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Displays IT

Ask Slashdot: What's The Best Monitor For Development Work? 216

Long-time Slashdot reader AmiMoJo is having trouble finding a monitor that's good for writing code: The 16:10 aspect ratio, which allows for some extra vertical space that is extremely handy when viewing source code, is basically dead as far as I can tell. Dell still sell a few older models but there no 4k+ monitors with this aspect ratio.

Speaking of 4k, at 27" it's about the same PPI (pixels per inch) as my 2012 laptop with a 15" 1080p display, only bigger (around 160 PPI). It feels a bit awkward, not quite high enough to hide the pixels or render "perfect" looking fonts. 5k would be better (200 PPI), but every 5k monitor seems to have been discontinued except for one Iiyama model that seems to have quality problems.

Everyone seems to be obsessing over gaming and photography monitors now. Is there anything left for developers who don't care about 240Hz and calibrated colour, but do care about aspect ratio and text rendering quality?

Leave your suggestions in the comments. What's the best monitor for development work?
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Ask Slashdot: What's The Best Monitor For Development Work?

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  • And 6 or 9 virtual desktops on hotkeys. That is what I use and it is pretty much optimal for me with regards to field of view and resolution per surface area.

    • Anything 4:3. For code you want height, not width. Oh, and two of them at least, one for the code, one for the output or debugger.

      In fact for pretty much anything at all you want height, not width. The only reason we have squashed-screen monitors is that it's cheaper to make long, squashed-flat panels than tall ones, and that way you get to advertise a monitor as 27" even when it has less vertical space than a fifteen-year-old 20".

      The ideal "widescreen" monitor from a manufacturers profit-margin point if

      • Nah. For code, use the larger, higher-pixel-count monitor, and turn it sideways.

        You DID remember to get a monitor that will rotate, yes?
      • I prefer at least 1920px width for code. In this way i can have two text buffers alongside with ~95 columns each.

        Therefore, i prefer 1920x1080 to 1600x1200 (comapring ones with similar total number of pixels).

  • by takochan ( 470955 ) on Sunday August 25, 2019 @06:40PM (#59123946)

    I bought a 4K RCA 43 inch LCD UHD TV for $150 at Walmart.com and a DVI to HDMI converter cable last month... best monitor ever! Huge working space, beautiful colors! and cheap!

    • This one..

      RCA 43" Class 4K Ultra HD (2160P) LED TV (RTU4300)

      • I also use a 4K TV as my monitor. Mine is 39", so just slightly less than yours. I bought it at Costco for $199 last year.

        Modern TVs have fast refresh rates and minimal lag.

        They are also dirt cheap. There is no reason to pay more.

      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Don't you find 43" a bit large for your desk? Seems like it wouldn't be so good for ergonomics either.

        Basically you get the same DPI as two 22" monitors, but instead of a 32:9 aspect ratio you get 16:9. From a productivity perspective I think having more width is definitely helpful, as you can have multiple documents side-by-side and see a decent amount of vertical space on each of them. You could split your 4k into 4 areas but then each of them is only a 21.5" 2k 16:9 display and you lack vertical space ag

        • I use a 48" or 49" 4K TV for my main monitor, and I have a couple of them. At 48" and 4K, it's the equivalent of having four 24" HD monitors. After you get the correct scaling for text the browser windows are the same size as on a "normal" monitor, but I can have a bunch of them. I can also do full-page editing in the word processor. And, when doing db queries, I can get over 600 text columns in a terminal window and 150 or so rows.

          It's awesome.

    • Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Sunday August 25, 2019 @06:48PM (#59123976)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • I have 6 x 27" QHD Monitors stacked 3 across and 2 high. They all have this really nice panel from BOE that has some improvement on IPS technology in them which gives them better color and dynamic range with the viewing angle of IPS.

        They are 2560x1440 pixels resolution and I have them arranged such that it would require a curved monitor to replicate my setup. Less DPI wouldn't suit because the higher DPI makes fonts much more readable.

        Each is 23.5" wide x 13.2" high, so I'd need a 70.5" wide x 26.4" high

      • by Nite_Hawk ( 1304 )

        I don't know much about the RCA models, but one point: it's really important to get one that can do 4:4:4 chroma when displaying colored fonts. That's one of the reasons why I sprang for a higher end Sony model a couple of years back. It costs more, but between low input lag and 4:4:4 chroma it was much better than another model I tried that was significantly cheaper.

        I'd highly recommend checking out rtting's ratings here:

        https://www.rtings.com/tv/revi... [rtings.com]

      • How do fonts look on this? Are there some settings that work better than others? (I guess that's a "duh", but which settings...) My work involves lots of foreign language scripts, so I'm pretty sensitive to blurry fonts.

      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        So you are using the TV with 1:1 scaling to get 150 vertical lines, which means you must be sitting around 60cm away. You must have to tilt your head up to see the top part of the screen.

        It also means that you have only 2k resolution really. It's just like having 4x2k displays, so the quality of text rendering is only 2k. I've found that higher PPI text, even when it's monospace for coding, is much more readable.

    • Televisions are usually harmfully bright.

      I would definitely not want to code on one unless I had no other choice.

    • by Bigbutt ( 65939 )

      Yep. I vowed to only replace my 4k 43" with another. I work on lots of command line things from systems admin work with multiple scripts, to kubernetes, to automation, to programming my php websites.

      Mine: Wasabi Mango UHD430 Real 4K HDMI 2.0 SE 43" LG AH-IPS Panel UHD 3840×2160 Displayport 1.2 43-Inch 10Bit Monitor

      I actually have four more monitors; 4 23" Acer G235H monitors in an array around the 43" giving me about a 6k display area. The extra monitors are good for holding PDFs or status's of variou

      • How do you find using a TV as a monitor for text - not just images?
        I've heard certain TVs are quite good, as yours (may) be? but you need 4:4:4 Chroma for decent text?

        • by Bigbutt ( 65939 )

          I really do find it about the perfect size for reasonable text size. The text is exactly the same as the text on the 23” monitors, or not enough to make a difference. I bought my wife a 30” Acer for her laptop and she had Windows adjust the screen to 120% which was about right.

          Check here http://schelin.org/tag.view.ph... [schelin.org] for my monitor progress :) although it’s missing some early ones, and the last pic for my current setup. Click the picture for a closeup look. The only difference is my wi

          • by Bigbutt ( 65939 )

            Oh and as I understand it, this is a monitor that failed the LG or Sony QC. These guys buy the failures and sell them at a discount. I think mine was around a $300 discount. QC failures are things like blacks aren’t black enough or too many dead pixels. For coding (and the occasional gaming I do), the QC failure doesn’t affect my work. Per Egghead reviews, about 10% have issues (shipping directly from China) making it a bit of a pain to deal with customer service. Fortunately mine was one of the

  • And you get 9:16, 9:21.5 and or even 9:32.

    I'd assume you can find smaller than 27" 4K ones to do that with too if you want higher pixel density.

  • by Proudrooster ( 580120 ) on Sunday August 25, 2019 @06:46PM (#59123970) Homepage

    It's upgrade time and we faced the same quandary as you, "What monitor configuration do we want to use?"
    We know from research that have a second monitor makes you 20-40% more productive and the law of diminishing returns kicks in on the 3rd and 4th monitor.
    Almost everyone had a second monitor, but in landscape mode,

    Our solution to the problem was to buy 16:9 monitors and turn them sideways and place them on either side of the main monitor.
    This allows us to see lot's of source code and have a fairly narrow viewing at arms length to reduce neck strain.

    Monitor Setup

    L . P . L

    And we have everything plugged into the new USB-C docks so one cable to the laptop, lights it all up while charging the laptop.

    As to your question about 4K, the only 4K screens we purchased were in the new laptop screens themselves. We are using stock 1080 monitors and everyone seems happy. The new monitors also have the blue light reduction mode. A few people are using it. It is absolutely amazing how great the new monitors look and even with matte screens to reduce any reflection.

    • The vertical viewing range is a little annoying.

      My setup is PLL, but I wouldn't want to stare at the L extended, though it is stunning for quick overviews and seeing a lot at once.

      The second L is just auxillary. I keep like chat or voice stuff on it, it barely helps.

      I also use it for gaming, though, so the central portait is a must.

    • I work with 3 monitors,where the third is an old monitor where I put stuff that's less frequent like mail and so on so I can see what's up with that kind of stuff without having to switch window.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      That's an interesting idea, although I think you mean P . L . P.

      I'd probably still use a 16:10 screen for the central landscape one because many IDEs just don't support stretching over multiple monitors. MPLab, Quartus, Keil, ModelSim... Visual Studio based ones are okay, although I haven't played with VScode much.

      I think I may try this layout. Maybe go for 3x24" 4k screens for the visual quality and nice 2x scaling.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Oh, I should add that there is one down side to using monitors on portrait orientation.

      Sub-pixel font rendering relies on the horizontal RGB sub-pixel layout. When you rotate the monitor that becomes a vertical layout. Windows used to just disable sub-pixel font rendering on rotated displays. I don't know if it still does but many screen fonts are optimized for the horizontal layout too.

      Having 4k helps alleviate this. I don't know how noticeable it would be in practice, but given that it's an effective 3x i

  • Confused by the question. "Basically dead" and yet I see buildings full of those monitors. They work great, get two side by side. 4K are for hipsters and people with more budget than sense.

    • Confused by the question. "Basically dead" and yet I see buildings full of those monitors. They work great, get two side by side. 4K are for hipsters and people with more budget than sense.

      I have an iMac with 27" Retina display. 5k. I have a lot more sense than budget, but I have enough budget for that machine. Writing software for money for the last 39 years, I really should. And the screen is absolutely beautiful.

      Apple's 6k display is a bit too far on the expensive side for me, but I'm told by people who should know that it compares reasonably well with monitors that cost $20k.

      • by Bigbutt ( 65939 )

        Humorously my daughter and I were at a Best Buy recently and the 8k 83" was looking pretty fine. Not sure if I could drive it with my system though :)

        [John]

    • They are basically dead in the sense that there hasn't been any change in like 10 years now for 16:10 monitors. They are the same 1920x1200 24" displays that you could have bought in 2009. If you want high resolution/high DPI then you have to with 16:9.

      I agree they work well enough, though I never really liked how you needed to go all the way to 24" to get 1920x1200. Even 10 years ago, that should have been a 21-22" monitor. Yeah there were a handful built like that, but the vast majority were 24". I'v

  • I'm still running three 1920x1200px monitors side-by-side in portrait mode. This works well for me to keep IDE, reference docs and running tests/program open and visible all at the same time. Can't say I'm at all interested in the 4K buzz yet.
    • I've got two of those, side-by-side in landscape mode (the stands don't support portrait mode). I've noticed recently that I get a stiff neck when I work on the right-hand one. (It can't be that I'm getting old...) You?

  • by Ichijo ( 607641 ) on Sunday August 25, 2019 @06:52PM (#59123988) Journal

    ...of the screen to free up some pixels and give you back your 16:10 aspect ratio.

    • I second this!

      I'm the only person I know (at a company with many developers) who does this. My roommate in college got me hooked on it and I've been doing it ever since.... (CMG, is that you? :P)

      In response to the OP, as a backend developer, I often work just off my laptop screen, with is a Mac w/ Retina display. When I dock, I have a 22" 1080p monitor and it's "good enough" for me. (I do notice the resolution difference at first, but I adjust to it pretty quickly.)

    • Yup! It's the vertical space that's at premium.

    • Taskbar? That's what auto-hide is for. I might use the taskbar once a month. Every window (or at least enough of it to easily bring it to the top) I'm using at any particular time is visible all at the same time. Note that if you're one of the many many many users afflicted by the "every window must be maximized all the time" disease, you'll have to cure that first.

  • I've seen far too much software that was clearly written using uncommon displays, works awfully on conventional monitors.

    Lots of programmers obviously don't test thoroughly on regular monitors.

    Also, 132x44 not good enough for you?

  • I use an old Dell 24 inch 1920x1200 monitor and two even older 20 inch 1600x1200 "wing" monitors. They line with very nearly the same vertical size. Takes up a fair amount of desktop real estate but the results are work it.

  • Something with a simple 1:1 aspect ratio and at least 4000x4000 pixels. Something with the same width of a 34" screen but also the same vertically. That would give me tons of horizontal and vertical space for code, video windows, browsers, etc. without needing multiple monitors and awkward stands.
    • There's this, but it'll cost you. Works in split (two-up) or single monitor mode.
      https://www.barco.com/en/produ... [barco.com]

    • by xlsior ( 524145 )
      If you don't need 4K, then there are some square monitors out there -- e.g. the 27" eizo EV2730Q has a 1:1 aspect ratio @ 1920x1920 resolution.

      There's also some oddball aspect ratios, sizes and resolutions among medical imagery diagnostic monitors, but some of those can cost more than your car.
      • $1500 fucking dollars!

        • by xlsior ( 524145 )

          $1500 fucking dollars!

          Economy of scale -- The more non-standard something is, the more expensive it'll be.

          The more you make, the cheaper it gets since you can buy your parts in bulk and spread your fixed costs out over more units. Computer monitors got a lot cheaper when wide-screen TV's became the default, since now they can use the exact same LCD panels for both.

        • by Now15 ( 9715 )

          And it doesn't even pivot! Lame!

  • by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Sunday August 25, 2019 @07:20PM (#59124060)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • by shanen ( 462549 )

      You deserve a favorable mod for the Subject:, but I never get one to give.

      In my "peak" days I had at least 3 displays in play. One was the main workspace, one was reference, and one was mainly used for bean counting stuff. Can't even remember how many actual computers were driving the displays.

      My fanciest monitor was probably a 19-inch with a fiber optic connection to a Lisp machine. I would call it another career high point, except that I was sure the project was a money loser after I'd been there about tw

  • by MachineShedFred ( 621896 ) on Sunday August 25, 2019 @08:06PM (#59124160) Journal

    Seriously, portrait orientation of a 4k display will make you very happy when working in documents and code that are vertically oriented.

  • With 22" 1080P so cheap why would you opt for anything other than dual 1080P? One for your IDE and one for debugging. You can even have 3 if you want. Personally I like one 22" in front of me, my laptop to the left so it's screen can have a debug window and my browser on a 22" to the right.
  • by backslashdot ( 95548 ) on Sunday August 25, 2019 @08:11PM (#59124172)

    What about the need for a separate monitor for copy pasting from stackoverflow?

  • I'm rocking two of the Dell U3818DW: 38" Curved Widescreens. I love them.

    I used three Dell 30"ers for years (2560x1600 each). Two of these 38" curved is the _exact_ same resolution: 7680x1600... but the monitors are also better in every way (contrast, curved, etc.)

    There's just something about this dot-pitch that I like.

    Sure, I've used 32" 5k monitors in "retina" mode... it's pretty good too... but I guess I'm getting old... and I like this level of "jagginess" for my terminals :-)

    • Oh - and for anyone that says: "you don't need horizontal space!" That's some BS. I can see plenty of code in 1600 pixels...

      What I need are my 5 wide Emacs windows on one monitor and browser/team chat/email/documentation/terminals on the other. I easily fill up the horizontal space.

      Right now I'm doing a lot of remote terminal work... it's actually useful to have really wide terminals for really long paths, etc.

      Anyway just my $0.02. I've been running with 1600 vertical for about 12 years now...

  • I think that as long as you have enough height and enough vertical pixels on a desktop monitor, a little more pixels on the horizontal does not hurt.

    I have used 16:10, rotated 9:16 and multiple 4:3 in the past, but I think my next setup is going to to be 34" 21:9 "ultrawide" curved. That is as large as a 27" 16:9 on the vertical, only wider... and curved.
    It does feel a little odd though that mainstream ultrawide is only up to 3440 on the horizontal, and not 3840.

  • I haven't done it myself, however I believe some 4k Televisions are perfectly viable - read a few comments about it.

    If I recall you distinctly want 4:4:4 colour depth or something, it makes a massive difference for text rendering, google image it.

    I believe that means a fairly modern video card and the latest possible HDMI standard (is it 2.0b? I don't know)
    Assuming reasonable panel quality, a chip / chipset able to drive the panel 'properly' then it should be possible.

    I'd read around online, amongst other n

  • I live in front of my monitors. Right now Iâ(TM)ve got a pair of super wide Samsungâ(TM)s stacked vertically. 4 IDE panes on the bottom. Test and docs above. Totally excellent

  • by cooldev ( 204270 ) on Sunday August 25, 2019 @08:41PM (#59124228)

    The author dismisses 27" 4k as being too low DPI, but at least in Windows I find that it works extremely well for font rendering. It's not like you're using it at the same distance as your phone. I use 150% scaling, which is the same as I use on the Surface Book and Dell XPS 15 4k display where it's common to sit closer.

    Something like the Dell U2718Q can be had for around $450, so you can get two or three (I have four) for the price of a decent 5k or more exotic monitor.

    I've tried many combinations over the years including the larger ~38" 4k TV option at 100% scaling. This was great at first, but I found myself looking around too much and over time it bothered my neck. And it didn't give me what I was after: high quality fonts at all sizes and permutations (levels of bold, italics, etc.).

    In the end it's a personal preference, I just want to advocate this option.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      It's true that you do tend to sit a bit further away with a desktop monitor.

      I must be getting old because I found 2k/27" at 100% scaling to be quite decent in terms of text size. The main issue was being 16:9 which limited vertical space. My hope was that going to 5k would increase the quality of the font rendering enough that I could get away with slightly smaller text and get some extra lines of code on screen.

      I suppose by that logic a 30" 4k display might work, but it's getting silly for use on a desk, a

  • I think TVs as monitors are awesome for general purpose coding. Not a game developer or artist so I'm not speaking to those use cases. Not really germane to your question but I'm 56, use bifocals and the minimum length where I can focus my distance lens is 4 feet. The near lens focuses closer but mean I need to tilt my neck to use it. Mounted the TV on the wall and pulled the desk back a foot and voila no neck strain. Going to try a 55" next week. The large screen really shines in teamwork, someb
  • If you're like me, you need to have lots of windows open as you code, debug, etc. While 4K does have the width, I find that the extra height just gives me headaches and neck pain. The ultra-wide aspect ratio lets me spread windows out without overlap, and without having to crane my neck way up.

    There are those 21:9 monitors with 2560x1080 resolution, but I swore I would never have a monitor with fewer than 1200 lines when they started coming out with the FullHD monitors. I had been coding on a 1600x1200 for

    • by Joosy ( 787747 )

      Extra width is great, but I wasn't willing to lose 200 lines of vertical for an extra 300 pixels of horizontal.

      Remember that "ultra wide" means "ultra short"!

  • That way, if you want to code side by side you can or if you prefer to have plenty of vertical space you can.
    Just make sure you gfet an ips pannel.

    diagonal and resolutiom to your liking

  • From landscape to portrait.

  • Dig into eBay or other auction/used sources, look for the 2001FP. They're old as shit now (from 2003 I think), but they have good specs anyway:

    20 inch diagonal (4:3, like a monitor *should* be), native resolution of 1600x1200, good brightness/contrast [1], multiple input types (DVI-D, VGA, Svideo, ...), 4-port USB hub [2], external power supply, matte anti-glare surface, and the rest of the usual fare.

    I use three of 'em, and am quite satisfied (coding, Blender, and general puttering around).

    Maybe they're n

    • by Octorian ( 14086 )

      I actually have one of these monitors, that I bought for a whopping $800 when it was new. (It was even a good deal at the time, because similar competing monitors were even more expensive.) I went for it because I was on a similarly sized CRT, wanted to go LCD, and at the time it was impossible to actually get 1600x1200 on anything less than 20".

      I've long since retired it from everyday use, but I keep it around because it has a bazillion ports on the back. So its an extremely useful utility monitor for when

  • It took about 2 minutes to find a bunch of 16:10 monitors. I found models from several manufacturers including a few with 2560x1600 IPS panels.
  • Get a rotating monitor. There are hundreds [newegg.com] that can pivot to a vertical orientation, and vertical is far better for dev work than hunting for an endangered species of some squarer monitor.

    A 1440p or 2080p (aka 4k) monitor rotated vertically gives you tons of room to have your code be more visible. More visible LOC aids comprehension. Easier to find, thus probably cheaper than some specialty size.

  • The one that works best for you? Perhaps?

    For me it's high resolution, mate finish, even dimable lighting and super-wide. I'm using a 21:9 27" screen at work and love it.
    Others like to use 16:9 vertically. It's personal preference. I also care for overall design of the bezel and casing - I don't like my gear I use 8 hours a day to look like cheap junk so I'll spend extra money on that.

    Also very nice are the neat all-in-one packages Apple has to offer with the iMac models. First large highres display I used a

  • What you need is the Hydra! The base Hydra model comes with six of the bestselling displays, but you can add upgrades to simultaneously display and test your new software on 137 different monitors ALL at the SAME time!

    Okay, so most of them are incompatible Android phone displays, but something had to give somewhere!

    For next year, we're working on a multi-camera version with an AI that can actually watch all of the monitors to figure out which ones are doing crazy things and provide programming tips to fix e

  • 10K per eye VR goggles.

  • The 27" Dell 2709W was the last of the great 16:10 monitors. Resolution is 1920 x 1200 so, unlike a 4k monitor, things don't get so tiny you have to struggle to see them. I buy one every once in a while on Craiglist for about $100 ... have two in storage as spares. And, it goes without saying, you need two!

    • by Bert64 ( 520050 )

      If things gets smaller you're doing it wrong..
      Higher resolution should just mean more detail, objects on screen will remain the same physical size but sharper and more detailed.

  • Dual 27in 1440p gives me the height for editing code and enough for multiple 1up pages of documentation, code references and such at reasonable resolution (4K on 27in is too tiny for these old eyes) and FullHD on 24" feels cramped to go back to.

    I also find multi-monitor preferable to a larger single display as I run a log of VMs and like to bring the VMs full screen (aka take over a single monitor) while leaving the rest of my workflow unchanged.

  • I got this back when Win 7 was all the rage, and windows support for higher DPI monitors was, well, bad. It's still just about perfect for my development needs.

    I guess you'd call it a 2.5k monitor. If i were buying today i'd probably go with a 27 inch 4k.

  • Hear me out, but a refresh rate > 60 Hz really does help with coding. I have been coding on a 100Hz monitor for a few months and the reduction in screen tearing while scrolling through code and moving windows around has been noticeable and I have had significantly less eye strain.

    Of course resolution is the first priority, but if you have the budget for it I would highly recommend getting a monitor with high resolution and high refresh rate.

  • Why would I want a 4k screen for coding? The more pixels on the screen, the harder my GPU has to work for no reason and the more sluggish everything on the screen gets. Laptops aren't particularly powerful when it comes to video processing power. Why kick your laptop when it's already down?

    Like many of us here, I'm a professional software engineer. Personally, I don't care about height as much as the author of this article. In fact, I prefer more width so that I can put two 80-character code editor panels
  • by Keighvin ( 166133 ) on Monday August 26, 2019 @06:59AM (#59124996)

    About five months ago I started an experiment: I ditched all my monitors and moved to working almost exclusively in VR.

    I was using 4 wide-screen monitors across 3 machines (with a Synergy mouse/keyboard share), consuming much of my visual field and most of my desk. Those are gone now, repurposed to other projects and largely replaced by my cat, who likes the additional room.

    Using first an Oculus Go, and now an Oculus Quest, Iâ(TM)m doing a WiFi based virtual screen setup. I have a vertical central monitor for terminal, code, or documents, and âoewingâ landscape screens for reference, output, communications, etc. I still use virtual desktops heavily, and I remote into other machines and give them a display as needed. The screens Iâ(TM)m using end up being perceptually about 144â on the diagonal, at distances of 8-10â(TM) depending what Iâ(TM)m working on.

    It is not a solution for everyone, and there are some compromises and quirks. Iâ(TM)ve optimized for this solution though and did it both comfortable and effective for me - especially the ability to create or redefine new workspaces as needed.

    Anyone interested in checking it out, look up ImmersedVR - they have an active discord with lots of good info. Or hit me up and Iâ(TM)ll share more details and pros/cons etc.

    One thing is certain; after nearing six months of working in VR, I am never, ever going back.

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