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Dual 24" vs 1 27" display

Ravich said:
Dual monitors provide more screen space (measuring by resolution, not just inches), so if you can use 2 monitors easily in your work flow, it isnt a bad option.

The other thing is that if you go for a 27'' monitor, you're going to be paying around 1000 dollars, whereas you can get a good quality 23'' monitor and an adequate monitor to accompany it for less than half of that.


I would love a 27'', but it's just not in my budget.
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2 x23" Ultrasharps are looking really good right now! I am leaning in that direction. Thankfully I have some wiggle in the budget but I don't want to spend for spendings sake.
 
It all depends on what you do.

For me, one screen is way to limiting. I thought about 3 but I think I can skate by with two 27inches.

I do a lot of stuff that is very screen-hoggy (programming, 3D work, image editing, digital painting, music, etc) so for me dual monitors is essential.

I also use a lot of video training tutorials so I can have a screen hoggy program (Maya, I'm looking at you) on one screen and my video tutorial in the other screen and can work along with ease.
 
MFDoom said:
2 x23" Ultrasharps are looking really good right now! I am leaning in that direction. Thankfully I have some wiggle in the budget but I don't want to spend for spendings sake.
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My vote: two 24" monitors. I've been using dual displays for a long time. I just recently had to retire my 7 year old 23" ACD that I used alongside my new 24" LED. I researched a lot before deciding on replacements and based on what I read I went with two Dell U2410's to flank my 24" Apple LED. The Apple display was a little less than two Dell's, so I thought I was making a good move. However, no matter how hard I tried I could not calibrate the Dell's to the Apple display OR each other, using both software and hardware tools. In addition, both Dell's had bad pixels. I read more on Dell monitors, and generally speaking they suffer from banding issues to dead pixels to uneven tinting (both my Dell's had green to pink tinting cross screen).

Honestly, having used Mac's for years, the work perfectly out of the box with Apple systems. When working in print/photography/etc. you need a great system that is calibrated, which means you most likely need third party equipment that isn't considered when buying non-Apple displays.

My point, strongly re-consider the Apple 24" units. I returned both Dell's and got a full refund for $1k, and was able to purchase two 24" displays for $599 on the refurb store. No problems, and unlike what some say, no glare issues, just a great, crisp yet smooth and bright display that doesn't need calibration.

PS I've read that Dell uses the same panels as Apple displays, LG panels. However, unbelievably I have read in many instances, that Apple gets the pick of the best, and other companies/contractees receive the rest. I find this to be untrue as I can't believe this would occur, however doing more research I have learned that Dell displays generally experience more issues than Apple displays. I know that some iMac's had yellowing, but when you consider that LG supplies the panels for their iMac's, one of the top selling systems, and their displays, given the numbers, I'd still stand by Apple's quality.
 
If you're mostly reading text, but you need more screen real estate, than you're better with dual displays as it will be easier on the eyes. The larger displays are getting too "fine". If you're looking at graphics and photos than one larger display is fine.
 
maestrokev said:
If you're mostly reading text, but you need more screen real estate, than you're better with dual displays as it will be easier on the eyes. The larger displays are getting too "fine". If you're looking at graphics and photos than one larger display is fine.
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Win 7 and OSX are better at this but with XP I used to reset my resolution from the native 1280 x 1024 to 1024 x 768 for precisely that reason - legibility of text.
 
MFDoom said:
A fair question. I am personally leaning towards one large display 27-30". However, I've only had the limited opportunity to work on two displays and they were never matching which annoyed me (i.e one laptop not on a stand and one monitor). Most programmers seem to swear by a dual setup so I wanted to get opinions.

That being said the ultrasharp 23" from Dell has a nice price point.
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I don't mind having itunes (or mostly spotify) running on my laptop screen (I always has an external screen to it) - but i wouldn't pay for an extra screen even if they are almost free today.

Im also a developer and I don't really understand those going for 2x19" screens as they mostly just run browsers on two screens. When i build web apps (php) I love having 2560 wide pixels to see long SQL queries or a really long class that takes the whole screen to fit it on one line. Another example is to view a single line of logs, they can be nasty sometimes and I have never had linebreaks with 2560 :)

Another plus is that I can have 4-5 SSH sessions open in terminal where I can see monitor all of them without having to move my eyes to several screens.

And the brightness on a 30" ACD is "HUGE" - If your a nerd developing in the night you don't really need to have the lights on in the room :D

Dell 30" are cheap, buy one. :)
 
studiox said:
Im also a developer and I don't really understand those going for 2x19" screens as they mostly just run browsers on two screens. When i build web apps (php) I love having 2560 wide pixels to see long SQL queries or a really long class that takes the whole screen to fit it on one line. Another example is to view a single line of logs, they can be nasty sometimes and I have never had linebreaks with 2560 :)

Another plus is that I can have 4-5 SSH sessions open in terminal where I can see monitor all of them without having to move my eyes to several screens.
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For 2 19" you get 1280 x 1024 x 2 = 2560 x 1024.

There's no difference. You can have something open spanning the 2 monitor width.
 

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englishman said:
For 2 19" you get 1280 x 1024 x 2 = 2560 x 1024.

There's no difference. You can have something open spanning the 2 monitor width.
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Well actually there is a very big difference, the two bezels in the middle of your 2560. ;)
Believe me, 2560 across 2 displays is not comparable to continuous 2560 pixels.
Reading source code from one display to another is far from ideal.
 
I think is a personal taste, i prefer use two 24" LED Cinemas cause i can run 2 applications at the same time, i work mostly with Maya and After Effects and running booth without change or hide windows is really great, for work with timeline applications you really need wide screen for optimal usage and with only one screen is a kind of obstructive for several applications at the same time. And another case for my is with tutorials runnning the tutorial in a screen and the application in other is great too.

Just my two cents.
 
Yea, this is definitely a cross between personal taste and your workflow.. figure out what applications/workflows you are going to be using the most and figure if they work better on a single large display or dual displays.
 
Vylen said:
Depends on what you're doing...

Im running triple monitors - 2x23 + 22...

Convenient as a developer (XCode) as i'll have code in the middle, and debugger/output on the right. Useful terminal windows on the left. Also using netbeans on the left.

Not to mention I have other miscellaneous applications spread across all three monitors (Google Reader/Mail, Colloquy, etc)

But hell.. why not go dual 27" :p
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You said it.

I'm running triple at work (20"|23"|20") and dual 24" at home. The two 20"s at work were home monitors I replaced with dual 24"s. My usage is very similar although in a more administrative than coding capacity.

Quite often, I'll have a VM running full screen on one and enough terminal sessions open to fill the others... usually when I'm debugging some bad code that's made it's way onto a prod host.
;)

24" was the sweet spot for price/performance when I upgraded. If I was still working long hours from home, I'd likely have another 2 24"s there for a total of 4.
:eek:
 
27" screen pixel count:3,686,400

Dual 24" screen pixel count: 4,608,000

Dual 24" screens are 25% more area to work with.

Clearly, dual 27's or one of each is the way to go.

Me personally, I plan on getting the 27" and then taking my 4:3 monitors and turning them portrait at 1200w x 1600h and putting one on each side.

Frankly, you aren't a design or photo pro unless you have 1 huge main screen, and at least 1 vertical 3:4 screen.
 
Sean Dempsey said:
Me personally, I plan on getting the 27" and then taking my 4:3 monitors and turning them portrait at 1200w x 1600h and putting one on each side.
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I'd recommend using a 30" instead of the 27" then. Makes much more sense with 20" displays in portrait since your whole setup would have 1600 pixels vertically.
 
So the first of my two 24 LED Refurbs arrived and this thing seems huge to me. Of course I've been on a 13 laptop screen for a long time....
 
MFDoom said:
So the first of my two 24 LED Refurbs arrived and this thing seems huge to me. Of course I've been on a 13 laptop screen for a long time....
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Good thing you didn't go with the 27" then! From what it sounds like you made the right choice. The 24" screens will be huge enough for you.
 
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