How big is too big?

<p>I want to buy a laptop for college and am unsure of what to get. I was looking at the Sony Vaio FW which has a 16.4" screen. Is this too big for a college student?</p>

<p>Mine is a 17" and I love it. Some say its to big but I like it a lot better than the 15" ones. Only down side is the bigger you get the harder it is to find a case for it. I ended up getting a back pack for it and put it in that when I am mobile with it.</p>

<p>Do you use the laptop during classes? If so, does it fit alright on the desks?</p>

<p>Does size matter?
Yes it does.</p>

<p>13" is still the best size for a laptop in college.
the size will not bother you at all unless you’re used to very high resolutions
in which case you’ll get used to it very quickly</p>

<p>I had a 17" laptop for 1st semester of freshman year, but it was ridiculously annoying to carry around. Now I have a Lenovo ThinkPad T400 (14.1"), and I don’t have any more problems. You’ll easily adjust to the smaller screen size, so if you plan to carry your laptop around a lot, don’t get anything larger than 15.4".</p>

<p>I am now seriously considering a ThinkPad again after finding my dad’s old IBM ThinkPad. It’s seems quite durable and hopefully now that battery life has improved on the new ones, a ThinkPad seems to be the perfect laptop for me. I would like to play around with one of the new ThinkPads in person, but I don’t know where I could do this.</p>

<p>I don’t like anything bigger than 14.1". I personally find them unwieldy if they’re bigger than that - too big to cart around, take up too much space on the desktop, hard to juggle on the lap, etc.</p>

<p>I wouldn’t go bigger than around 15". Bigger than that is unnecessary, and I think would be too much of a hassle to carry around anywhere.</p>

<p>
[QUOTE=chouettey]

I would like to play around with one of the new ThinkPads in person

[/quote]
I don’t know if there are a lot of physical Lenovo retailers. [Here](<a href="http://articles.directorym.net/Best_Buy_Adds_Lenovo_to_Its_Retail_Roster_Los_Angeles_CA-r905364-Los_Angeles_CA.html]Here[/url]'s"&gt;http://articles.directorym.net/Best_Buy_Adds_Lenovo_to_Its_Retail_Roster_Los_Angeles_CA-r905364-Los_Angeles_CA.html)'s&lt;/a&gt; a list of some in the LA area, but they might be just for small businesses.</p>

<p>Well, my monitor is 19", so…</p>

<p>I wouldn’t go above 15.4. After that, it becomes a desktop replacement, and thus isn’t ideal for carrying around everywhere you go.</p>

<p>My HP Pavillion has a 15" screen, and I find it absolutely perfect. It’s not tiny to look at, but still flexible to carry around. Personally, I found the 13" screens to be slightly too small. I think 14"-15" range is the best, since beyond that gets kind of bulky. I guess it’s personal preference though.</p>

<p>If you’re worried about having to lug a big screened laptop around, just get a separate monitor and leave it back at your dorm. That way you have a big monitor back home and a small one for on the go. I’m using my TV next year as my second monitor (I’m also going to see about setting it up to record shows for me, mostly because I can. I don’t even watch much TV.)</p>