Monitor for Programming

    Hi all,


    I'm a SW engineer programming an average of 8-10 hours a day in front of my macbook pro.
    I'm currently looking for a 24 inch external monitor to be attached via dvi that I believe would quite improve my productivity.


    I'm now looking to buy an HP LP2475W, an S-IPS with a very good price here in Spain.
    The only other monitor that is making me doubt about that choice is the DELL 2408WFP because of its higher contrast ratio.


    Having read thoroughly both the excellent reviews of these products I've still a doubt if the cheaper (250 euros cheaper)
    HP S-IPS panel with its lower contrast would be suitable for programming where readability of the code is the most important factor.


    Having no experience with VA or IPS panels so far (only TN) I kindly ask for your advice.
    I know this is not a common topic on these forums inhabited by graphics and media professionals ;)
    but any help would be greatly appreciated.


    Thank you,


    Marvan

    Both S-IPS and S-PVA panels have better viewing angles and the best color represantation.


    There are monitors out there with 8-bit color processing to 14-bit. <-- those are very very expensive.


    S-IPS panels - LG - Dell - HP. S-PVA - Samsung and Eizo but if u can afford Eizo keep in mind that the panels used on Eizo


    monitors are Samsung.



    If u can afford a 26 inch monitor such as Lg W2600HP (price from 515 to 575) (SIPS panel) check it out. But be carefull with the revision. Some revisions have serious problems such as backlight bleeding. The latest appears to be OK.



    As for you dillema i suggest HP with SIPS panel.

    Einmal editiert, zuletzt von Seaside ()

    Seaside, thank you very much for your advice and explanations.
    I actually went for the HP (as you suggested) and writing this post using it now :) .
    As I said I'm not an expert but I must say the HP LP2475w is quite impressive.
    The build quality is very good as it's the image.
    All the movements of the screen are very easy to perform and there are lots of connectors.


    I was initially worried that I needed a panel with more contrast but now that I'm using it I see the monitor
    offers plenty of it (and brightness too), much more of what I need to write code..


    Also, like the PRAD review points out, the monitor needs some calibration because the default factory setting of 6500k is quite saturated.


    I will give it a try later and possibly post the results here in case they could be of help for someone.


    Overall I'm very satisfied with this screen.

    Hi Seaside, you bet I'm doing it !! :D


    As said yesterday I'm posting some results of the attempts I made at calibrating this monitor until now
    if they can be of help to anyone with the same monitor.


    Well, being new to the subject it wasn't that easy, and anyway the only reference I had to compare the results to is the native screen of my MacBook Pro which I understand that maybe treats color quite differently (I still slightly prefer how it displays colors compared to the HP but that could also be caused by a looong time habit).


    At the end I used the Mac OSX tool for calibration fixing the monitor settings to the following:


    brightness = 17
    contrast = 65
    custom color mode with:
    red = 245
    green = 240
    blue = 255


    Now it feels quite better but I'm still not convinced of the saturation of warm colors, especially reds (and I lowered the gamma to 1.53 and that appears to bright them up a bit and ease saturation).


    I think maybe I will be getting better results when I've studied enough of the subject ... ?(