I am looking to upgrade my computer monitor. The monitor would mostly be used for binge watching TV shows and every once in a while, for productive activities.
I was thinking about getting an ultra-wide monitor so that I can have multiple windows open on one screen. But that doesn’t seem to be a good set up for watching large amounts of TV programming. Therefore, I am going with one large good quality monitor. The question is how large, and how much quality do I need?
I can spend around $300-$400 for the monitor since I spend a large part of my life using it. So far, I’m considering the Dell UltraSharp 25-Inch Screen Monitor.
Is this a good idea? Do I need a 25-inch monitor? Maybe I should spend an extra $100 for a 27-inch monitor? Another option is to go with a cheaper model, such as the BenQ.
For TV shows, IMO the primary consideration would be image quality, with resolution a second priority for your occasional productivity.
The type of LCD panel makes the biggest difference in image quality. TN panels are cheap and common, but they have relatively poor color reproduction and viewing angles. IPS and PLS panels are more expensive but they have much better color quality and viewing angles. I have an IPS panel as my main monitor and a TN panel as my secondary, and the difference in color reproduction between the two is striking.
For TV viewing from streaming sources, 1080p is probably enough resolution, though higher resolution streaming content is slowly becoming more common. For productivity however you will benefit from a higher resolution like 1440p or 2160p.
Otherwise, monitors are practically commodity items. The BenQ you linked to is definitely a good choice, since it’s an IPS panel with good resolution (1440p). This HP 32-inch monitor (1440p, IPS) stretches your budget but it’s considerably bigger. It’s got speakers built in to a really wide bezel, which could be a pro or a con.
I have a really cheap 19 inch Acer Monitor. I actually have a TV hooked up to my computer so that I can watch TV and work at the same time.
I just need enough space to open two windows at the same time. Two monitors isn’t necessary if the monitor is large enough. That 32-inch HP is making me salivate.
Must… make… budget… conscious… decisions. Who am I kidding? I’m buying it. Thank you lazybratsche. I’ll just wait a few days to see if somebody will suggest a better alternative.
I personally recently wanted the best monitor available with modest consideration to price/performance. I saw reasoned arguments that said that higher pixel density, to a point, grants a superior experience in modern windows 10 because it makes text appear uber sharp (there’s more pixels around each letter, basically).
So, I grabbed this one. And yeah, I also have dual monitors, but a large 4k like this gives you enough pixels to feasibly do side by side windows, etc.
Rules : you want bigger. 32 inch seems small now. You want IPS. You want it to be from a reputable brand. You do not want expanded color space, you want it to be tuned to fill the sRGB color space only. (simple reason is that for content, the standard the artists used when they created the content was sRGB, so “0x0F red channel” means a particular shade of red, and when they encoded the content, that was what they intended. There are color space aware applications that can fix this but almost all computer applications do not compensate for color space, so you have have a monitor tuned for sRGB). You want it to not flicker at intermediate dimming levels, the majority of monitors available today now flicker because of cheap backlight drivers (BenQs don’t). I wanted a display that had a meaningful warranty in case it failed within a year or 2 after purchase (so that knocks the no-name Korean brands you order on ebay out of consideration)
Those were my criteria. Yours may be different. Want a reasonably decent monitor for cheap? Maybe this one will float your boat. $188 (net price) is a lot of bang for your buck. I spent $900 for something that was 4k without any compromises, the compromise here is that it’s smaller and lower resolution, but the actual display quality is pretty good per the review. It doesn’t flicker, it’s been calibrated for sRGB, it has a decent warranty, etc.
Those no-name Korean panels deserve a little more explanation for the OP’s sake. Essentially, there are “factory second” monitors out there available for cheap. These are made out of panels that were made in, say, Samsung factories for iMacs, but were rejected for some reason or another*. Various Korean electronics manufacturers buy up the reject panels, assemble the good ones into monitors, and sell them on eBay.
For example, this $200 monitor has a panel that’s comparable to the $370 BenQ monitor you’re looking at. On the one hand, you get a super cheap monitor that should have very good image quality. On the other hand, there’s a high chance of getting minor defects like dead pixels or uneven backlights. Warranty support is minimal - you might be able to get a replacement for a DOA monitor, but only after you ship it back to the manufacturer at your expense and wait for them to ship you a replacement on the slowest boat possible.
I was considering buying one of these a few years ago, but instead decided to buy a refurb from HP so I could have a good warranty. But my secondary monitor is old and dying so I may take a gamble on one of these cheap monitors when I replace it…
*I don’t know whether individual panels are rejected due to defects, or whole lots are rejected due to high reject rates allowing someone to pick through them and find the 25% without defects and 50% with acceptably minor defects.
Monoprice (purveyor of reasonably priced cables of all sorts) also sells budget monitors with quality panels, such as this $300 27" 1440p IPS monitor. The only major difference between this and the BenQ monitor is that the BenQ has a much more adjustable stand.
And has been calibrated, and has a quality backlight driver, and has lower input lag, and has actually been reviewed seriously, and…
If you’re gonna get a cheap monitor, get a deal on a good monitor. Like that $200 Dell I mentioned upthread. Dell actually calibrates their stuff and has a real engineering staff.