Monitors are known as the soul of the computer. This is because in basic nothing can be done without the display. Whatever the task you do with the pc, it can be your office work, personal work or gaming it requires a display output. Monitor manufacturers are well aware of how monitors change with the uses. Therefore they took the steps to design monitors according to the user experience. Unlike earlier, monitors today are more slim and stylish compared to a old CRT bulky type. Even though most of the monitors today look almost the same, they are differentiated by their characteristics. For an example a LCD monitor will not have the same features like that of a LED monitor.
To pickup the right monitor it is important to know the reason for buying it, whether it is for gaming, personal or business works. After all choosing the right monitor can give you the perfect good view.
In this article, I will be guiding you on How to Pick the Right Monitor. At the end of this post, you will know how to buy / pick / select the right computer computer monitor using the choosing tips given here.
Let's move to the topic,
1. LCD Vs LED
Monitors today use 2 types of major technologies, those are the Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) and the Light Emitting Diode (LED). Apart from some minor differences they both posses almost the same features.
LCD technology was 1st introduced to television sets and lately for monitors. The mechanism behind them is there are 2 glass screens which has liquid filled in between them.The Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp (CCFL) used in LCD monitors helps to produce pictures. When compared to a LED monitor, LCD has low price range and no burn in images.
On the other hand, LED technology came as a successor to LCD. Same as a LCD it too has 2 glass screens which has liquid filled in between them. But instead of CCFL, LED lights are used to produce the image. Perhaps LED monitors has improved picture quality and less power consumption compared to a LCD monitor.
2. Flat Vs Curved
After the long decade usage of flat panel displays, curved type monitors came into trend. There are many reasons for a user to go for a curved monitor. Comparing to a flat panel display, it has wide angle of view being less distance from the monitor. Therefore the users are not compelled to move the head far behind the monitor which gives an advantage of less eye strain. However from certain angles it may reflect glare.
3. Screen Resolution
Screen resolution is the number of pixels the monitor contains which is the multiple of width x height. Higher the resolution, sharper the image quality is. At the opposite lowering the resolution makes the image blur. Monitors today comes under different resolutions such as 1440x900, 2560x2440, 1980x1080, 4K and even 8K. Even most of the cheapest monitors comes with the native resolution of 1080p (Full HD display).
However most at times if you are using your computer only for general purposes, 1080p resolution is considered enough. If you want to get an extraordinary experience while watching movies and playing games then go for a monitor with 4K or 8K resolutions.
4. Aspect Ratio
Aspect Ratio is the relation of monitors height with respect to its width. Therefore ultimately aspect ratio decides the shape of the monitor. Most of the television sets and monitors earlier were under the aspect ratio of 4:3, slowly this value kept on increasing. Now monitors with full HD display comes with the aspect ratio of 16:9.
Even there are ultra wide monitors with the aspect ratio of 21:9 specifically designed for gaming. Unless you use the monitor for playing high end games,a monitor with aspect ratio of 16:9 is considered enough.
5. Refresh Rate
Refresh rate is the number of times the monitor refreshes to update informations per second. Measured in Hertz, refresh rate also decides how many frames to be displayed per second. Therefore it makes your gaming experience smooth and responsive.
While most of the gaming monitors comes with 144hz refresh rate, on average it is recommended to have at least 75hz for a better experience.
6. Response Time
Response time if the time taken by your computer to change the frame from one to another. Measured in Millisecond (Ms) , response time decides the motion blur and the smoothness of the videos. Lesser the response time, faster the movements will be.
It is one factor which is crucial for gamers. Therefore gaming monitors are designed with the lowest response time of 0.5ms. However for general purposes it is advisable to choose a monitor with a response time lesser than 8ms.
7. Panel Technology
Whatever the type of LCD monitor you use, there are 3 known panel technologies used in them. Those are the Vertical Alignment (VA) , Twisted Nematic Panel (TN) and the In-plane Switching (IPS). These panel technology decides the color, contrast and the viewing angle of the monitor.
Vertical Alignment - VA panels uses liquid crystal cells for displaying the image. It is better contrast compared to other two. But their slower response time and poor color presentation makes them not ideal.
Twisted Nematic - TN uses translucent nematic liquid crystals for displaying the image. It has faster response time and better color presentation compared to VA panels. But it has poor viewing angles.
In-Plane Switching - IPS panels uses crystal liquids to produce the image. Out of the 3 it has the best response time, color presentation and viewing angle. Therefore it is the best choice for gaming, photo editing, video editing and graphic designing.
8. Variable Refresh Rate
Some gaming monitors comes with the feature known as the Variable Refresh Rate. It basically ensures that the monitor renders the same fps as the games. And also it reduces screen tearing and stuttering which leads to a smooth gameplay.
In order for a monitor to support the variable refresh rate it should have a graphics card with G-sync or Free-sync technologies. G-sync is the technology used in Nvidia gpu and Free-sync is the technology used in AMD gpu.
9. High Dynamic Range
High Dynamic Range (HDR) uses color range technology to display true colors on screen. It was 1st introduced in photography then lately to monitors. Such introduction made great impact on visuals as well as response time. However most of the pc games today does not support the HDR feature.
10. Anti Glare
Glaring is one of the major problems faced by most of the flat panel monitors. Due to glaring, monitors loose the ability to view from different angle especially in sunlight. To overcome this monitor manufacturers made Anti Glare monitors. These types of monitors basically contain anti glare coating which prevent glaring.
No comments:
Post a Comment