Sorted out PC - need help with monitor

jem16

closed wrote: »

A new monitor isn't going to cure badly designed webpages or poor eyesight, and is a waste of money given your reasons for changing, the new one will probably be exactly the same.

OK, badly designed webpages was probably a bad example and I don't have poor eyesight - not as good as it was with tiny fonts though.

To explain better - my main issue was that photos that appeared too dark on the screen actually printed out perfectly.

weegie.geek wrote: »

The new one will be shiny and new, and widescreen. You've maybe not read the last thread but jem is after new toys as well as an upgrade.

True, although the widescreen does give me some extra space for toolbars at the side.

However my main reason for looking was if the IPS panel offered something more than the TN panel as that would be more reason to upgrade rather than switching to widescreen with a similar panel to the one I have.

closed wrote: »

OK, another retail therapy thread, in that case, perhaps OP needs a new printer too, to match the new screen colours.

Already have a nice, new shiny printer all of 6 months old.

Did need that one though as my colour printer was broken.

jem16

boliston wrote: »

You might want to look at the HP ZR22w, a good 21.5" monitor selling for about £240.

The main disadvantage with the dell is the poor resolution, I was thinking about the dell originally but I'm glad I got a "full HD" screen.

See my blog page about the HP screen ... http://boliston.wordpress.com/2010/06/26/hp-zr22w-review-of-21-5-ips-monitor/

Thanks. I had a quick read at that but will have a closer look.

Do you feel the IPS panel offers more than the TN panel to make it worth the extra cost?

boliston

jem16 wrote: »

Thanks. I had a quick read at that but will have a closer look.

Do you feel the IPS panel offers more than the TN panel to make it worth the extra cost?

I think that once you get a taste for IPS you will find it very difficult to go back to a TN panel again.

At work the "standard issue" screen is a samsung 2443BW 24" TN panel (1920x1200) and this does suck in terms of colour reproduction compared with my HP IPS screen. I was trying to persuade the IT manager to let me upgrade to the HP ZR24w but he said that the company cannot justify the extra cost of £340 vs £240. I guess a work monitor mostly does spread-sheeting and database related work so the colour reproduction does not matter as much as a home monitor which will get used for photos and movies where colour really does matter.

Apple seems to be the main player at the moment in getting IPS "to the masses" with the imac, ipad and now the iphone4. The only product they make which still clings to crappy TN panel technology is the macbook & macbook pro.

jem16

boliston wrote: »

I guess a work monitor mostly does spread-sheeting and database related work so the colour reproduction does not matter as much as a home monitor which will get used for photos and movies where colour really does matter.

How do you find its use when using Word documents or Powerpoint? Compared to a standard 19" 5:4 monitor presumably I would lose some height?

boliston

jem16 wrote: »

How do you find its use when using Word documents or Powerpoint? Compared to a standard 19" 5:4 monitor presumably I would lose some height?

At my workplace they have been systematically replacing dual 5:4 monitors running 1280x1024 with single monitors running 1920x1200 (16:10).

At first I was a bit sceptical, but now I have been "upgraded" I actually prefer the single screen even though I loose 25% of my horizontal pixels.

The new setups are running windows 7 which has a handy "split screen" function where dragging a window to left or right automatically sizes it to fill exactly half the screen in a 960pixel wide window.

For an office environment I'd say 1920x1200 is better than 1920x1080 as you will have the taskbar at the bottom rather than at the side, but for home use definitely go with 1920x1080 as it will be better for movies. Also 1920x1200 on a 24" screen gives quite large pixels compared with 1920x1080 on my 21.5" screen which has much smaller pixels so pictures and movies look far better.

I look forward to 2560x1440 becoming the "standard" resolution!

jem16

boliston wrote: »

For an office environment I'd say 1920x1200 is better than 1920x1080 as you will have the taskbar at the bottom rather than at the side, but for home use definitely go with 1920x1080 as it will be better for movies. Also 1920x1200 on a 24" screen gives quite large pixels compared with 1920x1080 on my 21.5" screen which has much smaller pixels so pictures and movies look far better.

My main problem is that I can't see myself using the 21.5" monitor for movies when I have a 37" HD TV sitting less than 3 feet away which will be connected from the PC by HDMI.

The PC will be used for browsing, emailing and any work I need to do for my job as a teacher.

jem16

boliston wrote: »

The new setups are running windows 7 which has a handy "split screen" function where dragging a window to left or right automatically sizes it to fill exactly half the screen in a 960pixel wide window.

Have you used the monitor in portrait mode? This would seem ideal if you wanted a little extra height on documents.

boliston

jem16 wrote: »

Have you used the monitor in portrait mode? This would seem ideal if you wanted a little extra height on documents.

The 24" work monitor has the facility to swivel 90 degrees to "portrait" mode, but it is a TN panel and a TN panel has very poor vertical viewing angles so is not really ideal for portrait mode. For portrait use I'd say IPS would be needed really.

For an office environment when you need multiple things open at once then I'd say you would need to have twin IPS monitors to get the most from portrait mode, but there is no way the IT budget would allow that unfortunately!

jem16

boliston wrote: »

The 24" work monitor has the facility to swivel 90 degrees to "portrait" mode, but it is a TN panel and a TN panel has very poor vertical viewing angles so is not really ideal for portrait mode. For portrait use I'd say IPS would be needed really.

Sorry I didn't really make myself clear here.

What I meant was how you found the HP ZR22w in portrait mode? For example using a Word document in portrait mode to utilise the extra height and viewing photos, movies etc in normal landscape mode.