My decade-old Acer S231HL monitor pair is in need of replacement. This is what happens when one of the backlights in an LCD screen dies.
My desk can physically horizontally fit 2 monitors of at most about 22″ (56cm) apiece. My video source is my desktop graphics card.
Q: What matters in monitors these days (mid-2020)?
A: What do NewEgg, Best Buy, Amazon, and Walmart let you filter by? What specifications (specs) are being listed/advertised?
- physical size
- panel type/technology (how is the panel made and how and why does it work)
- resolution (how many pixels)
- refresh rate (how many times per second the screen is redrawn)
- response time (time the monitor takes to change from one color to another)
- contrast ratio (how black is “black”)
- viewing angle (how acutely can you look at the screen before it looks “too ugly”)
- brightness
- connection type/technology (which kinds of ports you can connect which kinds of cords to)
Several of these are the same from years ago (e.g. “contrast ratio” still means the same thing, and that is very unlikely to change much in the future). I don’t know or remember about some others.
- TN vs. IPS vs. VA: What’s the Best Display Panel Technology? | How-To Geek, by Tim Brookes (2020/03/12)
- How to Know the Differences Between an LED Display and LCD Monitor | HP Tech Takes, by Zach Cabading (2020/04/30)
- What’s a Variable Refresh Rate And Why Does That Matter for Gaming? | LifeHacker, by Mike Epstein (2020/01/07)
- What Is HDR, And What Does It Mean For Your Monitor? | Tom’s Hardware, by Sora Thompson (2018/02/27)
- DisplayPort vs. HDMI: Which Is Better For Gaming? | Tom’s Hardware, by Jarred Walton (2020/03/31)
- HDMI | Wikipedia
- Monitor Table Tool | RTINGS
So the best quality screen has a low response time (although the advertised response time might only be achievable by reducing image quality settings), high refresh rate, high resolution, high contrast ratio (except that the advertised figures are gamed into uselessness), and a large viewing angle. Due to desk limitations, I’m looking for a monitor with a ~24″ diagonal screen size. My office is in a basement, so I do not need exceptionally bright screens; 250 nits (cd/m2) is sufficient. My graphics card only supports HDMI 2.0, and does not support the Variable Refresh Rate technologies (G-Sync, FreeSync) nor HDR. Full-array LED-backlit monitors don’t exist in my price range. I’ll possibly need an adapter if the monitor has no DVI input port.
July 4th weekend, 2020, there just isn’t a compelling reason to not get the LG 24ML44B-B on sale from Best Buy for $110 instead of >$150 for anything else similar. Would I notice a response time of 1ms instead of 5ms, or a refresh rate of 144hz instead of 75hz? Is an advertised contrast ratio of 100,000,000:1 actually noticeably different (or even measurably different in real-use conditions) than 1000:1? I guess I won’t find out yet.