About 7 years ago I bought my first house. It was all of 680 sq. ft. and space was at a premium. That was when Nate surprised me with a newfangled flat panel monitor to replace the space hogging CRT style monitor I had been using. Since then I have happily chugged along with my 17 inch monitor. Despite working in a technical field, I usually don’t feel the need to have the latest, greatest, biggest and best electronics. So, while I’ve seen the average users monitor get bigger and people all around “upgrading” to widescreen, my little AOC monitor and I have done just fine. Except recently, my trusty little monitor has been showing signs of distress.
So I started entertaining the idea of a new monitor. Coming home from visiting family for Thanksgiving, we stopped by a TigerDirect outlet. They had whole rows of shiny new monitors. The problem is, they’re shiny. I can’t say I understand this trend toward shiny monitors with glowing power indicators. I guess they look all sleek and modern and high tech. But they are distracting. I was looking for something with taste and class that doesnt draw your attention away from *what we’re actually doing* on the screen. I’m looking for a little black dress and all they have are sequined numbers. A few weeks ago I stopped by Best Buy to take a look at their monitors. Same thing. All shiny and illuminated. Yikes.
A quick side note here: I realize that I can be particular to a level that most people are not. We have a group of friends who play softball and go to Burlington Royals games together and a few of them got together to make us custom team t-shirts with royalty-themed nicknames and inside jokes printed on the back. They threatened to make my nickname “Picky Princess” but ended up giving me the moniker of “Discerning Dame”. They claim it’s a compliment to my good taste.
So, I started looking to manufacturers who cater to the business world in hopes of finding a less gaudy monitor. I found this. Thank you Dell!
The bezel (frame around the monitor’s screen) is a matte black with a relatively subtle illuminated power button. It also happens to be an affordable eIPS screen. As I was checking out my options in search of a monitor that is 1) not shiny, 2) comes from a reputable makers and 3) is also affordable, I learned that there are different types of LCD displays. Most monitors found at consumer big box stores are a type called TN that can show color shifts when view from any angle other than straight on. If you’re not careful, this can be problematic for editing photos. For photography, an IPS screen is considered the better choice. It also happens to be what Apple uses in most of their devices as well. Of course it costs more.
Wish me luck that Dell has made a metaphorical little black dress: A well designed monitor with good image quality that is elegant and understated. I’ll be sure to share my thoughts once it arrives. Hopefully this week.