Which Monitor?

Hi All,

As the title suggests...

I have just spent £600 or an all singing all dancing machine and now looking for a monitor.

My budget is maximum £200. I have read many reviews an just cannot decide..

Can anyone recommend one from personal experience ?

I don't think the make of monitor is important. What IS important is to calibrate it using one or other of the many devices on the market.

IPS and calibrated

Dell make good IPS monitors that are reasonably priced. Spyder 4 for calibration.

I've been happy overall with the Dell Ultrasharp U2xxx[H]M. Several sizes to choose from, 90 degree rotating stand, and perfectly fine for office work and casual gaming as well. I like the ones with a 16:10 aspect ratio, but to paraphrase Brian Cooley, it's easier to bring Israel and Palestine together than to broker the religious wars over monitor aspect ratios

When researching monitors I look at the reviews on tftcentral, as they're mind bogglingly thorough. They will also tell you what LCD panel each monitor uses, e.g. an HP and a Dell monitor could both use the same panel from LG. That means the image quality should be close, and the major differences will be in the ergonomics, menu system, etc.

I also want to recommend you to buy the Dell IPS monitor, they are comparatively good in performance.

Thanks for your replies. Will certainly get an IPS after reading about it.

Another question...

Matt screen or Glossy?

I use matte screens!

tonylong wrote in post #17041669
I use matte screens!

Did you choose between glossy and matte? If so why choose matte?

I've read that glossy gives people headaches.... Guess I'll be buying matte!

I would go into a decent store/outlet and look at monitors, with photo editing in mind, that is where you are up close and working on photos rather than just having a bright glossy display for "entertainment"!

tonylong wrote in post #17041698
I would go into a decent store/outlet and look at monitors, with photo editing in mind, that is where you are up close and working on photos rather than just having a bright glossy display for "entertainment"!

In the US and Canada you have the luxury of huge department stores.. In the UK we don't really get that and instead just a couple of items and directed to shop online.

So going somewhere and seeing exactly what I want isn't an option without travelling a hell of a long way!

Sadly just got to rely on others experience

Stuuk1 wrote in post #17042053
In the US and Canada you have the luxury of huge department stores.. In the UK we don't really get that and instead just a couple of items and directed to shop online.

So going somewhere and seeing exactly what I want isn't an option without travelling a hell of a long way!

Sadly just got to rely on others experience

Well, then, I'd just recommend a matte monitor for photo processing, although I'm not familiar with the range that Dell offers.

I have no idea what £200 translates to in dollars, but it have the Dell UltraSharp U2713H which is 99% AdobeRGB and the retail price is about $850. There is a much lower cost Dell 2713 HM that is 99% sRGB. In either case, you will need a calibrator. The 2713H is hardware integrated with the X-Rite i1 Display Pro so that calibration is fully automatic and writes hardware specific data to the monitor LUT.

IPS and calibrated are the benchmark.

I have a DellU2711 I licked up a few years back and have been really happy with it' all the reviews were right, it is and excellent monitor. The model is a few years old now but I was just reading there has been a few more models released.

As soon as I could, I grabbed a second lesser quality monitor 24" for my palletes etc. I now have a 24 and a 27 next to each other and couldn't go back to one monitor alone.

Rather than go to a department store and choose the monitor yourself, I strongly suggest you read lots of reviews online to help you make your choice. A good review will tell you how true the colour and brightness is across the monitor about all the inputs etc. If you are on a budget then do consider purchasing something that is not the latest model. My Dell27 was over $2200 new, a few years later I picked up a new one for $800 straight from Dell.