Working from home can be easier than expected if you have, for example, a good 27 inch touch screen monitor that can compensate for the small size of the laptop screen and save you from excessive eye strain. Find out what are the most important features a monitor should have to be truly useful.
In order to choose the best monitor for your personal needs, you should also know the definitions of the features that you will find among the price lists of different models. In addition, you need to understand how much space you want to occupy on your desk and what diagonal the display surface of the image should have.
Technologies: IPS, VA or TN?
Let’s start immediately by highlighting the different types of screens currently available in stores and see what technical characteristics you need to consider before buying them. The first choice you have to make is the type of panel: all displays currently on the market are LCD displays (liquid crystal, LED-backlit, or fluorescent). But be careful, not all LCDs are created equal. Depending on the type of panels used, they can be distinguished as follows.
- TN (short for Twisted Nematic) monitors are known for their very low response times (down to 1 ms) and the fact that they are often available at a good price. They are most suitable for video games and viewing 3D content.
- IPS monitors (short for In Plane Switching) are more multimedia oriented because they display colors better than TN and have much wider viewing angles, but almost always have a high response time.
- VA monitors (short for vertical alignment) – offer good viewing angles and good contrast, but have a not very low response time and color reproduction is not as ideal as on IPS panels. These features of the panels should be taken into account, especially in the workplace.
Image quality
Each monitor can support more or less high resolutions or technologies that can be useful in certain areas. Below we offer you some definitions of the essential characteristics of monitors.
Size and resolution
When choosing monitors, you have to look not only at the size, that is, the number of inches, but also at the resolution, that is, at the maximum number of pixels that can make up the image on the screen. Display sizes typically range from 18.5″ to over 30″, while when it comes to resolution, we have several options at our disposal.
- HD Monitors – The cheapest monitors currently available on the market are monitors with HD resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels in a 16:9 aspect ratio. They’re a bit anachronistic these days, and we don’t recommend them unless you’re very picky and want to spend the bare minimum.
- Full HD monitors have a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels and are currently the best solution in terms of quality-price. They are also perfect for gaming. Recommended sizes for this type of display range from 21″ to 27″, also because if you play too closely on a large monitor, you risk significant eye strain.
- 2K monitors have a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels and are especially suitable for working with photos and videos. The recommended size for this type of display is from 27″.
- 4K or UltraHD monitors – have a resolution of 3840 × 2160 pixels and are the best that the market offers at the moment. They can be used in various fields, primarily in photo and video processing, but they are also good for games. They must be connected to the computer and, above all, to a very high-performance video card, otherwise, they end up being counterproductive. The recommended size for this type of display is at least 28″.
Response time
Among the main features to look at before buying a monitor is also the response time, that is, the number of milliseconds it takes for a pixel to change its state on the screen (this parameter is fundamental for gaming and should be as low as possible if you need a monitor for gaming).
Frame rate
This measure is used to indicate the number of frames “rendered” every second by the computer video card (FPS) and establishes the fluidity of animation and any movement. It is mainly used in video games or multimedia content. Unlike the refresh rate, it is not fixed but can vary depending on the workload required by the software/video game.
Update frequency
Represents the refresh rate of the image on the screen, that is, the number of times the image is redrawn on the display every second (measured in Hz). The last two parameters are better when they are higher. In addition, nVidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync technologies have recently proven themselves among the most demanding gamers. They allow you to synchronize the frame rate with the screen refresh rate to avoid annoying artifacts.
Which monitor to choose?
You should finally have a slightly clearer idea of the features of computer monitors. Here are some simple tips on which monitor to choose according to your needs:
- If you need to edit video, you need plenty of space for editing, timeline, and preview tools. Thus, the monitor in this case must have the following properties: anti-reflective coating, a diagonal of at least 27 inches, a resolution of at least 2,560 × 1,440 pixels, and a panel with IPS technology.
- If you have to process photos instead, you need the monitor to have an anti-glare coating, a 27-inch diagonal, a minimum resolution of 2,560 × 1,440 pixels, an IPS panel with 1.07 billion colors.
- If you have to manage technical design applications, rendering or 3D graphics, the monitor panel should always have an anti-glare finish, IPS technology, a 27-inch diagonal, and a resolution of at least UHD, the diagonal must be at least 30 inches.
- If you play on a computer, a good gaming monitor should have an anti-glare finish, a TN panel with a low response time, a Full HD resolution of 1,920 × 1,080 pixels , and possibly support for NVIDIAG-SYNC or AMDFreeSync technology.
Finally, if you choose a monitor from Beetronics for your home or office, it must have an anti-glare finish, an IPS panel with a diagonal of at least 22 inches, a Full HD resolution of 1,920 × 1,080 pixels, and if possible a DVI input, otherwise, a resolution of a graphics card, one with the legacy VGA standard, sometimes also called D-sub, would also be fine.
