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Ask HN: High DPI Productivity Monitor for Front End Engineering?

7 points by 3oH2y869 ↗ HN
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.

16 comments

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wmf
Your 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
Would you recommend this over an ultrawide? Is ultrawide DPI lacking?
wmf
I use a 38" ultrawide and I'm happy with it.
I_am_tiberius
With an M1/2 macbook?
wmf
No, with an Intel MacBook Pro.
I_am_tiberius
Ok, as far as I know the DPI problem starts with M1 macs, meaning the text rendering looks terrible if DPI is < 150.
stephenr
AFAIK 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”.

3oH2y869
Is 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.
wmf
You want 100-130 dpi or over 200 dpi. Avoid the bad zone in between (which includes most monitors on the market).
3oH2y869
What do you mean by normal vs medium DPI? Which ultrawide are you using?
wmf
All 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
There's also the Samsung Viewfinity S9 (5k) which is going to be available starting August/September.
stephenr
40” @ 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.

3oH2y869
Unfortunately that is way outside of my budget. At 1.5k, what monitors would you recommend? I would like a larger one.
culopatin
A used 27in 5K LG. They have quality issues though so it could be a gamble. I've seen them in FB for 500-600