 PPI (pixels per inch) and 13" XGA = 98 PPI
19" WXGA+ = 89 PPI and 15" XGA+ = 88 PPI
20" WSXGA+ = 99 PPI and 19" SXGA+ = 88 PPI
24" WUXGA = 94 PPI and 20" UXGA = 100 PPI

With an exception of 20" WSXGA vs. 19" SXGA, they are pretty much the same. In most cases, wide gives you more horizontal real estate space (not at the expense of reduced vertical space).