Ask HN: Where have all the large monitors gone?
Back in about 2016, I bought a 4K 40" display from one of those no-name South Korean brands on ebay (the AMH A399U), for just under $500. Great monitor, served me well for years, couldn't bring it with me in my last move.
Fast forward to 2024, and I'd like a replacement (and ideally after a decade there'd be an option with a higher-than-60Hz refresh rate, and/or higher-than-300nits brightness). On doing some research there is... very little like that on the market.
4K displays have all shrunk to 32 inches (or even 27), which I find too small for a large desk setup. All the >32 inch displays are in weird widescreen aspect ratios, and most of them sacrifice significant vertical resolution. Or one can go up to 43"+, where all the panels seem to be repruposed TVs, many of them with text rendering issues (no 4:4:4 chroma), and/or OLEDs with text rendering issues + burn-in risk, which makes them kind of suspect for coding work.
Is there any surviving (even off-brand) source of 38"+ 4K displays in a standard 16:9 aspect ratio?
I maintain this comparison chart of currently available large monitors:
https://www.productchart.com/monitors/large
Maybe it helps. If a specific large monitor is missing, let me know.
I can't seem to find this Dell monitor on your site: https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-ultrasharp-43-4k-usb-c-...
Philips makes a few too iirc
Nice one! Added it now.
Missing https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/accessories-and-software/moni... :)
Great, added!
It would be really great to show text with the "make model" under the circle images, like browsing thumbnails with captions.
And how about a submit make/model + link that's more convenient (and de-duplicatable) than emailing contact and hoping it's used.
It's a bit tricky to add captions. It depends on the number of items on the page and the size of the screen, whether there is enough space.
A submit form might be a good idea, true.
This is a really good resource, thanks!
That helped me locate the Gigabyte AORUS FV43U and the Asus ROG STRIX XG43UQ which are both very close to what I'm looking for
Happy to hear that.
What would make a monitor a perfect match that the FV43U and the XG43UQ do not offer?
A budget option without the HDR1000, primarily. I'm not convinced it's worth the premium without FALD (and that probably bumps us up to the MiniLED price category).
Also would really love something in the 38" sweet spot, but I realise I'm asking for the moon here :D
So a 38" monitor with 3840x2160 pixels for less than $500 or so?
Hmm.. yes, I'm indeed not aware of one.
At 42.5", there is the ViewSonic VX4381. But I don't know one at 38".
I'm increasingly flexible on price. Let's say sub-$800 for now. Inflation appears to have hit monitors hard the last few years!
Nice! It could make aspect ratio more prominent--it's a bit limiting to have one WxH pixels slider for filtering.
Yes, I should add a ratio filter.
Probably a dropdown with the different options, like the Panel Type.
That will need a bit of tinkering, as the ratio is not a readily available parameter, but need to be calculated on the fly and then put into the right bins like 3:2, 16:9, 16:10 etc.
Thank you for this! I've been wanting something like this for years.
This is cool. Can you make a shareable URL with filters included?
That could be a good idea.
How would you like to use it? To show a set of monitors to a friend, or to bookmark it for yourself to see how the selection for a certain set of parameters evolves over time?
For example, should the monitors which you have hidden with the "hide" button also be hidden when you use the bookmarked URL? Should the ones you marked with "compare" still be marked?
Wow, this well-made. Thanks for sharing!
Ergonomics suggests most people should sit almost 2 meters away from a 40+ monitors. Not many people have desks with that depth so manufacturers probably don't sell a lot of these units (this lower availability).
I'm not sure what your calculation is based on, but it doesn't track with mine. A 40" 4K display should cross the "retina" threshold somewhere just before 1 metre (which is about the depth of my desk + keyboard tray).
I get a lot of people don't love a monitor that fills so much of their field of view - but all those 40"+ curved widescreen monitors suggest that the market does exist.
I think that the key point here might be the curved part. Curved ultrawides mostly took over the market for large monitors cause they offered better ergonomics (curved + horizontal only head movement) and enough real estate.
Many places you can search for but whatever works for you. One quick example: https://www.dell.com/en-us/lp/best-monitor-size-for-gaming
I'm really not sure what Dell (or whoever else is pushing this) is trying to accomplish. A standard 32" 4K monitor exceeds retina requirements at 2ft!
At 5 feet most folks won't be able to tell the difference between that 4K monitor and a 1080p panel the same size - and could save themselves a lot of money + GPU power by opting for the 1080p.
If 2ft from a 40" monitor is fine for your neck, again, glad it works for you. But ergonomics is about avoiding strain and injuries not the minimum your retina needs to distinguish letters on a screen.
The 2ft was in reference to the 32" monitor Dell's advice references. I sit roughly 3ft 6in away from the screen in my desk setup - which per a Television-oriented calculator is about optimal for a 40" panel.
I'm honestly not sure why PC-oriented calculators are so much more conservative about field-of-view than THX is.
Probably because with PCs you typically want to be able to focus on any particular part of the screen without moving your head a lot while with a tv relying on more peripheral vision is normal and expected.
I don't know much about monitor ergonomics. Is the principle here that it is better not to move your head?
I don't understand; if the market exists, then why can't you find any?
To be clear, I can find plenty of widescreen displays in this category - it's the 16:9 aspect ratio that seems to have dissappeared. Adn if needs be I'll probably make do with a widescreen monitor, but as most of the content I consume is optimised for 16:9, the edges feel like a bit of a waste (and the center is over-dense PPI if you opt for the full 2160 vertical resolution on these displays)
That's a strange recommendation. I wouldn't be able to read normal sized text on a 43 inch monitor from 2 metres away (halfway across the room!). Even 1 metre would be pushing it.
You ever see competitive csgo players? Some of them plant their nose to the screen.
OLED is by far the best type of monitor for text. New OLEDs have about the same burn-in risk as old CRTs.
I use a 43 inch LG C3 TV. It is "smart", but at least the smarts are slightly useful, in that I have automations that control it.
Citation on burn-in risk? I bought an OLED laptop recently that came absolutely packed with burn-in warnings and avoidance instructions.
How do you figure the OLEDs are better for text? I've read a lot of folks reporting fringing on text due to the subpixel layout not matching the expectations of various text-rendering stacks
38"? ASUS ROG PG38UQ, 144Hz ips 4k (bought one recently as i wanted a >35" 4k ips with atleast then 120Hz), and from what i can gather it is the only ips screen those specs so far. (I am afraid of oled burnin as i tend to use my monitors for decade+.)
Oooh. That's a very promising option.
I have an older version of this LG 42.5" 4k monitor[0]. This version has 60W USB-C PD along with being an a/v input. It's good for office-type use. Not great if you want a wide color gamut or deep blacks. I find that I don't use the full height, but there's really nothing in-between this and 21:9 monitors. I also have a 34" 21:9 but find it a bit short. Next time I might go with a 32" 16:9 with VA pixels (or IPS Black from LG/Dell).
[0] https://www.lg.com/us/monitors/lg-43un700-b-4k-uhd-led-monit...
Looking at the other replies and productchart.com/monitors/large I see we now have 3840x1600 and 5120x2160 monitors now, but the VA monitors listed are too wide/short 5120x1440.
I'm using a 40" 5K Lenovo P40w-20, it's a 21:9 (5120x2160) IPS panel with 75 Hz refresh rate.
The problem with 2 monitors is that for me it inevitably falls into a "primary" and "one I occasionally glance at" pair.
With 21:9 I split into 3 columns which are 7:9 each and still have enough pixels (~1700x2160) for crisp text. Browser on the left, IDE in the middle, and terminal on the right. I very rarely use any other windows, so having everything accessible at a glance is great.
It also charges my laptop at 96W via Thunderbolt 4.
The only issue is that this panel (used in Dell and LG 40" too) is somewhat dim.
How about multiple monitors? That's been my solution--I'm currently running with my main monitors being 3x 19" @ 1280x1024. These screens are ancient, these days I see nothing comparable.
I used to run 3x 21" monitors, and at one point work assigned me dual 32" monitors. But I find I don't love the bezels inbetween, and I do like the vertical real estate of a big 16:9 monitor.
I also connect my MacBook to the same setup, which is somewhat... funky in its handling of multiple monitors (and I believe only supports 2 external monitors at a time)
I don't like the bezels, but I really do like the large pixels of the 19" monitors. Sure, text scales fine on bigger monitors but most program icons do not. The bezels are a lesser evil than a big monitor to me--but the monitors must be matched. I can tune out the bezels pretty well (and working in a reasonably dark area helps) but I can't tune out mouse misbehavior when crossing the line. I have a portable screen for my laptop, it doesn't match and I do not like that at all.
You might actually like one of the low-res ultrawides in that case. There are a number of 21:9 monitors with the pretty low resolution of 2560x1080 - and even a few in the fairly absurd 32:9 aspect ratio (3840x1080).
I don't like those precisely because I can see the pixels, but they do have great screen real estate.
Dell UltraSharp 43" 4K (@60Hz) Monitor. Have been buying them for years, will likely keep doing so.
I don't have a solution for you. But a question: what scale do you use with a 40" 4k monitor? 100%, 150%, 200%?
Also, I've been using an LG OLED C2 which has Chroma 444. Another issue with OLED is "pixel shift" to counter to burn in. I'm fairly sure I can tell when it happens, or something else is happening and I don't know what.
Usually 100%, although I've been creeping just the text size up a little lately. My goal has typically been to treat it as a 2x2 array of the old 21" 1080p monitors (without the annoying bezels), rather than as a single small retina surface (which most of the newer monitors seem to go for).
That's the nice thing about 40" 4K.
My gold standard for 100% scaling is 2560x1440 27".
You get the same PPI with 40" 4K, so it should also be good at 100%.
I've been waiting for a 40" 4K OLED with 120hz or better to show up for a reasonable price. Just haven't seen it yet.
I got an LG UltraFine 43UN700-B 3 years ago, couldn't be happier (well, maybe with a higher refresh rate, but for dev it's enough). 43 seems big at first glance but I got used to it super fast.
Lg oled tv is a cool replacement for a monitor.
Hdmi 2.1 output required for 4k 120hz
How do you find they handle text? I've read a lot of complaints around colour-fringing, but I haven't had a chance to evaluate in person.
I didn't notice any issues in 4k with text or anything else really. Might be too bright perhaps so it needs to be set up for comfort.
After a while of using it exclusively when I connected my not that old LCD gaming monitor (not 4k) it looked like fuzzy garbage for a while until I re-learned how to look at it.
However I disabled all burn in prevention measures because they sligtly moved the image, maybe by a pixel, maybe a fraction of one.
After 3 years of using it as a daily driver there is slight burn on from windows ui elements and the game I played a lot.
I noticed it only after I did a burn in check, completely unnoticeable during usage.
"Smart" happened. I miss my dumb electronics.
Why would “smart” mean “not large”?
Could someone elaborate on why large TVs don’t make good monitors, and what aspects one should check for when trying to repurpose one?
Some TVs make good monitors, but not all.
The major thing you have to look out for it Chroma Subsampling[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chroma_subsampling] - basically many TVs use a lossy colour compression to pack higher resolutions/refreshrates over the same cable. It's not normally noticeable during content like movies, but if you have a lot of fine details (i.e. text) it can cause noticeable colour fringing.
Some TVs (mostly OLEDS) also have unusual sub-pixel layouts, and this reportedly can cause issues with various subpixel rendering schemes for text (once again manifesting as colour fringing). OLEDs also have various measure to counter burn-in that may be annoying on a monitor, like dropping the brightness after a few minutes of innactivity, or shifting the whole image by a few pixels now and again.
The smart features.
On the CU7000D I pulled three wires and I was able to turn off Bluetooth on the fucking thing.
For those about to make the recommendation, I could not make the edit in the factory menu. I use the remote controller code, but Samsung neutered their factory menu options unless the person has full-fledged factory remote.
I understand keeping them off of wifi, but what is the downside of Bluetooth?
Due to the anti-consumer behavior of all mega-corps, presume the worst.
If a person chooses not to connect TV to the internet, how can I know with 100% certainty that data extraction is not occuring over Bluetooth?
Samsung could have a contract with Amazon where Samsung puts Bluetooth readers in all Amazon delivery vehicles to aid in this data retrieval.
It's not that far fetched since Google has mappings of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth signal locations.
A TV manufacturer puts in the back door so the pair screen doesn't appear under certain circumstances.
I don't know and I don't have the time to research what the operating system on a TV can all do.
All it does is make another hole in the Swiss cheese model. I don't need a smart TV being the reason why an important account got compromised.
I'm using a 75" 4K "monitor" as I type this.
For some reason they call it a "TV", whatever that is...
[dead]
Last I checked there weren’t even any decent non-Apple high-density 32” monitors available, let alone 40”
The people using huge 4K screens don’t care about pixel density. I now have a 6k 32” Dell which is about perfect for me so to each their own
Yeah, there are definitely two camps on this. I personally love the uninterupted screen real estate of having a very large single monitor, and I'm not that into paying for more pixels below the threshold where I can't see them individually