Buying monitors has become a lot more frustrating than last time I did it. I have two 21" (or so) 1920x1080 monitors on my desk that I bought about 8 years ago. The color is a little off on one, and I’d really like higher resolution on both. My desk at work has two that are slightly larger, but have a max resolution of 1920x1200. That little bit makes quite a difference, believe it or not. I’m thinking even higher would be better.
So a few weeks back, I had my eye on a 32" curved screen at Wally World. They dropped the price one day, so I brought one home, figuring I’d go back and get another one once I made sure it wasn’t too big. Well, it turns out that this monitor also had a max resolution of 1920x1080. It didn’t say the resolution anywhere on the box. Since I’m not 80 years old, that resolution is ridiculous for a monitor sitting on my desk, and so I returned it.
I’ve started to pay attention to monitor resolution when I see monitors for sale. They all seem to fall into two categories (if I can even tell what the resolution is): Really expensive (e.g., ~$500) or 1920x1080, no matter the physical size. One problem is there are about 20 different codes for resolution. For example, Amazon shows these choices to narrow down a monitor search:
I have no idea how to use this to locate a monitor that suits my needs. Can anyone help? I’m not watching movies, and I’m not gaming. I just want to have several Word, Acrobat, and Chrome windows visible at once. My job is mostly reading documents, marking them up on occasion, and writing other documents.
Of course, after I wrote this out, I decided to check Costco’s web site. They do list resolutions, and have a 27" monitor with a “2560 x 1440 Curved Widescreen Display” for $160. Maybe a couple of those are just what I need. Of course, I’m open to other suggestions.