17 inch screen vs. 20 inch?

Question

I'm getting an imac and I can get the same specs except one has a larger screen (not willing to pay all the way to 24"). Could having a larger screen actually be a bad thing because it stretches videos for full screen? Or does that make it better either way? Maybe playing starcraft II later will be really good (so can I see more of the map or does it just stretch it?)

Answer 1

I have found that I never have a large enough bank account or a large enough screen! If you use this daily for hours then the larger screen will be much much easier on your eyes.

As far a video, do you watch a small screen TV? Most will scale well, those that don't you can always "scale down".

Get the one you want, but if it were me, I'd get the 20.

Answer 2

The Apple store has the 17" as $125 cheaper than the 20" when you bring the 17" up to the 20" specs.

For the screen bigger is almost always better. Get the 20"

It will be physically larger (surprise!) so if you have a 18" wide hole in your desk then the 20" will not fit.

The only other down side is the higher resolution may make things a little slower for games. as you have 36% more pixels. But the extra resolution and screen real estate for all your other tasks would easily make up for that, in my opinion.

Both will display 720 HD, neither will display 1080 HD (the 20" is a little narrow due to the 16:10 aspect ratio) but both should look pretty good for movies. Neither has a HD DVD or Blu-ray drive anyway.

Answer 3

no the 20" is so much better. yes having a larger scrren will scale the video so it will look a little stretched but is not a problem and should not detire u from getting a larger screen. u cant upgrade the screen on a imac, so get the largest screen imac u can afford.

Answer 4

if you can afford it go with the 20.I bought the 17 inch and could have had the 20 for $75 more.It will cost me $275 to upgrade now....good luck

Answer 5

no advantage either way IMO.