Monitors 101 guide: Buying a great mid-range monitor is a modern day nightmare

Hold up, good ma’am/sir/folks.

You might need to level up your jargon, first

When you set out to buy a brand new monitor. It can get real messy real fast. There is an ocean full of possibilities and specs to consider. Not to mention the literal truckload of jargon you need to understand. Luckily YouTubers have made tons of videos on selecting the right monitor. Here’s the video I recommend. Watch it and make your list of requirements of what specs you are looking for in your purchase of pixels.

Here’s what I came up with

After watching the video I got so hyped up. That this is the starting list I prepared, I got it all written down.

I needed a 24 to 34 inch IPS flat panel and not curved. 120Hz, because any less refresh rate is a compromise, and the word monitor has no c to spell compromise. The resolution can be anything from QHD to 4K. Nothing lower than that because FHD on 27 inch is poor man pixels. I don’t like to buy a monitor stand, so the monitor needs to rotate, swivel, pan, and adjust the height. Full 360, or you can return it.

Input lag needs to be minimum with 5 ms or below response time. Coming with 8-bit colors, actual HDR, and adaptive sync. The monitor needs to have USB ports because I ain’t buying a hub for the laptop. Thunderbolt Type C would be nice since having one cable for video, audio, data, and power delivery is pretty darn sweet. Type C should also be your maximum priority to look for in a monitor if your laptop supports a thunderbolt Type-C. Life just becomes so much simpler with it. There is nothing more important than that. Hence, before buying a monitor, finalize your system that will be paired with it. The two things to look out for is,

Can your laptop/system push the load of a monitor?
Most modern Intel processors ship with integrated graphics; those can more than handle a monitor or two. If you have a graphics card, then it can help in handling the load easily. Luckily, Thinkpad T490 ships with an Nvidia MX250, which I have disabled inside the BIOS to conserve power.
Can your system/laptop connect to the monitor?
Most laptops can except half bitten apples where you almost always have to watch out for ports on the machine and ports on the monitor to make sure you have the right cable or hub to connect your monitor. Having a Type C monitor eliminates that as it can connect to your MacBook easily. You have converters or hubs to do the rest of the heavy lifting for you.

#realizations when you start looking for what you came up with.

The video does a great job at shortlisting the features you would need. But, unlike any other consumer electronics in the market. Monitors don’t have a comparison tool to really help you find what you are looking for. There are some out there for sure, but they don’t include new releases or the full catalog that manufacturers themselves offer. Even if you do find a monitor on sites like Versus or Product Chart. The monitor you end up selecting might not even be available in India or is so old that it’s not even available.

Another thing to look out for is monitor tech doesn’t change with leap or bounds every 6 months. So, whichever model you are thinking of buying. You need to make sure that the model was released in a recent year. Buying a newer model will help you get smoother support for spare parts and almost guarantees a better spec. There is a lot of FOMO involved in buying a monitor because, unlike other electronics. Where you can see for a certainty the entire catalog for comparison. There is nothing like that exists for monitors online (At least in 2020)

Oh, you say, you can buy one offline? I checked that out too. Offline retailers don’t keep high-end monitors in stock. They will almost surely sell the monitor to you on MRP with a paid extended warranty. Not to mention the long lead & response times. Dell has resellers that can sell you almost any monitor available in individual and bulk quantities, but LG doesn’t even have that. No store I checked with was selling monitors, so no way to demo/check the monitor you want, which is basically the point of an offline store.

Trust me, if I wouldn’t have searched intensively through each manufacturer site. I wouldn’t have found the monitor that I currently have. It all comes down to the research and time you can put into buying the device. And, that my friend, is where I welcome you to the nightmare when…

.. you realize, monitors are really darn expensive.

Like, HOT DAMN BANK BREAKING MIND BLOWING EXPENSIVE. If you are looking at something really good.

So the only way through I can suggest is prioritisation. With better prioritization, you can discard candidates faster when making comparisons or taking the final decision much more quickly (with less FOMO). Like, I mentioned monitor tech doesn’t age out that fast. That’s a boon and bane for consumers. 3 years down the line, monitors might fetch you a good resale value still. But, monitors not aging out leads to a lot of high-end and low-end monitors out there. It’s a mess. Both LG and Dell deal with it well by upgrading the year in model numbers of their best selling monitors. It all depends on the features you are looking for and the corresponding budget you need to buy the monitor having that specific feature. Example, Type-C is relatively new standard and monitors having it cost more.

So, here’s my updated list.

I need a 27-32 inch QHD IPS panel (16:9 aspect ratio) with Type-C support with good-to-have features of 360 movement. No cares about response times, refresh rates, nits or Freesync.
OR, I need a 32 -38 inch WQHD IPS ultra-wide panel (21:9 aspect ratio) with Type-C support

I completely dropped gaming monitors offering faster refresh rates for size, resolution, and connectivity. That’s some strong prioritization, and that’s what mattered to me. Productivity and multitasking. If you are buying anything above 27 inches, then QHD is a must. You will need quirks of information similar to this regarding the hard and soft features you want in your monitor.

What to do? Look directly at the Major players.

Narrow your eagle vision even more. We are halfway through the nightmare. Hold tight.

To keep this blog from becoming a rant, and to keep this useful for folks trying to look for a monitor. We will be talking about these manufacturers only. We will be going through each of them and see if I can help you in any way possible. During 2020, each one has been highly unreliable from the website/online side of things. So advice on buying from each of them would be helpful.

Dell
LG
Others. mainly Samsung, HP, Lenovo

For some terrible reason, each company has a consumer and business segment in their model lineups. I would always refer you to look at the business segment. They might be a little more expensive, but they almost always have a 3-year warranty. Not to mention easier support and better financing option if you are buying in bulk or for your company.

Right, Others first …

… because I don’t have much to offer there. A friend recently bought an Odyssey G5 which seemed like a good monitor at first look. Here’s all the 27 and above size. A Lenovo monitor that I would have bought by how beautiful it looked was the Len o vo Q27-10. I mean, check this beauty out.

The only things not going for is no Type-C and no height adjustment. The first time I saw this monitor, I was shocked by the almost bezel-less design. From HP, I would recommend the Z27 business edition. At the time of writing this blog, it was unavailable. Which is a pity, to put it mildly. It was a good monitor in its day and age, but no type C. So no go. Samsung provides a ton of ultra-wides, but they also break the bank. So that’s a no go. Soon I realized ultra-wides were a pipe dream, and buying a WQHD Type-C ultrawide is an expensive hobby.

So, I narrowed the search to QHD 27 inch, with Type C.

LG – The OG for monitor

Watch this video to start understanding LG’s model naming scheme for their monitor.

LG makes some truly great monitors. I have seen specs on some of their high-end, and they are almost years ahead with their work. The only reason they didn’t get my money was the total lack of any consumer experience. It’s almost like LG doesn’t want my money. Here’s a breakdown. I want to buy an X monitor from LG.

LG has no offline retailers for monitors. (Which is fine)
Amazon then, the monitor is new or probably unavailable due to the lockdown (No details there)
LG Website has no filters to find comparison monitors and almost every model looks almost similar. So you end up missing on many monitors.
Most monitors don’t even have a price and button to buy on the LG website even if you find everything else. LG won’t sell from the website. I gave up at that point.
Oh, and there is a business version of the website that has way better monitors with 3-year warranties instead of the consumer-grade 1-year warranty.

These were my final choices from LG for both hard requirements I had. These might be old, as new monitors might have arrived way before I started writing this post.

LG 27QN600 27 QHD – Checks almost every box, and is under budget without Type-C. Type – C does make monitors quite expensive.
LG ultrawide 34WN80C-B – C stands for Type-C and B stands for business because for 81k INR you won’t expect anything less from this productivity beast.

Dell, the lesser evil aka the Savior

Understanding conventions help you a ton, check out Dell’s naming convention here.

So with Dell, the strategy is, find the right monitor on the website. Don’t look at the price, instead straightaway call their sale agents. They will generate you a query quote with everything mentioned on it. I mentioned Dell is the lesser evil because, for some weird reason, Dell displays 2-2.5x the actual price of monitors on its monitors. But, only the sales agents will be able to tell you the right price of the monitor (In many cases, it’s the MRP). They can send you quotes for the models you have a query for and probably also negotiate if you catch them in the right mood. Something I like about Dell is that they atleast pick up and talk to you through with a sales pitch, which is more than I can say for their competitors.

Make sure in the breadcrumbs you see “For Business” and then go about your search. When you find something nice, ask for the price because most monitors don’t have a price listed alongside it. You will get a quote something like this,

Quote is from September 2019, without the 18% IGST tax having almost all of the top tier 27 inch models that Dell has to offer. I went with the one in bottom which was the U2721DE.

U2721DE review through images

Came for about 40k, 27 inch Type-C QHD, 4 USB ports, 1 LAN port (Only incoming streams), 2 DP, 1 HDMI, 1 headphone jack. No speakers but full 360 movement with support for daisy chaining and anti-glare screen. No complaints so far. Having a Type-C monitor is a great improvement and something I surely would suggest to everyone! Let me know of any other questions you have.

MORE MONITORS!

If you have 2 monitors already, may I suggest.

https://www.asus.com/Monitor-Accessories/ROG-Bezel-Free-Kit-ABF01/

If you are into something experimental, check out Eve

Eve Devices, they make this monitor called Spectrum. I would have loved to support this. Edit: Don’t buy or support this Kick starter. Linus Tech Tips recently created a video about it & the monitor is a disappointment in reality.

Tweet to me what you bought. Happy to feature it here!

Hot takes: Ultrawides vs Dual Monitor vs Single Monitor setups

My friend, Aaron asked me this question one fine Tuesday afternoon, which made me consider writing this section after about 6 months of publishing this blog post. We talked a lot about which monitor to buy but things also come down to how you would like to setup your monitors. So here goes my take.

Ultrawides are great IF your focus is on multi-window work and wanna multi-task quite a lot. Ultrawides are both space savers on your desk and versatile with being able to make sure you always have enough ports to go around. The only drawback that seems to be is the 21:9 aspect ratio that might hamper the movie watching experience but otherwise they are great value for the amount of money you will be spending. Ultrawides are costly as heck and if you happen to go with a Type-C ultrawide then you might be paying upwards of 80-100k INR (Atleast back in 2020). But, money isn’t a problem for you is it?

Dual Monitor setups are great IF you can actually fit 2 monitors on your budget, table and field of vision. I often feel 2 monitors dried out my eyes quite quickly. Dual monitor setups take more space, more cables to deal with, and would need a special stand. If you don’t have something to watch or work on constantly on your second screen, then having a secondary monitor might be not viable strategy. Sure it makes you feel like you are working in your secret lair but why not go with a single bigger monitor than 2 monitors if you are just starting out.

Why I got a single monitor setup? A big single, 34inch, 4k IPS monitor with a 16:9 aspect ratio might be all you need for your work as you go ahead. It’s great for multi-tasking, watching movies, and ease of moving around the place. The single monitor setup saves space and I can also hook up my laptop to be my second screen on which Spotify or YT runs for my music needs. It’s also goes easy on the eyes as they only need to focus on one big screen and are not being hit on every angle IMHO (I keep my laptop brightness at dim). Another one is, try buying your first bigger monitor with daisy chaining support. Which helps you upgrade if and when you decide to buy another monitor to go dual with one horizontal and one vertical setup. The Dell U2721DE had daisy chaining support.

That’s about it. Not sure when I am publishing all these remote set up blogs, but this one is supposed to be the last one, and it was a good series while it lasted. Thank you, folks, for reading and live in the mix!

All photos originally tweeted by Vipul Gupta is having cake 🐣 (@vipulgupta2048). Vipul’s 2020 no compromise minimalist remote setup blogs is a series. With more blogs, coming right up. Full list of items and more recommendations is available here on Notion.

https://twitter.com/vipulgupta2048/status/1344921408577499136?s=20