Should you buy a 17" or 15.4" Laptop?

I am a web designer. Dealing with graphics and video editing is my daily routine. A large screen size is a demanding part of my job. I usually use a desktop to do all the graphics design. My LCD monitor's screen size is 20.1". So, if you ask me whether I would buy a 17" laptop or a 15.4", I would prefer 17" but there are some limitations to that choice.

First of all, 17" laptops are huge! If you are going to travel around with your laptop, then 17" is not recommended. A 15.4" isn't that small either, but in my opinion, it's an ideal size for day to day work and provides just the right screen resolution. Most 17" screens will allow you to reach resolutions upto 1440x900 pixels. 15.4" let you go upto 1280x800 pixels. As per statistics, the most popular resolution nowadays is 1024 x 768. So, it's not a bad choice to buy just a 15.4".

Unless you are a graphic designer, video editor, etc, a 15.4" is good enough. Specially for students, a smaller laptop will provide greater mobility and more cost effectiveness.