Gerald Ferguson

I often get asked questions about which gadgets to buy. I was recently asked by a couple people about which monitor they should buy. Here is my response.

In a nutshell: get whatever is cheapest.

Read on for my non-nutshell opinion on which computer monitor you should buy.

My Preference

I run 2 Samsung 2324BWX monitors. I chose them because they had the highest screen resolution for the lowest price that I could find. They run at 2048×1152, which is higher than the standard resolution of 1920×1080 that most widescreen monitors do. I like the extra vertical real estate. Ideally, I’d like something that is even greater, like a WUXGA+ monitor that runs at 1920×1200. For me, screen resolution (greater pixel density) is paramount. It’s all about the pixel density.

Response Time

Which monitor you buy depends on what you’ll be using it for. If you aren’t a gamer, you don’t need to worry about the response time (ms), which is one of the few distinguishing characteristics in the high-end vs low-end monitors, so you can basically just pick the cheapest, biggest monitor at the price you want.

Reliability

I haven’t seen a reliability difference between brands. I have a feeling that many of the panels are manufactured in the same factories – even among different brands.

Viewing Angles

Viewing angles used to be more of an issue than they are these days. Most modern monitors have decent viewing angles, but if you happen to be planning to turn it vertically or watching it from a bunch of different angles (in bed, at the desk, standing), you’ll want to make sure it has really good viewing angles.

Other Stuff

Other than that, I’d just get the biggest one that you care to fit in your space. If you get one with a built-in TV tuner, you can also watch over-the-air TV on it. There are a multitude of different other options, like the technology that is used for the LCD (TFT, IPS, etc), but those don’t make a whole lot of difference unless you’re doing color-critical work, like the photo processing that I do. My laptop has an RGBLED screen that produces super awesome and accurate color, but a large RGBLED monitor is crazy expensive.

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