How to Measure Your Laptop Screen and Overall Size

As laptops continue their dominance over traditional desktops due to their portability and remote work from home setups, choosing the right laptop to fit your work and lifestyle needs has never been more important. This guide is here to help figure out how to measure your laptop screen size as well as its overall size. In a nutshell, you should know the following:

You measure your screen size diagonally
The bezel (black borders) does not count

Choose what you’re looking to measure below, whether screen size or the laptop itself to get started! This should take less than 1 minute to complete.

Additional Asked Questions

What’s the Best Screen Size?
What Should You Consider if You’re Going to Get a Laptop Bag?

How to Measure your Laptop Screen Size

To measure your laptop size, use measuring tape to diagonally measure the size of your screen. The bezels (black borders) do not count toward your screen size.

Measure your screen size by diagonally measuring the distance between one corner to the other — The Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 measures at approximately 13.4 inches.

How to Measure your Laptop Size

First close your laptop and you can measure the following:

1. To measure width, measure horizontally across your laptop.

To measure the width, measure horizontally across your laptop. — The Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 has a width of approximately 11.7 inches.

2. To measure depth, measure vertically across your laptop.

Measuring the depth of laptop requires you to measure vertically — The Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 has a depth of approximately 8.15 inches.

3. To measure height, measure the height while closed.

To measure the height of a laptop, close it and carefully measure it. It should not be more than 2 inches. — The Dell XPS 2-in-1 has a height of approximately 0.55 inches.

What’s the Best Screen Size?

The best screen size is purely dependent on your usage of the laptop. As screen size gets bigger, you’ll have better access to wider, fluid screens at the cost of a higher price tag and heavier bulkiness feeling. If you’re planning to move around a lot with the laptop, a smaller screen, around 11 to 14 inches, may be better for you.

It’s also important to consider monitor usage. Those working from home may always keep their laptop closed and use only their external monitors making the screen size not as important. Check out the best work from home laptops to ensure you’re picking the right laptop for your situation.

What Should You Consider if You’re Going to Get a Laptop Bag?

You should purchase a bag that is slightly larger than the size of your laptop. For example, if your laptop has an overall width of 13 inches, ensure your laptop bag can accommodate at least 13.5 inches of width space.

While it might make intuitive sense to choose a bag that accommodates 13 inches, you’ll be at the mercy of the manufacturer to ensure the bag is perfectly sewed. Having exact measurements make the laptop very difficult to remove and insert into the bag.

Conclusion

Figuring out how to measure laptop screen sizes isn’t too difficult. With some measuring tape, you can have your dimensions figured out in a minute. If you aren’t sure what size laptop to get, I highly recommend checking out a friends’ laptop to get a general idea of different sizes, or walking into a retail store to check them out yourself.

If you found this guide helpful, check out my other posts to help you pick the best work from home equipment! Office chairs are an ergonomically important choice but as well as picking the right laptop for your specific needs.