Ask HN: What do you look for in a work monitor?

* High-ish DPI is desirable. 27" 4K displays are a good start and look pretty sharp at 150% scaling. 5K screens were still pretty overpriced last time I looked, and there weren't many options available, but you can use them at 200% comfortably. Avoid monitors that would require you to use fractional scaling if you're running NVIDIA on Linux

* even for non-gaming uses, high refresh rates are comfortable, IMO. 120hz or higher is fine. Going higher has diminishing returns.

* OLED panels are desirable.

* if you're making a multi-monitor setup, avoid introducing displays that require different levels of scaling. You'll avoid headaches, though KDE improved that drastically in recent years.

USB-C with power delivery.

I love being able to plug a single cable into the laptop and everything work, and not have a bulky docking station on my desk.

For me:

* 40 inch 21:9 aspect ratio. 34 is too small and 43 and above are too big

* QHD i.e. 3440 X 1440 resolution - why? Because it renders the programming fonts perfectly - many will complain about pixelation but for me it just seems perfect. This translates to a PPI of approx. 93 which is the same as for a 24 inch FHD monitor. Scaling spoils it for me

* Curve - not too less nor too aggressive - LG OLED is 800R which is way too much - on the other hand 2300R is too less - I think 1800 is ideal

* 60 Hz or more refresh rate

* Accurate color reproduction

* Matte finish / antiglare

Sadly, a curved monitor with the above specs does not exist. The only one as I mentioned is the LG OLED which has a far too aggressive a curve. There are some lesser known brands which come as flat which I currently use but I wish there was one that met all of the above.

I just buy whatever Apple sells. I would get the Pro Display XDR but it's too expensive and the Studio one is still great. It has good DPI and colors, good size, power over USB-C (so I just have one wire on my desk) and most importantly when you rotate the display it switches between portrait/landscape automatically with an accelerometer. And I like not having to research dozens of different models.

You should probably say what kind of work you do. A photographer has different needs than an journalist.

Even outside of gaming, people's needs are going to vary a great deal. Some people are sensitive to refresh rates, some people really need great color reproduction, etc.

But since you asked what I optimize for... I'm cheap, and tend to opt for inexpensive, no-frills, but reliable 4K monitors. I have several Philips 278E 27-inch 4K monitors. I don't see these on Amazon any more, so maybe this model has been discontinued, but they ran about $250 USD or so. I use a couple on my main workstation for coding, my wife has a couple (that are secondary to an Apple Studio Display), and I have a floating one for the workbench. I find this model to be a sweet spot for my needs. They aren't as beautiful as an Apple display, but they're sufficient.

Potential cons include no camera (I have a separate camera on top, although it sometimes obscures some of the display due to narrow bezels), lousy speakers (I use headsets), and they seem oddly sensitive to electrical fields in the environment (for example, they'll turn off momentarily if I static shock myself on something nearby).

I love ultrawides rather than the standard 16:9s. You can put two windows side by side and each is still usable.

I bought a Samsung Odyssey G9 on a whim when visiting a Microcenter. It's a 49" 5120x1440 32:9 display, essentially two 1440p screens combined. You can use it as a single screen or use picture-in-picture to split the screen (50:50 and 70:30). For gaming stuff it's also 240hz with Gsync/Freesync and supports HDR.

I have it on a VESA mount. I love it, I typically use two screens anyway and now I get a seamless screen without bezels and half the cables I'd otherwise need.

- 27" or higher.

- 4K or higher.

- 1440p effective resolution or higher.

- 120 hz or higher.

- ~160 dpi or higher. Note that some people here are going to rage about non-integer scaling and they're right. But I'm older with less than 20/20 vision and an Apple Silicon device, so it looks sharp enough to me and I don't have any performance issues under any circumstances.

If you want a more stringent look at monitor's, check out Niki Tonsky's posts: https://tonsky.me/blog/monitors/

I look for non fire sale prices and non bleeding edge prices.

Things going for 150-200 is old tech. Things in the $500+ is fomo new tech.

Exactly 350-400 is the correct price for a balance of new and legacy tech (best value).

It’s the only way to not get screwed on something that takes up real estate, hard to resell/ship.

This is a niche coding monitor I’m considering: https://www.amazon.com/BenQ-RD280U-Programming-Fine-Coated-E...

* size (>=32", preferably ultrawide, currently using 38" UW)

* resolution (I am fine with >=1440p)

* USB-C or Thunderbolt with sufficient power to charge notebooks, so you only need to connect one cable to your notebook

* at least 4 USB ports (so keyboard, mouse, camera, speakerphone can be connected to monitor and it acts as a switch when using more than one notebooks)

* viewing angle / display type (image should look the same no matter which angle - but shouldn't be a problem in the price range of monitors that fulfill the previous points)

Hi, I am using 2x LG DualUp monitors on factory stands in side-by-side mode. Great for coding, ops and browsing, not great for watching videos and gaming due to proportions and 60Hz refresh rate. I have switched from 1st gen 49" Samsung G9, which was very good but lacked vertical space.