Choosing a monitor for your desktop or notebook computer you naturally assume you would go for one with the highest resolution. The highest available display resolution available now is a 4K (UHD) with a pixel count of 3,840 x 2160 (2160p). However, the highest resolution may not be suitable for you and maybe detrimental. *Note: I am aware that there are monitors with higher resolution but they are not common and do not really follow a standard. Apple's is stated as a 6K display but I am not sure that is an accepted International Standard.
Here are a couple reasons why the highest resolution may not be suitable for you.
The increased pixel density (smaller pixels) on a smaller display size like 24-inch will display your icons and text quite small. The optimal viewing distance increases as the size of the monitor increase. So, you actually sit further away from the monitor which can strain your eyes looking at the smaller text. Because your text becomes smaller to read you go into the computer settings and negate the increase resolution by increasing the font size to 150 percent.
If you decide to play games with a default display resolution of 4K you will need an extremely good display card unless you plan on playing at low detail settings and with low fps (frames per second). You may think to yourself you can downscale to 2K / 1080p but the end result of the image can be a muddy mess.
How about reasons to choose the 4K display?
If your work involves editing photos or video, then the higher resolution display ensures you are seeing what you'll get without having to always zoom in.
The higher resolution allows you to put more on the screen for spreadsheets, wordprocessing and web browsing. Basically, the more pixels the more you can get on the screen. Albeit the more text on the screen then makes the displayed font extremely small even on a 24-inch display. You can move up to a larger 25 or 27-inch but personally I still find the text quite small in 4K on a 25 and even 27-inch display.
I have covered the reasons for and against but have not mentioned price/performance. You can go crazy spending a lot of money on a 4K display that has all the colour gamut, calibration, refresh rate features and more.
The Middle Ground
What about a 1440p display? A display resolution of 2560 x 1440 referred to as QHD puts you squarely between the long in the tooth FullHD (1920 x 1080) and the latest UHD (3840 x 2160). You get increased pixel resolution, maintain the same 16:9 aspect ratio and you they are available in a variety of sizes from 24 to 27 inches.
A Personal Choice
I have been using for two 25-inch displays at 2560 x 1440 for a while. I personally find this to be the balance between increased resolution and display real estate required to fit two on my work desk. I would have loved to use two 27-inch but I simply did not have the physical desk space to accommodate the larger monitors. I would have loved to use 27-inchers because it would mean not having to increase the displayed font size. As we age it seems inevitable that we need to increase the font size.
So, when Lenovo asked if I was interested to take a look at one of their 27-inch QHD monitors I agreed to have a look even though I knew I would not consider moving up. In fact, in order to take a look at the monitor I needed to clear the dining room table..
The assembly of the monitor is straight forward and requires no tools. An included instruction page is included to guide you. In terms of design, I like the thin bezels on the top and sides while the bottom portion of the screen being thicker houses the buttons for power and menu control. Some monitors employ thin bezels all around but what ends up happening is the control buttons end up on the bottom edge, right edge or on the back and that makes it difficult to access them.
I am not sure if it is using a gas piston or a spring mechanism but lowering and raising the screen was smooth and easy to operate. The ability to rotate and tilt the screen is firm but smooth. I assume that is friction based but it isn’t something you would do a lot to wear it out. A couple things to note about the rotate and tilt. Rotation is possible in either direction. The tilting motion is quite generous tilting backwards. This makes it quite interesting if you have a standing desk and like to look down at the display. The generous angle also makes it useful for finding a good position to reduce glare from overhead lighting. However, glare should not be an issue as the screen has a matte coating.
The QHD resolution is useful resolution to increase your productivity just by the fact there is more pixels. Here is what a screenshot of my notebook display and the T27H-20. A second monitor can be productive without having to task switch between the application windows. Here I have Photoshop and two browser windows open at the same time.
The T27H-20 only has an sRGB rating of 99% but there is no details in the specification for Adobe RGB. So, this does not make it suitable for someone who needs greater colour accuracy for photography or arts. That however does not mean the monitor would not be suitable for artistic work. In fact, the out of the box colour reproduction I found to be good.
(You can read about sRGB vs Adobe RGB to decide if not having Adobe RGB accuracy will affect you.) Look at some of the screen shots and also the photos taken of the screen. Oh, the display is an IPS (In-Plane Switching) so you won’t get strange colour shifts when viewed off angle.
The connectivity options available makes the monitor versatile. With multiple inputs you can get the most out of the monitor by connecting up-to three devices and use the control buttons to switch between them. The three connectivity options are: USB-C, a HDMI and a Displayport.
Remember the days when you had to buy monitor switches. Well now you don’t need that with the connectivity options. I can see this being useful if you have a gaming console like a Nintendo Switch or Sony Playstation. I know it can be a problem sharing the living room TV with a game console. Also, the reason I mention game console is that they rarely use a keyboard so you won’t need to have an additional keyboard on your desk if the other ports are used for a laptop or desktop computer.
I used the USB-C to connect my notebook and I was not required to do anything like loading device drivers with Microsoft Windows 10. I only needed to wait while the system detected the second monitor was attached.
I like the inclusion of the headphone jack on the side because if it was placed on the back like many monitors it can be troublesome to find the jack to plug in your wired headphones. I know this from experience because my Dell monitors have headphone jacks at the rear.
I played a few games and with the decent graphics card in my Aero 15 notebook I could get some decent frame rates. Do note however the display is only rated at 60-Hertz. So gaming with the monitor won't be ideal if you want the higher refresh rates demanded by diehard gamers.
I did not check colour accuracy but took the time to look at some of my images and took screenshots with my Sony Xperia 1ii mobile phone. Hardly scientific or accurate but I can say the results are quite stunning.
The whole idea of getting a higher pixel density display is to be able to view your images or applications without having to zoom in. The ability to see multiple pages or windows also helps in visualising. For instance, I am able to open Microsoft Word and display three full size pages side-by-side. If I were publishing a book or a paper it does not require me to scroll or shrink the page sizes to see the big picture.
For web browsing I opened two browser windows and can read each without having to zoom/scroll. This sure beats opening Tabs for your web browsing. A great way to look at your online shopping deals for comparison, research and reading.
Summary
Upgrading your current system from a FullHD (1080p) display to the slightly higher resolution 1440p will give you productivity gains and it is a worthwhile consideration. It makes even more sense to add secondary display to your home setup be it a notebook or desktop as you gain screen real estate to have multiple apps/windows accessible just by moving your mouse pointer between displays. There is no need to Alt-Tab to switch between applications.
With a SRP of SGD599.00 the Thinkvision T27H-20 has a slightly premium price but looks and feels well made. The larger display will help to reduce eyestrain when viewing smaller text fonts. With the anti-glare screen you won't need to shift your head to see clearly nor will you need to turn off or dim surrounding ambient lights. It is not good to be staring at the screen in the dark.
Check Lenovo's online store for discounted deals, your local retailer or online shopping portals. I did see it listed quite reasonably on Lazada.sg here.
Lenovo Thinkvision T27H-20 Specification Sheet
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