BEST Monitors for Productivity GUIDE (2024)

[Music] don't you [Music] everan on me and I have spent decades now working in front of screens of all shapes and sizes hunched over a laptop then hooking up to a bigger monitor then multiple monitors bigger multiple moners and more recently big ultrawide moners I've made videos on these moners and a lot of the comments of those videos are asking me of course which one would I recommend so in this video I want to help you decide for yourself which Monas is the best for you and talk about each of the key areas to consider when buying a [Music] [Applause] moner now firstly the one most people start with of course is the physical shape and size of the monitor now the most common one is 16x9 which is the same format that pretty much all TV shows and movies are shot in and 16x9 screens typically come in 22 24 27 32 and 55 in sizes then next up you have 21 by9 screens which are referred to as Ultra wide screens and they are typically in either 29 34 38 and 40in sizes and then we have my favorite category of all these monitors the super ultra wide monitors and these are3 2x9 and come in typically 49 and 57 in sizes now there are a couple of other formats outside of these 16 by8 and 32 X10 which are much less common but typically I find most people either go for multiple 16x9 monsters or a single 21 by9 or 32 by9 [Music] ultrawide the next question I get asked a lot and something I look for in a screen is the type of curve and especially when it comes to anything over say 38 in in size because of that size and without any curve at all things around the edges of the screen just can get pretty difficult to see you have to lean over to see the edges and you can also get glare and Reflections if you don't have a curve but what does the numbers mean and how much curve should you be looking for now in terms of how it works a smaller number means a bigger curve so a 1,000 R curve would be a deeper curve than say a 1800 R curve now my recommendation would be the bigger the monitor then look for a bigger curve now I saw this on the 49in Samsung G9 Ultra wide which has a 1000r curve which was perfect and then they released a newer version but with an 1800r curve which I then bought used it and just found less comfortable to use due to having to like lean to see the far edges of the screen the next area is one that too many people skip over and in the actual fact is one of the most important things to look for when buying a monitor and specifically for productivity this is less important when looking for a gaming monitor but for productivity it is really important and that is the resolution combined with pixels per inch now generally speaking the higher the resolution the better quality the screen will be now for 16x9 screens this is fairly straightforward you get 1080p screens otherwise known as full HD which run at a resolution of 1920 x 1080 and then 4K screens which run at a resolution of 3840 by 2160 and then 5K which is super high resolution on these smaller screens and that's starts at 5120 by 2880 now the problem starts when you go bigger and wider since the larger you go with the same resolution those pixels are just getting bigger and bigger and when that happens you'll start to see the individual pixels on text and when you spend a long time writing documents or you know writing in your emails pixelated text can be a really horrible experience now this is where PPI or pixels per inch comes in if your ppi is too low then everything just looks ginormous and you can see the individual pixels if the PPI is too high and everything will look crisp and sharp but might then cause scaling issues with everything being like really really small on your screen now generally speaking again the higher the number the better but be aware if you are a Mac User which lacks the ability to scale independently to the resolution which is something you can do on Windows now on a Mac you might then be forced to use a lower resolution or put up with everything just being very very small and very difficult to read now I'll link to a website with a table that shows you what is a good expected PPI for all the various sizes and resolutions cuz it's kind of too much to go through in read out in a video that I'll link that in the description down below so you can click that link and check that out next is a another fairly important one which is the type of Technology the screen uses now you may have heard of terms like TN and VA and IPS mini LED and oleds now TN VA and IPS are all types of LCD panels TN panels will be more affordable they'll be probably the cheapest ones you can get with Fast Response times and high refresh rates so they're generally pretty good options for gaming VA panels will be brighter and have better contrast than TN panels and then IPS adds to what VA is capable of but with much better color accuracy and better viewing angles with the exception of va having the edge slightly on contrast although the new series of ips black panels are actually getting very very close to what VA can deliver mini LED offers improved contrast by being able to dim smaller parts of the screen but still can be problematic with haloing or blooming in high contrast areas but OLED takes that contrast to a whole new level by being able to switch off individual pixels to create a truly like stunning contrast and picture quality where blacks are well and truly black my oler panels are also thinner and therefore lighter and consume a lot less power now with all of these panel types there is one thing that you might want to pay close attention to if your work has anything to do with like Graphics design video editing photo editing and that is color accuracy you all have heard terms such as DC3 Adobe RGB and srgb and in this case the higher the number again the better the accuracy of colors so in this Dell Mon's case with 99% dcip 3 and display P3 color coverage it is excellent depending on your budget there are two ways you can go here if you are on a budget then start from the bottom and work your way up although would start with at minimum a VA or an IPS panel just to get you going or if you're a premium buyer and you just want the best start from the top and look for an OLED if you can as I just think the technology is far far better particularly on a screen that is likely to be on for like 6 to 8 hours a day if you're using it for you know day-to-day work and then take into account things like power consumption and just how light they are overall because kind of with that said buying a monitor is similar to that graphic I think it's good fast and cheap where you can only select two things at once you're not going to find a monitor that checks absolutely all of the boxes and at an affordable price so just decide which of these specs and features are most important to you go with those first and then see what options you're left [Music] with next up is refresh rate and this is one that's not as important for productivity as it is for gaming but it is worth considering still now what the refresh rate does is essentially it Smooths out the motion on your display now if you were to pick up and drag a window it is the difference of seeing a blur when moving a window to accurately like seeing the window move around now in gaming this is really important because going from say a 60 HZ display to a 240 HZ display gameplay footage is much much smoother and way more enjoyable to play now for productivity this doesn't really matter much if at all but what I will say here is that I did see a noticeable difference in a good way when going from a 60 HZ display to a 120 HZ display so whilst I wouldn't say it's essential for a productivity monitor it kind of is worth considering and if anything buying a higher refresh rate monitor today only future proofs you more as technology evolves in time or maybe if you do want to get into gaming later on now for those of you buying a monitor with crazy high refresh rates of 240 HZ or even higher just be sure that your gaming PC is actually powerful enough because right now it's especially at the high resolutions only the latest and the most powerful PCS will be capable of actually driving those refresh rates now likewise the response time of your H also doesn't matter much for productivity but it does for gaming now essentially it is how fast what's on screen reacts to you typing or moving the mouse around or using your game controller which when you're browsing the web writing an email or you know scrolling Twitter really isn't a problem on even the cheapest of monitors nowadays for gaming though it is important like and the lower the better with many gaming monitors boasting like sub 1 millisecond response times now this Dell monitor has got a 5 millisecond response time again it's more productivity Focus whereas this screen over here has a 0.03 millisecond response time which is very very fast the next thing that you need to consider when buying a monitor is the connectivity now for most PC users this is either going to be HDMI or display ports and then for Mac users it's going to be HDMI or Thunderbolt 4 USBC now in terms of HDMI and again generally speaking for productivity it doesn't really matter as long as you have a HDMI ports you're pretty good but if you do care about future proofing or if you are a gamer then you want to aim for something with HDMI 2.1 which is a newer version of HDMI that supports things like higher resolutions and faster refresh rates but again just like before be aware that even though the monit you're buying right now might have HDMI 2.1 the computer you're using today May well not as of today even the latest Nvidia expensive like super expensive two grand graphics cards don't support HDMI 2.1 it's a similar story with display port 1.2 over display port 2.1 as well so just make sure you've got that covered on your computer and your monitor but if you are a Mac User this is what I would say definitely something that's worth paying close attention to because from my experience ideally the safest bet is to buy a monitor that has direct USBC built into the display and if you're a laptop user one that also delivers power to you know charge your laptop charge your device whilst also connecting it to display is like an essential thing to look for if your Mac has HDMI port you'll likely be okay with HDMI but I have reviewed many monitors and switched between MacBook airs MacBook Pros Mac Studios Mac minis far too many times where I've encountered problems with getting the you know full native resolution and refresh rate where I've been trying to use like docking stations or buying specific cables to convert USBC to display ports where sometimes they work sometimes they don't so my advice generally again here is just try and buy one with Thunderbolt 4 via USBC or failing that just be prepared to troubleshoot if HDMI doesn't really work the way you expect it to now speaking of which some extra features which you may be interested in on these monitors are the KVM features now many monitors have the ability to simultaneously connect and display two devices at once either side by side called picture by picture or big picture with a little window inside which is called picture in picture now this can be useful if switching maybe between Mac and PC gaming console and desktop PC maybe a a work and a personal machine and some of these also come with the ability to hook up USB devices directly to the Monitor and then as you switch inputs from one computer to another those USB devices move across with them as well so you can use one keyboard one Mouse between two computers now the Dell 40in ultrawide monitor I'm using right here actually has a full Hub built into it with 2 and 1/2 gig ethernet USBC usba a ports which all of those again move over to whichever machine I'm using now that aside there are some features which I find uh a bit pointless on most monitors built-in speakers convenient yes good no you are far better off hooking up to your own headphones or or your own speakers LED lighting also totally pointless like considering most of us just you know push our monitors up against the wall and the LED lights that are built in aren't bright enough to even see the you know glow reflected on the wall that you're better off just buying LED strips and mounting up behind your monitors if you really want that effect so only if you are using the monitor in the middle of a dark room with a back on display only then do they really become even like partly useful and then smart features and remote controls to a certain extent now I have a bit of a like LoveHate relationship with these kind of remote controls unless you are buying an allaround monitor for gaming productivity and doubling up as something you can watch TV on or you know Netflix in the evenings in which case having smart features in your monitor and a remote control as well is pretty great otherwise it's kind of a bit pointless like if you have Smart features most remote controls are set up like a TV remote allowing you to get to the settings menu access things like Netflix you know quick launch apps instead of the remote having monitor focused remote controls that would allow you to change inputs quickly and swap between predefined settings like game modes now one area that is improved with a smart interface is the ability to keep your monitor up to dat with the latest software with firmware updates installing automatically via the Internet now without a smart interface firmware updates might have to be installed manually via USB drive which can be a real pain in the if you are interested here are some of my favorite productivity monitors I'll link them all down below along with my reviews of them here on YouTube as well now first is the absolute bamoth which is the 57 in Samsung G9 Neo it is a 1000r curved mini LED screen it has a great resolution it's amazing for gaming and it works well with both Mac and PC the only negatives are that it's not OLED and It suffers quite bad haloing which especially visible when turning on the screen every morning which is a nice reminder that this isn't an OLED screen although it's not really a problem beyond that boot logo I don't really experience it within Windows or Mac or anything like that it also has no direct USBC or Thunderbolt input and it's just big and heavy oh and if you play a lot of games screens of this size can be a bit awkward with having to look to like the very far edges for heads up displays and those kind of things second right now the one I'm using Dell 40in it's a 120 HZ IPS black panel so really really great colors great contrast it has Thunder Bel 4 and charges my MacBook Pro and it has that full built-in like whole kind of Hub thing to hook up that 2 and A2 gig ethernet and just a ton of like USB ports my audio interface my keyboard my mouse and the webcam on there as well now it doesn't have the best response time at 5 milliseconds but that's aside it is a fantastic Monitor and actually I think this might be the best allround monitor mon to buy for both gaming and day-to-day productivity if you're a bit of an allrounder I'm thinking of making a full review of this monitor so let me know down in the comments if you want to see that one and then thirdly it's another Samsung monitor now this isn't sponsored or anything I just genuinely like the super ultra wide sizes and Samsung seems to be really Leading The Way with those screens this one is the 49 in G9 OLED now this one does have USBC connectivity for your Mac 240 HZ refresh rate great colors great contrast and and it's light due to it being OLED the only thing I can really complain about here is that I just wish it had higher resolution which is why I prefer the 57in version over the 49 in model but they really are like all of these are great monitors and as you can probably tell I kind of like these Ultra wide monitors so next go watch my experience of switching to a super ultra wide monitor for the past 5 years right here

Channel: Pete Matheson

Views: 79,109

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Id: AZZ7Gockrt8

Length: 16min 28sec (988 seconds)

Published: Fri May 17 2024