Monitors for Work • Hacker News Board

Re: Monitors for Work

#11

Post by lowbloodsugar » Sat, Aug 08, 2026, 6:54 PM UTC

I have two Apple Studio monitors and a max-ram MacBook Pro. Work only paid for the MBP and only after I jumped through the necessary hoops, which I was happy to do. Had they not, I would have just dropped the $6k myself. One time I did drop the $6k myself and then showed my manager. Show don’t tell. He expensed it for me.

A company would be foolish to buy everyone this gear. I buy it because it makes a difference for me , my eyes and my patience. When I was a kid, I had a 12” TV, not even a monitor. I’m not a kid anymore more. I think of it as a professional buys their own tools.

Re: Monitors for Work

#12

Post by a-dub » Sat, Aug 08, 2026, 6:57 PM UTC

existence or absence of drama around getting the right equipment is usually a very strong indicator of technical leadership quality.

Re: Monitors for Work

#13

Post by marcosdumay » Sat, Aug 08, 2026, 7:07 PM UTC

jmarcher wrote: post #9

abeyer wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really don't get the curved monitors for working. They're fine if you're playing a video game or watching a movie in the dark at home, I guess, but wouldn't want one for other uses. They are wider than is comfortable to view at once from the short distance many office desks offer, especially if they're on a flex arm that eats up more space. They seem optimally designed to ensure that you'll have glare on your scree…

The main advantage of a curved monitor is that the viewing angle is closer to 90 deg which can help with colour uniformity. That being said, I think you are mostly thinking about the aspect ratio of ultra-wide monitors in general. It's a matter of preference, but I will take an ultra wide (>= 40in) any day over two regular 16/9 monitors. I end up having my main window in the middle 40% with two other windows on the s…

> I guess the workaround (with any monitor, really) is to ensure that the light sources are not behind you.

Offices are notoriously bad at optimizing that kind of thing.

Re: Monitors for Work

#14

Post by reqs » Sat, Aug 08, 2026, 7:32 PM UTC

TBH 27" is a sweet spot for me, I feel overwhelmed with 32″ screen. 4k to get a retina like quality, which makes text more comfortable to read.

Re: Monitors for Work

#15

Post by phren0logy » Sat, Aug 08, 2026, 7:52 PM UTC

abeyer wrote: post #4

lostmsu wrote: post #2

In 2016 I bought a $700 40in curved 4k monitor for my job at Amazon. It's funny they probably spent over $1500 on a laptop I almost never used but did not want to pay for a decent monitor.

I really don't get the curved monitors for working. They're fine if you're playing a video game or watching a movie in the dark at home, I guess, but wouldn't want one for other uses. They are wider than is comfortable to view at once from the short distance many office desks offer, especially if they're on a flex arm that eats up more space. They seem optimally designed to ensure that you'll have glare on your scree…

They pair really nicely with a column-oriented WM like Niri or PaperWM!

Re: Monitors for Work

#16

Post by zuhsetaqi » Sat, Aug 08, 2026, 7:53 PM UTC

reqs wrote: post #14

TBH 27" is a sweet spot for me, I feel overwhelmed with 32″ screen. 4k to get a retina like quality, which makes text more comfortable to read.

I really like my two BenQ RD280UA. They are as wide as an 27” and as tall as an 32”. For me it’s the best Aspect Ratio for desktop screens.

Re: Monitors for Work

#17

Post by maccard » Sat, Aug 08, 2026, 8:08 PM UTC

The happiest I have ever been with my monitors was with 2x 24 inch 1440 displays (dell s2421sgf) - it’s not an IPS display but it’s a single panel high refresh rate with solid software support and good color mapping. I calibrated it and it was worse than my MacBook but only slightly.

Unfortunately they appear to have a shelf life of about 6 years and the panels are no longer made…

Re: Monitors for Work

#18

Post by graceful6800 » Sat, Aug 08, 2026, 8:10 PM UTC

abeyer wrote: post #4

lostmsu wrote: post #2

In 2016 I bought a $700 40in curved 4k monitor for my job at Amazon. It's funny they probably spent over $1500 on a laptop I almost never used but did not want to pay for a decent monitor.

I really don't get the curved monitors for working. They're fine if you're playing a video game or watching a movie in the dark at home, I guess, but wouldn't want one for other uses. They are wider than is comfortable to view at once from the short distance many office desks offer, especially if they're on a flex arm that eats up more space. They seem optimally designed to ensure that you'll have glare on your scree…

They also have weird and uncomfortable acoustic effects. The one I have at work forms a perfect parabola to precisely reflect and focus my own breathing sounds straight into my ear canals. It's incredibly distracting so I have to always sit off-center to it

Re: Monitors for Work

#19

Post by Spartan-S63 » Sat, Aug 08, 2026, 8:14 PM UTC

First job I had was a pair-programming shop that outfitted each station with a 27" iMac and a 27" Cinema display (along with two sets of mice and keyboards).

Second job was remote, so I outfitted my own home office. I upgraded from a 34" 21:9 monitor to a 32:9 monster and enjoyed having the equivalent of 2x27" monitors.

I've since upgraded that setup to add a 28" LG DualUp to the left side of my 32:9 ultrawide. It strikes a nice balance of a productivity display for calendar/email and one for my main workspace that's plenty wide for spreadsheets (because I write less code than spreadsheets for FinOps modeling work).

I'm a huge fan of wider aspect ratios beyond 16:9 or 16:10. The dream is a 32:10 monitor in tandem OLED.

Re: Monitors for Work

#20

Post by senderista » Sat, Aug 08, 2026, 8:23 PM UTC

The only way to get an extra monitor during my first stint at AWS was to loot one from the desk of a departing colleague (before IT got their hands on it). Fortunately there was no shortage of departing colleagues.