Choosing a Monitor: The Numbers Worth Paying For

Sun Aug 02 2026 · Buying Guides

Monitor listings are a wall of numbers, most of which are marketing. A guide to the four that decide how a screen feels to use, and the ones you can safely ignore.

Monitor product pages are a stress test for patience. Contrast ratios quoted two ways, response times measured under conditions no one experiences, colour gamut percentages against standards that are not named, and a refresh rate printed larger than the resolution. Underneath all of it, four things decide whether you like the screen: how sharp it looks, how it renders colour and black, how smoothly it moves, and how it connects to your machine.

Size and sharpness go together

Resolution on its own means nothing. What matters is pixel density — pixels spread across the physical size of the panel. The same 1440p resolution is crisp on a 24-inch screen and noticeably soft on a 32-inch one.

If you work with text all day, sharpness beats size. A 27-inch 1440p panel is comfortable, well supported and cheap. Going bigger without going sharper is a downgrade dressed as an upgrade.

Panel type: the one spec that changes the character of the screen

• IPS — accurate colour, wide viewing angles, mediocre black levels. The safe choice for almost everyone doing mixed work.
• VA — much deeper blacks and better contrast, slightly slower pixels, colour shifts if you sit off-centre. Good for film and dim rooms.
• OLED — genuine black, superb motion, expensive, and needs some care about static interface elements over years of use.
• TN — fast and cheap, poor angles and colour. Largely superseded outside competitive gaming.

Note what is missing from that list: contrast ratio figures. The "1,000,000:1 dynamic" number is generated by turning the backlight off and is meaningless. Look for the static ratio, and expect roughly 1000:1 from IPS and 3000:1 from VA regardless of what the box claims.

Refresh rate, honestly

Going from 60Hz to 120Hz or 144Hz is genuinely noticeable — not only in games, but in cursor movement and scrolling. It is one of the few upgrades people feel immediately.

Above about 144Hz the returns fall off sharply for anyone not playing competitive shooters. A 240Hz panel will not make a spreadsheet better. Spend the difference on resolution or panel quality instead.

Two related things to check: whether the high refresh rate is available at the monitor's full resolution over the cable you plan to use, and whether it supports variable refresh rate matching your graphics card.

Response time claims are mostly fiction

The "1ms" on the box is a grey-to-grey figure measured at the panel's most flattering transition with overdrive pushed so hard it introduces visible overshoot. It is not comparable between manufacturers and it is not what you will see. If motion clarity matters to you, find a review that measures it independently. If it does not, ignore the number entirely — it has no bearing on desk work.

A good rule for reading any display spec: if the number is quoted without the test conditions, treat it as advertising rather than information.

Connectivity is where daily annoyance lives

This is the section most guides bury, and it affects you every single day.

• USB-C with power delivery turns the monitor into a dock: one cable carries video, charges the laptop and connects the peripherals plugged into the screen. Check the wattage — 65W is fine for a thin laptop, 90W or more for anything bigger.
• A built-in USB hub means your keyboard, mouse and webcam stay connected when you undock.
• Cable version matters. The bundled cable is often the cheapest one that technically works; a higher refresh rate at full resolution may need a better one.
• Two video inputs let a work laptop and a personal machine share the screen without crawling under the desk.

The stand is not a detail

A monitor you cannot raise to eye level is a monitor that gives you neck ache. Check for height adjustment specifically — tilt alone is not enough — and check for a VESA mount, which lets you replace a poor stand with a cheap arm. An arm also gives back the desk space the stand was occupying, which is often the real upgrade.

Matte or glossy, and where the window is

Glossy panels look richer and mirror everything behind you. Matte coatings scatter reflections at a small cost in perceived contrast. Look at where your light comes from before deciding. A bright window behind your chair rules out glossy no matter how good it looks in the shop.

Ultrawide or two screens?

One ultrawide gives you an unbroken surface, one cable and one stand, and is excellent for timelines, spreadsheets and anything wide. Two screens give you more total area for less money and let you dedicate one to a fixed task. Choose ultrawide if your work is one big thing, two screens if it is several separate things.

What to ignore entirely

Dynamic contrast figures, unnamed colour gamut percentages, built-in speakers as a deciding factor, "gaming" branding, and any HDR badge below the mid-tier certifications — a screen that cannot get bright enough or dim locally does not produce HDR, it produces a washed-out version of the same image.

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