Is Anyone Else Using On Of These New WideScreen Monitors?

My new laptop has a 17" widescreen monitor in it and i was wondering if anyone else who was using a widescreen monitor had noticed the difference when it came to surfing sites online?

It would appear that widescreen is starting to become a standard format in new PC/Laptop monitors so im wondering if it is time to start scrapping the smaller width site designs and only cater to those surfers who are going to have newer machines with these newer widescreen monitors?

I checked through my server stats and although i see about 20% of users still running on basic 800 or 1200 wide resolutions, is it wise to continue catering to them, especially if the majority of surfers are on wider resolution monitors?

Your thoughts, are we going to see a new 'standard' page width forced upon us with this new 'standard' in PC monitors?

Regards,

Lee

I have a 22 inch wide monitor and love it. I am also changing my basic page width in my site layouts as I think the old 800x600 is long gone, despite the small percentage that still cling to it.

With Videos and all, I am of the opinion that wider is necessary as the web evolves. Also given how so many new computers are coming with it, it just makes sense to design on wider limits.

:morning:

Where have you been the past 2 years Lee. I bring this topic up about every 6 months or so? :D

1000px wide sites are becoming the norm. And those are already starting to look a little puny to my eyes.

One important thing that seems to often get overlooked in these wider designs is the picture sizes. Higher monitor resolutions means small images. A 14" laptop monitor can conceivably have the same resolution as a 22" desktop monitor. Therefore, a 60px tall banner may be 3/4" high on a 22" monitor but only 1/2" high on a laptop monitor. Some sites are painful to look at on my laptop because of the tiny dimensions of the images.

When are more webmasters going to start catering to the upper end of the market instead of the lowest common denominator? We are making surfing less enjoyable for the people with the fancy new hi-res laptop to satisfy those that are surfing porn on a 1996 Packard Bell monitor. Who has more disposable income? I'm guessing that the guy with the new laptop has more money to spend on porn.

All of our sites are at 980 or 1000 wide. The number of tiny monitors out there are only matched by the number of dial up members we have. The huge amounts of blank space surround a site that is viewed on a 23" monitor or above is really disconcerting. I think a lot of this depends on your market. All our video is in 16:9 and while there are larger images, I really like the cinematic view this creates. Another reason to abandon 800X600

Ps: I love the larger laptop monitors but man are they ever a pain in the ass on a plane. I can't even open it all the way unless I am in the emergency exit row (and the privacy film is in place)