Monitor (display) recommendations por favor

Stratavarious

Also with two screen… things like maximising a window, are simple.. with ultrawide, arranging a pair of windows is lots of mouse fiddling.

If you can clarify your use cases and what advantage ultrawide will bring, be good.  Also what are your main tasks and software? 

octatonic

Hellsbells87 said:

Thanks, and yes I’m coming to a similar conclusion re ultrawide. 

Ok, good progress today. What are thoughts on curved vs flat? Or is it just personal preference? 

So the front runners are: 

- Dell 
   - flat £310 https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/dell-32-4k-uhd-monitor-se3223q/apd/210-begy/monitors-monitor-accessories
   - or curved £380 https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/dell-32-curved-4k-uhd-monitor-s3221qsa/apd/210-bfvu/monitors-monitor-accessories

- Samsung 
   - ultrawide £300 (seems like a lot for the money, what am I missing?) Samsung LS34C500GAUXXU 34" WQHD Monitor - 3440x1440, 100Hz, VA, Displayport, HDMI, Freesync https://amzn.eu/d/76LooGX ;

- MSI
   - curved £350  https://www.argos.co.uk/product/2062431

- BENQ 
   - flat £300 https://www.scan.co.uk/products/315-benq-ew3270u-4k-monitor-3840x2160-hdr-va-60hz-freesync-4ms-12m1-300cd-m-vesa-dp-hdmi-usb-type-c

- LG 
   - flat £350 https://www.scan.co.uk/products/315-lg-32un650p-w-uhd-monitor-ips-3840x2160-5ms-60hz-amd-freesync-10001-hdmi-dp

If I don’t care about curved, ultrawide or 32” vs 34”, which of these would you plump for? Same question if I did care about flat vs curved. 

Anything else I’m missing?

Thanks again!

I prefer flat, but that is because I do video work.
I also don't like the curve of any non ultra-wide monitors, esp the Samsung Odyssey's.

4K at 32" is a tough ask in that budget if you want a good image.
IMHO panel quality is more important than anything else as you spend so much time in front of it.

Personally I'd look at a 1440p 27" for that sort of money.
I tend to use my 32" at 1440p unless I am working on 4k footage- text is easier to read.
Do you actually need 4K?

You have a mix of IPS and VA panels in that list.
I vastly prefer IPS to VA- better viewing angles.
The BenQ VA panel is a good example of a decent budget monitor that covers a lot of bases but it will not be great at an angle.
Personally I would avoid it.
I would also avoid Dell S series.
The P or U series are much better, but more money.

The LG 32UN650P is a much better monitor than the other flat monitors you listed.
I would get that out of the ones you have put.

You will get a much better panel if you look at 1440p 27" though.
LG UltraGear 27GN88A is around £400, you go down from 32" to 27" and down from UHD to QHF but what you get a is a far superior panel that is much faster.

Another £100 gets you a ASUS ROG Strix XG27AQ which kicks the ass of all the monitors in your list, although it has a gamer focus.

If you absolutely have to have a 32" 4K panel then there are three I would look at.

The best value is Gigabyte M32U.
It is £700 though.
The other two cost more, which are the MSI Optix MPG321UR QD and Corsair Xeneon 32UHD144 but they are both around £900.

octatonic

Stratavarious said:

Get two 32” … the gap thing is a non-issue generally if focus is music production or video or pretty much anything else.  You will barely see a media music professional using single screen. All the main software has dual screen modes.

Logic will split screen in the view menu… tracks on one, faders and Auxes on other… same with Final Cut.. etc. edit lines on one, the preview on other.

Even with Garageband, you can have Garageband on one and the amp sims and plug-ins on other.

Learning tunes… score/chords on one… YouTube or DAW on other.

Dock is 13 in 1 Mac mini dock with HD slot.  I put a 2TB Samsung SSD in.. all worked plug and play from plugged in.  Impressed. 

I like two displays but there are ways around this.

Pro Tools has CMD= keyboard shortcut to switch between Edit and Mix
Logic is CMD1/CMD2 to bring up Main and Mix- or using screen sets.

I sometimes use an iPad as a second (or third) screen- this is handy for metering plugins.
I wouldn't use it for a mix window.

'You will barely see a media music professional using single screen'.
That is mostly a Youtube influencer thing.

I am in a lot of studios and one display is still the norm, esp if using a console where the display is usually at right angles to the console/mix position.

The reason for this is down to room acoustics, esp when forward of the studio monitors.

Habanero

If I'm reading this right I can connect a second screen to my iMac using a Thunderbolt to HDMI cable??? I had no idea, but am off to the garage to retrieve an old 1080p screen that was waiting to go to the dump...

GoFish

This thread has some very useful advice and information as I ponder my next (modest) display and computer. Thanks guys.

Hellsbells87

Yes, thanks to all contributors.

I still haven’t made a decision but it is high on the to do list, along with getting a new music desk…

Axe_meister

Whilst ultrawide may appear ideal on paper. Most only have 1440p vertical resolution.
Now consider the physical width. You might as well get a 4k 32" monitor, which will have the same width as the ultra wide but far more vertical screen real estate. With the ultra wide I find I have to either switch between different DAW modes or throw the mixer to another screen off to the side when not in use. With a 32" I can have two modes showing on the same screen stacked. I still throw plugins off to side screens.

Hellsbells87

AwAxe_meister said:

Whilst ultrawide may appear ideal on paper. Most only have 1440p vertical resolution.
Now consider the physical width. You might as well get a 4k 32" monitor, which will have the same width as the ultra wide but far more vertical screen real estate. With the ultra wide I find I have to either switch between different DAW modes or throw the mixer to another screen off to the side when not in use. With a 32" I can have two modes showing on the same screen stacked. I still throw plugins off to side screens.

Awesome, thanks for the input! Makes total sense re widescreen. So this would be nudging towards two 4k 32”. Or one 32 and one smaller. Aesthetically I struggle with the idea of different sized screens. But maybe that’s silly… 

Sporky

Different screens can work well if you're building a setup based on a specific task. If its a more general purpose thing then identical gives you more options, I'd say. 

digitalscream

For what it's worth, I considered a 4k monitor for my middle/main monitor, and ditched the idea because it was far more useful to have more monitors than more content/space on my main monitor. Each time I've expanded the setup, it was for a specific need that was getting in my way when working, which naturally led to a specific choice of size and resolution.



(yes, I know I need to sort my blind out...yeesh, phone cameras are not kind these days)

So...four monitors might seem like overkill, but it's actually very practical. At any given point:

- Top: 15.6" 1080p, emails only
- Left: 22" 1920x1200, videos/messaging/terminal
- Right: 22" 1920x1200, browser preview or reference material when working, miscellaneous when not
- Centre: 27" 1440p, code/main browser/gaming

Two monitors feels far too claustrophobic, three is fine but I found myself constantly switching to my email window and then hunting for the one that should be there once I'm done...so I got the top one.

I've exhausted the outputs on my GPU now, but I think I could probably use the integrated GPU to get more going if I needed to. I can't see what I'd use a fifth for.

Anyway, my advice would be to figure out the most you'd need to be able to see at any one time with no window switching, and design your setup around that.

WYNIR0

fretmeister said:

I'm using a BenQ EW3280U

32 inch 4K.

Image quality is lovely - I spend my days in Excel, living the dream - but they are regular widescreen.
Only 60hz refresh but with my gaming skills that isn't affecting my win rate!  

I have the same. 2 of and very happy. Have my Mac mini M2 plugged in via USB C - no issues.

Hellsbells87

I’m trying to separate my work and fun setups so this would be for the fun set up. And fun only really means music stuff. So I need screen real estate for daw, plug-ins, and googling how to do anything I attempt. I think this is a two-screen situation. I’d wanted avoid having the bezels down the centre of my view. But I think I’ll just get over that, or offset one monitor/my position. 

So with that in mind, 4k and 32” are probs my both too much. Maybe 27” 1440p IPS?

Hellsbells87

WYNIR0 said:

fretmeister said:

I'm using a BenQ EW3280U

32 inch 4K.

Image quality is lovely - I spend my days in Excel, living the dream - but they are regular widescreen.
Only 60hz refresh but with my gaming skills that isn't affecting my win rate!  

I have the same. 2 off and very happy. Have my Mac mini M2 plugged in via USB C - no issues.

I’d love to do exactly this but £900 is more than I want to drop on displays. 

allen

There's a good article here about avoiding resolution pitfalls.

https://bjango.com/articles/macexternaldisplays/

allen

and an explanation of the issue on youtube

Sporky

I want the new Samsung ultrawide - equivalent of two 4k monitors side by side...