Need a new monitor, recomendations ?

[UglyCasanova]

Well my Dell Ultrasharp monitor finally kicked the bucket, it was old as the hills but was a great screen. 1600 X 1200 resolution, great colors, and none of that glossy crap that all monitors look like now.

Recommend me a new one. Needs to be at least 27", and I can work around in price if justified but I'd like to not exceed $300 if possible.

I do very little gaming, but on occasion I may play something (Doom maybe), mostly it acts as a monitor to watch documentaries off of. Sometimes I need to do work off of it, but not generally. This one lasted over a decade, would be awesome to get something that would do the same.

Someone is letting me borrow one in the meantime, do you think there will be any good deals on Memorial Day? I've always had fantastic luck with Dell monitors so I'm highly leaning towards them. Out of all of the monitors they had on display at Best Buy, the Dell s2715h was the only one that looked good (none of the other brands compared except Samsung, but the only one of those they had was curved). Was going to buy it but they didn't have any in stock and wouldn't sell me the floor model.

 

[mnewsham]

I would honestly avoid 1920x1080 at 27" the PPI is just not good enough for me, I MUCH prefer 2560x1440 at that screen size.

 

[UglyCasanova]

What about using a tv as a monitor, since I primarily use it for watching videos would that work or am I better off buying a regular monitor?

 

[PrincessFrosty]

I would honestly avoid 1920x1080 at 27" the PPI is just not good enough for me, I MUCH prefer 2560x1440 at that screen size.

I agree with this. If your min size is 27" then try to avoid 1080p, the pixels start becoming visible at normal seated distances with such a low PPI. The next best thing up at 16:9 aspect ratio is 2560x1440.

What about using a tv as a monitor, since I primarily use it for watching videos would that work or am I better off buying a regular monitor?

I always recommend using proper monitors with PCs, TVs can only offer more downsides with things like input latency, image manipulation, connectivity, etc.

 

[UglyCasanova]

Why would this Dell 27" 4k monitor be priced lower than this Dell 27" 1440 monitor?

P2715Q 3840 x 2160 Pixels

U2715H 2560x1440 pixels

From what I've read the U2715H looks great, good colors, etc. Is the quality of the screen what separates these two?

The Dell UltraSharp I've had before looked great and is a product line I have trust in I suppose. When looking at other monitors it's hit or miss how they look, lots of them either look washed out for some reason, or are too glossy, or any number of things that don't look good. In fact what's weird is that it seems screen qualities except on the top end have really gone downhill over the past 6 or 7 years. That might all be in my head but it's what it seems like to me, especially on laptops.

 

[mnewsham]

Why would this Dell 27" 4k monitor be priced lower than this Dell 27" 1440 monitor?

P2715Q 3840 x 2160 Pixels

U2715H 2560x1440 pixels

From what I've read the U2715H looks great, good colors, etc. Is the quality of the screen what separates these two?

The Dell UltraSharp I've had before looked great and is a product line I have trust in I suppose. When looking at other monitors it's hit or miss how they look, lots of them either look washed out for some reason, or are too glossy, or any number of things that don't look good. In fact what's weird is that it seems screen qualities except on the top end have really gone downhill over the past 6 or 7 years. That might all be in my head but it's what it seems like to me, especially on laptops.

4k has the opposite problem as 1080p at 27" too many pixels. The PPI of 4k at 27" is about 165PPI, requiring you to use GUI scaling, which isn't always the greatest.

4k is good at 36-40", 2k is good at 25-30", 1080p is fine at 20-24".