Thanks for that @MattSteen; you might do well to take a poll of readers to see how many, or if any at all, found anything of value from that review (not a test). My only takeaway was a difference of $2 p.a. in power is not going to make any difference to my next monitor purchase. Most of us don’t need help sorting monitors by size. Display quality, size, and budget will advise my next purchase.
Working from home is hard, there are lots of monitors, but.
Thanks for your help on that. I’m glad to hear Choice will likely take on board some of the helpful views expressed on this subject.
The best way to go on this, I think, is to focus on one user group at a time. These would be:—
Is the group most likely to benefit from a narrower focus by Choice the average home user?
IE Budget conscious, easy on the eyes for email, reading, browsing, and basic video use such as chat sessions, and ….?
Some might liken this to a monitor that is good for the office. Many mundane office monitors though are chosen deliberately to have zero bells and whistles. For home built in ports with optionally useable camera and colour reproduction might add appeal.
If I was looking at gaming, serious video or colour work, or dtp there are other resources offering reviews that target these users. Looking for the best for each of these other uses, is likely to rank the most expensive as better. Results well above the average home budget. Although some very average homes have some very large flat screen TV’s and media centres. That’s without the added cost of the optional and near largest room in the house just for that purpose.
I like this idea. Get a list of all the information available on the manufacturer’s websites and therefore doesn’t need testing, and see what people consider the most important.
I am a gamer, who also uses my home display for work - lots of spreadsheets. And other home purposes.
While many gamers would go for a curved widescreen, this would make reading the spreadsheets more difficult as the rows would not be straight. Accordingly, I went for a fairly standard 4K display as my main monitor and have two 2K displays in support. All flat.
I bought a 30-odd inch NEC screen about 10 years ago. It is probably the best and most reliable monitor I have ever had and I would not trade it for anything else. It is 2560x1600 and very clear but …
If it had been part of the Choice test if would have failed miserably and I would probably have missed out on it. It is heavy (18.5 kg) and it gets warm due to the amount of energy it uses. It was also quite expensive. When buying computer equipment I always use multiple sites for information. This one was bought due to reviews by CNet which at that time was quite reliable. They have gone a bit amazon lately.
Did you actually try a curved screen out? I am not a gamer (any more), and I use my 2 x 27" curved screens for work, including a lot of spreadsheets. I find no issues at all with the curvature, since I’m looking directly (horizontally) at the screen, so the curvature is not visible in that plane.
No, but my research said ‘curved screen + spreadsheet = bad experience’. It probably depends to some extent both on the user and on the spreadsheets.
Also distance from the screen and the curve. Some screens have a very tight curve so more immersion in the action around a gamer, others have a more gentle curve that keeps everything equidistant from the eyes. I use the more gentle curve for work and the tight curves for gaming.
