Lenovo axes 4:3 ThinkPad T61

The dumbing down of humans continues unabated with the transformation of the PC to just another device for those "who like to watch." Good news is, there won't be anyone left to code and the whole exercise with come crashing down to the pre-digital caveman world.

Isn't that why developers purchase screens that can be rotated 90 degrees? As long as that feature is included, the user gets a full page view.

One component that has not been adjusted well for the wide-screen, enterprise user is the projector. Some projectors re-adjust to 800X600 resolution when you plug into the laptop, which makes giving a presentation a lot harder with the need to scroll not only vertically but also horizontally. Further, some older projectors aren't even compatible with the wide-screen displays. This is a real pain as a consultant when having to borrow clients' projectors that you then politely have to turn down due to incompatibility with the "fancy new laptop." It wastes a lot of time...

I do not like the widescreen; I do not use my laptop to watch movies and I have no use for the horizonal screen. Is there anyway to get a laptop with updated specs and 4:3 aspect screen for those of us who really like this?

I think the industry has jammed 16:9 laptops down our throats without even asking us. It makes no sense if you spend a large portion of your time surfing the Net or working with documents. If you have a prayer of reading the text on, say, a 15" widescreen notebook, you find yourself wearing the scroll wheel out, to read the bottom of EVERY Web page. Let those who watch movies all the time buy widescreen DVD players and give us back our 4:3 notebooks!!!

I am one of those developers that bemoans the disappearance of the 1400x1050 screens. I recently bought a T61, and it is a truly excellent machine in almost every regard, but compared to the 1400x1050 monitor I use at work, the 1440x900 screen feels cramped. The extra horizontal space tends to go to waste on everything except watching DVDs, and the loss of 150 vertical pixels makes IDEs like Eclipse feel cramped. It's a shame because I would have happily spent an extra $50 or whatever for the 4:3 format screen, if it had still been on offer; the 1680x1050 screen was not an option since, at age 43, my eyesight isn't good enough any more to look at such tiny pixels without getting a headache. Sic transit gloria...

I really hate widescreens - they're just terrible for business users. Maybe it's nice to have a widescreen notebook for multimedia issues but it's not my case. So give us back 4:3 aspect ratio!

I'm just a normal user...well, not a business or film-mad user, and I can't accept the loss. I use a 1024 by 768 R51 and encouraged my brother to get one of the last good Thinkpads remaining, a second hand 1400 by 1050 T60. I don't know what I'll do when this one gives out, but luckily I chose a laptop that after 4 years is still in perfect working order and will probably last twice as long.

What I read, months back, was that LCD glass manufacturers 'can't afford' (yeah, my foot) to waste the glass they would have to if they chopped the smaller laptop 4:3 sheets from larger plasma TV 16:9 sheets. Basically, they get more money from TV addicts than computer geeks, so we aren't worth the trouble.

What is funny is that people actually try to reason the new domination of widescreen computers, when actually it was just a crude economic calculation that brought it about.

The usual reasoning is that we naturally see on a widescreen plane of vision, or somesuch, which is due to our natural surroundings, but while that's great for films, the usual webpage (not to mention its underlying code) could average something like 1:10.

Widescreens are horrible for business and casual viewing IMHO. They may be OK for watching movies, but that's it. I am astonished that basically NO ONE is offering 4:3 screens for laptops. This is a true shame as I believe there are a LOT of purchasers who want 4:3 screens.

Bring back 4:3 . Why can't laptop screen be shaped like a common sheet of paper in fact ?

I have been using laptops for 10 years and the best screen aspect (and ratio of 4:3) was what was popular around 1998 - 10.1" if remember correctly.

As the screen gets wider you have to sit further away to absorb the full experience which may be fine when watching movies but not great when your hands actually need to reach the keyboard to in put something.

My ideal will be a screen sized like a sheet of paper.

Of course, I buy an external rotateable screen and an external keyboard to keep things within reach but then I'll double my cost and lose portability.

This widescreen thing is just a consumer marketing feature - it's what the marketing guru's in the notebook company think that their customer's will find to be a hot feature and maybe even consumer's think they want wider and wider screens, but, in reality, like HD and BluRay, people will find it's not so desirable.

Computer makers have only recently discovered the consumer, non-business market in a big way and laptops are being sold as the latest must-have gadget, like cellphones.

My prediction is that manufacturers will start offering special lineups with 4:3 or maybe rotateable/configurable displays again in 1 1/2 years.

Regards

Bring back 4:3 . Why can't laptop screen be shaped like a common sheet of paper in fact ?

I have been using laptops for 10 years and the best screen aspect (and ratio of 4:3) was what was popular around 1998 - 10.1" if remember correctly.

As the screen gets wider you have to sit further away to absorb the full experience which may be fine when watching movies but not great when your hands actually need to reach the keyboard to in put something.

My ideal will be a screen sized like a sheet of paper.

Of course, I buy an external rotateable screen and an external keyboard to keep things within reach but then I'll double my cost and lose portability.

This widescreen thing is just a consumer marketing feature - it's what the marketing guru's in the notebook company think that their customer's will find to be a hot feature and maybe even consumer's think they want wider and wider screens, but, in reality, like HD and BluRay, people will find it's not so desirable.

Computer makers have only recently discovered the consumer, non-business market in a big way and laptops are being sold as the latest must-have gadget, like cellphones.

My prediction is that manufacturers will start offering special lineups with 4:3 or maybe rotateable/configurable displays again in 1 1/2 years.

Regards

I hate widescreens. Too bad there are no more 4:3 laptops in the market. I have a 3-year old ThinkPad T60 with 4:3 aspect ratio and I am going to continue using that. I will never buy a widescreen laptop.

RIP 4:3 laptops!