Clementine, my primary desktop, has had dual monitors for the past few years.  One of them (a Samsung SyncMaster 940BX) dates back to my old desktop, Fozzie, and was the oldest computer component currently in use.  The other was identical to that one, purchased a couple years later just for Clementine.  When my wife and I consolidated onto one machine, I took the opportunity of having two identical monitors to get a dual monitor setup.

Now, several years later, one of them has become my oldest component.  The other one has started acting up — randomly being blurry in some spots on the screen.  A good deal of time has passed for both of them, and monitors are much better nowadays — these Samsungs are starting to show their age.

So, I decided to replace both of them with one, single, high-quality, widescreen monitor.  Selecting a monitor is a delicate process because it’s going to be your primary window into the computer for many years (hopefully!).  I knew I wanted it to be widescreen, roughly the same height as my current monitors (which meant 22 – 24 inches diagonal), have an LED backlight, and, if possible, have an IPS panel.  IPS is the current cream-of-the-crop for monitors, with extremely wide viewing angles and bright, crisp colors.   I also wanted a monitor where, based on online feedback, I’d be confident that I had a lower-than-average risk of dead pixels.  After much searching, I settled on the Dell S2340M.  It met all of those criteria, and was priced very nicely to boot.

So far, I’m really happy.  This monitor seem to be very high-quality at a great price.  IPS is as good as I’ve heard.  High image quality, crisp colors, even backlighting, wide viewing angles, extremely small bezel, and it looks sleek and modern as well.

And, so far, I don’t miss having two monitors.  Having a widescreen seems to mostly make up for that.  For home use, I don’t find that two monitors is necessary most of the time (I find dual monitors indispensable at work, though).  My plan is that if I ever find I need a second screen for a particular task, I’ll just spend the $10 and get AirDisplay for my iPad, which allows it to act as a second screen.

This entry was posted on March 20, 2014 at 6:46 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted in Clementine Fozzie by Greg Leedberg No Comments Yet