JULY 2020 PCWorld 83documents and browsing the web.
“Most of us are not just sitting there
consuming content all day,” Butler said.
“We’re actually working. We’re creating, or
we’re editing, or reviewing, so the extra real
estate is welcomed.”
That push, in turn, may open the door to
resolutions other than 4K. Once laptops
break out of the widescreen paradigm, Butler
said, “you won’t have this gravitational pull to
perhaps over-indexing on the resolution.”
We’re already seeing some laptops do
this. Microsoft, for instance, has rejected
4K in its Surface lineup (go.pcworld.com/
rj4k), whose displays all use 3:2 aspect
ratios. The 12.3-inch Surface Pro 7 has a
resolution of 2736x1824, while its 13.5-
inch Surface Book 3 has a resolution of
3000x2000. Meanwhile, Apple’s
MacBooks use a 16:10 aspect ratio, and
the 13-inch MacBook Air and MacBook Pro
both have resolutions of 2560x1600,
hovering between 1080p and 4K.
Other PC makers may still face challenges
stepping back from 4K. As Butler noted,
coming up with savvy marketing terms that
customers will remember, akin to Apple’s
“Retina Display” branding, isn’t easy. “I think
part of the challenge is, Lenovo can come out
with a brand name, HP can come out with
something different, Dell can come out with
something different,” he said.
Still, he’s optimistic that within one to
three years, sub-4K resolutions will become
more popular. Despite what PC makers might
say about the benefits of 4K, the truth is that
they’re not happy with just mimicking the
shape and resolution of televisions. They’re
starting to push manufacturers to produce
panels in more shapes and sizes.
“The PC manufacturers kind of went
kicking and screaming from 16:10 to 16:9,”
Butler said. “So we like the fact that the
aperture’s reopening.”Microsoft has rejected 4K in its 2020 Surface lineup.