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

[3oH2y869]

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.

[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

[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".

[I_am_tiberius]

There's also the Samsung Viewfinity S9 (5k) which is going to be available starting August/September.

[3oH2y869]

Would you recommend this over an ultrawide? Is ultrawide DPI lacking?

[wmf]

I use a 38" ultrawide and I'm happy with it.

[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]

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.