Monitor recommendation for coding/movies

K

Koslov

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Aug 31, 2003
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My gaming days are pretty much over and since I'm mainly coding, reading texts and watching movies on my monitor I'd like a monitor that excels in those areas. Ideally something under $300US.
 
Problem with those two are that they're highly individual in taste. Either you want high DPI or low DPI for programming (1440p 27" vs 1080p 27"). For movies you'll either want good contrast (VA panel) ratio or viewing angles (IPS/PLS). At least you can forget about TN panels. Though, gaming TN panels (120hz+) might be interesting if you you like to scroll like a mad over source text (coming from CRTs) and want the high refreshrate for movies also and dont care about viewing-angles nor color reproduction.

Even though I personally dont like it, all in all though I think the generic answer is: Dell U2412M. Still hard to beat when it comes to multipurpose and price for value. Its 16:10 and that makes it a bit better for programming than movies.
 
In everything I've ever read about monitors and coding, the strongest recommendation by far was to have two monitors, regardless of what those two monitors were.
 
I do a bit of coding (sort of a hobbyist coder, I guess), and yeah, dual monitors are great. I like to keep a compiler window over on the 2nd monitor, just to see error messages and such. But for < $300, not so sure if two good monitors would be so doable.

For movies, you'd probably be best with VA and 16:9.
For coding, IPS may be better and 16:10.

As for the Dell 2412, the antiglare coating was way too much for me. It was horrible for reading text on light colored backgrounds.

The NEC EA244WMI may be a better choice, but would go for around $375. If you prefer large text and don't mind 16:9, a 27" 1080p model is another option -- they can be had for around $300. Personally I think 16:10 works much better for text work, however.
 
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