Is It Still A 1024×768 World?

I recently stumbled upon a thread in a random forum where users were sharing screenshots of their desktops to show off their wallpaper graphics.

What caught my attention was not the graphics themselves, but rather the screen resolution of most of the screenshots: 1024×768. It was so common that some even commented, asking why everyone was using such low resolutions.

What surprised me even more was that the people posting these screenshots were mostly teenagers, people in their twenties, and even some in their thirties. This wasn’t just a trend among older individuals.

So why is it that so many people still use 1024×768?

Well, there are actually a few good reasons.

For starters, if you’re using a netbook, chances are its screen has a native resolution of 1024×576 or 1024×600. So naturally, that’s the resolution most people stick with.

Sometimes, younger users might be using their parents’ computer, and their parents prefer a resolution that they can comfortably read, which tends to be 1024×768.

But what’s more interesting is the case of twenty and thirty-somethings like myself. I’m 34 years old, and even though I wear glasses, my main 20-inch monitor has a resolution of 1680×1050, and my secondary monitor is 1280×1024. So why do I still use 1024×768?

The answer is something you probably haven’t thought about: Games.

Games actually run smoother and faster at lower resolutions. And if you keep your Windows resolution at 1024×768, when you switch to a game, your icons won’t get all messed up and moved around. This is especially common in Windows XP when your Windows resolution is different from your game resolution.

In addition, not all computer gamers have the newest, fastest hardware. Many of us have older equipment and don’t really care about things like anisotropic filtering, as long as the game runs smoothly. To gain any possible advantage in speed and smoothness, we lower the resolution intentionally, even if our eyesight is perfectly fine.

So if you thought 1024×768 was only popular among older people, think again. There are plenty, and I mean plenty, of younger users rocking the 1024 resolution on a daily basis.

What’s your resolution?

Leave a comment and let us know your resolution and your monitor’s physical size (e.g., 17-inch, 19-inch, 20-inch, etc.).

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26 thoughts on “Is It Still A 1024×768 World?”

Satish says:

My office laptop, an HP EliteBook 8530p (15.6 inch), has a resolution of 1680×1050, and with that resolution, I can hardly read any text. I’m a programmer, and I still use 1024×768 on any laptop or desktop. That’s the best resolution I’ve seen so far, and it works well for me as I develop websites using that resolution.

Maureen says:

I believe my work monitor is 17 inches, and I use 1024×768. When I started my job, I had good eyesight, but now I’m on my second pair of glasses. Increasing the resolution just makes it annoying to view file names and such. Someone suggested that I increase the resolution and adjust icon/font sizes independently, but it didn’t look good. The text ended up getting too big. I’m glad you mentioned the 30% statistic. I’m actually trying to convince the people who manage our company website to make it more user-friendly for those browsing with 1024×768 (currently, you have to scroll left to right to see many of our clients’ advertisements in the margin at this resolution).
Since some people claim that gaming is faster at a lower resolution, I wonder if that would also affect the speed of graphic-related tasks like Photoshop. I work in advertising and wonder if that would slow down my programs. Personally, it’s not worth it to me, but my coworker insists on using a higher resolution.

At home, we have a computer connected to our 52-inch flat-screen TV, and we have the resolution set to 1024×768. My husband does gaming, but that’s not necessarily why we chose this resolution (we mainly use the computer for web surfing and streaming movies and TV shows). Viewing the TV from across the room would make any higher resolution difficult to read. Again, I’m not sure if adjusting the font sizes would give us the desired results. I just try to choose “hi res” when viewing TV clips on Hulu.

By the way, I’m 27 years old.

ChanTran says:

My desktop computer has 2 screens, both 21-inch CRTs. The main screen is in landscape mode and has a resolution of 2048×1536, while the second one, in portrait mode, has a resolution of 1900×1400.
My laptop is 15 inches and runs at its native resolution of 1600×1200.
I’m 54 years old and wear +2 glasses.
Larger text doesn’t necessarily read better, but sharper text does. I always run my monitor at the highest resolution. If the text is too small, I simply change the font size.

DukeCylk says:

I have two side-by-side 19-inch Dell LCDs at work running at 1280×1024. I’m not sure about the ViewSonic 18-inch at home, but the 20-inch LCD that my kids use has a maximum resolution of 780 lines, and I’m not sure what resolution they’re using there.

One thing I know about gaming from my son is that it doesn’t matter what resolution you run; the game changes the resolution for optimal graphics.

My primary computer has a resolution of 1920×1200. I have an HD 2900XT on a 24-inch monitor (or dual monitors at 1920×1200 and 1024×768 if I feel like it). Occasionally, for some intensive games, I do lower the resolution in-game, but I prefer not to go any lower than 1440×900.
The computer I set up for my mom runs at 1440×900 with an HD 3450 on a 19-inch monitor. I slightly increased the Windows text size.
(My aging P4 3.2 currently runs at 1024×768 on a 17-inch spare monitor, although it has run at all the other resolutions I listed with the other two monitors. I used a Radeon 9550 without any problems but relatively poor gaming performance.)

I’ve been using a laptop as my primary (and only) computer for several years now, but it took me a while (and a few returns) to find the size and resolution that work best for me.

I’ve had my Dell Latitude E6400 for almost a year now, and the 14.1-inch WXGA+ (1440×900) LED-backlit display is the best I’ve ever used! I initially bought an E6400 with a standard (CCFL) WXGA (1280×800) display, but I returned it after a few days. In addition to the higher resolution, the WXGA+ display is also LED-backlit and has significantly higher maximum brightness (250 nits vs. 200 nits).

On my previous 15.4-inch notebooks, the sweet spot was WSXGA+ (1680×1050), but it has been slowly disappearing as WUXGA (1920×1200) has replaced it in most models.

Mahdi says:

I’m 28 years old, and my monitor is a 17-inch CRT with a resolution of 1024×768. I use this resolution because I mainly use my computer for reading and web browsing, and it’s readable at this resolution. However, for a 19 or 20-inch monitor, at least 1280×1024 would be more suitable. The resolution depends on the monitor size.
I believe this resolution is widely used simply because of the popularity of 17-inch monitors. If newer, wider LCD monitors replace the current ones, the resolution will likely increase.

I use 1280×1024 with my desktop, and I’ve enlarged my desktop icons through Windows Display Properties.

Monitoring traffic on several sites indicates that a few visitors still use 800×600, some use higher resolutions than 1280×1024, but the rest are split fairly evenly between 1280×1024 and 1024×768. This has just been my experience.

The problem with lower resolutions is when viewing web pages. Although I see a few web designers still setting fixed widths and font sizes to be user-friendly at 800×600, most have transitioned to wider widths that require people with lower resolutions to scroll. Font sizes optimized for 800×600 can make people with higher resolutions squint or force them to adjust their browser view.

In my opinion, the ultimate web pages are liquid in width, with font sizes that adjust based on the viewer’s screen resolution. Sizes are specified in percentages rather than fixed values. Although the graphics remain fixed, no one has to scroll to see the full page, the text is always sized for readability, and the entire page fills the browser window regardless of resolution.

In my opinion, the ultimate web pages are liquid in width, with font sizes that adjust based on the viewer’s screen resolution. Sizes are specified in percentages rather than fixed values. Although the graphics remain fixed, no one has to scroll to see the full page, the text is always sized for readability, and the entire page fills the browser window regardless of resolution.