Dual Monitor Advice

g0g

(Don't usually post in this forum so apologies if this is one of those questions that comes up every week!)
Given that working from home doesn't look to be ending anytime soon I'm looking to upgrade my existing dual monitor setup for work. Currently have a 20" I think and a 24". Both are cheap and/or old enough. We have ultrawide 34 or 37 in work but personally I like the dual monitors and keep my laptop screen open for Teams and things like that.
Anyway, my questions:
1) For 24" am I mad to look at 4K? Is QHD or whatever it's called more than enough?
2) Is a budget or € 250-300 all-in likely to get me something decent enough?
3) Do I need to be concerned with refresh rate if it's all office work (MS Office and Teams)?
4) I know there are different panel types - is any one type hugely better or worse for office work?
5) I'm keeping an eye on HUKD for bargains - anywhere else I should watch?
6) Curved monitors are mainly for gaming, right?
Thanks:)

Hyzepher

I would take one of the ultrawide monitors from work and still use the laptop screen for teams etc

I'm assuming you are working on your laptop and not a separate system at home

Robert ninja

1) AFAIK you will not see much benefit of high res on a 24" in fact it might cause scaling oddities with some software and websites. Then again I don't have personal experience and I know some people like bloody phones with very high res.

2) Purely based on the decent monitor I got for around that price, which came with gaming features, yes.

3) 60Hz will be perfectly fine for office work.

4) OLED & IPS have been known for better viewing angles & colors. So they're ideal if you're looking at a screen from an odd angle and not directly. Overall better experience for office work I'd say. Apparently TN isn't as bad as it used to be for viewing angles but TN is still considered for gaming only. I'd avoid TN unless if you find a super good deal or something like that.

5) I got my monitor from Currys. Amazon are always an option of course.

6) They're for ultra wide solutions if you want to avoid the warping you can see from the edges. Keeps things facing toward your eyes. Although that's only useful if you're completely stationary so yeah it would be nice with gaming where as office work you might be moving around a bit in an office chair and things like coffee breaks where a standard flat structure might be a safer bet for catching information from far off at an angle. But if you do go for an ultra wide solution then it's still worth considering depending on your use case.

As above user said see if you can't borrow the monitor from work.

JoyPad

Robert ninja wrote: »

1) AFAIK you will not see much benefit of high res on a 24" in fact it might cause scaling oddities with some software and websites. Then again I don't have personal experience and I know some people like bloody phones with very high res.

On Windows 10, there's a Scaling setting that takes care of this.
I have my work laptop with a 4K screen (17in) and a QHD monitor (24in). I'm using 250% scaling on the laptop screen and 125% scaling on the monitor, thus making the windows and fonts very similar between the two. I found that having them at the same scaling made the laptop screen much harder to focus on, particularly when switching my gaze from one to the other.

That being said, a 4K screen will look nicer than a QHD, but the differences are not huge.

Personally, I would recommend getting a Dell monitor from their website, and speaking to an agent there to try and get a slightly better price than the one shown.
Here's a very affordable monitor (24in, QHD, 60Hz, IPS). I own two of these (the 2018 model), and I am very happy with them.

If you need two connected to the same laptop, or need USB-C connection, have a look at this one. It has USB-C connector and supports daisy chaining with DP cables.

g0g

Hyzepher wrote: »

I would take one of the ultrawide monitors from work and still use the laptop screen for teams etc

I'm assuming you are working on your laptop and not a separate system at home

Yeah using laptop at home. Currently at home I use laptop for Teams below the two monitors and then the monitors for content. Between the two monitors at home vs 34" widescreen at work I defo prefer having 2.

Robert ninja wrote: »

1) AFAIK you will not see much benefit of high res on a 24" in fact it might cause scaling oddities with some software and websites. Then again I don't have personal experience and I know some people like bloody phones with very high res.

2) Purely based on the decent monitor I got for around that price, which came with gaming features, yes.

3) 60Hz will be perfectly fine for office work.

4) OLED & IPS have been known for better viewing angles & colors. So they're ideal if you're looking at a screen from an odd angle and not directly. Overall better experience for office work I'd say. Apparently TN isn't as bad as it used to be for viewing angles but TN is still considered for gaming only. I'd avoid TN unless if you find a super good deal or something like that.

5) I got my monitor from Currys. Amazon are always an option of course.

6) They're for ultra wide solutions if you want to avoid the warping you can see from the edges. Keeps things facing toward your eyes. Although that's only useful if you're completely stationary so yeah it would be nice with gaming where as office work you might be moving around a bit in an office chair and things like coffee breaks where a standard flat structure might be a safer bet for catching information from far off at an angle. But if you do go for an ultra wide solution then it's still worth considering depending on your use case.

As above user said see if you can't borrow the monitor from work.

Thanks for this. Having measured my desk I reckon maybe max I can fit is twin 24", so sounds like 4K on that would be a waste of time potentially.

JoyPad wrote: »

On Windows 10, there's a Scaling setting that takes care of this.
I have my work laptop with a 4K screen (17in) and a QHD monitor (24in). I'm using 250% scaling on the laptop screen and 125% scaling on the monitor, thus making the windows and fonts very similar between the two. I found that having them at the same scaling made the laptop screen much harder to focus on, particularly when switching my gaze from one to the other.

That being said, a 4K screen will look nicer than a QHD, but the differences are not huge.

Personally, I would recommend getting a Dell monitor from their website, and speaking to an agent there to try and get a slightly better price than the one shown.
Here's a very affordable monitor (24in, QHD, 60Hz, IPS). I own two of these (the 2018 model), and I am very happy with them.

If you need two connected to the same laptop, or need USB-C connection, have a look at this one. It has USB-C connector and supports daisy chaining with DP cables.

Thanks for this. I have a dock with dual output so am fine from that perspective.

Turns out work are supporting us with 24" monitor for home if we want. Have requested that and will see what I get. Probably just end up buying a second one of whatever they give me!