I’ve always said that no matter how important the processing power of a workstation is, the usable display size is even more impactful to productivity. Even if the processing speed of a task you’re performeing is slower, having more usable screen space allows you to do something else, like simply reading a displayed page while waiting for a process to complete. Finally, some proof:

On the bigger screen, people completed the tasks at least 10 percent more quickly - and some as much as 44 percent more quickly. They were also more likely to remember the seven-digit number, which showed that the multitasking was clearly less taxing on their brains. Some of the volunteers were so enthralled with the huge screen that they begged to take it home. In two decades of research, Czerwinski had never seen a single tweak to a computer system so significantly improve a users productivity. The clearer your screen, she found, the calmer your mind.

One thing that never ceased to amaze me while consulting, was the average users ignorance in utilizing available screen space. It’s like people had tunnel vision, they focused all of their windows in the center of the screen leading them to work habits that would never allow them to be as productive as they could be if they were fully exploiting the screen real estate they paid had for.

This brings to mind my recent joy when upgrading to the latest PowerBook which sports a screen size 26% larger than the previous model. It’s still just a drop in the bucket compared to my primary desktop system with a combined resolution of 3200×1600, but 1440×960 makes this portable system an even better tool than before.