guidelines for choosing a healthy(ier?) computer screen?

February 5, 2020 5:26 AM

I'm about to order a new computer screen, and am looking for guidelines (CAN be experience or woo based) on choosing a monitor that is easiest on the eyes and/or brain.

My computer screen died and I need a new one. I was about to order the cheapest model mentioned on the Wirecutter, when I spotted someone say it's pretty bright on the eyes (oops. my eyes are sensitive and that would have been REALLY BAD). So to avoid a technology upgrade debacle (looking at you, shiny-reflective-headache-inducing 2018 ipad) I'm here to do my homework ;-).

I'd love to hear points on what makes a computer monitor easier on the eyes, and specifically these -

- should I prefer a TN, IPS or VA screen?
- what should I look for in the refresh rate?
- best size for a monitor that is an arm distance away from my face for writing, coding and browsing the internet? (was thinking 21-23 inch)
- recommended height to width ratio?
- recommended resolution (for working with texts)?
- how to address blue light issues?

(BTW I know to look for a matte screen to reduce reflections. I will also look at specific reviews when I narrow down what I need)

Anything else I should look for? Is there a forum or subreddit dedicated to this?

Thanks!!!

posted by mirileh to Technology (10 answers total)

I can't speak to the monitor specifically, but I have light sensitivity in my eyes (even more enhanced by Lasik a few years ago) and staring at my monitor in a fluorescent hell gives me headaches and worse. What works for me are blue light blocking computer glasses. Mine were a cheap
Might be something worth looking into.
posted by wile e at 5:43 AM on February 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

The size you mention sounds about right. A resolution of 1920 x 1080 is fine for most purposes (perhaps not high-end gaming or serious design work). Refresh rates of even cheaper monitors are all pretty good these days - super-high refresh rates are again mostly for gamers. As wile e mentions, fluorescent lighting might cause problems, but that's true with any monitor. Blue light issues are easily dealt with in current operating systems (or else via apps such as f.lux) - you can tweak colour temperature independently of the monitor, which saves messing about with the monitor controls.

A lot is down to environment. If you can adjust your work conditions to minimise reflections and keep the ambient light levels at a reasonable level, you'll do a lot more to improve your comfort than you can by getting a high-end monitor.
posted by pipeski at 5:55 AM on February 5, 2020

I’m using a laptop with a high-DPI screen docked to a regular DPI monitor, and the difference in eye strain is immense. The high DPI screen is way way easier on my eyes, it’s almost to the point where I’m going to scrap the other monitor and just use the laptop until I can get a second screen to match.
posted by JoeZydeco at 6:44 AM on February 5, 2020

It's not just the screen, it's the environment it will be used in. Is there a lot of veiling luminance coming into your eyes while looking at it? Are there strong light sources behind the viewer that will reflect off the screen? These external sources of glare can add to eye strain for any screen. A more matte surface can reduce these reflections.
posted by nickggully at 6:59 AM on February 5, 2020

One part of your question is easily dealt with at any rate: you don't want a TN panel. Having the colors get all shifty every time your head moves is nauseating.

As somebody who used to code for a living, I'd personally go for one of Dell's Ultrasharp models. Really nice screens at reasonable prices. They can go very bright if you want them to but you can set the backlight to whatever output level suits you. And apart from having good panels they have well designed stands, a good range of interfaces, and a control menu system that won't attempt to drive you insane every time you touch it.
posted by flabdablet at 7:27 AM on February 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

I have tried several monitors at work and home to reduce strain on my eyes. Nothing helped as much as beginning to wear computer glasses/blue light blocking glasses and adjusting the ambient light around me.
posted by caveatz at 8:12 AM on February 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

N'thing blue light glasses, adjusting the ambient light, and Dell Ultrasharps.

My other recommendation is for a teeny-tiny freeware program called ClickMonitorDDC, which lets you change your screen brightness with two mouse clicks instead of having to fuss with the slow and unwieldy monitor buttons. It's really nice when you want to up the brightness in the bright daylight and lower it at night.
posted by matrixclown at 8:41 AM on February 5, 2020

For "office use":

- should I prefer a TN, IPS or VA screen?

TN is awful & only used by gamers for the really fast refresh rate. IPS gives better colour, and no colour shift from different viewing angles.

- what should I look for in the refresh rate?

Any modern standard monitor will be fine. You don't need a 144Hz refresh rate. Again, that's for gamers.

- best size for a monitor that is an arm distance away from my face for writing, coding and browsing the internet? (was thinking 21-23 inch)

- recommended height to width ratio?

If you can swing a 16:10, then that's better for document work, but don't sweat it.

- recommended resolution (for working with texts)?

If you can afford it & your computer can drive it, then a 4k 27" monitor like the Dell U2810Q. I also quite like Dell's 25" 2k monitor. Otherwise, get whatever you can afford in 24".

- how to address blue light issues?

Use the red-shift option in Windows 10?

Eye strain is more about reflection of other light sources on the screen & having the screen be too bright for the surrounding ambient light in my experience. If you crank the screen brightness down so that it matches the wall behind the screen (or make the wall brighter with a light! Either way works) and eliminate reflections then you should find that any display becomes much easier on the eyes.
posted by pharm at 10:02 AM on February 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

On refresh rates: LCD panels don't refresh with a single bright flying spot the way CRTs do, so lowering the refresh rate doesn't translate into flicker on static content the way it does on a CRT. If you're seeing flicker out of the corner of your eye on an LCD panel, that's almost always because the panel hardware can't actually present 256 different brightness levels for each of the red, green and blue channels, and the driving electronics are using a mixture of pulse-width modulation and dithering to interpolate between the 64 levels of these colour components that the panel can represent.

That's an effect more often seen on cheap TN panels, though. If I recall correctly, all the Ultrasharp panels have full 8-bit colour channel components and don't do this on normal content. If you use them to display HDR video, which encodes 1024 different brightness levels per colour channel, it might still happen but I'd expect it to be much less noticeable.
posted by flabdablet at 10:20 AM on February 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

For text you want 4k resolution. Most 4k monitors are 60Hz refresh because it takes a very expensive computer to power anything higher. The tradeoff with 4k is that you need a physically large monitor or else the text will be small and you'll constantly be adjusting font sizes etc. 21-23" is way too small, I'd say 27" is the minimum. Another tradeoff is that if you game or do other graphically intensive things, you'll need a powerful computer to power games at 4k, or else you'll need to use a lower resolution or lower settings, and I've read that 1920x1080 resolution sometimes looks worse on a 4k monitor than on an actual 1080 monitor. Linus Tech Tips also did a controversial video saying that "4k gaming is dumb", so there's that.

You mention Wirecutter so maybe you have already seen this, but here is their article for 4k monitors. I use the Dell Ultrasharp U2718Q in the article, 4k 60hz 27", currently on sale at Amazon for under $400. It's definitely a premium monitor and I like it. It doesn't have speakers in it though, so you'll need to have external speakers if that matters to you. I do need to adjust font sizes and general application size scaling. I'm not especially sensitive to brightness so I can't speak about that.

You might also consider getting an adjustable monitor arm if ergonomic placement is a problem, see the Wirecutter article here. I got one but it turned out I didn't need it for my setup, plus it shook more than using just the stand that came with the monitor, and the arm was expensive, so I sent it back.
posted by bright flowers at 8:47 AM on February 16, 2020