If you, a friend, or a loved is buying a laptop this holiday season do yourself a favor and get one with a decent screen.

Most commonly people buy 13 inch or 14 inch laptops these days. 12 and 15 inch sizes are also sold but they are the outliers in this crop.

Generally speaking the screens on Mac laptops are good. However among Windows laptops, there is quite a variety.

You will see SCREEN RESOLUTION commonly listed in the specs if you are buying online or you can ask if you are buying in a store.

Let me tell you what to stay away from — a screen resolution of 1366 x 768. I’ve seen many of these laptops. They look stretched out in terms of text and graphics and the colors look washed out. They look absolutely awful!! I would rather read a paper book.

What you really want in a laptop is a minimum of 1280 x 800 resolution but ideally when you have a 13 or 14 inch laptop — you want a 1440 x 900 resolution. It may be a $100 or $200 upgrade but your eyes will thank you.

And my eyes will thank you too.