[hdsalinas]

Hi,

I was wondering what is the dimension (lenght x height) in inches of the 17" and 20" imacs screen.

I have a "regular" (as in not wide format") 17 LCD monitor 1280 x 1024 and I was wondering what would the difference in screen surface be compared to any of these two imacs.(not actual resolution, but surface area)

Somehow the imac 17" seem smaller than my current 17" LCD.

thanks

[mduell]

That's correct, the higher aspect ratio means less area for a given diagonal.

A 17" widescreen (16:10) is 130 in^2 (17^2/(16^2+10^2)*16*10), while a 17" normal (4:3) is 139 in^2 (17^2/(4^2+3^2)*4*3). A 20" widescreen comes in at 180 in^2 (20^2/(16^2+10^2)*16*10).
The actual width and height are left as a trivial exercise for the reader (or you can search the forums for all the people who have asked this question previously).

The relatively large, white bezel may also contribute to the appearance of the iMac screen being small.