Computer Shopper - UK (2020-10)

MONITORS

ISSUE392|COMPUTER SHOPPER|OCTOBER 2020 63

asaveragedelta-E,withscoresclosestto0or

1the best. Adull, bland or colour-inaccurate

monitor will mean that whenever you’re

working with colours, different shades won’t

be visible as their true appearance,which

could only become apparent when the content

is printed or viewed on abetter screen.

High colour performance is also important

to dedicated gaming monitors, although

perhaps not as much as speed and

smoothness. This is where ahigh refresh

rate–the speed at which amonitor updates

its onscreen image –becomes important,

as a144Hz monitor refreshes much faster

than a60Hz or 75Hz monitor and thus

gives the impression of smoother,more

fluid, more realistic movement.

GHOST BUSTING

Aquality monitor should also aim to avoid

graphical problems such as ghosting and screen

tearing. Ghosting is an afterimage-like effect

that can appear behind fast-moving objects,

caused by theactual pixels not responding

fast enough to changes from image refreshes,

and tearing occurs when your computer’s

frames-per-second output is out of sync with

the refresh rate, which canresult in parts of

two different frames appearing at once.

Ghosting can be dealt with by having a

fast response time: the time it takes forthe

monitor’s pixels to change colour in response

to anew frame.Sadly,thisdoesn’talways

eliminatethe problem, especially on VA panels

(see ‘Panel technologies’,below), but for

gaming and regular video playback, a

response time of 4ms or below is ideal.

Most modern monitors also support

screen-syncing technology dedicated to

battling screen tearing, by dynamically altering

the refresh ratetostayintime with the

computer’s FPS. AMD’s FreeSync and Nvidia’s

G-Sync both work similarly,but are designed

to be compatible only with their respective

company’s graphics cards, so if you’re on

integrated graphics you’ll miss out.

That said, some monitors will support

more than one of these technologies, so

you’re not always limited by whether you own

an AMD or Nvidia GPU. In fact, Nvidia’s GTX

10-series, GTX 16-series and RTX20-series

cards can employadaptive syncing even on

FreeSync-branded monitors, though only a

fewofthese are actually certified as fully

compatible by Nvidia itself.Ifyou want to

playitsafe, stick to officialG-Sync models.

SEENAND NOTHEARD

One of the main benefits to using amonitor

instead of your laptop’s own screen is that

it’s going to be much more ergonomic and

comfortable,and ideally,you should be able

to adjust the stand’s height, tilt and pivot

angle to get the most comfortable desktop

setup.This is something we’ll be judging our

batch of monitors on: the more adjustable,

the better.Somecan even allow the screen

to rotateintoalandscape view; we don’t

recommend this if you only have one monitor,

but if you’re buying asecond screen, it can be

handy to keep one on landscape forgeneral

use,and one on portrait foreasierreading of

long documents and web pages.

Another important aspect is connectivity.

Youcan read more about the benefits of

different connection types –HDMI,DisplayPort

and so on –onthe next page,but in most

cases it’s best to provide amix of inputsand

at least acouple of USB ports, foreasy

peripheral use.We’ll also be examining how

sturdy each monitor stand is –you don’t want

something that wobbles when you’re typing

–and howwell it integrates acontrol scheme

forits onscreen display, or OSD.This is where

you’ll find most of the onboard image settings.

Something you absolutely can skimp on is

built-in speakers. Some monitors include

speakers, some don’t, but the sad truth is that

integrated speakers almost always sound

terrible,and even the more tolerable ones are

rarely up to playing music or watching films.

Our advice is to use headphones or invest in

aset of desktop speakers.

gigantic ultrawide model. Foreverydayuse,
anywhere between 24in and 27in is fine; this
size range,especially towards the 27in end of
the scale,will help avoid the screen feeling
cramped, especially if you’re multitasking with
several applications open at the same time.
Resolution is asimilar story: higher
resolutions don’t just make everything look
sharper,theycan help images, video and small
text stayeasily legible if they’re pushed off to
the side or in acorner. Games will also look
better on higher resolutions, although this will
also put agreater strain on your GPU.
Foradesktop monitor,you should
generally never go below 1,920x1,080, or
Full HD,and if you can afford it, 2,560x1,440
–orQuadHD–isaworthwhile upgrade.
3,840x2,160 might be overkill formostuses
but can be useful forhigh-end gaming or
media editing. Remember,also,thatresolution
doesn’t necessarily increase with screen size: a
27in 1080p will look less sharp than a24in
1080p screen because the pixels are spread
over agreater area.

ENUMBERS

That said, it’s fine to stick with amodest
1080pmonitor if you just want something for
basic browsing, word processing and the like;
a24indisplaywillalso save you moneyand
desk space,while still being abig size upgrade
over any laptop screen.
Formore serious working-from-home
setups, on the other hand, both extra space
and higher resolutions will help keep you
productive.Ifyou’re working with design,
photo- or video-editing software or any other
kind of creative tools, youshould also pay
attention to the monitor’s colour and contrast
performance.Wemeasure how much of the
sRGB colour gamut amonitor can reproduce,
as well as how accurately: the latter expressed

Paneltechnologies

The screen panels inside monitors can use one of several types

of displaytechnologies, each with their own pros and cons.

Here’s your guide to which is which

TN(TWISTEDNEMATIC)

TN panels are basic LCD panels, with

nematic liquid crystals placed between two

sheets of glass. These are cheap to produce

and can offer very low response times, so

are often found in both general entry-level

and budget gaming monitors. However,

theyalso suffer from narrow viewing

angles and, often, duller colours.

IPS(IN-PLANESWITCHING)

In IPS monitors, the liquid crystals can

shift around to produce better viewing

angles than TN or VA panels. IPS panels

are expensive and don’t have the best

contrast, but their typically high colour

performance and wide viewing angles

makes them worth paying extra for.

Recent panels are also cutting down on

response times, one aspect IPS has

often struggled with.

VA (VERTICALALIGNMENT)

While VA panels are often thought of as

the middle ground between TN and IPS,

theydohaveone unique trick: theycan

completely block out the backlight,

resulting in afar higher contrast ratio.

This is agood-performing panel type for

desktop work, although viewing angles

aren’t as wide as IPS, and VA monitors are

particularly prone to ghosting.

It’s fineto stick with amodest1080p monitor if you just

wantsomething for basic browsing, wordprocessing and

the like; a24in displaywill also saveyoumoneyand space