I find laptop monitors dysfunctional due to their small size and low-quality panels.

My needs were to:

• prevent eye strain,
• fit multiple windows for comparisons, and
• USB-C PD for reduced cable clutter (power laptop and send video feed via single cable).

Daisy-chaining is for joining multiple monitors and have them function as a single display. Useful for a day-trader, but regular folk use just one display.

Standalone monitors have their own specialisations:

• smart monitors for streaming shows,
  • LG Smart TV: 60 Hz refresh, no PD
• USB-C for Power Delivery (PD), and
• OLEDs for premium eye care
  • Samsung Odyssey G5: 180 Hz refresh rate, but no PD. 47.3 k

    Screen size & resolution

    Considerations:

• Shouldn’t need to constantly turn the head to focus on different parts of a huge screen
• 21” panels at work feel sub-optimal
• 32” okay for TV, but feels large for work.

27”, QHD resolution (2650 x 1440p) felt reasonable.

At that pixel resolution, the LLMs say you get,

‘50% more vertical space than FHD (1080p) without the need for scaling (which would be required for a 4K UHD), which is good for IDEs (code editing use cases)’

Shortlist to two

Based on:

• a 100 Hz refresh rate, and
• 90W PD (65W PD might not be enough for some laptops).

Matching on paper, in most respects:

1. BenQ PD2706QN - designer monitor w/ P3 calibration
2. Dell Pro P2725DE

Reddit folks trashed the calibration saying hardware calibrators found them off by a bit. Amazon reviews highlighted the 16 Amp power plug on the BenQ (requires a 16 Amp socket, different both in construction and power-drawing requirement from regular 5 Amps).

Friends recommended the BenQ.
BenQ touts the PD series for content creation involving long periods of use.

In the end I sprung for the BenQ :

1. BenQ’s live chat support isn’t much to harp about – forces you to share email, and order number before answering your query. Shipping date was within two days, but it said nothing about delivery timelines.
2. Dell’s site showed the delivery date as one month down the line - a real kill-joy.
3. my electrician was confident that my existing line could take the extra load of the monitor with just a 16 Amp socket & switch replacement without needing re-cabling.

The BenQ was delivered in 3-4 days. Package shrink-wrapped - nothing special. The box pays homage to the design skills of the packaging / corrugated board industry. Simple, but good impact protection.

First experiences. Soon as I switched it on, I was transported to the time I wheedled pops into buying an expensive ViewSonic CRT. I experienced a radiating effect that reminded me of that CRT. Weird.

Then I discovered it shipped with brightness at 100%. Who does that? Eh BenQ? Turned that down to minimal. And the default refresh rate when I plugged in the USB-C was at 55 Hz. Got a popup and switched to the only other option - 100 Hz.

Contrast is not something they apparently let you touch in the default mode and I haven’t played with the settings much as yet.

The PD doesn’t seem to be powering me Dell, or I need to tweak some setting.

But all in all the extra real-estate does prove useful, and I think I’ll keep it.

One nice thing vis-a-vis Dell monitors. The power cord end fits snugly in the monitor, unlike Dell monitors where the power contact makes crackly sparking sounds and dislocated with the slightest touch due tonits loose fit.

In the hope that this helps a poor sod who’s trying to make his money go further.