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BenQ RD280UA: a 3:2 aspect ratio "programming monitor"
- ChrisGranger 2y agoPrevious discussion about the RD280U model without the arm: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40385371 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40385371
- jsheard 2y ago60hz :( There's no going back once you're used to high refresh rates. Especially with a monitor like this which you might want to use in either orientation, 60hz panels are prone to jelly scrolling* when rotated 90 degrees from their native upright position due to the way that LCDs scan the image out line-by-line. * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWKb_khoFzw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWKb_khoFzw
- karmakaze 2y agoIt's surprising what a higher refresh let's you do. I noticed I was scrolling through output and logs much faster because I wasn't afraid of missing what I'm looking for. The opposite is pair programming remotely having to go extra slow.
- nosefurhairdo 2y agoFor pair programming I recommend VSCode Live Share extension. So much better than screen share and dictating code changes.
- slashtom 2y agoDepends, I have the 32 inch 6k dell and the lg ergo, both are 60hz and have no issues. Mind you, I specifically use these two monitors for work whereas I do have a 240hz 4k Oled connected to my gaming pc next to it. The initial 60hz feel is jarring but you quickly get used to it. At least that's the case for me.
- snapplebobapple 2y agoTo me it feels more like a sliding scale on a monitor (30 hz sucks 60 hz is usable, 120 hz is awesome and beyond that I notice nothing but I also don't game) I have a dual 43" 4k setup at 60 hz right now for work, once those age out in a few years I will definitely be trying for 120 hz. The smaller the screen the higher the hz is that feels like it sucks.
- ulrischa 2y agoWhat can you recommend?
- jsheard 2y ago4K 27-32" monitors at 144hz or better are a commodity at this point, just get whatever is currently cheapest and has RTINGS seal of approval. LGs are generally a safe choice. If you are a Mac user then you have to compromise though, 4K at those sizes isn't dense enough to meet Apples ~220dpi Retina standard, and the monitors that do meet that standard are all limited to 60hz (and hideously expensive). You either have to deal with Apples janky fractional DPI scaling, or put up with 60hz for now.
- microtonal 2y agoFully agree with the last part. If you are a Mac user, just get an Apple Studio Display. It's Retina, the integration with macOS is top-notch, and the speakers are pretty good. Initially the camera was not great (as pointed out by early reviews), but subsequent firmware updates have made it much better. Oh and it actually gets regular firmware updates and fixes -- it runs on Apple Silicon and uses a stripped-down iOS.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- jsheard 2y agoIt is a nice monitor... but I would certainly hope so for what it costs. $1600+ for a non-HDR LCD monitor is pretty eye-watering when OLED monitors are arriving at <$1200 now. If you need Retina then you don't have much of a choice though, I know.
- angoragoats 2y agoI am probably a bigger Apple critic than most, but I genuinely don’t understand the commonly stated sentiment that Apple is bad at fractional scaling. I’ve been running 27” 4K monitors at “looks like 1440p” scaling on my MBPs for years, and I literally cannot tell the difference in quality between the built in display and my monitors. Is there some particular app or use case where it’s more noticeable?
- microtonal 2y agoI don't like < 120Hz on a phone screen, but I don't mind as much on a computer. I think touch interaction makes lower refresh rates unnatural. On a computer screen I am much more annoyed if the density is less than 200 PPI, since the fonts, etc. become jagged. Ideally I'd have both (5k 27" 144Hz or 6k 32" 144Hz), but such a screen from a reputable brand seems to be a unicorn. Then I prefer higher PPI over higher refresh rate.
- TheAmazingRace 2y ago60hz limits on displays should be a crime in 2024. At least hit 90hz, or preferably 120hz.
- qwerty456127 2y agoYeah, it always baffled me we still are using 60 Hz with modern connectors after getting accustomed to 100+ Hz in early 2000s with D-SUB.
- sampa 2y agomaybe because 60 Hz on LCD doesn't make your eyes bleed like anything less than 85Hz on CRT does?
- TheAmazingRace 2y agoThe Nokia CRT my dad owned in 1997 could hit over 180hz at 640x480!!
- jitl 2y agoWhenever I see “programming monitor” I hope it’ll be another 5K+ high DPI display to compete with LG Ultrafine 5K, but here the horizontal resolution is <4000 pixels. People go on about 120hz displays but I really think 5k is much more important for programming where reading and writing text is the whole game.
- aulin 2y agoReading and writing text is perfectly fine on a full-hd display if you have subpixel antialiasing. The only platform where 4k is barely enough is macos since they deliberately decided to remove subpixel hinting when they introduced hidpi displays.
- eknkc 2y agoI go blind when I look at a lower ppi display at this point. With or without subpixel AA. Weird how you get used to something.
- mrob 2y agoOr just disable antialiasing altogether. Generally you'll want to enable full hinting too. Quality depends on the font. I use the DejaVu fonts because they look good like this. I'd actually prefer bitmap fonts everywhere, but this is almost as good.
- wilsonnb3 2y ago5k is only necessary if you use a Mac IMO, because of MacOS's blurry fractional scaling. 4k at 27 inches is great on Windows and KDE with Wayland.
- aulin 2y agonot sure, more vertical estate would be nice when working on the ugly Allman styled code but does this fit two buffers side by side?
- faeriechangling 2y agoLooks like the Huawei Mateview panel to me. The aspect ratio and unusually high resolution are nice, but the monitor is crushed between cheaper 4k60 displays, higher resolution 5k60 displays, and 4k144hz monitors that go for around the same price. I do think the built-in bias light is VERY nice, although I don't think most people would understand why they'd want that, the things I understand about eyestrain mean that I generally try to have some sort of bias lighting solution but they're all fairly awkward. https://consumer.huawei.com/ca/monitors/mateview/ https://consumer.huawei.com/ca/monitors/mateview/
- htk 2y agoThought about the Mateview as well. How great it would be if only they chose 5k horizontal resolution instead of 4k. Pixel density would be perfect and it would be better than most 5k monitors for coding.
- marginalia_nu 2y agoGiven the somewhat inconsistent HiDPI-support in a lot of the sorts of tools you need to be able to use in coding, choosing to use a 4K monitor is brave.
- eknkc 2y agoIs this a linux thing? Can’t think of any real issue on mac.
- morsch 2y agoHaven't had any issues on Linux either. I guess ymmv.
- eknkc 2y agoLast time I tried an hdpi display on linux it was not good. But that was a couple years ago so I assumed things would probably be much better now. Was curious if it is still bad.
- marginalia_nu 2y agoIt's slowly getting better, and depending on what you're doing you may or may not run into issues, but it's still leagues behind e.g. Windows 10.
- qwerty456127 2y agoYou don't have to use HiDPI with 4K. I use a 4K display at 100% scale so everything just fits beautifully on it as if it was 4 monitors without borders.
- marginalia_nu 2y agoThis is a 28" monitor though.
- faeriechangling 2y ago
- grayhatter 2y ago600+USD for 60hz cool HN is for spam now :(
- talldayo 2y agoI hate to be "that guy" but this was also my reaction when seeing this. Nobody but programmers are probably willing to spend $600 of their hard earned money on an HDR10 IPS panel... Then again, I'd wager there is a nonzero percentage of the Hacker News audience reading our comment thread propped-up on their thousand-dollar monitor stand. Fools and their money, as the old saying goes.
- hkgjjgjfjfjfjf 2y ago[dead]
- bitwize 2y agoMan, unless it's 4:3 and glows with P1 or P3 phosphor, it's not really a programming monitor to me.
- sgt 2y agoYou will get rasterburn.
- cocoto 2y agoToo bad their 24 inches monitor for programmers has such low resolution. I’m keeping my 4k 24”.
- newaccount74 2y agoI think the best monitor for productivity is the Microsoft Surface Studio. - 28" - 3:2 aspect ratio - 4500x3000 pixels - and it comes with a stylus! Now before all the programmers say that touch screens suck, let me say that 99% of the time I use mouse and keyboard. But the 1% use cases where I do want a stylus (eg. annotating a screenshot, signing a contract, making a quick sketch of some process) are so worth it. I wish someone would build a standalone display like that.
- talldayo 2y agoIt's not touchscreen, but the other day I bought a Wacom drawing tablet from 2003 at a flea market. I go home, plug it into my Linux machine, and I get a full-fat settings menu letting me configure everything for my brand-new Wayland session.
- tyleo 2y agoThese tablets are sweet. I also have one for some basic drawing.
- rrrix1 2y agoSounds interesting, but their page appears to be broken for mobile. They have something hijacking the scroll behavior making it near impossible to actually read anything about this. Why do web devs constantly have the need to break decades of UI convention?
- gedy 2y agoStop blaming devs for UX and marketing goofs
- gigatexal 2y agoI would have gotten this over the LG Dual Up had it been available.
- jpeggtulsa 2y agoI use this monitor for gaming and programming. My laptop is USB-C, and my desktop is obviously HDMI/USB-A. The KVM let's me switch between those 2 and use the same keyboard and mouse. Plus it's ultra-wide 1440p and 144hz. https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16824012043R?Item=N82E16824012043R https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16824012043R?Item=N82E168240120...
- grimgrin 2y agoI see 3:2 and I think of my Framework laptop. Haven't owned it too long, and the 3:2 was entirely new to me. I love it, though it's strange Here's xrandr for this baby, and afaik, only the main resolution is actually 3:2 2256x1504 60.00 1920x1200 60.00 1920x1080 60.00 1600x1200 60.00 1680x1050 60.00 1280x1024 60.00 1440x900 60.00 1280x800 60.00 1280x720 60.00 1024x768 60.00 800x600 60.00 640x480 60.00
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- microtonal 2y agoI commend them for making a developer-focused monitor, but anything less than 200 PPI makes me sad. If I'm staring at text all day, it'd better be crisp. The number of good Retina displays is so small. Back when I had to buy a new display I relented, I just got the Apple Studio Display, even though it is effectively the old 27" 5K iMac minus the Mac. At least it doesn't have many reported build quality issues (LG UltraFine 5K) or insane backlight bleed/uniformity issues (some Dell 6k 32" display, I forgot the model number).
- bacro 2y agoQuestion for the experts here :) How much better is, regarding eyestrain, to go to a 27' 4k monitor instead of a 27' 1440p one? What about refresh rate, does it help with that as well?
- cue_the_strings 2y agoIt's the same panel as a Huawei Mateview? I have two, it's one of the best monitors of all time. The only downside is the lack of a VESA mount (and the steep price, but slightly cheaper than this). The extra strip of pixels below really makes all the difference, 3:2 is so much better than 16:9 for actual work, be it programming or general office work. Couldn't care less about the 60Hz refresh rate, really makes zero difference for development and web browsing.