Advice on buying a LCD monitor for development

Question

I still use a 19" CRT monitor for my development (both at home and work), but now I'm looking for a wide-screen LCD monitor as my next purchase.

As much as I look into it, I can't really find one that pleases me. The problem is that the LCD grid (the black lines in-between individual pixels) confuses me. CRT monitor don't have that problem. Current resolutions (1440x900 on 19", 1680x1050 on 22" or 1920x1200 on 24") have large pixel pitch values and make the grid too visible.

Only 20" monitors @ 1680x1050 seem OK, but I would like to have a larger one. The best should be a 22" monitor with the resolution of the current 24" ones. But I only know one like that: It's the Lenovo L220X, on the $355 to $480 range. Pricey.

Apart from the twin-monitor scenario, no perfect match seems to exist for a single-monitor setup.

What is your advice?

Answer 1

dual monitors. nothing beats it, but I have a 22" that seems to work great. I would not spend a lot of time comparing numbers online if you are concerned about quality, go to the store and see for yourself

Answer 2

I'm running 2-24" Acers at 1920x1200 and haven't noticed any problems with "the grid"

Answer 3

In my company we did a short study among our developers to determine what works best, and to this day it still holds true; that 2 monitors is far better than 1 large monitor.

We all use two monitors, so you can have your app/page/etc full screen in one monitor, and the code full screen in the other.

We have never been too concerned with the lines between pixels, actually I have never noticed.

Personally I prefer my ViewSonic VG2230wm which is a 22" widescreen monitor. I keep the code up in this monitor, and use a standard 19" LCD monitor to run the site / app in.

With one large monitor you spend too much time moving windows around, when you can just throw a window to the other monitor and maximize it. (In my opinion)

Good Luck!

Answer 4

The CRTs that I've used have the grid problem far worse than the LCDs.

2 monitor setup is superior to large single IMO.

Answer 5

Since you already like the 20" monitors @ 1680x1050, buy two of these. It makes a huge difference in your productivity. I finally got two monitors at home, and now can't stand single monitor setups.

At work I have two HP LP2065. These are 20" with a native resolution of 1600x1200. I've seen them on TigerDirect and on Ebay. Unfortunately, the price went up at TigerDirect. They are now $429.99.

My second monitor at home was one of those being replaced at my company. They let me have it for $20. Look around for overstock and for companies that specialize in liquidated assets. These will probably have something you like for cheaper.

Answer 6

Three 22" monitors @ 1680x1050, with at least one on a swivel for "Landscape" mode. I could see moving up to 24" when prices drop. Good quality monitors are a must though.

Answer 7

Don't cross the Lenovo L220X off your list yet - the reason for the higher price is that it uses a better class of LCD panel. I just bought one to replace a 17" tube that died, and it's awesome. The pixel pitch is exactly the same as the tube running 1280x1024, but the screen is almost twice as large. I didn't do a dual monitor setup because my desk doesn't have the space.

Answer 8

My company opted for the 30" Dell monitors (2560x1600), one per developer. Previously I've used dual 19" (1600x1200) displays, and I found the split between monitors to be very distracting. On the other hand, a pair of good 22/24" monitors is cheaper than a 30" monitor, so the next time I upgrade at home, I'll probably be going the dual-screen route.

Something to keep in mind: faster updates are better. A monitor that only refreshes at 60Hz is going to be hard on your eyes in the long run. A higher refresh rate is more important than more pixels.

Answer 9

I'll have to add to the wisdom of crowds here, nothing beats a dual monitor setup. Actually I use dual computers both with dual monitors - 2x19" in one case and 24" + 19" on the other.

Dual computers may seem a bit extravagant, but I divide them broadly along application lines, so one is mainly used for website development and the other is loaded with desktop stuff plus graphics. It's useful to be able to test on a completely different machine, and often I'll load documentation up to display on the one I'm not working on. I'm mainly a windows based developer ('cause that's what my clients run on) so one box runs Vista and the other XP, and it's useful to have the comparison quickly available. Similarly one box has Office 2007 and the other 2003.

I also have a Mac (for easy testing of web apps on a mac, but it also runs IM and Skype) and the servers are at the end of the bench (ubuntu and windows 2003 sharing a monitor) so in total I have 6 monitors in front of me :-)

Answer 10

Probably not the answer you want, but I believe a 30" monitor is the best thing I've done to increase my productivity.

I don't mean a low-resolution 30" monitor, I mean a 2560x1600 monitor.

Dell sells the 3007WFP for ~1200 (but I think the price changes from time to time). You can see a lot of information at once on it. I think it's just over 100 dpi.

There are large tv monitors that are 30" or more, but they have rediculously low resolution and if you're having trouble now seeing the individual pixels/DPI, they will make it much worse.

Note that you should check to make sure your graphics card handles dual link dvi. Most do, but check to be sure.

Answer 11

I also use a dual 20" (both 1600x1200) setup at work. I would advise one thing - I also have multiple monitors at home, but I use a triple 19" setup there (1280x1024), and the loss of vertical resolution going from 1200 to 1024 hurts when you're working with Visual Studio. The gain in width doesn't compensate for not being able to see enough lines of code (though it does help a lot when you're using a debugger, two apps and two test harnesses all at once :->)

Since the low-end widescreen monitors all run 1050 vertical resolution, I think you'll be disappointed. Hold onto your money until you can afford a 1920x1200 monitor (or the prices drop further), and I think you'll be a lot happier than if you jump now.

Answer 12

1x 30", 1x 20"

I run a Dell 3007WFP and a 4:3 20" TFT and I think it is the best combination. I get get lots of code on the 30" (at least 2 files side-by-side in Netbeans and Eclipse which is a huge productivity boost). In addition I have a separate monitor for documentation, a browser or whatever I want. I often run the second monitor in portrait mode rather than landscape.

I'd find 2 30" screens to big. Two 20s is nice (my old setup), but you lose the ability to have code side by side in the same ide on a single screen.

It isn't the cheapest option, but I can't imagine improving my setup at the moment.

Answer 13

Personally I believe widescreen and even normal 4:3 layout isn't the best scenario for programming. I prefer using a 20" LCD with 1600x1200 resolution, and one that supports pivot (aka rotation) so that I use the monitor in 1200x1600 mode, aka 3:4.

This allows me to see twice as many lines of code, and 1200 pixels wide is enough for any IDE, even Visual Studio if you pin the control & code view panes to autohide.

One thing to keep in mind is, almost all LCDs produced today are TN panels, which give really high refresh rates, but are angle sensitive, especially when pivoted. If you pivot a TN panel, you might have the turn the monitor at an unnatural angle to prevent color shifting.

From normal layout, TN panels will appear pretty normal, although keep in mind they don't support the full color spectrum.

In regards to the "grid", I find only low quality monitors have this, although it's particular easier to see this on 19" monitors, probably because of the 1280x1024 resolution they use is a poor DPI. 17" monitors have the same resolution, giving a higher DPI, and I don't notice the grids there.

Of course your sitting distance from the monitor affects how noticeable the grid is as well.