My (very) old PowerBook G4 had a 1024x768 screen. Back then no one was watching movies on them. Have you tried rotating your monitor? You might have to tweak or disable sub-pixel antialiasing
I think the main thing is i want to remain focused, having a smaller screen area only affords me point of attention (usually vim and nothing else) i occasionally use wide mode for a time blocking calendar next to my window.
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