Monitors

I'm thinking about getting a new monitor, because my Acer AL1916W has a maximum resolution of 1440 × 900 whereas my notebook has 2560 × 1440 (check yours). This means when I connect the two, windows I drag to my external monitor are always super big.

Attributes

  • Screen size: How far away from the monitor are you? How big much space do you have?
  • Resolution: The higher, the smaller contents can be distinguished - but when it gets higher, your PC has to compute more and thus might become slower
  • Brightness in cd/m2: The brighter, the easier you can see things at sunlight
  • Connectors: HDMI should be available today
  • Reaction time: Advertised a lot, but I guess irrelevant for most people.
  • USB-Hub: Useful, if you want to power other USB devices nearby.

Personal preferences

  • Screen size: I would not buy a monitor which is smaller than 19" (then I could use my laptop directly), but also not one which is bigger than 27". Everything else I'm not sure about.
  • Connectors: I expect HDMI. The rest is a plus. See my post on Video display interfaces.
  • Power: I would prefer a new monitor to have Power via USB-C and an external power adapter for it. Not too important, though.

Things I ignore:

  • Reaction time: When I go to humanbenchmark.com, my reaction time seems to be roughly 300ms. So I guess I notice probably 100ms in difference in reaction time. Everything below just feels instantaneous. No need to go below 10ms.

Comparison

Just as an example, here is my current external monitor and two more:

General Information
Model Acer AL1916W Asus MG278Q ThinkVision P27h
Specs cnet.com asus.com lenovo.com
Price in 2019 50 EUR 480 EUR 312 EUR
Available Date 04/2006 09/2015 04/2017
Panel TN TN TFT-LCD, IPS, White LED backlight
Diagonal 19" 27" 27"
Dimensions in mm (W x H x D) 462 × 385 × 180 625 × 563 × 233 612 × 513 × 270
Aspect ratio 16:10 16:9 16:9
Power consumption (avg / max) 60 W 38.7 W / 45 W 38 W / 140 W
Power supply unit Built-in, C13
Weight 4 kg 7.3 kg 7.0 kg
Image quality
Resolution 1440 × 900 (WXGA+) 2560 × 1440 (WQHD) 2560 × 1440 (WQHD)
Viewing angle 10:1 (v) 130° 160° 178°
Viewing angle 10:1 (h) 150° 170° 178°
Pixel pitch 0.290 mm 0.230 mm 0.230 mm
Contrast ratio (static) 500 : 1 1000:1 1000:1
Contrast ratio (dynamic) 700 : 1 100 000 000:1 3 000 000:1
Colors 16.2 Mio. 16.7 Millionen 1073 Mio.
Working
non-glare ✓ ✓ ✓
Brightness 300 cd/m² 350 cd/m² 350 cd/m²
Gaming
Pixel response time 8ms 1ms 4ms (extreme) / 6ms (typical)
Refresh Rate 60Hz 144Hz 60Hz
Variable Synchronisierung Adaptive Sync/​AMD FreeSync, 40-144Hz (DisplayPort), mit LFC-Support, ohne HDR, NVIDIA G-Sync Compatible (Quelle: NVIDIA)
Ergonomics
Foot (Lift) ✗ 150mm 110mm
90° Rotating screen (pivoting) ✗ ✓ ✓
Tilt ✗ 20° back, ~-5° forward 30° back, -5° forward
Swivel ✗ +/-60° +/-45°
Connection
VGA 1 0 0
HDMI ✗ 2 2× HDMI (1.4)
DVI ✗ 1× DVI-D (digital & dual link) 0
USB-3 ✗ 2
USB-C ✗ ✗ USB 3.1 Type-C
Display Port ✗ ✓ DisplayPort (1.2) + DisplayPort-out
Extras
Speakers ✗ 2-Watt-Stereo ✗
Flat (non-curved) ✓ ✓ ✓
USB Hub one USB 3.1 Type-C upstream port, four USB 3.0 Type-A downstream ports

Panels

Panel Type TN IPS VA OLED
Pro
  • Price (Cheap)
  • Response time
  • Color accuracy
  • Viewing angles
  • Contrast ratio
  • many colors
  • Perfect black
  • Low power consumption for darker images
  • viewing angles
  • reaction times
  • slim
Con
  • Viewing angles
  • Color accuracy
  • Price (expensive)
  • Response time
  • IPS glow
  • color accuracy
  • less common (Samsung)
  • maximum brightnes
  • price (expensive)
  • ⚠ screen burn-in (source)
  • Availability: I could not find a single OLED monitor on amazon. Though there are many search results, all turn out to be IPS

TL;DR: IPS for work, TN for gaming, VN if you like Samsung and are willing to pay more.

Ergonomics

Best explained in the Lenovo ThinkVision P27H Monitor video.

Brands

Lenovo ThinkVision

  • P27u-10: 27 inch, Ultra HD resolution of 3840 x 2160,
  • P27h-10: 27 inch, QHD resolution of 2560 x 1440, black
  • P27q-10: 27 inch, QHD resolution of 2560 x 1440, silver (I think black looks better)
  • L27q-10: 27 inch, QHD resolution of 2560 x 1440, silver, Less connectivity than the P-Version
  • L27m-28: 27 inch, HD resolution of 1920 x 1080, black

Too Expensive

  • ThinkVision X1: 30 Bit colors, resolution of 3840 x 2160, 766 EUR

Honorable Mentions

  • AOC AGON AG241QX: Similar to ThinkVision P27h, but smaller and worse viewing angles. Better contrast and has speakers, though (comparison)
  • BenQ PD2500Q: Similar to ThinkVision P27h, but smaller, worse colors. Does have speakers, though (comparison)
  • Asus PB277Q: Similar to ThinkVision P27h, but worse viewing angles and doesn't have USB ports. Way better contrast and has speakers, though (comparison)
  • HP 27XQ: Similar to ThinkVision P27h, but worse colors and viewing angles (comparison)

See also

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