Recommended laptop screen size?

[Italiano]

Hello guys. Great forum. I'm buying a new laptop and want to go as small, lightweight and portable as possible because I'm tired of carrying around my old and heavy 16" laptop. Microsoft Surface looks amazing but I'm afraid that the 10.6" screen is going to be pain when working with Excel. I should point out that I use Excel only once a week for couple of hours at once but nonetheless going from 16" to 10.6" scares me a bit. 13" sounds like a good compromise but I'd like to go smaller. I'll be grateful for insightful information from users who made a similar step or use Excel on laptops with around 11"-13" screen size. Many thanks!

 

[AMAS]

Personally, I use screen sizes ranging from 14in on a laptop up to three screens connected to each other of varied sizes (from 20 to 22in). Of course the larger screen sizes have the advantage but it really comes down to what you are doing. I was traveling for a week with my laptop and the 14in was more than enough to show me what I needed. So it really depends on your personal needs...

Hope this helps.

AMAS

 

[RobMatthews]

And of course, when you're comparing, don't forget to look at the resolution of the screen, not just the size.

 

[SydneyGeek]

You'd be pushing to get decent performance in anything below 13". My daughter's got the newest laptop in our household -- a 13" ultrabook with an i5 CPU -- and she loves it.
Portable, fast, and decent battery life. Resolution is pretty standard at 1300 x 768 (or so -- actual numbers out a bit, but you get the picture).

Denis

 

[Italiano]

I'd really like it to be touch screen though.
So I shouldn't go below 13" if we ignore the performance issue and focus strictly on the screen size?
Thanks for all insightful information, very much appreciated.

 

[shg]

I enjoy playing with our iPad, but can't imagine having a touchscreen laptop -- I shoot people that touch my screen.

I just replaced my Dell 6500 with a 6530 (XP to W7 was the motivator), though the screen resolution is slightly lower (standard HD, 1920 x 1080, versus WUXGA, 1920 x 1200). So far, I love it. Get a laptop bag with wheels.