Question Second Monitor Needed, Ignorance Abounds

Carbo

Diamond Member
Aug 6, 2000
5,244
6
81
My daughter needs a second monitor for work and office related projects. Never having gone down this road before I don't know where to start. She has a 3 year old Dell XPS 13, model 9360, running Windows 10. I'm open to suggestions and recommendations for monitors that you love, hate, are great bargains, etc. Also, is a second monitor a simple plug and play procedure? Thank you.
 

mnewsham

Lifer
Oct 2, 2010
14,539
428
136
The XPS 9360 doesn't have an HDMI port, but it does have Thunderbolt 3, so it can use a dongle to convert that to HDMI or Displayport.


At that point, plugging in a 2nd monitor should be plug and play. Once plugged in you'll be able to configure the monitor for extending your desktop in the windows display settings.

As for recommendations, there isn't really much to worry about with low-end 1080p monitors, if you don't need gaming performance or color accuracy for photo/video editing, and you're not planning on using it for dedicated movie watching duties, then whatever the cheapest 1080p panel with HDMI will be your best bet.

If you want good viewing angles look for a cheap IPS panel.
 

Carbo

Diamond Member
Aug 6, 2000
5,244
6
81
Good info, thank you. Her needs are pretty basic, she tells me. No gaming, no movies, and at most the occasional website editing where she needs to tweak a photo or two. I've started searching and I see many 24" Dell monitors that always seem to garner good reviews.
 

mnewsham

Lifer
Oct 2, 2010
14,539
428
136
Good info, thank you. Her needs are pretty basic, she tells me. No gaming, no movies, and at most the occasional website editing where she needs to tweak a photo or two. I've started searching and I see many 24" Dell monitors that always seem to garner good reviews.
Yup Dell's are nice, just a bit pricier, though they usually make up for that in quality control and feature set.
 

Carbo

Diamond Member
Aug 6, 2000
5,244
6
81
Is there much difference in picture between UHD and 4K? I'm comparing two Dell monitors: the 4K model, Dell 24 Ultra HD 4K Monitor | P2415Q, and the Dell 24 UltraSharp Monitor: U2415. The price difference is about $175. I can probably find a Dell coupon somewhere, or haggle with the phone rep.
:cool:
I've purchased numerous Dell PCs over the years. Think it's worth it? We recently upgraded our Samsung UHD 55" TV to a new Samsung 4K and I must say the difference is very noticeable.
 

mnewsham

Lifer
Oct 2, 2010
14,539
428
136
UHD and 4k are the same thing.

You're looking at the P2415Q which is UHD/4k (3840x2160) and the P2415 which is 16:10 Full HD (1920x1200)

If you get the p2415Q you would need to GUI scale everything to 150-200%, because there are so many more pixels, doing 1:1 pixel rendering would make text very small and hard to read. I use a 43" 4k/UHD monitor, and I use 100% GUI scale, but if I have the same resolution on a 24" panel, I would need at least 175% GUI scale and probably 200% to read things properly.
2020-05-20 13_30_43.jpg