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Ask HN: High DPI Productivity Monitor for Front End Engineering?
Hi HN, I am in the market for a new monitor and would like to ask you guys for some recommendations.
My requirements are:
- Good for frontend work. High DPI, high resolution. Not excessively blurry, or retina-like. Good color representation.
- Single monitor setup.
- Be able to see 3 screens side by side comfortably, with my coding screen at minimum 16px font size
- Around 1-1.5k.
- Can be driven by a Macbook Pro
I am currently comparing a Dell 43" 4K Ultrasharp screen (dell u4323qe) vs a LG 40" Ultrawide 5kx2k (lg 40wp95c-w). I don't have any experience using an ultrawide vs a very large screen so feedback around that decision (or recommendations of other monitors) would be very useful.
- wmf 3y agoYour only high-DPI choices are the Dell 6K or Apple 5K. For normal DPI I would recommend either a 43" or a 38" (which is the same width but less tall). I would not recommend medium-DPI options like the 40".
- 3oH2y869 3y agoWould you recommend this over an ultrawide? Is ultrawide DPI lacking?
- wmf 3y agoI use a 38" ultrawide and I'm happy with it.
- I_am_tiberius 3y agoWith an M1/2 macbook?
- wmf 3y agoNo, with an Intel MacBook Pro.
- I_am_tiberius 3y agoOk, as far as I know the DPI problem starts with M1 macs, meaning the text rendering looks terrible if DPI is < 150.
- stephenr 3y agoAFAIK it’s nothing to do with Intel/Arm swap over. macOS in recent years dropped support for antialiasing because Apple (+ the UltraFines they sold) displays are all[1] high dpi. The other issue with a PPI of 150 is you’ll likely end up needing to use a non-evenly scaled resolution to get things “sized” right, so even basic things like a 1px line won’t be crisp, because it won’t be rendered as 1 solid pixel. 1: Yes I know the 24” 4K isn’t quite the same “high dpi”.
- I_am_tiberius 3y agook thanks. makes sense.
- 3oH2y869 3y agoIs there any fundamental guidelines one can follow as far as PPI goes so that the monitor doesn't look miserable? I am looking for something reasonably large and quality that doesn't break the bank.
- 3oH2y869 3y agoWhat do you mean by normal vs medium DPI? Which ultrawide are you using?
- wmf 3y agoAll 38" monitors are the same panel with different ports. I had good luck with the Dell one but some sleep/wake problems with an LG model.
- I_am_tiberius 3y agoThere's also the Samsung Viewfinity S9 (5k) which is going to be available starting August/September.
- stephenr 3y ago40” @ 5120x2160 is ~139 PPI. 43” @ 3840x3160 is ~102 PPI. Neither of these is “High DPI” by any stretch of the imagination. If you want high dpi (particularly with macOS) you essentially need to aim for ~220PPI, the further you drop below that the worse it will be. Personally I think the best bang-for-buck on a high dpi display is the Dell 32” 6K. I got mine for around $100 more than what Apple sells the 27” 5K (with the fancy glass and adjustable stand options) here. If you can live with 27” there are a few choices of 5K available now/soon.