Is a 14" laptop comfortable for a programmer to work with?

Lost User

Using 15", because it's comfortably on the lap. Not at work of course, since it would be capping the productivity. At work, a desktop with at least two 19" screens is expected. What kind of work? Development benefits from "screen estate" and a real keyboard. There's a huge difference in speed when controlling the PC blindly from a keyboard or having to muck around with a touchpad trying to use the scrollbar.

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rah_sin

I think 15" would be better. rahul

Wayne Gaylard

_Maxxx_ wrote:

but I don't use it as a rule

Sorry! And my condolences to your wife.

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CPallini

It depends on what kind of work you have to do with. For instance, I find comfortable the 10" netbook for coding small console applications using vi as editor.

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Lost User

Yeah, I use 14" laptop, it is really comfortable. I dislike larger or smaller.

Meysam

TadejK

If you really want to, any size can be ok .. But if you ask me, you need 2 monitors, each at least 22". I actually have 3 monitors, but that's usually an overkill (don't get me wrong - it's great, but not *that* much more than having 2). Regards, Tadej

Farhan Ghumra

Me too, I just love my Dell 14" laptop

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Mark_Wallace

Don't say that; you'll jinx it.

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Nemanja Trifunovic

For any serious work I add external monitor(s) and keybord, so it doesn't really matter.

utf8-cpp

PIEBALDconsult

Mine's 15, but I have a pair of larger monitors at the office so I only use the built-in for brief periods at home (and I don't like it) when I don't feel like connecting it to the TV. I also add a regular keyboard and mouse at both the office and home. In my opinion the built-in devices are only for emergencies.

0bx

For me not really. I'm used to my 15'' laptop screen as an extension of my 19'' monitor. When I have program without my extra monitor I get more easily frustrated, but it really depends on what you're doing... if you have to do a lot of testing, it's not really handy.

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RJOberg

The more screen real estate the better. Where I worked before, one of the PhDs successfully made the arguement based upon a research paper that the number of screens has a direct correlation upon productivity and we all ended up with dual monitors... he ended up with three. 15.4 is the smallest I think is reasonable.

lewax00

I'm generally not comfortable when using anything less than 17". I don't just need a whole monitor to be big enough, I need each half of it to be big enough (I'm generally using two or more programs at a time, and if I only have one monitor then I need to be able to comfortable fit two windows on it). Which is why I rarely do anything serious on a laptop.

Roger Wright

Yes, but only if you're writing microcode.

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