What monitor setup for a software developer?

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Vandan

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A few years back (5 or 6) I bought a Topaz Soyo 24" by the recommendation of this forum, and I couldn't be happier with it. I still think it's one of the best monitors I have used for text, mostly because of the very nice, light anti-glare coating. I also have a 20" Dell with thick coating and I dislike it, but because I use it as a side monitor I don't notice it as much.

Anyway I am ready to move to larger monitor than my 24" Soyo and I spent a few days reading through the posts in this forum. It seems that these are my options:

ViewSonic VP2770-LED for $706 on Amazon. This is my top choice at the moment but it is not cheap, and some people have had to return theirs because of backlight bleeding.

ASUS PB278Q for $554 on Amazon. My second top-choice. This one is cheaper and also nice, but people also reported backlight bleeding. Some people have complained about PWM, which seems to be worse at lower brightness settings and I usually keep my monitors at low brightness. There has been no discussion on the thread about this monitor for 6 months so I don't know if anything has changed recently.

Dell U2713HM for $623 on Amazon. Many people have reported BLB and also cross-hatching. I haven't seen cross-hatching firsthand, but it seems something to avoid at all cost. It has a semi-glossy AG coating, which sounds good to me. There are also good deals on refurbished ones.

27" QNIX QX2710 for $310 on Ebay. This one seems to be mostly for games because it's overclockable, but the price is great. This one or a refurb dell could be my secondary monitor.

Dell U3014 for $999 on Amazon. I also thought about getting a 30" dell, but this one has had a ton of problems. Currently everyone seems to be waiting for the A03 revision which might fix some of them. Amazon has been dropping the price of this monitor for the last three weeks, which makes me wonder if they are trying to dump all of their A02 stock, before selling A03.

So what monitor or monitor setup do you recommend for text/coding? I would prefer light or semi-glossy AG coating. For a monitor setup I initially thought about PLP with 30" dell in the center and two 20" dells on the sides, but if I end up not getting the 30" I don't know what setup to go for.
 
Viewsonic or BenQ BL2710PT which does not use LED PWM Dimming. Dell does not deserve anyone's $ right now since most of their products suffer from defects competitors do not. Avoiding PWM should be a top priority. The 1440 to 1600p screen-real-estate difference is to small to justify spending 300$+ for an inferior and likely defective product.
 
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If you happen to find the Eizo 2736 cheaper than it typically goes for ($900+ in US) that is another one you can consider. Or you could consider another 24"er at 16:10.

Just be aware that at 1440p, you will of course have more pixels, but the text will be a lot tinier than on your current setup. So unless you have great eyes, you may not really be upgrading as much as you may think, as it's also 16:10 vs 16:9.

I just know if I went to 1440p, I'd end up cranking dpi up so much I probably wouldn't gain anything at all, at least vertically.
 
I use a 27" Apple cinema display at work, which I think has the same DPI as any other 27" monitor. I agree the text is just a tad too small, but I can probably handle it.

I will wait for a while for more reviews of u3014 A03, but at this point it seems that VP2770 is the way to go.
 
NCX said:
Avoiding PWM should be a top priority.
Click to expand...

While I agree with your general conclusions, I don't think this is true unless you're bothered by PWM. I'm not bothered by it at all. For example, I use an Asus PQ321 at roughly 50% brightness, which was reported by Prad to use PWM, and honestly the only time I experienced any eyestrain or ill effects(with 12+ hours of usage per day) was when I had the brightness set at 100% the first day, because damn it's really bright.
 
InternationalHat said:
Just change the font size in your IDE

I use an achieva shimian 27" in portrait
Click to expand...

Yeah, you can change the font size, or crank up DPI. I just meant overall, the gain over a 24" 16:10 may not be as much as the OP thinks, if cranking things up. More pixels are great, but once you increase font sizes/dpi, the amount of text visible isn't a whole lot different.

That said, the OP seems fine with the smaller text (or mostly fine) so it's less of an issue. The thing I do find annoying about high res displays, and even my 1200p display, is when software doesn't play nice with dpi settings. Photoshop bugs me with its small text, for instance, and I have a couple of older graphics programs that don't play nice with it either. In such a case, that is when 1440p would be a hindrance.

And even with the 27"er, I think keeping a side monitor is a good idea. I have been using a 19" VA as my side monitor, and it works fine for coding. I guess that could be another option for an upgrade, if the OP wants to go to a lighter coating there -- just not sure what small monitors use light coatings nowadays.
 
1080/1200 to 1440=huge difference. 1440 to 1600=1080 to 1200

Sancus said:
While I agree with your general conclusions, I don't think this is true unless you're bothered by PWM. I'm not bothered by it at all. For example, I use an Asus PQ321 at roughly 50% brightness, which was reported by Prad to use PWM, and honestly the only time I experienced any eyestrain or ill effects(with 12+ hours of usage per day) was when I had the brightness set at 100% the first day, because damn it's really bright.
Click to expand...

PWM Long Term effects are unknown. I thought PWM didn't bother me, a year later it has been causing me eye strain issues (dry+tired eyes after short term use) and I use 120-140nits brightness. Asus=insulting consumers for using LED PWM Dimming in 3,500$ monitor.
 
InternationalHat said:
Just change the font size in your IDE

I use an achieva shimian 27" in portrait
Click to expand...

Do you use cleartype/anti-aliasing? Do you notice any difference with the text in portrait mode?

I like the idea of using a 27 in portrait as my second monitor. My main monitor will be in landscape though, because I am quite used to the way I arrange my editor windows.
 
NCX said:
PWM Long Term effects are unknown. I thought PWM didn't bother me, a year later it has been causing me eye strain issues (dry+tired eyes after short term use) and I use 120-140nits brightness. Asus=insulting consumers for using LED PWM Dimming in 3,500$ monitor.
Click to expand...

I agree it's lame that they used PWM on this monitor, but I found out after I bought it and I like the monitor too much to return it because of that. I'm not going back to a lower resolution just so that I can avoid something that is imperceptible to me.

I've also used a U2412M for the past 2 years which is PWM also and that doesn't bother me. I won't deny that PWM can have these effects on some people, I just don't agree that it makes sense to avoid it at all costs. Avoid it if you can, but if you happen to purchase a monitor that uses PWM, it's nowhere near as big of a deal as it's being made out to be on these forums and on certain monitor review sites.
 
I agree with NCX, as long term effects are really unknown. There is also the possibility that those who feel they are unaffected would notice a difference after a while, if then switching to PWM free.

The thing I don't get is why all newer LEDs aren't PWM-free to begin with. I believe BenQ already stated that the additional cost is pretty trivial. I guess for some wide gamut pro monitors it could matter a tiny bit, if PWM free reduces color space a small amount ... but otherwise, I think it'd make sense for manufacturers to move to PWM free for every new model they make.
 
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