10 key questions to ask before buying a monitor
How do you decide between 29 monitors? By asking a few pertinent questions (and setting a budget that can’t be broken)
We love USB-C docking: with one fell swoop, you can cut two, three or possibly even four cables from your desk
You have to try hard to buy a bad screen these days. If you pick a reputable name and look for IPS as the panel technology, then it’s a safe bet that you’ll buy something pleasing to the eye. However, it still helps to know exactly what you’re looking for: what specs matter, what specs don’t, and whether you’ll really benefit from spending another £100 on the monitor one up in the range.
What size and resolution do you need?
We don’t think anyone needs a 34in widescreen monitor, but there are many occasions when it helps. If you frequently view two windows side by side, or your work (or fun) involves spreadsheets or games, a wide vista comes in handy. In truth, only you will know if a 24in screen will be plenty; after all, you can always buy a second screen later and view them side by side ( see p97).
Once you’ve picked a screen size, you need to think about sharpness rather than resolution. We recommend a pixel density of above 90ppi if you can afford it, although human eyes are surprisingly adaptable. Of all the screens we tested this month, we only cursed the lack of sharpness when using a 27in panel with a Full HD (1,920 x 1,080) resolution.
Is USB-C docking worth paying for?
We love USB-C docking: with one fell swoop, you can cut two, three or possibly even four cables from your desk. And when it’s time to get up and take your laptop with you, you only need to disconnect one cable, with USB-A ports built into the monitor if you need them. Some monitors even include RJ-45 ports for wired networking, KVM switches so you can hook up more than one PC and share the keyboard and mouse, and daisy chaining support ( see opposite).
There are caveats. If you have a powerful laptop then it may need more than the 65W power delivery we often see with USB-C docking monitors, so if in doubt check your laptop’s power supply to find out exactly what it needs (it could be that 65W is fine, but your laptop will charge more slowly).
Curved or not?
If you want a screen that stretches wider than 30 inches, you should give serious consideration to a curved display. That’s particularly true for playing games, where curvature makes fast gameplay feel more immersive. It’s no coincidence that many modern gaming displays are curved. Note that the number in the curvature figure refers to the radius of the circle that would be created, so 1500R equals 1,500mm or 1.5m.
How important is colour accuracy?
Few people need the last word in colour accuracy, and for those who do we’ll cover monitors for creative professionals in next month’s Labs. However, you should expect a decent average Delta E (the measure of colour accuracy) from a modern monitor, and ideally it should cover close to
90% of the sRGB gamut ( see “What are colour spaces?”, opposite).
We also talk a lot about “pure whites” in our reviews, as that can make working on a monitor much more pleasant. Look at the graphic opposite showing colour temperature. As you can see, 6500K is closest to what our eyes see as white, and if you