How to choose a Monitor ?

Objective of this blog:

After reading this you should be able to understand the specification of most of the monitors and choose the one which suits you the best.

Panel Type

There are 2 mostly used panel types:

IPS panel

Larger viewing angle and lower color contrast compared to VA panel. If you like to view your monitor from the sides, then go for IPS panel.

VA panel

Smaller viewing angle and higher color contrast compared to IPS panel. To experience the color difference between the darkest black and the brightest white, go with VA panel.

Refresh Rate

It tells the number of times the display refreshes or updates the image per second. It is measured in Hertz (Hz). Higher Hz is better. If your requirement is to play high fps(frames/second) games, go with refresh rates more than 100Hz.

Eg: 100Hz means that the screen refreshes 100 times per second.

Response Time

This refers to how fast a pixel color can change from one color to another. This is mostly measured in milliseconds (ms). Lower ms is better. 5ms to 8ms will be good for general use.

1second = 1000ms.

Note: Don't get misleaded by Higher refresh rates. A High refresh rate monitor with low response time cause motion blur.

Eg: 240Hz monitor refreshes the screen 240 times per second. But, what if the response time is 20ms. Then for each refresh it needs 20ms (20ms 240 = 4800ms = 4.8 seconds). That means, it will taks approx 5 seconds to refresh 240 times properly. When tried to refresh 240 times per second causes blur effect in the screen.

Higher Refresh Rate and Lower Response Time both are important

Color Range

This refers to the ability of the monitor to reproduce the range of colors. If the color range is higher, the capacity to differentiate between similar colors will be better. To understand better consider a worst color range, in this case light red and the dark red will look same on the screen.

Popular Color Ranges ordered from best to worst:

Rec. 2020 (BT.2020) > DCI-P3 > Adobe RGB > ProPhoto RGB > sRGB > 99%sRGB > NTSC 1953 (CIE 1931) > Rec. 709 (BT.709) > PAL/SECAM > NTSC 1987 (SMPTE-C) > EBU > Monochrome (Grayscale, black and white) > Limited NTSC

Note: Color range above 99%sRGB is consider very good for normal use.

Resolution

It is one of the important feature to consider. It means how many pixels are present in the monitor. Higher Pixel count is better. Each pixel can show a color.

Eg: 1280 x 720 pixels means it has 1280 columns of pixels across 720 rows, and a total of 921600 pixels.

1920 x 1080 is recommended for 24inch monitor.

2560 × 1440 is recommended for 27inch monitor.

higher resolution for larger monitors.

Size

Monitor size is measured diagonally. Personally, I recommend 27inch monitor or higher for using multiple tabs comfortably.

Note: Don't get a monitor with higher size and lower resolution. Check for better pixel density, which means number of pixels present per inch (PPI) . 100PPI or more is better.

Aspect Ratio and Curvature

It basically tells the width to height ratio of the monitor.

Eg: 16:9 means the monitor's width is almost double the height of the monitor ( actually a litte lesser, because 9x2 = 18, but width is 16:9 ). And 21:9 means width is more than double the height, This ratio is popularly called a ultra wide monitor.

Monitors can be flat or curved ( the screen will be curved in a concave fashion ). You can choose what ever you like.

Free Sync

We get the frames (images) for the monitor from the CPU or GPU. What happens If the GPU gives 240 frames per second and monitor's refresh rate is 60Hz?

This mismatch will cause tearing or shuttering effect on the screen (It will look something like when you tear a picture and join it again).

But If we have this free sync technology, both monitor and GPU will be synced (operating at same fps) preventing this tearing problem.

Flicker Free / Anti Flicker

In some monitors, the display's backlight turns on and off at a very high speed and this is called flickering, It may not be noticible to normal eyes. But continuous usage of such monitors for long time may cause eye strain, headaches, and tiredness.

Flicker Free / Anti Flicker means there is no or minimal flickering.

Brightness

You know what it is and you also know higher will be better ( Should be adjustable, or higher brightness causes eye strain ). It is measured in nits (cd/m^2).

Generally, more than 250nits is better.

Connectivity Ports

There are 3 mostly used ports:

Display port ( Best quality ) > HDMI port ( Better qulity, high compatibility ) > VGA port ( Older port )

Best options:

2HDMI + 1VGA

2HDMI + 1DP

1HDMI + 2DP

Speaker

It is a separate topic, It's better to get a good speaker separately. But if it comes with the monitor will will be an additional benefit. I personally don't recomend paying extra for an inbuilt speaker.

Anti Glare

Monitors comes with some extra coating or built specially to prevent glaring. It is better to check for this, if you plan to use in a very bright environment.

Tilt Adjustment

This means you can tilt your monitor up and down. Not a big deal, but may be useful in some cases.

VESA mount

Almost all monitors have it, If we have this then wall mounting a monitor or getting a compatible monitor arm for multiple monitor setup will be easier.

Appearance and Color

Monitors comes with variety of colors and aesthitics. Buy the one which you like by seeing it, because after you own it you are going to see it for a long time, so you must like that and it should suit your background, desk and the theme of the environment.

Price

Choose your budget and within that budget try to get almost all features mentioned above. Try to buy almost any product during offer times to get the same product at lower price, price tracking tools will be lot helpful. Personally, I list the things that I need to buy and track the prices and buy them when they go below the average price, this method helped me a lot.

Warranty Period

We can't be sure that every product that we buy will work for long time. So, having a warranty of atleast 2 years is better. In case something goes wrong, we don't need to worry much ( Alteast we can claim the warrantly ).

Other Special Options

Some Monitors comes with feature that are unique to the brand.

Eg: Eye Care, Low Blue Light, Brightness Intelligence, Coding Modes, Drama Modes, Reading Modes, etc.,

Conclusion

These are the important things that you should consider while choosing a monitor. The blog will start with more technical specifications ( should be prioritized more ) and ends with common things. I hope this helped you.

If you have any suggesions to improve this, kindly let me know. Have a great day!