Need monitor suggestions for coding

I

I3eyond

Gawd
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Jan 14, 2006
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Posting on behalf of a buddy who codes in need of a new monitor.

His back story and desires:

"Currently have two 21.5" Asus monitors, but they are relatively cheap looking, and overall not vivid. They're not bad, but when I look at nicer monitors the Asus monitors I have do not look all that great...

That said, I'm thinking ~23" for coding. Easy to see text, rich, and easy on the eyes."

Suggestions welcomed!

Regards,
-I3
 
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I might sound crazy .. but just for coding i'd get seiki 50" UHD. For coding only 30Hz refresh rate shouldn't matter much, but big screen estate of 4K for side by side display of few code versions, testing resulting apps in parallel, displaying documentation ..
 
Yeah, but you have to sit a lot farther back so the huge pixels don't make text look like crap. You get area but you either have blurry text or less effective work area because you're sitting farther back and have to make everything bigger.
Also, 30Hz is borderline even for mostly text usage sometimes. Your experience may vary though. I used to use a T221 a lot and it was OK, I guess, but not idea.
 
Church said:
I might sound crazy .. but just for coding i'd get seiki 50" UHD. For coding only 30Hz refresh rate shouldn't matter much, but big screen estate of 4K for side by side display of few code versions, testing resulting apps in parallel, displaying documentation ..
Click to expand...

I disagree. I think any desktop work would be annoying at 30Hz. I've recently had to use a remote desktop system running at that refresh for coding and getting to go back to 60Hz or more was a relief. Plus I would wager that most IDEs and code editors don't DPI scale very well.

I'd rather get either a couple of good 1920x1200 or 1080p displays or a good 27-30" 1440p or 1600p display. No need for scaling, lots of desktop space. I currently code with two 1080p displays at work and when working from home I use a single 27" 1440p display.

Generally you just want something that has a good, stable image so no PWM flicker and so on. You should be able to find older Dell 30" displays on the used market for little money if you don't mind having no warranty.
 
I second the 4K Seiki. You get used to the input lag in about 48hours (it's not really lag, it's the cursor not being drawn as much as you're used to).

Also, you don't do any scaling, Windows or otherwise. That's the point of having that much resolution at that screen size. Also, if the pixels were larger or you use scaling to make everything bigger you would want to sit far back, bit I have 0 problems with my Seiki 39" at around 2'. I use an IKEA table top (about the size of a door blank). Works great!
 
I cannot recommend anything like a 4k display for coding. Text is too damned tiny and TN panels really just flat-out suck for text. That is just my opinion!.

At home I use a 27" IPS 1440p + 24" IPS 1200p and the 27" is really fantastic (it's one of those Korean-like units sold at Microcenter). Pixel density is high but doesn't necessitate squinting to see things and/or boosting DPI (which can make certain things draw screwy because Windows sucks at DPI scaling)

At work I use 3x 1920x1200 displays + a 22" 1680x1050. My center display is a 2405fpw (PVA), the two on either side are u2412m (eIPS), and the top right is a P2210 (TN). Of the four displays, I prefer the u2412m as do my co-workers (we all have pretty similar setups at work)

If it were in my power/budget, I would run 6 of the u2412m's in a double stack of 3 at work, and a row of 3 1440p IPS displays at home.

Just my 0.02 as an applications developer.
 
DrinkTea said:
Yeah, but you have to sit a lot farther back so the huge pixels don't make text look like crap...
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On 50" 4K pixels are as "huge" as on FullHD 24" :p

cortexodus: Display that i suggested: 1) is not tiny (it's 50", not from those wierd 4K 24-28-31.5" monitors), 2) it's not TN.
It's simple to NOT have scaling problems with 4K - simply upsize screen size proportionally. Pitty that almost no monitor vendor sees it, or they purposedly started with smaller sizes in hopes to milk more money with incremental upgrades from customers, even when all necessary technology bits are already out there, starting from $500 chinese 50" 4K panels, ending with boards that can drive 4K in SST at 60Hz via DP or HDMI 2.0. And i'm certain that there would be demand, yet they don't make it, untill some 3rd tier vendor like Seiki will release something that will break out of this "gentlemen agreement" of vendors and they will have to quickly release something comparable.
 
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Church said:
cortexodus: Display that i suggested: 1) is not tiny (it's 50", not from those wierd 4K 24-28-31.5" monitors), 2) it's not TN.
It's simple to NOT have scaling problems with 4K - simply upsize screen size proportionally.
Click to expand...

If a display like that works for someone, that's awesome. :) Lots of desktop real estate in one display! However, I've looked into them for myself and reached much the same conclusions as this article.

As for not having scaling problems, I think I understand your point about sizing and such, but for me, sitting close enough to use a screen that large and comfortably read means a lot of moving my head up and down and left and right. Then, because it's a flat surface, my focus has to constantly adjust from the distance of the panel's surface directly in front of me, out to the distance of the panel's sides. Hours in front of that can be exhausting on the eyes. With three displays curved around me, my focus is generally at the same distance all the time and I don't do a lot of up-down movement to see things (my upper right monitor holds misc stuff like monitoring systems, music app, etc. that I look at only occasionally).

In any case, I may have dismissed 4k stuff for coding for myself (at the moment) and won't recommend it, but I imagine it works well for some other folks. On the other hand, if OP decides to go that route, I'd definitely make sure that returning it would be fairly easy if it proves to be a problem. Of course, you could really say that about any give solution ;)
 
cortexodus: I can only say for myself, for a while i used similar 4K 50" display (made by Skyworth though). I saw no problems with screen being overly large, it seemed to me "right sized". Even before, on smaller screens like 20-24-27", i never looked on whole screen, concentrating only on part of it with current unmaximized window, leaving rest of screen for parallel display of something else, so nothing changed with using even bigger screen. For me that variant didn't stay just because of me using it not for desktop work only, but also games, thus 30Hz felt too unacceptable for using it for everything, but as OP stated that it's just for coding .. thus my suggestion. For just that - imho better choice then eg. four 24" screens. Main drawback of low refresh rate not as important. Or if it IS important, one just need to wait for next gen screens that will have DP or HDMI 2 (unfortunately for HDMI one also will need to upgade gpu).
P.S.
Don't judge by linked in article. What someone can expect from reviewer, who doesn't know even how to tune cleartype and then complains that with no proper setting it text display sucks? Better check thread for those Seiki's in this forum for more thorough clues (for example about that cleartype setting, or how to access engineering menu to fine tune gamma, or which modes are advisable to have set or off if used with PC, how to switch off vsync in different OSes for more responsive UI, how to enable 120hz@FHD on 39" with using 50"'s firmware and so on).
 
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Church said:
I might sound crazy .. but just for coding i'd get seiki 50" UHD. For coding only 30Hz refresh rate shouldn't matter much, but big screen estate of 4K for side by side display of few code versions, testing resulting apps in parallel, displaying documentation ..
Click to expand...

This is, indeed, a crazy suggestion.

50" is waaaay too big for sitting in front of at a desk. Especially when the OP was considering 23" monitors to begin with.
 
My current top choice for coding is the 34" LG 34UM95. It's not as much screen real estate as two 27" monitors, but having one continuous desktop makes up for that in my workflow at least.

You can comfortably put 3 to 6 windows side-by-side depending on the column size you're working with.
 
I'd like to reiterate my experience that nothing beats high DPI displays for programming or anything that involves reading a lot of text. Space is good, but if you have to choose between that and clarity, I think you'll be happier long term with something sharp rather than something big.

Regular displays do have "huge" pixels by comparison and once you've used a decent density screen, it really is hard to go back. At least this has been my experience and that of others who have spent a prolonged time with such displays.
 
DrinkTea said:
I'd like to reiterate my experience that nothing beats high DPI displays for programming or anything that involves reading a lot of text. Space is good, but if you have to choose between that and clarity, I think you'll be happier long term with something sharp rather than something big.

Regular displays do have "huge" pixels by comparison and once you've used a decent density screen, it really is hard to go back. At least this has been my experience and that of others who have spent a prolonged time with such displays.
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High DPI is great, but depending on your OS you still have to deal with scaling issues. It's not bad if you're just coding in consoles all the time, but as soon as you have to click on an icon somewhere you'll end up squinting as you carefully move the mouse in to position...

Also keep in mind that the 27" 2560x1440 monitors and the 34" 3440x1440 monitors aren't exactly low-dpi. A 4K 24" monitor weighs in at a nice ~183ppi, but the 27" and 34" monitors are a manageable but sharp 110ppi. That's still a step up from, for example, a 1080p 24" at only 92ppi.

Also keep in mind that at 34", you'll probably be sitting farther away from the monitor than your physically smaler 4K 24", so those 110ppi are going to go a long way in terms of how narrow of an arc of your FOV they occupy.

In short: The 27" and 34" monitors actually do have a relatively high ppi. Not 4K high, but it's still a step up from the average 1080p monitors without being so small as to become unmanageable without proper display scaling.


Also, all the ppi in the world doesn't beat having six consoles open side-by-side across a 34" monitor all while maintaining readable without squinting. :D
 
I like the 27" 2560x1440 for a good, all-around display.

Haven't tried a 4K (God, I hate that term...) 2160p display yet. I think a 35" would be the sweet spot for me as the PPI (121.17) would be reasonably close to a 27" 1440p. I've just ordered the LG 34" 3440x1440 for work. Should have it next week.
 
2x 1440p AH-IPS monitors with Plasma Deposition Coating (anti-reflective glass which is clearer and less reflective than glossy coatings) offer the clearest and sharpest picture aside from the new 5k iMac+OSX scaling.

Prices start around 350$ for nice looking models like the Wasabi Mango QHD277 Prime and Crossover 27QW (info+review links) from Amazon or eBay and 3 year Square Trade Warranties can be purchased for <50$. Name brand versions exist (Planar PXL2790MW and one from Monoprice), but they have a very high minimum brightness.
 
AgentQ said:
High DPI is great, but depending on your OS you still have to deal with scaling issues. It's not bad if you're just coding in consoles all the time, but as soon as you have to click on an icon somewhere you'll end up squinting as you carefully move the mouse in to position...

Also keep in mind that the 27" 2560x1440 monitors and the 34" 3440x1440 monitors aren't exactly low-dpi. A 4K 24" monitor weighs in at a nice ~183ppi, but the 27" and 34" monitors are a manageable but sharp 110ppi. That's still a step up from, for example, a 1080p 24" at only 92ppi.

Also keep in mind that at 34", you'll probably be sitting farther away from the monitor than your physically smaler 4K 24", so those 110ppi are going to go a long way in terms of how narrow of an arc of your FOV they occupy.

In short: The 27" and 34" monitors actually do have a relatively high ppi. Not 4K high, but it's still a step up from the average 1080p monitors without being so small as to become unmanageable without proper display scaling.


Also, all the ppi in the world doesn't beat having six consoles open side-by-side across a 34" monitor all while maintaining readable without squinting. :D
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I guess it's subjective. I've used 27 inch 2560x1440 displays and found them not so great. If I moved them far enough back that they weren't pixelly everything was just as tiny. And it depends on how far you sit from the monitor :)
Also, you're right about OS choice. I've had miserable experiences on windows and meh on linux. OS X is good at it though and I don't know why we can't all just agree to use their solution.

Webhead said:
I like the 27" 2560x1440 for a good, all-around display.

Haven't tried a 4K (God, I hate that term...) 2160p display yet. I think a 35" would be the sweet spot for me as the PPI (121.17) would be reasonably close to a 27" 1440p. I've just ordered the LG 34" 3440x1440 for work. Should have it next week.
Click to expand...

If you hate that term, shouldn't you hate the "p" terms too? They're kind of marketingspeak, although admittedly a little more precise than "K" terms.


I think an optimal setup might be a larger lower dpi display with a small high DPI display like the one in the kickstarter above sitting a fair bit closer for when you really need to focus in on text or read something for long periods of time.
 
AgentQ said:
High DPI is great, but depending on your OS you still have to deal with scaling issues. It's not bad if you're just coding in consoles all the time, but as soon as you have to click on an icon somewhere you'll end up squinting as you carefully move the mouse in to position...
Click to expand...
Depends on your IDE, as Visual Studio 2013 is pretty much perfect at HiDPI and 2012 only has a few small parts that aren't sized properly.
 
I would say 3x 23" 1080p at the very least.

24" are just about the perfect size IMO.

They are not too small and you don't have to sit way back from them like you do with huge monitors.

I use one for coding, one for running tests, and the other for looking stuff up.
 
I may sound too cynic, but why one must put monitor much further if it's huge? Big size 4K display will have similar dpi as those multiple smaller displays, will have comparable size .. so why one HAS to sit way back just because it's one screen vs multiple of similar summary properties (or rather total width even wider)? Bezels in picture dictate sitting distance or there is some secret logic i fail to see? :)
 
I recommend the LG 34UM95. It is the by far the best monitor I've used for coding, mainly because it gives the feeling of working with a dual monitor setup in one display. Love that it doesn't have PWM also which is somewhat of a rarity in larger monitor sizes right now.

I've also tried the Dell 4K 32" and wasn't overly impressed by it. "Retina" quality text doesn't do much for me personally. I see the difference but it is no way as big of a deal as some people make out to be in my opinion.
 
Church said:
I may sound too cynic, but why one must put monitor much further if it's huge? Big size 4K display will have similar dpi as those multiple smaller displays, will have comparable size .. so why one HAS to sit way back just because it's one screen vs multiple of similar summary properties (or rather total width even wider)? Bezels in picture dictate sitting distance or there is some secret logic i fail to see? :)
Click to expand...

Because regular monitors have pixels that are so chunky to begin with they should be farther back anyway.

x3sphere said:
I recommend the LG 34UM95. It is the by far the best monitor I've used for coding, mainly because it gives the feeling of working with a dual monitor setup in one display. Love that it doesn't have PWM also which is somewhat of a rarity in larger monitor sizes right now.

I've also tried the Dell 4K 32" and wasn't overly impressed by it. "Retina" quality text doesn't do much for me personally. I see the difference but it is no way as big of a deal as some people make out to be in my opinion.
Click to expand...

It's subjective. Though there is some evidence it can reduce eye strain long terms and increase reading speeds. Also, I think the 32" ones are still a slightly too low DPI, at least if you have them at a normal distance. Have you tried a UP2414Q, T221 or any of the laptop displays? You might see more of a difference then. Ultra wide high DPI could be nice though.
 
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