Why You Need a Bigger Monitor

Look at all the room on this monitor

I just wrote a review of a new Acer monitor for ChannelPro-SMB Magazine (here are some of my articles and reviews for them). The start of the review explains why people, especially writers, need a new, larger monitor.

Let me quote myself:

We're making the call: the next corporate monitor standard will upgrade the current 1920x1080 resolution to 2560x1440. There are two reasons for this: most corporate white collar workers use browsers and Word documents more than spreadsheets, and the 1080 height of the current standard cuts a standard document off at the bottom. But a 2560x1440 monitor like the Acer H277HU 27 inch monitor allows room for more than a full document page, a double-helping of browser information without scrolling down, and enough pixels to render everything sharper and clearer than on the monitor you've been staring at for the last several years.

Why is 2560x1440 the next best standard monitor size? After all, this is only a 2x monitor and many vendors are shipping 4x monitors. As a guide, 1x is the original 1280x720 that replaced the old 640x480 and 800x600 because a cinema-like wide screen look (16:9 ratio) became the norm. HD (High Definition) was deemed to be 1280x720, and that times two is 2560x1440. 1920x1080 is FHD or Full High Definition. 2560x1440 is WQHD or Wide Quad HD. You might also see this resolution as just QHD since the "high resolution" part assumes it's also wide screen. 4K UHD (Ultra HD) runs the pixel count up to 3840x2160.

Blah, blah, some monitor details, then:

But with the 2560x1440 monitors, there's little or no graphic adjustment required. Replacing a 1920x1080 monitor with one that's 2560x1440 is just about plug and play. The only thing users will know is the picture is far better and more detailed than before, and they have room for much more of their documents and spreadsheets onscreen without fiddling with a single display setting.

Back to new text just for this blog:

Honestly, the Acer monitor I reviewed is an excellent monitor at a lower price than many of its competitors. Off-brand monitors are available for an even lower price, around $300-$350 (this Acer model sells for around $475). That's more than an old 1920x1080 monitor like you're probably using now, but your eyes and your productivity boost will be worth the extra coins.

Most importantly, your kitten videos will look more adorable than ever on a bigger monitor, I promise.