e-ink displays have really slow response times though, so scrolling text would be annoying it could work as a secondary display, provided you always scroll entire screens at a time using vim motions or something
Agreed - I'm eagerly awaiting a color e-ink with faster refresh rates - not just for coding but for any work requiring staring at a display aside from photo / video editing.
How to program: Get 8k monitor, set DPI scaling to 100%, use size 8 font to see as many lines of code as possible. At this point you probably have too much empty space on right side so turn your monitor to vertical position for more optimal use and to see even more lines of code.
Don't forget to configure your editor with multiple columns of code per monitor. I've got six such monitors set up like this so I can keep an eye on my entire codebase at once. (It stops the gremlins from adding bugs when I'm not looking.) You'll never get anything done if you don't do this!
@@kellymoses8566 My IPS 16:9 monitor physically rotates between landscape and porttrait mode. But I almost never leave landscape orientation. It would be nice for it to auto-detect physical orientation and rotate the text/graphics 90 degrees too (switchable by user of course.)
If you have an 8k monitor with 100% scaling, a font size of 8, flipped to vertical position, and you see the monitor full of code, it's likely that your class has too much lines of code and you are not following clean code paradigma ^^
@@aortizc82 I actually have a LG Gaming monitor with a custom API which allows me to change the color of the LED backlight ring thing. I wrote some code for a raspberry pi to expose the api, The raspberry pi then communicates with the lg monitor via usb b and a package i found on guthub someone had written which allowed to change the color with python
2:56 The USB-B is most likely for the USB-Hub on the monitor. Put the USB-B in the monitor and the USB-A into your computer (or another Dock), giving you access to the USB-As on the monitor. (most likely)
This is a USB-B 3.0 connector. While the difference in speed is important, the port size also matters for compatibility. I once bought a USB-B 3.0 cable, but it didn't fit the printer's port, which required a USB-B 2.0 connector.
@@Fracture1603 It's for KVM control. In my case it's USB-C as set 1, HDMI + USB-B to USB-A as set 2. Since HDMI doesn't provide control functions for keyboard etc., I'm guessing your monitor is the same ("USB-C to USB-A" is just a typo).
I have been coding on LG's "DualUp" productivity monitors and LOVE it. The panel is set up for vertical use, the size is reasonable and I can do multimon without neck strain. The only thing that's frustrating is using apps that really WANT a landscape orientation.
Using this one too and got here to leave the same expression of love to this monitor. It's not only convenient aspect ratio, it also feels very very good in image quality. I can switch it to P3 and it works and colors are very close to Mac's MiniLED display, but much less ghosting. Absolute banger. Have to use some apps on 120% though, but IDEA works perfectly. More than that, the ergostand is great. I was gaming on it turning it to 9:8 aspect ratio and back for work with just one move😂
The idea of having a screen for programming sounds cool BUT... Paying $400 for a 60Hz screen is kinda expensive. It is year 2024, and 120 Hz is no longer a "high" refresh rate, it's normal basic feature that all screens above $100 should have
High refresh rate is nice while scrolling. It's not that important while reading or typing. Having it on all the time is a waste, addressed by adaptive sync.
@@0LoneTechnope, 120hz helps. Mouse movements feel smooth, usually, 4k panels go with HDR and srgb support, accurate colors also help. When I'm switching from my working lenovo T14 with lgc2 @4k@60 to desktop 4k@120hz I feel like I go from a dusty and stuffy closet to a brightly lit spacious room
Yeah, Ips at 120Hz still has a noticeable ghosting (try moving your white cursor on a black background). I'd say an OLED or 360Hz IPS panels are ways to go for true gamers.
I'm not up to date, but when I last bought screens, IPS panels just could not do above 60 Hz. Only TN panels. If that's still the case, I'd rather go for 60 Hz with better colors and higher contrast.
That cable connects your PC to the USB hub in the monitor, I think. I have a similar setup on my Alienware ultra-wide OLED 3440x1440, perfect for Git merges in IntelliJ 😂 lol. One issue I see with monitors is exactly what you mentioned: scaling isn’t always consistent across Mac, Windows, or Linux. Plus, on my Mac, the color profiles showed washed-out colors, and I had to adjust things to get it right. From experience, 1440p is a must for smooth fonts, way better than 1080p when coding. Font choice matters too-JetBrains Mono is a well-designed font that looks great on all OSes. I also like the auto brightness and blue light reduction on BenQ coding monitor. Tbh was expecting an ink 8 or 16 color didplay lol😅
I would imagine this would be generally a productivity powerhouse for coding but also anyone who is in spreadsheets or word processing all day. So long as you dont need colour accuracy i can see this think being pretty cool.
If working a lot in big spreadsheets, get a >40" with 4K or more. High resolution is nice on small screens (like 27") but you need it in combination with a big screen to really unlock the usability for displaying a lot of information.
I use an LG 43" TV as my main monitor with a second monitor on its side having the exact same width as my TV height. I use Fancy Zones to partition the screen into areas of standard resolution so that I can have two logical monitors side by side, with two half logical monitors below. But I have other zones that use the whole height for my VS Code work. I sit far enough away from the TV that I don't experience the extreme width issues (why others use curved monitors). And when I am done, I can switch over to the internet and stream on the TV with its smart OS. I couldn't be happier... and the TV was extremely cost effective.
16:10 or 3:2 definitely helps. 16:9 is not optimal for coding. 4K or better resolution for good text clarity without eye strain. Needs KVM switch and USB-C with 65W+ charging to connect laptop and desktop at the same time. If gamedev, then 2x HDMI 2.1 ports for console devkits. USB-C port charges laptop and delivers image (4K 144Hz requires DSC compatible laptop and monitor) and connects mouse + keyboard to laptop instantly (one cable only). If OLED panel then it needs to have fixed brightness mode. LG OLED TVs lack this. Brightness variation is annoying. Also OLED TVs have poor subpixel layout for text antialiasing. High refresh rate (120Hz+) actually helps coding on a laptop with touchpad since you can scroll fast and read while scrolling. Mouse wheel teleports N rows at time. Don’t need high refresh rate for that.
This monitor is 3:2, has the KVM switch and 90W USB-C PD, and USB-C daisy chaining MST (for another monitor still with one cable to the computer). It does not have high refresh rate.
The aspect ratio does not matter much at about 4k resolution and above 32" size. I have a Dell Ultrasharp U4320Q, which is 43" and 4xHD resolution at 16:9 aspect ratio. I'm having absolutely no issues with it.
Agreed! On a 43” 16:9 monitor you definitely have enough vertical space. Aspect ratio matters on smaller monitors and laptops. You need vertical space to see enough lines of code.
Text antialiasing should be configurable for the subpixel layout of the display. I'm sure I remember finding an option for it back in my Windows 7 days.
Good to see 2:3 aspect ratio make an appearance again! My old Dell laptop had a 1600x1200 monitor. Then everyone went widescreen, and we got stuck with the media-consumption-focused 1080p laptops that haunt us to this day.
At work I have two 32” Samsung monitors 4K, running at 100% scale. It’s awesome to work with. Lots of room for code and windows side by side, browser debugger or what not.
As long as you have sharp eyes. As you age you either need to increase the scale (lose information, but keep sharpness) or use bigger screens. Dell Ultrasharp U4320Q (43") here, I cannot use it with 100% scaling anymore. Not even with glasses.
Id say that this is specifically a USB3 B cable, with the little chin. Similar to USB3 micro-b, it is retrocompatible with regular USB B cables, you just lose the additional speed.
MacOS can only do native 5k, 2k relative to the monitors and if you choose any other resolution unless you run your monitor at native (Which makes text tiny for 4k monitors) it's gonna be so blurry and bad. The only fix right now is a program called Better Display which uses HiDPI for scaling meaning you can choose any resolution and it will upscale it accordingly. It matches the windows alternative.
I had a coding monitor in 1993. It was a green screen 2nd monitor. You ran your app on one monitor and your code with break points on the green screen monitor.
@@couldntfindafreename Believe it or not, it was actually possible back in _1981._ The IBM PC's original two video cards (MDA and CGA) were designed to be able to be used together, so you could have sharp green text on one display and coloured graphics on another. Not that there was a lot of software that supported using both together. You could still use an MDA card alongside the later EGA, VGA, and SVGA cards, too, so long as you had ISA slots to plug it into, though it would be detrimental to performance, and Microsoft warned against it in their tips for Win95 game development.
A few months ago I upgraded my home development from a 27 inch HD monitor to a curved Dell S3222SGW 31.5-inch (2560 x 1440 res) and I am really liking the result. It seems perfect for my c++ software development (in medical imaging research). Now if I could convince the boss to buy me the 34 inch version for work I could go down to 2 monitors instead of 3 however I work mostly at home since the pandemic since that saves me 90 minutes of driving. One of the reasons for switching to a larger curved monitor is my 52 year old eyes are not as good at seeing small fonts as I was when I started this job at 25. The old monitor caused me back pain because I ended up leaning forward much of the day to see the screen.
This seems to be the same panel as the huawei 28 Mateview. I have 2 of them and its great. As you said, the 3 by 4 ratio with high resolution makes it perfect for coding.
I live in a Linux environment and most of my day is in VS Code. I followed the track of another coder online and grabbed a 40" 4K Television. I run things using Cinnamon at 125% scaling and constantly have either 2 tall windows or 4 1080p windows active (thanks to Cinnamon screen locking). It really was an eye opener when this $169 Costco monitor performed so well for these tasks. Add to that the ability to watch 4K videos or play Steam games like Elite Dangerous or No Man's Sky at 4K high settings (NVIDIA RTX GPU), and it's worth far more than the cost of entry. So, if you're looking for a 4K large monitor, something like my Pioneer is a very low-cost test point. Who knows, you may test this like I did and end up sticking with it.
@@tsankotsankov760 For coding, it's rock solid at either 30Hz or 60Hz. I keep it locked at 60Hz if I play a game. The one thing to keep in mind is you need an extra 6" tp 8" of desktop depth depending on your eyesight.
Yeah my main desktops (both home and work) have 40-43" 4K monitors now and it's hard to imagine going back to something smaller. I run them at 100% scaling, so it's like having multiple monitors' worth of desktop but without the bezels getting in the way. A full-height editor window can show >150 lines of text.
I don't have enough space for multiple 4K monitors, therefore I'm forced to use 5K 27" to keep my job. So, nope, this one dosen't have enough K for my resume and I'm not switching.
Alex, I dig your content. Found you recently and i like the large variety of subject matter you hit on. If I were a coder, I'd likely go for a monitor like this. As a more senior fella, my eyes struggle with smaller, fuzzy text. Keep up the good work. Thanks for what you do.
I’m using ultra wide 38” inch LG with 3840x1600 resolution, it’s a perfect aspect ratio. I treat it mostly as two 1920x1600 sides 😌 DPI could be higher, but it’s enough for comfortable use.
For coding that's a bad aspect ratio. Try using at least 3840x2160 with 16:9 ratio like the Dell Ultrasharp U4320Q. 16:10 or higher would even be better for coding, but I could not find such a decent monitor at an acceptable price.
I've got a "sibling" of this monitor - not a coding specific one - but BenQ's PD3205U - 32" "Design Vue" which is *primarily* aimed at the Graphic Designer Market - 3840 X 2160, HDR, Low Blue Light, and I never seem to get tired eyes when using it. And the best feature for me is the in-built KVM, allowing me to switch between my Mac, and my employer's laptop while working at home. Great monitor. Highly recommended.
I use a 43 inch monitor, whole right side is dedicated to IDE, left side is split into 2, one for slack one for browser. Absolutely GOATed programming setup, this is quite similar I guess.
For single monitor setups, 16:9 is great. Because it’s approximately the aspect ratio of the human visual field. I wish they’d just make bigger 4K monitors, with the panels from TVs. So I could place one further away to reduce eye-strain.
now that I'm over 50, my eyes are getting worse. Last year I bought a 4K gigabyte monitor and it makes a big difference. Go back 10 years when my eyes were good, i thought 4K was just hype. Now I'm considering upgrading my other monitors to 4K,.
Yeah, text really begs high resolution. Screen text is interpolated to look smooth, but it basically looks blurry, which is such a pain in the eyes. If you read a lot, you can try out an iPad. Mobile devices have even larger pixel densities and an iPad is big enough to read on.
Great video! It has been 40 years since I coded or did old-school programming. That was Cobal, Basic, and every little bit of Fortran. With old digital mainframes and no monitor, I used a Dec-writer (yes, editing was a nightmare). I like your videos because you cover Macs and everything in between, so thanks!
It's great that these monitor companies are finally paying attention to the programming community but I still swear by my 32inch LG Ultrafine Ergo: screen resolution plus the physical dimensions give you enough "height" for lots of vertical space in your code editing sessions (plus I love that arm that it comes with).
I code on a 40" 4k monitor. I primarily code ladder logic PLCs, and the high res absolutely is necessary to see as many rungs as possible, and the large size makes it so you can see everything at that higher res. Bought it many, many years ago from Korea for around $250 and it uses a Samsung MVA panel which has good contrast which is nice for code writing.
I use a 43" 4K monitor as my primary display, both at the office and at my home office. In addition I have a small monitor (27" at the office and 24" at my home office) and of course the tiny one on the laptop (14"). I have started thinking about maybe changing the small monitors to 43" as well.
I also use a 43 inch monitor. Can fit 3 tall windows viewing about 100 lines of code each with a reasonably large font and still have some space left over for debug stuff.
@@PaulStoffregenIt's an absolute godsend for programs which display content across different panes like visual studio. The issue is some applications feel more like they were designed for an iPad, so feel lost on such a big display (ahem, MacOS System Preferences)
@@supersnail5000 Honestly, the fixed width MacOS System Preferences with the long list of loosely structured icons hardly feels designed at all. I am not in love with the Windows one either, but honestly I think that is one part where Windows is better than MacOS (and the shortcut Windows-P for choosing if external monitors should be mirrored or extended is the other one).
Does the bigger screen look better on mac as it has better pixel density (~165 vs ~125 PPI)? Macs are notorious for not looking good on "low" PPI displays.
I remember in the 2000s, you could tell it was a business laptop if it has a matte screen, usually more durable with a hinge that doesn't pull apart after a year. Consumer slop laptops had glossy screens to catch people's attention at circuit city. They still have that low quality vibe for me.
@@cds5067 All power to you, buy the screen you like. I just think they make non-macbook laptops look cheap. Kind of like that sprayed on silver paint or the piano black finish that the electronics industry was obsessed with some years back
You can change the brightness and contrast of almost any relatively modern display (with DDC/CI support) via an app. LG has a native one, or you can use Twinkle Tray for Windows or Lunar for macOS. Also, f.lux is great for adjusting color temperature (to reduce blue light at night). I personally use Twinkle Tray and f.lux to automate brightness and temperature changes based on time of day. And they have hotkeys for manual override.
Well, that's a mere 3:2 screen ratio in 4K. For the youngers 3:2 was the only monitor ratio you could get before the turn of the century... I've worked a lot on these monitors back in the days, now I just use autodialing to get the same result, either Amethyst on Mac or i3 on Linux, and for Windows it's just Win+left/right keys... In short I'm not sold...
@@AZisk TVs were 4:3, not 3:2. Interestingly 3:2 is the common stills photography aspect ratio (Full Frame/35mm) so I wouldn't write this monitor off completely for photography, hah. As for why it's 3:2, my guess is that it is like having two 4:3 monitors in vertical mode. Makes a lot of sense for programming.
@@bountyjediright they were 4:3 sorry. But indeed 3:2 is photo format and if the screen takes calibration well that could be a pretty good proposition for photographers, though they probably moved on a long time ago.
4:3 was the most common display aspect ratio, but 5:4 and 1:1 were not unheard of, and some used portrait orientation. E.g. NEC Monograph was a 1024x1024 monitor available in 1989. I learned C programming using a 1980s portable PC with a 32:10 aspect ratio; super low (rebranded ultra wide for marketing) isn't all that modern either.
Honestly this just seems like a great monitor for office work in general (as long as you can keep your modes somewhat organized) I'm definitely tempted to get a couple with how much text I end up staring at between coding and general system administration work.
But you can use this gimmick to sell to people who think they'll write better code with a noisier kb. While still peck and hunting. Look my fave setup now is just a simple big 4k monitor(tv). I don't use all of it for a single window of course and ideally i'd just have an even bigger with even more resolution to fill the backside of the desk, so i could just have areas for whatever i want like emularor windows, editors, command lines, explorer windows etc
No, this isn’t true. Text sharpness is a thing, and it is not the same as other things people look for in other kinds of monitors like gaming or for creative work.
@@paultparker what do you think perceived text sharpness comes from anyway? Higher the resolution the less it matters even if your subpixel mode is correct or not in your operating system for antialias in the text renderer. Its very important for 5mm text height on a 1280x1024 x 17 display but doesn't matter at all for 5mm text on a 2560x1600 x 17 display.
@@lassikinnunen this is an interesting claim, and it makes sense. However, reviewers say that there are differences in textual clarity between monitors of the same DPI. What is the basis for that? I don’t know. I think that contrast is probably part of it, so an OLED display probably does fairly well on text sharpness.. note we are talking about contrast between one pixel and the pixel right next to it, so local dimming zones don’t help here. Brightness matters as well. I’m not sure to what extend it fundamentally matters, and what extent it matters because it increases the contrast. Alex it’s kind of implying that in this video. For a really good answer to this question you probably need to ask Ben Q or Apple. I will say that my 14 Pro Max displays beautifully clear white text on a back background. I wish I could get a monitor with that level of tax clarity. How much of that is from the 460 PPI of my phone versus the 140 I think of my 4K main display? I think some is from that, and some is from OLED. However, I would not be surprised if there are other factors, including, but not limited to brightness. The sub pixel render you mentioned, probably plays into it as well. Windows tries to play some fairly complicated games here, whereas macOS plays it fairly straight.
@@paultparker same reported dpi screens can have large differences, like shared subpixel between 2 real pixels etc, some having rgb subpixels per pixel, their arrangement, sizes etc, but still higher is better. You could try running the windows cleartype tuner, to choose which subpixel option would look best
What my pet peeve with some monitors is that they have temporal dithering, which causes them to have a flicker kind of effect especially with some colors or patterns. Another thing is that many monitors cannot be adjusted to be dark enough. I despise reflective monitors by the way, I want to see the picture on the monitor, not a reflection of the surroundings. But I do coding, photography and a little bit of gaming, so it's not super easy to find a good monitor, especially when not paying an arm and a leg for it. I bought an LG ultragear monitor (I think some 850), and I've been mostly happy with it, the only bigger downside is that I cannot make it dark enough in a dark room. The consequent model, I think some 950 something actually fixed that issue.
I've been using a 65" 4K LCD TV for years now and it is the best monitor I've ever used (I've had Visio and LG) so sitting just a little farther back than your normal monitor would be, as I'm getting older I can bump the font size and still get a ton of lines on the screen!
Same here, Dell Ultrasharp U4320Q. Big (43"), but as I age it starts to be small as well. Going above this size with a monitor (not TV) would be too expensive, however.
@@couldntfindafreename Then I highly recommend getting 4K TV! My local CostCo had 84" LCD 4K on sale for $900 and I would be lying if I said I didn't think about it. But 65" is about the max that makes sense.
@@ibrahimdunga hehehehehe... about 3.5ft which is basically the same distance away as the screen is tall (good incase it falls over on me). It's so big it sticks up above the cubical wall and makes people curious (unscheduled fly-bys). Then after work made an internal corporate video with me in the background b-roll I became infamous as "that guy at HQ with the giant monitor"... I just have it setup on it's own feet and run it through HDMI. It is the best! Think of it as two 2K vertical monitors with no bezel. And it cost about $400!
@@ravindranathmopparthy8116 i Just bought the dough spectrum one with the glossy Display without a stand from amazon for 600 Euro. It will arrive at friday and it has the potential, to be the Monitor of my life.
Perfect timing! I am looking to buy a monitor for programming. Few questions: 1)How are the speakers compared to the LG for audio calls? 2) Did you notice any difference in text sharpness between this and Macbook's retina display?
I love IPS monitors for coding. I have three 27" ViewSonic monitors. I got them 7 years ago and they are still phenomenal! No bevels but there is a small chin. No big box on the bottom. For the price they are well ... priceless! VG2753 only $220.
Far as useful tricks for coding is concerned, the choice of font matters much as, if not _more than_ the display it's rendered on. I've taken a liking to Iosevka (specifically, the "Comfy" fork) for its density. I can either have a wider / taller monitor, or condensed monospace font to fit more text in the same space. _Which is cheaper?_
for today, the best Monitor I ever had in the last 40 Years is the pair of Apple Studio 5K Displays, with my M1 Mac Studio, i have at the Moment. I don't know why, but the Text Quality is absolutely great and pleasant and the build quality is outstanding. Even better than my newest Monitor, a 32" 4K QD OLED from Alienware on my Windows PC, and way better then the 4K HP Monitors I have in the office.
The refresh rate is essential when picking a monitor. Nowadays, 60 Hz doesn't feel very smooth, so I'm good with any monitor with a refresh rate higher than 60 Hz. Currently, I'm using my Samsung Odyssey G5 2K curved gaming monitor with a refresh rate of 144 Hz.
@@sayemprodhanananta144 Seriously. All of my monitors are 16:10 and one is high-accuracy color. They are ideal for programming. My only complaint is that (as of last year, ar least) it is impossible to get one with a frequency higher than 75 HZ. C'mon manufacturers, coders look at video images too.
Not a fan of matte monitors at all I prefer the MacBook pro screen style Glossy but not irritating The matte finish always makes things look dull and wears your eyes out after a while
5:25 you are keep using monitors that do not use the ideal (100 - 115 ppi / 200 - 230 ppi.) That's why you have issues with scaling, blurryness and ram performance. For me the ideal is either a 21,5 full Hd or a 27 quad hd. Shame that we do not have the 24 inch 4k monitors anymore, those were still wrong in terms of ppi but at least we had big sharp text.
There's an app that is suppose to fix this. It's called BetterDisplay it fixes this issue by allowing monitors that don't use the optimal ppi allowing a normal 4k monitor to look as crisp as the inbuilt macbook screen. Apple used to have something where it fixed this issue but they removed it in Sononma I think.
Would be nice to add a follow-up for the KVM functionality, especially switching between a Windows machine and a Mac for common peripherals (drives, camera). Also, curious about the epaper mode on that monitor, if it’s a gimmick or actually nice to use for terminal ssh work for instance.
For productivity, my fav is the LG dual ergo. 2560x2880. Decent colors. 60hz, but you don't need more than that for coding (which is what I use it for). If you want, you can make it two monitors, although I prefer to use it as a single monitor. It does not have all the "dev features" shown in this video, but I don't really feel like I want them over a decent size and a more vertically oriented monitor. 16:18 is just such a good balance for me.
I have an older Benq 2k 24” monitor with eye protection and it’s insanely good at adjusting backlight brightness based on daylight and night light. I would definitely buy it for the 3:2 aspect ratio!
USB type B (USB 3.0 type B in this case) is used for "client" devices like printers and hubs. When USB was new it was a way to indicate the port didn't accept strictly input devices like mice, joysticks, etc., it was for connecting the device to computer.
2 місяці тому
As a long time Microsoft Surface user I was waiting for this. The 3:2 aspect ratio is so good in my opinion and always wanted in a monitor. But so far only Huawei made one, but it lacked VESA support unfortunately.
The cuts are excessive and distracting for me, makes difficult to follow what you're saying. I know producing this videos takes time and work, just a direct honest feedback, no harm intended.
I'm coding since 1988, I started coding using a Commodore 64 hooked up to an old black and white TV. Through the 90s and 2000s it was crt monitors, some of them were very good, especially the earlier Philips and most of the Sony' but in general they did hurt your eyes eventually. The monitors today are so much better, and for a coder a good monitor is worth more than the latest CPU or graphics card.
I’ve been using the LG DualUp for 2 years now. I split the screen in half, so it looks like two 21” 1440 monitors stacked without bezels. It’s easy to full-screen windows on both virtual screens.
8:38 3840x2560 Oh, sweet. Vertical-resolution speaking, It's like having your QHD / 2.5K (2560x1440 x1600) monitor in vertical mode, but without flaws. Text clarity in vertical mode is worse because RGB subpixels are now flipped to vertical orientation. That's why i hate vertical mode. Not to mention the fact the monitor is very narrow in vertical orientation.
I think i don't need a special monitor for coding because i love to take my machine from one room to another while i am at home. Otherwise while sitting in dedicated table for laptop, i think i will go with any cheap 28 or 24 inch white monitor of Lg because they look extremely cool.. Nice video 🎉 i enjoy watching your video.. Thanks for making it and raising this important issue for coders..😎
I hope this aspect ratio becomes more popular. 16:9 is great if you want one large screen which fills your entire vision, like a home cinema. But narrower is better for many tasks, and for multi-monitor setups.
I bought a 20" 4:3 dell panel for $10 and I think this is as good as it gets. CRT monitors used to make me queasy, especially when I didn't eat for 16 hours or so.
LG Dualup is still my favorite monitor for text based work but this looks like a nice second option. I hate glossy monitors but I know a lot of people love them.
I don’t need more vertical space than my ultrafine 5K offers. But I always need more horizontal space. I need to see so many different files open at once.
3:04 I’m not sure how to explain it, but in my case, I have a triple monitor setup, and the USB ports on my laptop aren't enough. When I try to plug in extra devices like a drawing tablet or wireless keyboard into the external monitor port, they don’t respond until I connect that cable from the external port to the main laptop.
I have 3 monitors, actually 5, but 2 of them are when I was working out of home (a portable monitor and a standard monitor). I was obsessed with ultra wide monitors. My setup is not clear or looks good but works for me. I use 3 monitors plus the mac monitor. it allows me to have enough space. My ideal work space is a 34 inches monitor (ultra wide) and other 27" monitor as backup. but with 2 monitor is enough if I don't want to be crazy :P
The automatic brightness adjustments seem great for eye comfort. I'm currently using a light pointed at the wall behind my monitor at night to reduce eye-strain. It's OSD is too clunky to adjust it then and while my system can control it's brightness, this crashes my ancient second monitor. So this works well enough for dark themes at night, but bright ones really flashbang then, while being okay during the day. Otherwise, even when reading text I don't really care for high pixel densities. Despite my eyesight being sharp enough to see the pixels on my monitors at normal viewing distances, they just disappear to me when reading and higher density phone screens do not seem much nicer. My current phone being a remarkably low-density e-Ink now, with font aliasing disabled, yet it looks completely fine in practise.
Since I got a tuxedo pulse 14 notebook, I realized what I want for anti glare. This monitor you talked about seems to have great coating. I prefer LG OLED coating. I will not think of no-anti-coating on some monitors as bad and I also will never get the 480Hz 4k LG OLED in matt, since the coating of the OLEDs from LG panels are top of the line. I can see more than the tuxedo which uses a anti reflective cheat of plastic which just heavily diffuses the light to make it badly readable if I sit in the sun.
Not exactly sure why BenQ markets this RD monitor series as the "first" programming monitors as they (BenQ')s older 2k GW Monitor series also have the programming/ coding features. I have the GW3290QT and absolutely love the programming/coding features. The one I have is only 2K so I am planning to also get the RD 32 inch 4K version (of the RD series that you are demonstrating here) when they get released later this year, to have a second monitor.
Yeah I know the MacOS issues with, what Apple considers, Lo-DPI screen. It's an absolute horror using normal screens on macbooks. This used to be a non issue until apple started using different scaling solutions and no longer supporting full subpixel hinting. It's quite ridiculous actually.
@@ytdlgandalf just wanted to highly recommend Better Display for MacOS - I couldn't stand my external monitors with my MacBook. Installed Better Display and everything was so much better. I have no connection to the company, but the product saved my setup.
@@Adidan64 yeah that one helps, but stuff is still weird, for example notifications/banners and some other modal things are just blurry next to non modal windows which are crisp.
I’m a software developer by trade, but there is another group you didn’t mention where this monitor with its design will shine: I’m also autistic with light color and brightness sensitivity issues. I’ve got a 4k 65” OLED TV if I want to do other things where visuals are more important, say, games. Also, if the display is matte reflectivity, as long as it has an option for maximum color accuracy, that’s also useful for graphics work: developers are the ones that create the graphics application, last I checked ;)
Good morning Alex. Just to say that the blue USB strange connector ... I use that on some Lenovo box´s which allow you to have more than more than one extra screens conected to your notebook.
I think if we need any special monitor for coding it should be e-ink monitor. Cuz that feels like paper won;t hurt your eyes.
My thoughts exactly
e-ink displays have really slow response times though, so scrolling text would be annoying
it could work as a secondary display, provided you always scroll entire screens at a time using vim motions or something
@@DitherWithersmart about it being Seecondary
This monitor has a e-ink setting too
Agreed - I'm eagerly awaiting a color e-ink with faster refresh rates - not just for coding but for any work requiring staring at a display aside from photo / video editing.
The best programming monitor is one that I can use for video games when I'm not programming
Indeed.
real
@@nathanfife2890 can u suggest a good monitor my budge is 300-400 dollars pls
Exactly why I use a 27-inch 4K Asus gaming monitor!
Golden words!
It is 2024 and still no descent monitor with USB-C hub + ultrawide screen around 32inch, but not 49.
Back in the day before 4k was invented nobody wrote good code.
lolz
Exactly
I have 3 1080p monitors on my work development box. 2 are landscape and 1 is portrait.
You mean back in the day when swapping two values was done with three xor operations to avoid using RAM for a temporary value? 😄
@@torejorgensen5344 On an Atari 2600 cart that has 128 bytes (not kb, BYTES) you had to do that. Necessity makes wonders happen!
How to program: Get 8k monitor, set DPI scaling to 100%, use size 8 font to see as many lines of code as possible. At this point you probably have too much empty space on right side so turn your monitor to vertical position for more optimal use and to see even more lines of code.
Don't forget to configure your editor with multiple columns of code per monitor.
I've got six such monitors set up like this so I can keep an eye on my entire codebase at once. (It stops the gremlins from adding bugs when I'm not looking.) You'll never get anything done if you don't do this!
@@fnorgen I did as advised: My productivity is through the roof, and I'm now indispensable to my employer! I'm irreplacable! WOW!
many programmers use monitors in portrait mode.
@@kellymoses8566 My IPS 16:9 monitor physically rotates between landscape and porttrait mode. But I almost never leave landscape orientation. It would be nice for it to auto-detect physical orientation and rotate the text/graphics 90 degrees too (switchable by user of course.)
If you have an 8k monitor with 100% scaling, a font size of 8, flipped to vertical position, and you see the monitor full of code, it's likely that your class has too much lines of code and you are not following clean code paradigma ^^
Oooooh, thats why all my code is terrible, I'm using a 1080p screen instead of a 4k one
@@hnasheralneam jajaja
@@hnasheralneam damn this explains so much. I thought I was just stupid!
RESOLUTION ERROR: monitor too low res
If you can't afford 4k monitor yet, try turning up the brightness and contrast. My code is way faster with glowing whites and inky blacks.
With that monitor, my code will compile twice as wide as before.
I wonder if it will automatically compile 32-bit code in 64 bits...ya know, since it's twice as wide. :-)
A real coding monitor would allow a user to manage its settings via GUI. Plus programmable actions: daytime dependent, sensor dependent, etc.
A real coding monitor needs an API
@@aortizc82monitors already have an API, it's called DDC/CI ;)
You mean from the terminal
@@aortizc82 I actually have a LG Gaming monitor with a custom API which allows me to change the color of the LED backlight ring thing.
I wrote some code for a raspberry pi to expose the api, The raspberry pi then communicates with the lg monitor via usb b and a package i found on guthub someone had written which allowed to change the color with python
there's an app called twinkle tray that works for most monitors, it controls the brightness/contrast directly.
2:56 The USB-B is most likely for the USB-Hub on the monitor. Put the USB-B in the monitor and the USB-A into your computer (or another Dock), giving you access to the USB-As on the monitor. (most likely)
this ^
this cable is also used for printers (usb 2.0)
I think it is USB standard B (one that is plugged to device like printers), but USB 3 version (so bigger/taller than USB 2 cause it has more pins)
This is a USB-B 3.0 connector. While the difference in speed is important, the port size also matters for compatibility. I once bought a USB-B 3.0 cable, but it didn't fit the printer's port, which required a USB-B 2.0 connector.
@@Fracture1603 It's for KVM control. In my case it's USB-C as set 1, HDMI + USB-B to USB-A as set 2. Since HDMI doesn't provide control functions for keyboard etc., I'm guessing your monitor is the same ("USB-C to USB-A" is just a typo).
I used to have a 1920 x 1920 completely square monitor by EIZO, IIRC, where I used to work and it was an absolute joy to use.
Model name?
woah
@@BBWahoo EIZO FlexScan EV2730Q or EV2730Q-BK - It's not produced anymore since 2023, AFAIK.
Did you use it in landscape or portrait position? 😂
@@mil3k 45 degrees (you can fit 1.4x more characters in the middle 🔥)
youtube play button still crooked.....
Its on purpose
No way you wrote that comment 🤪
For those of us who have Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) it is a problem, hahaha, Please @alex, put it right 😅
If it hangs - don't touch it
@@neumartin that capital letter in "obsessive" is wrong. Please @neumartin, put it right. And I'm not obsessive, only compulsive.
In the 70s, I coded on a Hazeltine monitor, you could have any color you wanted as long as it was green.
50 shades of green?
I have been coding on LG's "DualUp" productivity monitors and LOVE it. The panel is set up for vertical use, the size is reasonable and I can do multimon without neck strain. The only thing that's frustrating is using apps that really WANT a landscape orientation.
Using this one too and got here to leave the same expression of love to this monitor. It's not only convenient aspect ratio, it also feels very very good in image quality. I can switch it to P3 and it works and colors are very close to Mac's MiniLED display, but much less ghosting. Absolute banger. Have to use some apps on 120% though, but IDEA works perfectly.
More than that, the ergostand is great. I was gaming on it turning it to 9:8 aspect ratio and back for work with just one move😂
The idea of having a screen for programming sounds cool BUT... Paying $400 for a 60Hz screen is kinda expensive. It is year 2024, and 120 Hz is no longer a "high" refresh rate, it's normal basic feature that all screens above $100 should have
High refresh rate is nice while scrolling. It's not that important while reading or typing. Having it on all the time is a waste, addressed by adaptive sync.
@@0LoneTechnope, 120hz helps. Mouse movements feel smooth, usually, 4k panels go with HDR and srgb support, accurate colors also help.
When I'm switching from my working lenovo T14 with lgc2 @4k@60 to desktop 4k@120hz I feel like I go from a dusty and stuffy closet to a brightly lit spacious room
Yeah, Ips at 120Hz still has a noticeable ghosting (try moving your white cursor on a black background). I'd say an OLED or 360Hz IPS panels are ways to go for true gamers.
I'm not up to date, but when I last bought screens, IPS panels just could not do above 60 Hz. Only TN panels. If that's still the case, I'd rather go for 60 Hz with better colors and higher contrast.
@@Silly-s8n Welcome to 2024. Nobody buys TN panels. IPS 144Hz 1080p is the new meta
That cable connects your PC to the USB hub in the monitor, I think. I have a similar setup on my Alienware ultra-wide OLED 3440x1440, perfect for Git merges in IntelliJ 😂 lol.
One issue I see with monitors is exactly what you mentioned: scaling isn’t always consistent across Mac, Windows, or Linux. Plus, on my Mac, the color profiles showed washed-out colors, and I had to adjust things to get it right. From experience, 1440p is a must for smooth fonts, way better than 1080p when coding. Font choice matters too-JetBrains Mono is a well-designed font that looks great on all OSes.
I also like the auto brightness and blue light reduction on BenQ coding monitor. Tbh was expecting an ink 8 or 16 color didplay lol😅
MaxOS display management is a half assed mess.
I would imagine this would be generally a productivity powerhouse for coding but also anyone who is in spreadsheets or word processing all day. So long as you dont need colour accuracy i can see this think being pretty cool.
If working a lot in big spreadsheets, get a >40" with 4K or more. High resolution is nice on small screens (like 27") but you need it in combination with a big screen to really unlock the usability for displaying a lot of information.
CAD/CAM users should be happy as well.
I use an LG 43" TV as my main monitor with a second monitor on its side having the exact same width as my TV height. I use Fancy Zones to partition the screen into areas of standard resolution so that I can have two logical monitors side by side, with two half logical monitors below. But I have other zones that use the whole height for my VS Code work. I sit far enough away from the TV that I don't experience the extreme width issues (why others use curved monitors). And when I am done, I can switch over to the internet and stream on the TV with its smart OS. I couldn't be happier... and the TV was extremely cost effective.
Wow this is like reading about my exact setup, I do the same! Having the entire right side for code IDE is so great, so much vertical context.
16:10 or 3:2 definitely helps. 16:9 is not optimal for coding. 4K or better resolution for good text clarity without eye strain.
Needs KVM switch and USB-C with 65W+ charging to connect laptop and desktop at the same time. If gamedev, then 2x HDMI 2.1 ports for console devkits. USB-C port charges laptop and delivers image (4K 144Hz requires DSC compatible laptop and monitor) and connects mouse + keyboard to laptop instantly (one cable only).
If OLED panel then it needs to have fixed brightness mode. LG OLED TVs lack this. Brightness variation is annoying. Also OLED TVs have poor subpixel layout for text antialiasing.
High refresh rate (120Hz+) actually helps coding on a laptop with touchpad since you can scroll fast and read while scrolling. Mouse wheel teleports N rows at time. Don’t need high refresh rate for that.
This monitor is 3:2, has the KVM switch and 90W USB-C PD, and USB-C daisy chaining MST (for another monitor still with one cable to the computer). It does not have high refresh rate.
The aspect ratio does not matter much at about 4k resolution and above 32" size. I have a Dell Ultrasharp U4320Q, which is 43" and 4xHD resolution at 16:9 aspect ratio. I'm having absolutely no issues with it.
Agreed! On a 43” 16:9 monitor you definitely have enough vertical space. Aspect ratio matters on smaller monitors and laptops. You need vertical space to see enough lines of code.
Text antialiasing should be configurable for the subpixel layout of the display. I'm sure I remember finding an option for it back in my Windows 7 days.
0:23 The markup tags are little backwards 😂
Im so glad I found this comment, I was seriously wondering how no top comments were about that!
this.
It is just the ending tag? Maybe the search for best monitor for programming ENDS there.
This annoys me to no end lmao
Good to see 2:3 aspect ratio make an appearance again! My old Dell laptop had a 1600x1200 monitor. Then everyone went widescreen, and we got stuck with the media-consumption-focused 1080p laptops that haunt us to this day.
At work I have two 32” Samsung monitors 4K, running at 100% scale. It’s awesome to work with. Lots of room for code and windows side by side, browser debugger or what not.
As long as you have sharp eyes. As you age you either need to increase the scale (lose information, but keep sharpness) or use bigger screens. Dell Ultrasharp U4320Q (43") here, I cannot use it with 100% scaling anymore. Not even with glasses.
That rectangular one is USB-B for a hub-class device.
Id say that this is specifically a USB3 B cable, with the little chin. Similar to USB3 micro-b, it is retrocompatible with regular USB B cables, you just lose the additional speed.
MacOS can only do native 5k, 2k relative to the monitors and if you choose any other resolution unless you run your monitor at native (Which makes text tiny for 4k monitors) it's gonna be so blurry and bad. The only fix right now is a program called Better Display which uses HiDPI for scaling meaning you can choose any resolution and it will upscale it accordingly. It matches the windows alternative.
Better Display is a life changer on Mac. I use a non-standard resolution of 2304x1296 on my 4k monitors and it looks amazing.
@@norrdal Yep it sure is, I dunno how I went a year using the native 4k resolution and dealing with the tiny text
@@suhulfx better display is essentially for any non-apple monitor
But better display adds noticeable lag in my experience
@@PaulPlay None for me - Update it your Mac and the software to the latest version. If it still doesn't work, it could be an older / slower Mac issue.
I had a coding monitor in 1993. It was a green screen 2nd monitor. You ran your app on one monitor and your code with break points on the green screen monitor.
I would have killed for a dual monitor setup back in 1993. :)
@@couldntfindafreename Believe it or not, it was actually possible back in _1981._ The IBM PC's original two video cards (MDA and CGA) were designed to be able to be used together, so you could have sharp green text on one display and coloured graphics on another. Not that there was a lot of software that supported using both together. You could still use an MDA card alongside the later EGA, VGA, and SVGA cards, too, so long as you had ISA slots to plug it into, though it would be detrimental to performance, and Microsoft warned against it in their tips for Win95 game development.
A few months ago I upgraded my home development from a 27 inch HD monitor to a curved Dell S3222SGW 31.5-inch (2560 x 1440 res) and I am really liking the result. It seems perfect for my c++ software development (in medical imaging research). Now if I could convince the boss to buy me the 34 inch version for work I could go down to 2 monitors instead of 3 however I work mostly at home since the pandemic since that saves me 90 minutes of driving. One of the reasons for switching to a larger curved monitor is my 52 year old eyes are not as good at seeing small fonts as I was when I started this job at 25. The old monitor caused me back pain because I ended up leaning forward much of the day to see the screen.
This seems to be the same panel as the huawei 28 Mateview. I have 2 of them and its great. As you said, the 3 by 4 ratio with high resolution makes it perfect for coding.
I live in a Linux environment and most of my day is in VS Code. I followed the track of another coder online and grabbed a 40" 4K Television. I run things using Cinnamon at 125% scaling and constantly have either 2 tall windows or 4 1080p windows active (thanks to Cinnamon screen locking). It really was an eye opener when this $169 Costco monitor performed so well for these tasks. Add to that the ability to watch 4K videos or play Steam games like Elite Dangerous or No Man's Sky at 4K high settings (NVIDIA RTX GPU), and it's worth far more than the cost of entry. So, if you're looking for a 4K large monitor, something like my Pioneer is a very low-cost test point. Who knows, you may test this like I did and end up sticking with it.
I have always been wondering about this. Any issues with the refresh rate?
@@tsankotsankov760 For coding, it's rock solid at either 30Hz or 60Hz. I keep it locked at 60Hz if I play a game. The one thing to keep in mind is you need an extra 6" tp 8" of desktop depth depending on your eyesight.
Yeah my main desktops (both home and work) have 40-43" 4K monitors now and it's hard to imagine going back to something smaller. I run them at 100% scaling, so it's like having multiple monitors' worth of desktop but without the bezels getting in the way. A full-height editor window can show >150 lines of text.
I don't have enough space for multiple 4K monitors, therefore I'm forced to use 5K 27" to keep my job.
So, nope, this one dosen't have enough K for my resume and I'm not switching.
watch out, someone with 8K will take your job!
Alex, I dig your content. Found you recently and i like the large variety of subject matter you hit on. If I were a coder, I'd likely go for a monitor like this. As a more senior fella, my eyes struggle with smaller, fuzzy text. Keep up the good work. Thanks for what you do.
I’m using ultra wide 38” inch LG with 3840x1600 resolution, it’s a perfect aspect ratio. I treat it mostly as two 1920x1600 sides 😌 DPI could be higher, but it’s enough for comfortable use.
For coding that's a bad aspect ratio. Try using at least 3840x2160 with 16:9 ratio like the Dell Ultrasharp U4320Q. 16:10 or higher would even be better for coding, but I could not find such a decent monitor at an acceptable price.
howw did you add hyperlink
I've got a "sibling" of this monitor - not a coding specific one - but BenQ's PD3205U - 32" "Design Vue" which is *primarily* aimed at the Graphic Designer Market - 3840 X 2160, HDR, Low Blue Light, and I never seem to get tired eyes when using it. And the best feature for me is the in-built KVM, allowing me to switch between my Mac, and my employer's laptop while working at home. Great monitor. Highly recommended.
I use a 43 inch monitor, whole right side is dedicated to IDE, left side is split into 2, one for slack one for browser. Absolutely GOATed programming setup, this is quite similar I guess.
Nice one, I always wondered if someone is using that way.
For single monitor setups, 16:9 is great. Because it’s approximately the aspect ratio of the human visual field.
I wish they’d just make bigger 4K monitors, with the panels from TVs. So I could place one further away to reduce eye-strain.
2:50 that's a USB type B if I remember correctly. I think it is for the USB hub on the monitor
USB type B 3.0 (usually blue) the 2.0 version was slightly different, and was the regular printer USB cable, in between others
now that I'm over 50, my eyes are getting worse. Last year I bought a 4K gigabyte monitor and it makes a big difference. Go back 10 years when my eyes were good, i thought 4K was just hype. Now I'm considering upgrading my other monitors to 4K,.
what makes 4k good? is it the size of the text or is it the sharpness?
@@xybersurferprobably the clarity of the image
Yeah, text really begs high resolution. Screen text is interpolated to look smooth, but it basically looks blurry, which is such a pain in the eyes.
If you read a lot, you can try out an iPad. Mobile devices have even larger pixel densities and an iPad is big enough to read on.
im in mid 40s and i find texts are getting blurry too even on my 4k. should i go for 5k?
@@moonwhisperer4804 Whats the size of your screen. On a 32 or 27 inch screen text should not be blurry. At that point only glasses will help.
Great video! It has been 40 years since I coded or did old-school programming. That was Cobal, Basic, and every little bit of Fortran. With old digital mainframes and no monitor, I used a Dec-writer (yes, editing was a nightmare). I like your videos because you cover Macs and everything in between, so thanks!
The "LG 28MQ780-B Ergo DualUp Monitor" (what a name!) comes to mind as a great alternative. It's 16:18 at 2560 x 2880.
It's great that these monitor companies are finally paying attention to the programming community but I still swear by my 32inch LG Ultrafine Ergo: screen resolution plus the physical dimensions give you enough "height" for lots of vertical space in your code editing sessions (plus I love that arm that it comes with).
I code on a 40" 4k monitor. I primarily code ladder logic PLCs, and the high res absolutely is necessary to see as many rungs as possible, and the large size makes it so you can see everything at that higher res. Bought it many, many years ago from Korea for around $250 and it uses a Samsung MVA panel which has good contrast which is nice for code writing.
I think that's called a tb lmao. A 40inch monitor is insane I did see a 50 inch one by alienware, never have I ever seen such huge monitors before.
I use a 43" 4K monitor as my primary display, both at the office and at my home office. In addition I have a small monitor (27" at the office and 24" at my home office) and of course the tiny one on the laptop (14"). I have started thinking about maybe changing the small monitors to 43" as well.
I also use a 43 inch monitor. Can fit 3 tall windows viewing about 100 lines of code each with a reasonably large font and still have some space left over for debug stuff.
@@PaulStoffregenIt's an absolute godsend for programs which display content across different panes like visual studio. The issue is some applications feel more like they were designed for an iPad, so feel lost on such a big display (ahem, MacOS System Preferences)
@@supersnail5000 Honestly, the fixed width MacOS System Preferences with the long list of loosely structured icons hardly feels designed at all. I am not in love with the Windows one either, but honestly I think that is one part where Windows is better than MacOS (and the shortcut Windows-P for choosing if external monitors should be mirrored or extended is the other one).
Does the bigger screen look better on mac as it has better pixel density (~165 vs ~125 PPI)? Macs are notorious for not looking good on "low" PPI displays.
I remember in the 2000s, you could tell it was a business laptop if it has a matte screen, usually more durable with a hinge that doesn't pull apart after a year. Consumer slop laptops had glossy screens to catch people's attention at circuit city. They still have that low quality vibe for me.
i like glossy dont hate
@@cds5067 All power to you, buy the screen you like. I just think they make non-macbook laptops look cheap. Kind of like that sprayed on silver paint or the piano black finish that the electronics industry was obsessed with some years back
You can change the brightness and contrast of almost any relatively modern display (with DDC/CI support) via an app. LG has a native one, or you can use Twinkle Tray for Windows or Lunar for macOS. Also, f.lux is great for adjusting color temperature (to reduce blue light at night).
I personally use Twinkle Tray and f.lux to automate brightness and temperature changes based on time of day. And they have hotkeys for manual override.
They called it eye care monitor and made it 60hz ☠
100Hz at least should be there...Agree.
yes, i would have preferred 120
Yup. No one should ever buy a 60Hz monitor ever. Manufacturers should have gotten that message years ago.
Wait what has hz got to do with that? I am unaware
Just Like Apple, BenQ -s 60hz is basically same as 120hz from other brands
love your videos
so the brightness didnt change when you turn off the lights :(
Thank you for good content!
My pleasure!
Well, that's a mere 3:2 screen ratio in 4K. For the youngers 3:2 was the only monitor ratio you could get before the turn of the century... I've worked a lot on these monitors back in the days, now I just use autodialing to get the same result, either Amethyst on Mac or i3 on Linux, and for Windows it's just Win+left/right keys... In short I'm not sold...
Should TVs go back to 3:2?
@@AZisk TVs were 4:3, not 3:2.
Interestingly 3:2 is the common stills photography aspect ratio (Full Frame/35mm) so I wouldn't write this monitor off completely for photography, hah.
As for why it's 3:2, my guess is that it is like having two 4:3 monitors in vertical mode. Makes a lot of sense for programming.
@@bountyjediright they were 4:3 sorry. But indeed 3:2 is photo format and if the screen takes calibration well that could be a pretty good proposition for photographers, though they probably moved on a long time ago.
4:3 was the most common display aspect ratio, but 5:4 and 1:1 were not unheard of, and some used portrait orientation. E.g. NEC Monograph was a 1024x1024 monitor available in 1989. I learned C programming using a 1980s portable PC with a 32:10 aspect ratio; super low (rebranded ultra wide for marketing) isn't all that modern either.
@@0LoneTech Yeah I fully agree with you, my memory was probably a bit foggy, there was a lot more diversity back then.
Good review, and surprisingly interesting monitor. Have yourself a thumbs up and a comment for the algorithm!
I code on whatever my bosses toss at me. I'm too poor to afford stuff myself
1024x768 intensifies!
Honestly this just seems like a great monitor for office work in general (as long as you can keep your modes somewhat organized) I'm definitely tempted to get a couple with how much text I end up staring at between coding and general system administration work.
That's stupid. Coder monitors should be high resolution and higher and that's it.
But you can use this gimmick to sell to people who think they'll write better code with a noisier kb.
While still peck and hunting.
Look my fave setup now is just a simple big 4k monitor(tv). I don't use all of it for a single window of course and ideally i'd just have an even bigger with even more resolution to fill the backside of the desk, so i could just have areas for whatever i want like emularor windows, editors, command lines, explorer windows etc
No, this isn’t true. Text sharpness is a thing, and it is not the same as other things people look for in other kinds of monitors like gaming or for creative work.
@@paultparker what do you think perceived text sharpness comes from anyway?
Higher the resolution the less it matters even if your subpixel mode is correct or not in your operating system for antialias in the text renderer. Its very important for 5mm text height on a 1280x1024 x 17 display but doesn't matter at all for 5mm text on a 2560x1600 x 17 display.
@@lassikinnunen this is an interesting claim, and it makes sense. However, reviewers say that there are differences in textual clarity between monitors of the same DPI.
What is the basis for that? I don’t know. I think that contrast is probably part of it, so an OLED display probably does fairly well on text sharpness.. note we are talking about contrast between one pixel and the pixel right next to it, so local dimming zones don’t help here.
Brightness matters as well. I’m not sure to what extend it fundamentally matters, and what extent it matters because it increases the contrast.
Alex it’s kind of implying that in this video.
For a really good answer to this question you probably need to ask Ben Q or Apple. I will say that my 14 Pro Max displays beautifully clear white text on a back background. I wish I could get a monitor with that level of tax clarity. How much of that is from the 460 PPI of my phone versus the 140 I think of my 4K main display? I think some is from that, and some is from OLED. However, I would not be surprised if there are other factors, including, but not limited to brightness.
The sub pixel render you mentioned, probably plays into it as well. Windows tries to play some fairly complicated games here, whereas macOS plays it fairly straight.
@@paultparker same reported dpi screens can have large differences, like shared subpixel between 2 real pixels etc, some having rgb subpixels per pixel, their arrangement, sizes etc, but still higher is better. You could try running the windows cleartype tuner, to choose which subpixel option would look best
What my pet peeve with some monitors is that they have temporal dithering, which causes them to have a flicker kind of effect especially with some colors or patterns. Another thing is that many monitors cannot be adjusted to be dark enough. I despise reflective monitors by the way, I want to see the picture on the monitor, not a reflection of the surroundings. But I do coding, photography and a little bit of gaming, so it's not super easy to find a good monitor, especially when not paying an arm and a leg for it. I bought an LG ultragear monitor (I think some 850), and I've been mostly happy with it, the only bigger downside is that I cannot make it dark enough in a dark room. The consequent model, I think some 950 something actually fixed that issue.
Me crying on my 14" 16:9 1080p 2014 laptop monitor 😢
I had 15.6" with 1366*768 a 11 year old dell.... yeah I needed an upgrade
Oof that's rough buddy. That is not much space for writing code.
What! this is amazing setup :D .. i demand Alex Ziskind videos to be in Darkmode please! @ 6:30
I use light theme as a flashlight
😄
That's funny, I do that when my phones battery is too low to use the flashlight so I turn on light mode and use the screen instead lmao.
I used that to charge my Tesla with solar panels. Gets 0-100% in 9 minutes.
Placed my order for the 32 inch version. Thanks for the info!
what theme is this at 1:24
I've been using a 65" 4K LCD TV for years now and it is the best monitor I've ever used (I've had Visio and LG) so sitting just a little farther back than your normal monitor would be, as I'm getting older I can bump the font size and still get a ton of lines on the screen!
Same here, Dell Ultrasharp U4320Q. Big (43"), but as I age it starts to be small as well. Going above this size with a monitor (not TV) would be too expensive, however.
@@couldntfindafreename Then I highly recommend getting 4K TV! My local CostCo had 84" LCD 4K on sale for $900 and I would be lying if I said I didn't think about it. But 65" is about the max that makes sense.
@@ivanlawrence2 whaaaat 65??? How far away do you sit please?
@@ibrahimdunga hehehehehe... about 3.5ft which is basically the same distance away as the screen is tall (good incase it falls over on me). It's so big it sticks up above the cubical wall and makes people curious (unscheduled fly-bys). Then after work made an internal corporate video with me in the background b-roll I became infamous as "that guy at HQ with the giant monitor"... I just have it setup on it's own feet and run it through HDMI. It is the best! Think of it as two 2K vertical monitors with no bezel. And it cost about $400!
I like glossy monitor. For light, I will change the source and direction of light such that the light comes in from the back of the monitor.
@@ravindranathmopparthy8116 i Just bought the dough spectrum one with the glossy Display without a stand from amazon for 600 Euro.
It will arrive at friday and it has the potential, to be the Monitor of my life.
Perfect timing! I am looking to buy a monitor for programming. Few questions:
1)How are the speakers compared to the LG for audio calls?
2) Did you notice any difference in text sharpness between this and Macbook's retina display?
It would be a little better if it was 120Hz vs 60
I love IPS monitors for coding. I have three 27" ViewSonic monitors. I got them 7 years ago and they are still phenomenal! No bevels but there is a small chin. No big box on the bottom. For the price they are well ... priceless! VG2753 only $220.
Not subbing or joining until you align your play button
play button will be aligned at 500k
@@AZisk you are just mean!!!!!!!!
Far as useful tricks for coding is concerned, the choice of font matters much as, if not _more than_ the display it's rendered on. I've taken a liking to Iosevka (specifically, the "Comfy" fork) for its density. I can either have a wider / taller monitor, or condensed monospace font to fit more text in the same space. _Which is cheaper?_
for today, the best Monitor I ever had in the last 40 Years is the pair of Apple Studio 5K Displays, with my M1 Mac Studio, i have at the Moment. I don't know why, but the Text Quality is absolutely great and pleasant and the build quality is outstanding. Even better than my newest Monitor, a 32" 4K QD OLED from Alienware on my Windows PC, and way better then the 4K HP Monitors I have in the office.
Great review!
All you need is a couple of high refresh gaming monitors :)
Thanks for Alex unboxing Benq coding monitor. I’m interesting for this and will oder it online.
The refresh rate is essential when picking a monitor. Nowadays, 60 Hz doesn't feel very smooth, so I'm good with any monitor with a refresh rate higher than 60 Hz. Currently, I'm using my Samsung Odyssey G5 2K curved gaming monitor with a refresh rate of 144 Hz.
2:53 It’s a USB 3.0 type B connector (used for the client device) not so popular nowadays when we have USB type C which can be a client and host port.
> coding monitor
Not even 16:10, it's a blasphemy
@@sayemprodhanananta144
Seriously. All of my monitors are 16:10 and one is high-accuracy color. They are ideal for programming.
My only complaint is that (as of last year, ar least) it is impossible to get one with a frequency higher than 75 HZ. C'mon manufacturers, coders look at video images too.
@@johngamble5270 I need to see more lines, I hate scrolling
3:2 is better for coding right? more vertical lines while keeping good space for horizontal content?
@@RomPereira that's even better
Could be useful for DAWs and NLEs as well I guess. Its always a nice thing to see more tracks vertically.
Not a fan of matte monitors at all
I prefer the MacBook pro screen style
Glossy but not irritating
The matte finish always makes things look dull and wears your eyes out after a while
I used a pair of those LG 4k x 27in for several years. Haven't watched the video yet, but those LG's will be hard to beat.
5:25 you are keep using monitors that do not use the ideal (100 - 115 ppi / 200 - 230 ppi.) That's why you have issues with scaling, blurryness and ram performance. For me the ideal is either a 21,5 full Hd or a 27 quad hd. Shame that we do not have the 24 inch 4k monitors anymore, those were still wrong in terms of ppi but at least we had big sharp text.
There's an app that is suppose to fix this. It's called BetterDisplay it fixes this issue by allowing monitors that don't use the optimal ppi allowing a normal 4k monitor to look as crisp as the inbuilt macbook screen. Apple used to have something where it fixed this issue but they removed it in Sononma I think.
Can you mention what monitors are the best in terms of pixel density and text clarity (considering scaling, blurriness, etc)?
Would be nice to add a follow-up for the KVM functionality, especially switching between a Windows machine and a Mac for common peripherals (drives, camera). Also, curious about the epaper mode on that monitor, if it’s a gimmick or actually nice to use for terminal ssh work for instance.
Is this a joke?
Is this ?
For productivity, my fav is the LG dual ergo. 2560x2880. Decent colors. 60hz, but you don't need more than that for coding (which is what I use it for). If you want, you can make it two monitors, although I prefer to use it as a single monitor. It does not have all the "dev features" shown in this video, but I don't really feel like I want them over a decent size and a more vertically oriented monitor. 16:18 is just such a good balance for me.
I have an older Benq 2k 24” monitor with eye protection and it’s insanely good at adjusting backlight brightness based on daylight and night light. I would definitely buy it for the 3:2 aspect ratio!
USB type B (USB 3.0 type B in this case) is used for "client" devices like printers and hubs. When USB was new it was a way to indicate the port didn't accept strictly input devices like mice, joysticks, etc., it was for connecting the device to computer.
As a long time Microsoft Surface user I was waiting for this.
The 3:2 aspect ratio is so good in my opinion and always wanted in a monitor. But so far only Huawei made one, but it lacked VESA support unfortunately.
The cuts are excessive and distracting for me, makes difficult to follow what you're saying. I know producing this videos takes time and work, just a direct honest feedback, no harm intended.
I'm coding since 1988, I started coding using a Commodore 64 hooked up to an old black and white TV. Through the 90s and 2000s it was crt monitors, some of them were very good, especially the earlier Philips and most of the Sony' but in general they did hurt your eyes eventually.
The monitors today are so much better, and for a coder a good monitor is worth more than the latest CPU or graphics card.
I’ve been using the LG DualUp for 2 years now. I split the screen in half, so it looks like two 21” 1440 monitors stacked without bezels. It’s easy to full-screen windows on both virtual screens.
with the closing tag first?
8:38 3840x2560 Oh, sweet. Vertical-resolution speaking, It's like having your QHD / 2.5K (2560x1440 x1600) monitor in vertical mode, but without flaws. Text clarity in vertical mode is worse because RGB subpixels are now flipped to vertical orientation. That's why i hate vertical mode. Not to mention the fact the monitor is very narrow in vertical orientation.
I think i don't need a special monitor for coding because i love to take my machine from one room to another while i am at home. Otherwise while sitting in dedicated table for laptop, i think i will go with any cheap 28 or 24 inch white monitor of Lg because they look extremely cool..
Nice video 🎉 i enjoy watching your video.. Thanks for making it and raising this important issue for coders..😎
I hope this aspect ratio becomes more popular. 16:9 is great if you want one large screen which fills your entire vision, like a home cinema. But narrower is better for many tasks, and for multi-monitor setups.
I bought a 20" 4:3 dell panel for $10 and I think this is as good as it gets. CRT monitors used to make me queasy, especially when I didn't eat for 16 hours or so.
LG Dualup is still my favorite monitor for text based work but this looks like a nice second option. I hate glossy monitors but I know a lot of people love them.
I don’t need more vertical space than my ultrafine 5K offers. But I always need more horizontal space. I need to see so many different files open at once.
3:04 I’m not sure how to explain it, but in my case, I have a triple monitor setup, and the USB ports on my laptop aren't enough. When I try to plug in extra devices like a drawing tablet or wireless keyboard into the external monitor port, they don’t respond until I connect that cable from the external port to the main laptop.
Lot of things to like in this monitor. The resolution is perfect!
I am using the Ben Foto Monitor and love it. Being is putting out special monitors for each field.
I have 3 monitors, actually 5, but 2 of them are when I was working out of home (a portable monitor and a standard monitor). I was obsessed with ultra wide monitors. My setup is not clear or looks good but works for me. I use 3 monitors plus the mac monitor. it allows me to have enough space.
My ideal work space is a 34 inches monitor (ultra wide) and other 27" monitor as backup. but with 2 monitor is enough if I don't want to be crazy :P
The automatic brightness adjustments seem great for eye comfort.
I'm currently using a light pointed at the wall behind my monitor at night to reduce eye-strain.
It's OSD is too clunky to adjust it then and while my system can control it's brightness, this crashes my ancient second monitor.
So this works well enough for dark themes at night, but bright ones really flashbang then, while being okay during the day.
Otherwise, even when reading text I don't really care for high pixel densities.
Despite my eyesight being sharp enough to see the pixels on my monitors at normal viewing distances, they just disappear to me when reading and higher density phone screens do not seem much nicer.
My current phone being a remarkably low-density e-Ink now, with font aliasing disabled, yet it looks completely fine in practise.
I use 32" qhd + 27"fhd pivoted. I prefer that way and as it could be seen, everyone have their own preferences.
Since I got a tuxedo pulse 14 notebook, I realized what I want for anti glare. This monitor you talked about seems to have great coating. I prefer LG OLED coating. I will not think of no-anti-coating on some monitors as bad and I also will never get the 480Hz 4k LG OLED in matt, since the coating of the OLEDs from LG panels are top of the line. I can see more than the tuxedo which uses a anti reflective cheat of plastic which just heavily diffuses the light to make it badly readable if I sit in the sun.
Not exactly sure why BenQ markets this RD monitor series as the "first" programming monitors as they (BenQ')s older 2k GW Monitor series also have the programming/ coding features. I have the GW3290QT and absolutely love the programming/coding features. The one I have is only 2K so I am planning to also get the RD 32 inch 4K version (of the RD series that you are demonstrating here) when they get released later this year, to have a second monitor.
because this one has angle brackets on the box 🤷♂️
Yeah I know the MacOS issues with, what Apple considers, Lo-DPI screen. It's an absolute horror using normal screens on macbooks. This used to be a non issue until apple started using different scaling solutions and no longer supporting full subpixel hinting. It's quite ridiculous actually.
@@ytdlgandalf just wanted to highly recommend Better Display for MacOS - I couldn't stand my external monitors with my MacBook. Installed Better Display and everything was so much better. I have no connection to the company, but the product saved my setup.
@@Adidan64 yeah that one helps, but stuff is still weird, for example notifications/banners and some other modal things are just blurry next to non modal windows which are crisp.
I’m a software developer by trade, but there is another group you didn’t mention where this monitor with its design will shine:
I’m also autistic with light color and brightness sensitivity issues.
I’ve got a 4k 65” OLED TV if I want to do other things where visuals are more important, say, games.
Also, if the display is matte reflectivity, as long as it has an option for maximum color accuracy, that’s also useful for graphics work: developers are the ones that create the graphics application, last I checked ;)
Good morning Alex. Just to say that the blue USB strange connector ... I use that on some Lenovo box´s which allow you to have more than more than one extra screens conected to your notebook.