Something IPS (true IPS (S/H/P) not e-ips) and 16:10.

Edit: I suppose I should iterate a bit more.

16:10 actually matches the golden ratio which is something that humans are proven to naturally prefer to look at. Inch for inch you also get more screen estate compared to a 16:9 monitor.

E-IPS is something that came out semi-recently, and is essentially a dumbed down version of traditional IPS monitors in that they're not 8 bit. You'll usually find it in low end IPS monitors now. You know when you have a quality IPS monitor when it's capable of 1.02 billion colors (8bit + dithering).

I also wouldn't worry about the anti-glare coat on Dell IPS monitors. The Ultrasharp line is phenomenal. They're beautiful to look at, and I don't notice anything even when comparing side-by-side in reality.

Last edited by ryuudou (2012 September 04, 12:08 am)

I don't understand your point on 16:9. 16:10 is equally as wide as 16:9. However I will respect it.

Anyways I'd also take a read over this: http://haruhichan.com/wpblog/index.php/ … guide.html

That guy is quite knowledgeable.

ファブリス wrote:

16:10 is closer to television right?

No. TV is either 4:3 or 16:9.
Here are the list of standard TV resolutions:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co … _standards

16:9 is better for watching movies/videos and playing games (with 16:10 you'll get black bars, which really annoy me).

16:10 is better for browsing and look at documents.
You'll lose some framerate in 16:10 when playing games.

For programming, vertical space is more important than horizontal space.
So a monitor that you can rotate 90 degrees (like the dell Ultrasharp U2410
or U2412M) is better for programming.

Last edited by chamcham (2012 September 04, 10:19 am)

@thurd   I heard about those but it seems a bit of a gamble, and I don't know where I'd get them honestly. I could order a 27 inch from Amazon around 650 € free delivery, 30 day returns which isn't that bad.

If you need high resolution, Eizo has a 4K monitor for $36,000 (No. That's not a typo).

http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/21/eizo … s-start-s/

well I'm not a programmer, rather I'm into monitors for graphic design usage, alongside entertainment value of course. I bought the dell U2711 about a year ago and it rocks.

I know the anti-glare thing is a little bothersome to some people but I think you get used to it and pretty soon you just see right through it... I don't even notice it anymore.

What I can't get used to, is when I had an imac at work and because of the reflective coating you always see a part of your head in the picture. there is a permanent layer of semi-transparent mirror on top of their beautiful monitor.

both are IPS, which is important to me, and of course a lot of graphics ppl use those apple monitors, but generally because they got the imac/laptop and have to. It's very much not ideal.

perhaps in a perfect world you could take the dell anti-glare down about 1/3rd of its strength, but other than that, from my point of view, the U2711 is the best monitor out there.

Last edited by dtcamero (2012 September 04, 1:05 pm)

I can see the point against the glass pane at work, but at home I can optimize my viewing conditions, it's never been a problem. The black border around the panel on the iMac is SO dark, it's awesome. It's like total blackness. On the other hand I really don't like the plastic sheen on typical LCD's I had before (1680px Samsung Syncmaster, or a BenQ).

Hyperborea wrote:

However, once you go to a ~30" screen then there is no need at all to rotate and in fact having two text windows side by side on the width of the screen can be awfully nice.

That would be more along my lines of thinking. I absolutely love the font smoothing under Mac OS X and recently after testing out Linux Mint I have to say the default font smoothing was pretty nice in Linux too. Coupled with high resolution, I have ~80 lines of text in a non-maximized VIM window and that's comfortable enough for me. I mean, if I can't fit a function in that many lines of code, it's a good sign I need to split it up into smaller functions, teehee.

I saw people use a vertical oriented screen at work, I doubt it improves productivity. I also use Photoshop regularly when doing web development, so I don't see myself rotating my monitor every now and then. 27 inch is expensive, but that's the best comfort for me. Plus now I'm using the iPad on a dock with a bluetooth keyboard to read RSS feeds and check emails and do a few other things so I have even less of a need for a dual monitor setup.

pm215 wrote:

The only disadvantage of this particular model is it's dual-link-DVI input only, and Apple's display-port-to-dual-DVI adaptor is pretty poor. There should be a similar model around with display-port input though.

Not a priority but the MiniDP support (or DP with adapter) is a definite plus, as I have an old Macbook Pro for backup. It's nice to be able to connect it to the monitor.

Interesting.

Yep me may be moving to Retina soon, but it will still require a beefy GPU to power such resolutions and/or SLI *for gaming*.

For anything else we may well be able to get affordable high density screens in a few years time.

So for gaming I'm not too worried about my 27 inch investment. I own an iPad 3 so I can imagine a 27 inch Retina monitor... but I can't see a panel like the one on my iMac becoming obsolete anytime soon. Worst case it would lose a lot of value when I want to resell it because of the newer high density displays.

As for the flickering, I did notice it on this iMac on a few occasions. It's happened when I switched it on that the flickering was very noticable. It was pretty bad but disappeared after a minute or so. I do have brightness quite high on this one (60%) because the PSU makes an annoying buzz if I set the brightness lower.

Thankfully I don't have too much eye strain.. my eyes must have mutated by now   Or maybe the contact lenses make it more bearable. It's crazy the amount of brightness I can take especially in the evening. My monitor pretty much lights the room :p

EDIT: I'll try Shades. Started using f.lux recently in Windows, works quite well though honestly like I said, my eyes have a mutated gene by now so it doesn't seem to change much for me :p

PPS: I do NOT use my monitor/iMac in total darkness though! I have a chinese paper lantern style lamp, with warm diffuse light behind me above a shelf (near the ceiling), and another one accross the room. Really love dimmed/diffused warm lights in the evening. If I use just the monitor I definitely get eye strain.

shinsen wrote:

First of all, whatever monitor you buy is going to become outdated much sooner than what we're used to. Typically a good monitor outlives the machine it's bought for and can serve well through a couple of upgrades. In the nearest future though, current monitors will be considered "low-rez". The resolution is about to double.

On the other hand, reasonably priced monitors today are much nicer than ones of three to five years ago; tech always gets better and/or cheaper... (and in fact I just upgraded both my laptop and monitor together, having bought both the previous versions about five years ago).

I think I'd agree that it's not necessarily wise to spend a *lot* of money on a monitor now, but then it's often better not to get the absolute-top-of-the-range of any bit of computer kit.

Top 2 reasons to wait for 4K: Battlefield 3 and half-naked fairies.....;-p

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd-_kFJn_LM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-zBuiq8RTU

Last edited by chamcham (2012 September 04, 5:07 pm)

chamcham wrote:

For the price of a that big new 27" or 30" monitor,
you could custom build your own gaming PC and still have money left over.

These arguments are off topic really.

You're such a troll with this last post. How can you judge how someone else's money is spent without knowing their budget, priorities, or their needs? That's ridiculous.

I already spent 1650 € on the PC alone *AND* I'm buying a sweet monitor on top. It's a question of priorities.

I've seen people on forums make comment to the like of "people who spend more than XYZ on a computer are stupid". I bet these people spend XYZ on cigs, alcohols, shitty ready made foods, multiple cans of coke a day at work + sweets from the vendor machine, medicines they wouldn't need if they didn't eat all this crap, debt for a car and countless other utilities and activities which they're told they need to have or do by their peers so they can be "cool" and looked upon as "having a life"... oh man I could go on such a huge rant here.

I spend my money where it matters to me. *shrug*

ファブリス wrote:

chamcham wrote:

For the price of a that big new 27" or 30" monitor,
you could custom build your own gaming PC and still have money left over.

These arguments are off topic really.

You're such a troll with this last post. How can you judge how someone else's money is spent without knowing their budget, priorities, or their needs? That's ridiculous.

I already spent 1650 € on the PC alone *AND* I'm buying a sweet monitor on top. It's a question of priorities.

I've seen people on forums make comment to the like of "people who spend more than XYZ on a computer are stupid". I bet these people spend XYZ on cigs, alcohols, shitty ready made foods, multiple cans of coke a day at work + sweets from the vendor machine, medicines they wouldn't need if they didn't eat all this crap, debt for a car and countless other utilities and activities which they're told they need to have or do by their peers so they can be "cool" and looked upon as "having a life"... oh man I could go on such a huge rant here.

I spend my money where it matters to me. *shrug*

No need to rant.
I just re-read everything and realized I misread this thread.
I apologize.

If I understand you correctly, the main reason you don't want the Apple Cinema Display is the one-year limited warranty. Is that the only thing keeping you from buying it?

You can purchase the AppleCare Protection Plan to extend the warranty to 3 years.
It only costs $99. If you've already spent 1650 Euros ($2068 USD as of today) on your PC, $99 USD is pocket change.

Warranty info is here:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC250 … le-display

Again, sorry for going out of line with my comments.
I've been a little out of it this week.

Moshiwake gozaimasen...

Last edited by chamcham (2012 September 04, 11:00 pm)