A monitor diagonal used to tell everything about a screen. A 17" was bigger than a 15" and it was the end of it. Nowadays things are a little more subtle because of aspect ratio. At least for laptops, since desktop monitors are so big that it does not matter.

The subtlety made itself a preponderance when I replaced my broken MacBook Air 13.3" with a Carbon X1 14". As soon as the machine booted, Lenovo's display felt like it was smaller than Apple's, even though the diagonal was almost an inch larger.
Comparison of physical display size, ThinkPad X1 vs MacBook Air. The reason a 13.3" 16:10 feels bigger to me than a 14" 16:9 is because it is physically taller. The diagonal measurement is deceiving because 14 > 13 but in the context of programming, writing, and reading articles, that extra-space at the bottom in red means more to me than the extra-space on the right in blue.

The evolution of the aspect ratio can be retraced via IBM/Lenovo's T-Series^[1]. In the beginning manufacturers had no choice but to match CRTs and therefore the much beloved T-42 was gifted a 4:3 15". In 2006, wide screen started to appear and as such, the IBM's T-61 featured a 16:10 14.1". Since 2011 and starting with the T-420, all T-Series member were 16:9.

16:9 is so widespread in the industry that to find a well-built laptop that is 16:10 or 3:2 is a difficult task. Ironically, the one manufacturer that is famous for changing everything all the time, Apple, is the one that has **always** been sticking to 16:10 ever since 2006 with the introduction of their MacBook line.

To compare the display of the flagship from Lenovo (X1 Extreme 15.6" 16:9) and Apple (MacBook Pro 16" 16:10) reveals two schools of thought. Both models line up almost exactly horizontally but the Mac gets an extra inch of vertical space. To me, the MacBook Pro 16" could have been the best programming laptop of all time if only Apple have been willing to provide Linux/Windows drivers.
Comparison of physical display size, ThinkPad Extreme X1 15.6" vs MacBook Air 16".

If you like tall screens but also want to run Windows or Linux without a VM, there is hope. Microsoft is starting to make some really good machines like the Surface Laptop 3 (3:2)...alas with abysmal Linux support.

There is also the 2020 XPS series by DELL (16:10) even though it seems to have problems with loose track-pad. Hopefully this will be fixed soon.

The one model that may be a killer programming laptop could be the Carbon X1 2021 which is rumored to be 16:10. One more reason among many others to wish for 2020 to end soon.

^

[1]

ThinkPad T series