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Programmers: What size monitors do you guys prefer?

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mouser:
I have never worried much about monitor size for my computer, but I do care a lot about resolution, and really love having lots of real estate.

In the past I always aimed for a multi-monitor setup, with monitor resolutions of 1600x1200.
My current setup is three 19" 1600x1200 lcd monitors.
(The text font size is just fine for me with those).

But i'm looking to buy a new central monitor, and i'm trying to decide whether to get a 24" (1920x1200) (apx, $320), or to go all the way up to a 27" (2560x144) ($500).

I love the idea of the additional screen real-estate on the 27".  But I have a real concern about the screen being "too large" for daily coding.

For tv/movies, the bigger the better.

But for programming, I need to be staring at lots of small text -- and I sit about 2.5 feet away from the screen.

So at a certain point, a large screen is going to mean having to move my eyes around uncomfortably.

Thoughts?

mouser:
If anyone wants to join me in jumping to 27", this is the one i'm looking at -- newegg is currently having a bit of a sale on it:

LG 27EA83R-D

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824005494

Ath:
LG 27EA83R-D
-mouser (February 04, 2014, 06:42 AM)
--- End quote ---
If you're aiming for a single-screen solution, I'd definitely have a look at this or a similar, super-high res, monitor. But do have a good test in the shop to view the actual brightness of the screen, that is, IMHO very, important too. You may need to make use of the return-policy, when available, if it's not good enough in your environment (like a very bright, sun-lit, location or whatever).

The price definitely sounds right :up:

TaoPhoenix:
Hmm.

At home I've been pleased with the 24" monitor I bought some seven years ago, though it's really on the tail of its life now!  At one time at an old job I had two monitors, but since then I've only used my single one from home recreationally.

I'm thinking that the "programming environment" doesn't need to be maximized, so that "extra real estate" would become just other parts of the desktop housing the partially hidden windows of other apps that you just click to bring to the front.

I'll add a small surprise twist to this discussion by mentioning one of my favorite "under the radar" programs from here: Trandesk. It's not even a NANY. It's from the super obscure "C programming contest" here.

Most of the reason people go into multi monitor setups is because they don't want to play musical chairs with overlapping app focus. But for me Trandesk works as a virtual monitor - In "Workspace 1" I'd have my four instances of Firefox, three PaleMoon, and some five apps open. And that's plenty of noise for one workspace! So then on the second one I'd open the other couple of browser instances and the other few apps.

So my vote is Big Monitor + Trandesk!

 :Thmbsup:

mouser:
But do have a good test in the shop to view the actual brightness of the screen, that is, IMHO very, important too.
--- End quote ---

I never appreciated brightness issues until i tried a different monitor one day that was noticeably clearer and brighter than what i was used to.  It was actually labeled a "glossy" monitor when most these days are labeled as "matte".  I have to say i much preferred the glossy one, though they seem to be rare for some reason.

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