Perfect size monitor for web development

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So I have decided to upgrade from my 19inch Samsung. Looking to go to either the Samsung SM2443BW 24inch or the Samsung SM2693HM 26".

I have not used a screen of these sizes before and am curious to know your thoughts on whether a 26inch screen is in fact a little too big for web development/programming work.

Is 26inch overkill? Is 24inch the perfect size?

I tend to buy new kit every 3 years so want to get this right.

Many thanks,
 
The main difference between 24" and 26" will be the size of the monitor on your desk and the distance required to be able to easily view text. A 24" will seem huge in comparison to your 19" and the 26" will be massive. :)

You should probably consider a dual monitor setup though especially for development.

In my opinion a good reasonably priced setup is two 22" TN panel 1920x1080 monitors (~£150 each) on Ergotron LX desktop monitor arms (~£90 each). The footprint is reasonably small and the monitor arms will allow you to move the monitors closer when required.
 
I Have 3 24"'s at work (yes im spoilt)

I think multi 24" is better than one large screen so if i were you i would get a 24 now then another later.... and another.... and another.....
 
Just looking into this a bit more and actually the screen resolution on the 24inch and 26inch monitor (well this samsung is 25.5) is identical at 1920x1200 so I am actually not buying any more 'deskspace real estate' I am just getting things a bit bigger (and using more realdeskspace!). Am I correct in thinking this. It seems to make the 26/27/28inch market a little pointless.

You don't actually get anymore pixels untill you go to 30inch which is out of budget.

In light of this I think the 24inch looks like the best bet.

I thought the Samsung SM2494HM 24" looks like a great monitor but it seems to of unfortunately been discontinued at overclockers and other retailers. Samsungs new displays don't have height adjustment which is a major issue for me.
 
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That's a really practical idea :) Whatever you choose I'd suggest having a crappy smaller monitor to do this.

Interesting thought.

I will already have dualscreening of sorts as this will be connecting up to my 13.3inch macbook. Just turn the resolution on that right down and a I am good for testing.

Might also add that I am a programmer/sysadmin rather than a graphic designer.
 
Ah right. I recommended you use a crappy small monitor so you'd be able to see what most people would see for layout etc.

I've only got a 22" dell and my 15.4" laptop screen at work, and I'm a draughter!
 
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Ah right. I recommended you use a crappy small monitor so you'd be able to see what most people would see for layout etc.

I've only got a 22" dell and my 15.4" laptop screen at work, and I'm a draughter!

Good point, but no. Use a large monitor with high resolution for designing, and then lower the resolution to 1024x768 (seem reasonable guys?) as the realistic minimum resolution. But, if you can take into account high resolution widescreens too (i.e. if you have three main parts to a web page - ads, text, ads, for example) make the text section resizable, wikipedia style. Too many pages just sit in the middle of the screen with big blank bits either side (see bbc).

And, dual 22" monitors is better than single 24" for programming things.
 
I work as a web designer too.

My main screen is 26" Hazro (Wi, 2.1) which is fantastic for colour reproduction (H-IPS panel) and more than enough for coding (can see about 70 lines of code in DW)

And my secondary monitor is 22", All my panels (PS - Layers, Navigator, Type etc. DW - CSS, File navigation) set up in the secondary monitor.

Also have my browser for the project running on 22, so I can keep refresh and see my work.







Trust me you wouldn't regret if you get a 26"!
 
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