Back in 2007 I purchased two LG 19" monitors. At the time they were the latest and greatest and I have loved using them. I find having two screens improves my productivity immensley (more on that later). However the last 18 months or so I have found the resolution of 1280x1024 just too square mainly because everything is widescreen these days. I found browsing websites and looking at photos was a bit squashed. I found spreadsheets didn't have enough width - I wanted more columns.
At work I have two Dell P2319H monitors which are certainly very nice but something still wasn't quite right. They have a native resolution of 1920x1080 which is good in terms of widescreen but one thing I didn't like was the fact that I continually felt like I was scrolling. Whether it was reading a blog or reviewing a Word document or an Excel spreadsheet my finger was constantly on the scroll wheel of my mouse. Was there a solution?
So I started doing some research and found that pretty much all monitors are 1920x1080 (16:9 ratio) which is in keeping with 99% of TVs these days. I could have gone for a 4K monitor but I didn't want a 27" monitor on my desk and I wanted to maintain 2 monitors as well. Two 27" monitors would occupy too much space on my desk. .
I eventually came across some 16:10 monitors - 1920x1200. This sounded interesting. Not many manufacturers make them but iiyama do who I know are an excellent brand. They make a 22.5" monitor with a 1920x1200 resolution (Iiyama ProLite XU2395WSU-B1 22.5"). I took the plunge and am so happy I did. I feel they have given transformed my life. Ok, maybe that's a bit of an exageration but I am finding them an absolute joy to use. The display is incredibly sharp and colours seem very natural and easy on the eye.
You get just over 10% more pixels on the vertical basis so this should mean less scrolling! Let's take a look.
How many more rows in Excel on a 1920x1200 monitor
You get around 6 more rows in Excel compared to normal 1920x1080 monitor as shown below. The screenshot on the left is the 1920x1200 monitor and the screenshot on the right is 1920x1080.
How many more lines in Word on a 1920x1200 monitor
In Word you get around 5 more lines of text as shown below. The screenshot on the left is the 1920x1200 monitor and the screenshot on the right is 1920x1080.
These numbers don't sound like much but it certainly feels a lot more when using the applications on a daily basis.
The cost of the iiyama PROLITE XU2395WSU-B1
You can buy the monitors from EBuyer for £119.49 (May 2020) or from Amazon
That’s a great review and a strong defense for the 1920×1200 resolution. I’ve worked with such a monitor before and I know it really does make a difference with OpenOffice and MS Office. One correction: the paragraph before “You get just over 10% more pixels on the vertical basis.” is incomplete.
Thanks for the comment. I’ve corrected the incomplete sentence!