WUXGA revisited

My understanding was that even though the display has that resolution, it really is the equivalent of 1/2 that because it's doing the Retina thing. So 1440x900 would be the equivalent resolution, just prettier.  (Could be wrong on this, though - read it from some twitter feeds.)

The reina screen should not be very different from a new iPad, simply larger. To get an idea of the glossiness, head to your local electronics store and check out a new iPad.  You are correct you will not get a larger screen, you will get a higher resolution screen. 2880x1800 in a 15" screen is 226dpi, compared to a normal 1280x1024 15" screen 109dpi, and 1920x1200 17"'s 133dpi.  What you see on screen will not be bigger, but it will be extremely clear and easy to read.

If you want to see the difference, visit a store with both the iPad 2 and the new iPad side-by-side.  View the same thing on each iPad and see the difference, and specifically see different font sizes and distance to/from the screen. Ideally, each iPad will have the same books, otherwise use the note app or view the settings sections.

There is plenty of 15" laptop with WUXGA (dell/hp..)

My dell M4400 from 3 years ago has this resolution and i loved it!

Get a used Dell Precision Covet m6500.  It has a 17" screen with 1920x1200.  I think the newer precisions have gone to 17.3" with 1900x1080 though.

Or get the new Lenovo W530 (mine is due any day), 15" 1900x1080 with Ivy Bridge, 4 memory slots for up to 32GB memory, 2 drive bays (if you replace the optical).  Very nice and affordable machine (using after market Corsair memory and Crucial m4 SSD, I got mine with 32GB memory, FHD, 512GB SSD, 500GB HD, 2GB video for the same price as the new base level MacBook Pro)

You didn't search too hard. I picked up a new returned  17.3" Dell off their outlet that is a beast for running SQL Server and software of that ilk. Toss in a SSD, more memory and a good bag and you are looking less the $2k for a loaded machine.

Paul,

It's like you picked the one requirement you could only find on a Apple product in order to justify selecting an Apple product. :) But if a specific resolution screen is an absolute requirement for your eyesight, then your choices are limited.

What I really want is a flexible version of my 30" monitor that I can roll up and take with me. I may have to wait a long time for that.

I miss my Lenovo W500's 1920x1200 screen (and its lovely keyboard!).  My Asus has a 1920x1080 screen - almost as good but those extra pixels are handy.

I just checked Lenovo and was surprised that they didn't do 1920x1200 anymore :(  Such a shame.  I personally wouldn't get a Mac simply because I don't know how to drive it as well.  I write software for Windows and spend my day running apps that don't exist for Mac, so I would be running Windows on there the whole time anyway :)  Like someone else said, you can get a whole lot of PC without paying the higher Apple price.

Yes its really annoying - Im looking for 15" 16:10 pref 1920x1200 and it just doesnt exist except for Apple and I refuse to buy Apple bec it can be repaired/upgraded

I currently have a 3yo laptop with 16:10 and I can notice a big difference bet this and 16:9

I have a feeling I wont get a choice though and will just have to do more work at the desk with my monitor

I am a bit late to this party, but I have a HP 8530w mobile workstation, 15.4" screen, which runs WUXGA with a matte display. It is fantastic :-)

Check out a used T60p laptop with XGA display. I think there is a number of this boxes around.

Disadvantage: AFAIK most processors of notebooks with XGA displays are only Dual Core, but not Dual Core2, which means, you cannot run 64 Bit. Pity.

@Nicolas:

Unfortunately there is NOT plenty of 15" laptop with WUXGA but there WERE a lot ... in the past ...  :(

@Phil:

XGA resolution is 1024x768 ... which is pretty useless in year 2012!

By the way: I bought a 4 years old Lenovo with CPU Intel T7700, 4GB RAM, WUXGA display, Nvidia Quadro and let me say that Windows 7-64 bit is working perfectly!

Since Spring 2004 Intel is producing 64 CPUs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_processor#64-bit_processors:_Intel_64_.E2.80.93_NetBurst_microarchitecture)