I’m considering to get a new monitor with a bit higher resolution. Since my desk is rather small, I’d like to stick with 24" (or potentially something like 25" if that exists, definitely <27", though).
So my requirement are:
Size around 24"
Resolution at least 2560x1440
Good colour accuracy (of course)
Any eye comfort ratings are a plus
Not super expensive (ideally <400 Euro)
At work I have a Dell UltraSharp and am very happy with it, but unfortunately the 24" version only has a resolution of 1920 x 1080.
The ASUS ProArt PA24ACRV ticks all boxes. I’m a bit hesitant, though, as I recently tested a PA27… (forgot the exact model) from the same price category which had some issues. Apart from being too large for me, it was noticeably flickering at low brightness settings and (maybe due to that) quite uncomfortable to my eyes.
Does anyone here have this model and could share experience? Any other recommendations or hints for features I should care for?
I have found that when I was working a curve monitor was very space efficient and the elongated shaped gave more real estate than a normal monitor. This suggestion may not suit you if a wide monitor is too large
I have 2 Asus Pro Art monitors , one 24"HD, and one 32" 4k, and both are very nice to edit on. I’d expect they have an offering that would suit your needs.
Thanks for the suggestion. I actually also prefer a smaller screen because with them the stuff I look at is more in the middle. This is probably not so much relevant for photography stuff (where the image is typically in the middle of the application) but for work (editing text files), which will be the main usage of the monitor.
Thanks for the suggestion. It’s a bit above my intended budget (around 480 Euro), but looks interesting.
They claim to have “hardware calibration”, but it’s not clear to me what that means. Does it actually store the calibration profile in the monitor (so no need to fiddle with software settings) or does it just mean that they have their own calibration software (so basically nothing special)? The information on the website is not super clear to me.
I got a BenQ PD2705Q for around 300 eur, it is 27" but has the QHD 2560x1440 resolution. I am very satisfied with it. The 4K resolution model is still below 400 eur AFAIK. So I would just go a bit larger for the budget if your desk has enough space.
I’m no expert but usually it means the calibration is stored and processed against a lut in the monitor… There are a few advantages… one being I think you can plug in any computer and the color should be accurated as whatever color data in “raw” rgb will get processed in the monitor… I think its often quoted that hardware calibration will allow a monitor to meet its reported spec where as when you software calibrate it using the video card and profiles on the computer that might not always be the case…
I’m sure there are other benefits or they wouldn’t bother to make monitors that support this …
I think there is more than one video and lots of specific BenQ stuff on Art’s channel…
I have an Asus ProArt 24", but it’s 1920×1200. I find that resolution to be plenty, but there’s a 1440p ProArt too (that one is 27" tho). My monitor cost only around 220 euros, so I imagine the larger model will almost certainly be within your budget
Thanks, I already searched quite a bit and also found the second article you linked already. All I found so far was oddly vague on where the final calibration result is stored. The first article you linked is very clear, though:
A hardware LUT, which is used for hardware calibration, is stored on a dedicated chip inside the display. With a hardware LUT, the monitor receives the unadjusted RGB signal from the computer and then applies the color corrections using a chip on the display itself where the corrected values are stored.
So to my understanding this means that calibration results are stored in the monitor and I don’t need to bother with handling calibration profiles on my computer (and I guess it also doesn’t matter if applications are colour managed or not?).
The ProArt I mentioned above is 24" and has 1440p. That’s definitely a candidate I’m considering.
If you reduce the brightness to something rather low (around 30-40 %), do you notice any flicker? I had this issue with a ProArt I tested recently but don’t know if it is a general issue or maybe was just a bad sample.
This was a decent overview that I had read some time ago when I was trying to understand displaycal and all the options that it presents during calibration…
As for color management I think you still need this to interpret the monitor color space…I think the hardware calibration makes the monitor very accurate in the output of its colorspace and gamut from raw rgb values, but applications need to translate that back to work with colorspaces… But I am never good at explaining these things and someone will likely do a much better job than me…
Just wondering @luator. Have you considered mounting the monitor on an ergonomic “arm”. That could resolve the small desk issue if you have a floating appendage, though I guess that would require a little space around the desk.
Also remember about monitors’ manufacturing tolerances and defects, as well as software compatibility. One is usually not patient or resourced enough to get multiples and return the ones that do not make the cut on the per monitor basis.
I did some detailed comparison of the Asus PA24ACRV and the BenQ SW242Q now.
Pro PA24ACRV:
around 140 Euro cheaper
more power efficient (<15 W compared to 27 W for the BenQ according to the specs)
Pro SW242Q:
wider gamut (99% Adobe RGB)
hardware calibration
a bit larger due to the 16:10 aspect ratio
The hardware calibration sounds nice, but not sure how relevant it really is for me, if I only ever use it with one computer (plus my work laptop, but there calibration is not relevant). It also seems, I’ll need to keep a Windows around for that, as they don’t provide Linux software.
So the main selling point for the BenQ would be the Adobe RGB coverage for me. Does anyone here have experience how much of a difference that really makes for printing compared to only sRGB? I don’t print that much but when I do, I often care for accurate colours.
Hello @luator, the output difference is huge.
If you enjoy printing true to life, a capable monitor that allows your prints to come close to what you shot is essential.
For me Adobe RGB coverage was the deciding factor in choosing a monitor.
BenQ was price friendly so that’s what I bought (9 years ago).
It is worth your while to read up to make an informed decision:
First impression so far is good but there some things I still need to figure out regarding the colour management. For example: Do I need a different monitor profile on the computer when I switch the monitor to a different colour space (e.g. sRGB)?
I also noticed that there is some small difference between my work laptop and my desktop PC. I thought that due to the hardware calibration, this should not be the case, but apparently there are still some software aspects that I need to understand.
Anyway, I didn’t do much photo stuff on it yet but mostly used it for home office. There the USB-C connection lets the monitor serve as a docking station, which makes the setup with the laptop significantly easier.
