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00:00Hi guys, welcome back to the Tech Chap. Now, buying a new monitor can be a bit tricky.
00:06There's loads of things to consider, whether it's the size and resolution, the type of
00:09panel used, refresh rates, response times, adaptive sync technologies, ports. What if
00:15you want to use the monitor with a games console, or maybe you've been eyeing up one of these
00:18fancy ultrawide monitors, or perhaps you're wondering if you should invest in a 4K monitor.
00:22It can all be a bit overwhelming. You can, of course, just type into Amazon something
00:26like 24-inch gaming monitor, filter it by customer rating, and then buy one that looks
00:30nice and that's within your budget. That's one way of doing it, but even a basic monitor
00:34will set you back £100, $150. So before you go and buy one and spend your hard-earned
00:39money, just give me a few minutes and I'll run you through everything you need to know
00:42about buying the right monitor for you, and I put links to my favourite recommended monitors
00:46in the description below this video.
00:48Jeez, you believe that guy? I hate these snobs.
00:53So let's kick off with the most important stuff, size and resolution. You can get monitors
00:57in all sorts of sizes, from 17 to 40 inches. The most common size is 24 inches, and it's
01:02big enough to make a useful second screen if your main computer is a laptop, and it's
01:05popular enough that there are loads to choose from, and they're usually pretty cheap. Now,
01:09the vast majority of 24-inch monitors have a resolution of 1920 by 1080, also known as
01:14full HD, which is the same resolution as most TVs. The next size up is 27 inches, which
01:19is becoming much more common and popular with gamers and power users who want the
01:23extra screen real estate. Now, if you get a 27-inch monitor with the same 1080p resolution,
01:29everything starts to get a little bit blurry or less sharp because the pixels are bigger,
01:33so the pixel-per-inch density is lower. In my experience, if you want a 27-inch monitor,
01:38I would definitely recommend getting one with a 2560 by 1440 resolution, also known as Quad
01:43HD.
01:44Unless you're a casual user who just wants something cheap and basic, I'd say a 27-inch,
01:491440p, in my opinion, is the perfect monitor and resolution combination right now, but
01:54it does add to the price. But what about 4K and ultrawide monitors like this one? Well,
01:59you can get 4K or 3840 by 2160 monitors as small as 24 inches, but the most popular size
02:04is 27 inches. Still, though, I don't think 27 inches is big enough to really take advantage
02:11of all those extra pixels, and things like text and icons will start to look smaller.
02:15You can, of course, make them bigger using scaling in Windows and Mac, but it doesn't
02:18work well for everything. I would say if you really want a 4K monitor, get at least
02:23a 30-inch or bigger one. I think that would be the best suited to that sort of high resolution,
02:28and you can really then take advantage of all that extra detail, all those extra pixels.
02:31I've talked about 4K monitors quite a bit in other videos, but what exactly is the benefit
02:36of getting a 4K monitor? I mean, everyone's talking about 4K TVs and 4K Blu-rays and the
02:40next generation of consoles supporting possibly 4K gaming and at least having UHD players,
02:46so what's the point in getting a 4K monitor? Well, basically, they have 8 million pixels.
02:51That's four times as many compared to a normal full HD monitor, and what that means is everything's
02:55sharper, clearer, and generally appears more detailed, but the problem is pushing four
03:00times as many pixels means that you need a much faster computer to power it, especially
03:04if you're gaming. If you up the resolution to 4K, it will have a massive impact on your
03:09frame rate in games, and in all honesty, I wouldn't recommend 4K monitors to the vast
03:14majority of people out there, not yet at least, unless you have a beast of a PC with
03:18the likes of an NVIDIA 1080 graphics card. You won't get a consistent 60 FPS in modern
03:22games at high settings, so for gamers, stick to a 24 or 27-inch monitor with a 1080p or
03:291440p resolution respectively. However, if you're a creative professional, maybe a developer,
03:33someone who really wants a big monitor but wants to keep it looking sharp, a 4K is a
03:37good choice, and there are good 4K monitors getting more affordable, but do just make
03:41sure your PC is powerful enough to run it, and crucially, has the right ports, but we'll
03:46talk more about that later on.
03:48Now finally in terms of sizes, let's talk about ultrawide monitors. Where most monitors
03:52and TVs have a 16 by 9 aspect ratio, ultrawides like this one have a 21 by 9 aspect ratio,
03:59so they're not any taller, they're just a lot wider. This is great for watching movies,
04:02having multiple programs open at once, and playing games. It really adds to the immersion.
04:07The most common sizes of ultrawides are 29 and 34 inches, with resolutions of 2560x1080
04:13and 3440x1440 respectively. There is definitely a price premium to be had with ultrawides,
04:20but they do look great, I think you'll agree, they look really futuristic, something out
04:23of Minority Report perhaps, and they're a good alternative to having a multiple monitor
04:27setup, you know, rather than having two monitors here with a bezel in the middle you have to
04:31try and hide, this looks much nicer. But you don't have to break the bank to get one, there
04:35are some good value ones out there, but if you want a bigger one like this 34 inch one,
04:40one with a higher 3440x1440 resolution, and extras like G-Sync which we'll talk about
04:44later on, you are going to pay quite a bit more for it, and also getting one curved is
04:49going to add to the price. Now in terms of design and style, well it's all very subjective
04:53isn't it? I tend to prefer monitors with really thin bezels, it's really up to you what they
04:57look like. The one thing that is probably worth mentioning about the design is how flexible
05:01they are, how much you can move them around. Some monitors can be tilted, raised, lowered,
05:05swivelled and rotated 90 degrees so you can use them vertically, and even V's are mounted
05:10if you want to take the stand off and mount it to your desk or the wall. Other ones don't
05:14move at all, so if you're someone who wants to move it around a lot, if you've got a weird
05:18shaped desk or you want to rotate it 90 degrees, look at the product description to see just
05:22how flexible it is. Now let's talk about panels, that sounds really boring I know, but it is
05:27pretty important and makes a big difference to how good your monitor looks. There are
05:30three types, IPS, TN and VA, with the first two being the most common. If you want to
05:34know all there is to know about TN vs IPS you can check out my in-depth comparison video
05:38by clicking on the card at the top right, but generally TN panels are cheaper and they
05:43offer better response times, so you don't get as much ghosting effects when playing
05:47games or watching fast moving content, but they do generally have pretty rubbish viewing
05:51angles. IPS on the other hand is more expensive, has slightly slower response times and depending
05:56on the quality might suffer from IPS glow, but despite all that they're a lot more colour
06:01accurate, they have fantastic viewing angles and generally, and also in my opinion, they
06:06are the preferred panel to go for. Similarly VA panels, they are very similar to IPS, they
06:11tend to offer better contrast ratios, so you get deeper blacks, richer whites, slightly
06:15more vibrant colours, but they tend not to have the best, as quite good viewing angles
06:19as IPS. So, unless you're a professional gamer who wants the absolute fastest response time,
06:25the lowest input lag, which is something different and I do discuss in that IPS vs
06:29TN video, perhaps you can forego the good viewing angles and go for a TN panel. However,
06:35if you're a general user, if you're a photo editor, if you value colour accuracy, definitely
06:40try and pay the extra to get an IPS or a VA panel. IPS is the most popular, most common
06:46after TN, VA is usually just restricted to Samsung monitors, there's nothing wrong with
06:50them, but again you might not want a Samsung monitor, it might not have the features you
06:54want. So, this one I have here is IPS, and I really do swear up by IPS, and if you get
07:00a good one, their input lags and response times can be pretty much as low as a TN now
07:04anyway, the technology is getting a lot better. Next up are refresh rates, this is the number
07:08of times your panel refreshes per second, the more often it does, the smoother everything
07:13looks. The vast majority of monitors, including this one, have a 60Hz refresh rate, but more
07:18and more these days monitors are offering higher refresh rates, anything from 75-200Hz.
07:23A high refresh rate is a really nice feature to have, but anything above 120Hz, you'll
07:28struggle to notice the difference. However, jumping from 60Hz to 100Hz or 120Hz will offer
07:33a big difference, games will feel slicker and smoother, moving the mouse around the
07:36desktop will suddenly become a nicer experience. Some people, especially gamers, swear by a
07:41high refresh rate monitor. In my opinion though, having used a variety of them, I actually
07:46decided to stick with an ultrawide monitor, which has a basic 60Hz refresh rate, rather
07:51than a typical 16x9 one with a higher refresh rate, mainly because I don't play games as
07:56much these days, and that's one of the main reasons you would want one. It is worth mentioning
08:00though that in games, you'll only see the benefit of high refresh rates if your PC is
08:04fast enough to push the games above 60fps. If you have an average PC and you only get
08:0930-40fps in games, you're not going to be taking advantage of that 120Hz monitor, for
08:14gaming at least, so it won't really be any use to you. High refresh rate monitors do
08:18definitely cost more, but it is a really nice feature to have. I do recommend it if
08:22you can afford it. You don't have to have it, as I say, I've chosen not to in favour
08:26of an ultrawide, but hopefully something in the future I can afford an ultrawide with
08:30a high refresh rate. It is definitely something I would like. It's not essential, but it is
08:34a pretty cool feature. Now, a quick mention about ports. I know it's boring, but there
08:38are just two kinds of ports on modern monitors that you need to worry about, HDMI and DisplayPort.
08:44Other monitors have VGA and DVI ports, but considering this is a 2016 video and I guess
08:50you guys are watching this because you are interested in buying a new monitor, I'm not
08:53going to worry about all those old ports. So, HDMI and DisplayPort. Currently, the vast
08:58majority of monitors have a HDMI 1.4 port and or a DisplayPort 1.2. That's great, nothing
09:04really to worry about there. But, if you want a 4K monitor, you need to make sure both the
09:09monitor and the graphics card in your computer support the newer HDMI 2.0 connection, otherwise
09:15you'll be limited to just 30Hz at 4K, which will make your computer feel really slow.
09:20DisplayPort 1.2, on the other hand, is capable of 4K at 60Hz, so that's the best way of doing
09:264K right now. At 1440p, you can only get 60Hz over HDMI 1.4, so again, DisplayPort 1.2 is
09:33your best bet, unless, of course, your monitor and your graphics card support HDMI 2.0, but
09:38that is a bit rarer right now. So, the moral of the story is, where possible, use a DisplayPort
09:431.2 connection, but HDMI is fine for 1080p or 1440p resolutions, as long as you're not
09:49running a high refresh monitor. Now, DisplayPort 1.3 and 1.4 and HDMI 2.0b are all sort of
09:57coming out now in the new graphics cards, like the NVIDIA GTX 1070, 1080 and the AMD
10:01RX 480. So, if you're building a new rig and you're looking to future-proof, you're perhaps
10:06not sure what monitor you want, but you might want the potential of having a 4K or an ultra-wide
10:10high refresh monitor, do try and get one of these newer cards, because you'll thank yourself
10:15later that you've got these brand new connections on them.
10:17Now, moving on from ports, you'll be glad to hear, to another feature you might be interested
10:21in, particularly if you're a big gamer, is G-Sync or FreeSync. These are what are called
10:25Adaptive Sync Technologies from NVIDIA and AMD, respectively. Basically, they work by
10:30making sure your graphics card and your monitor refresh at the same time, so it reduces
10:35screen tearing, gets rid of some stuttering and reduces input lag, which makes your games
10:39look and feel smoother. I wouldn't say it's as big or an as important feature as getting
10:44a monitor with a high refresh rate, in my opinion, but if you want the best gaming experience,
10:48a G-Sync or FreeSync monitor is a great idea. G-Sync, in particular, does add quite a bit
10:53to the cost of a monitor and, of course, can only be used with an NVIDIA graphics card,
10:56whereas FreeSync tends to be quite a lot cheaper, but again, can only be used with AMD cards.
11:01Now, I hope I haven't bored you guys too much just yet, but I want to mention a couple more
11:05features, just quickly. One of them is Ultra Low Motion Blur, or ULMB, and the other is
11:10Overdrive. ULMB, as it says on the tin, reduces motion blur, and it works quite well, but
11:15the problem is it reduces the monitor's brightness by often up to 50-60%, so I'm not really a
11:20fan of using it, even though it makes things a bit smoother. The other feature I also don't
11:24really use is Overdrive, which artificially lowers response times, which reduces ghosting,
11:29but at the same time it does increase input lag, which is the time between, say, clicking
11:33a mouse and the gun firing in your game on the computer. So, ULMB and Overdrive are often
11:39built into monitors, they're quite common, but you might want to play around whether
11:43you want to use them or not, but generally there's just too many issues with them that
11:46I personally wouldn't use them. Again, if you have G-Sync and FreeSync, that's better
11:50than ULMB, and Overdrive, well, you can either put it on medium, don't ever put it on high
11:56or very high, you get weird artifacting, but generally, just keep it off. It's not something
12:01I would really recommend, it's not a game-changing feature.
12:05One of the questions I do get asked quite a lot is, what's the best monitor for games
12:08consoles? Well, PS4 and Xbox One currently have a maximum output of 1080p at 60Hz, so
12:14a 4K monitor is pretty pointless at the moment. If you're tempted by an ultra-wide monitor
12:19for console gaming, again, most consoles, games, just output at 16 by 9 aspect ratio,
12:24so you're going to have letterboxing on the side of the monitors. The odd game will stretch,
12:29but it won't look good, so ultra-wide monitors aren't really ideal for console gaming. They
12:33work, but you'll have letterboxing most of the time.
12:36As for the next generation of consoles, like the PS4 Neo, whatever it's going to be called,
12:39Xbox One S, and Project Scorpio, it might be worth investing in a 4K monitor to take
12:44advantage of their Ultra HD Blu-ray players, and potentially their 4K gaming output, but
12:50I wouldn't really worry about that too much now. Maybe look at buying a 4K monitor in
12:54a year or so, perhaps mid to late 2017, when the consoles are out, when these monitors
12:58are cheaper, they have more features, but for now, I wouldn't really bother with 4K
13:04for gaming. Generally, a good 24-inch 1080p monitor would be best for gaming, because
13:10as I say, as soon as you go to 27 inches and above, you do lose the quality. However, if
13:14you're going to sit further away, like people often do when they play console games, you
13:17could get away with a 27-inch monitor.
13:19Now what would be the perfect monitor? For some, an ultra-wide like this, it doesn't
13:23have all the bells and whistles, this doesn't have G-Sync or a high refresh rate, but I
13:26really do appreciate the wide angle. For many of you though, a solid 27-inch, 1440p, IPS,
13:33high refresh rate G-Sync monitor would be the ideal, the perfect monitor, but you are
13:38going to pay for those features. You're looking at about £600 or $800 for a monitor like
13:43that. All of these features don't come cheap. Alternatively, you may want a 4K monitor,
13:49perhaps a 32-inch one. You don't care about G-Sync, so that saves on some money, but again,
13:544K still does have a bit of a premium over the lower resolution, so it really does come
13:58down to what you're going to use it for and how much you're willing to pay.
14:02So I do appreciate that it is quite a lot to take in, but I hope this video has helped
14:05you decide what sort of monitor you'd want to buy or perhaps just cleared up a few things
14:08for you. I have put a link, as I say, below this video in the description to a few of
14:12my favourite monitors, including this one I'm using right now. But if I have missed
14:17out anything or you don't agree with something I've said, do let me know in the comments
14:20below. It would be great to hear your thoughts or tweet me at The Tech Chat. Thank you very
14:24much for watching, guys, and I'll see you again right here on The Tech Chat.