[PCM2]

No problem Gaines – I hope you enjoy the monitor and find it more comfortable.

And don’t worry about the caps. I didn’t find it offensive or ‘shouty’ and knew there would be a good reason for it. Thanks for explaining this though :).

[j76cvs]

It’s been great to see all of these posts regarding monitors for people with sensitive eyes. I tried reading all of what was written and since there was so much, CVS has obviously set in (which usually only takes me 15 minutes or so to start feeling it).

I was researching on BenQ’s website since now they’re all about “Eye Care.” I spend lots of time on a computer and haven’t found a monitor yet that has cured my problems. I’ve been to 2 ophthalmologists and 2 optometrists, and all say it’s latent hyperopia. To put it in normal person’s terms, I get horrendous headaches cuz my eye muscles get strained from focusing. I can read books for hours, and no problem. I can watch TV without a problem. I can see everything on a monitor without a problem, but I get nasty headaches rather quickly. I now wear glasses, but they just seem to slightly delay the onset of headaches (as does changing the refresh rate on my VA2248M).

I’m hoping to find a 22-inch (or 24-inch, but, preferably 22) monitor that will allow me to actually have a normal job without taking generic migraine medication every day. I already turned my “blue” down to 27 (red and green are 44). I have my brightness set to 0. I enlarge my text and use a refresh rate of 75Hz. With all I’ve looked at on BenQ’s website, and calling their office in Southern California, it seems like my best bet would be:

XL2420Z (Coming out mid-February) $400

Since it isn’t out yet, I can’t obviously test it. I’m assuming for my headaches, I need a monitor that has the following features:
-Flicker-free
-Low Blue Light settings
-High refresh rate
-Reading mode (a BenQ thing)
-Anti-glare screen

If you have any recommendations, they are MUCH appreciated.

[dagdrivaren]

GAINES:
BTW, THANKS FOR ASKING ABOUT THE CAPS. I PERSONALLY DO NOT SEE WHY EVERYONE HAS TO TAKE OFFENSE WHEN THEY SEE ALL CAPS.
SOME FOLKS HAVE HANDICAPS.

PCM2:
And don’t worry about the caps. I didn’t find it offensive or ‘shouty’ and knew there would be a good reason for it. Thanks for explaining this though :).

For what it’s worth, nor did I. The question was entirely to ease my curiosity.

*edit* What does the “blockquote” function do since it doesn’t seem to be the quotation function that every other board uses?

[gibby]

Just received the BenQ BL2710PT…. and unfortunately… have to return it because of a vertical yellow line. It’s defective!…. arghhh… otherwise I can tell it’s going to be great. But how frustrating to received defective merchandise.

[PCM2]

@ j76cvs

Welcome to the forum!

I’m glad to hear you find these sorts of discussions helpful and I’m sorry to hear about your eye strain. The XL2420Z does tick a lot of boxes, but I’m not sure it is entirely necessary for your uses or the best choice. I’m not convinced that refresh rate is actually causing you eye strain in this situation. It’s worth remembering that LCD pixels refresh in response to movement, or more specifically they change ‘state’ to represent a different shade. They are not constantly refreshing in the same way as a CRT and do not refresh in the same way, either. CRTs flicker on and off (which will cause discomfort at 60Hz for many people) whereas LCDs are constantly illuminated. When viewing slow moving or static content (reading PDFs, browsing the net etc.) the refresh rate doesn’t influence viewing comfort really, certainly not in the way it did on CRTs. If you’re scrolling about a lot and moving windows around it can be nice having a higher refresh rate, certainly. You find 75Hz more comfortable on your current monitor and that could be for a number of reasons (including more fluid motion) – but a low LCD refresh rate on an otherwise responsive monitor isn’t generally a major influence on eyestrain unless you’re gaming.

Although the pixel refreshes on an LCD aren’t a source of flicker, the light source can do exactly that, as it does on your current monitor. This is why some people look for models that do not use ‘PWM’ (Pulse Width Modulation) to dim the backlight, or are otherwise labelled ‘PWM free’ (like the XL2420Z). There is a list of flicker-free monitors in case you missed that thread. The ‘Low Blue Light’ settings are certainly interesting and nice to have (as I found on the EW2740L that uses this) but something you can replicate on most monitors as you did with yours. It’s handy to have this sort of preset and on the EW2740L we tested it didn’t negatively affect contrast which is a big bonus – but I suspect that’s due to the native low (warm-looking) colour temperature of the panel itself.

All things considered I think the most important things to have in your new monitor, other than the size being as you like it, would be a flicker-free backlight and a good brightness adjustment range. The Dell P2414H is a recurring recommendation for this. You can also run this at 75Hz with an AMD or Nvidia GPU if you like. I’m not sure about the XL2420Z’s brightness adjustment range yet – BenQ are sending us a review sample right now. It could be worth going for something like the P2414H, seeing how you find it and returning it if it doesn’t work out for you. If it comes to that then waiting for the XL2420Z would be a good option.

@ dagdrivaren

Block quotes seem to do nothing ;). This is why I throw around the ‘@’ symbol a lot here or use italics.

@ gibby

Sorry to hear that. It does happen from time to time, hopefully your replacement is better.

[gibby]

PCM2… just another word of thanks for the recommendation. I received the replacement BenQ 2710P today and it is exactly as you described. It is by far easier on the eyes than the Apple displays. I am so happy with it I’m considering pairing a couple of these with Apple’s new Mac Pro. I’m using it as an external monitor on a 2013 13″ MacBook Pro Retina via the HDMI port. I highly recommend this monitor.

[shahsmerdis]

Hi everyone,

New here, and I was looking at getting a new computer screen for my sensitive eyes.

First off I wanted to thank everyone here for providing a good starting point for my search for a monitor.

Currently at work I got the go ahead to buy a monitor, however I want to make sure it is good on the eyes before I tell them to order it. Apparently the p2414h seems to be favorite choice here for the ~24inch area. It is a tad bit out of budget, I could probably convince them to buy it if I need to but I was hoping to get something less than 200.

The P2314H is available on amazon for lightly less than 200 and it seems to be on the list of the PWM free monitors I saw above. What do you guys think. Would this be just as suitable as the 24inch model?

Thanks in advance!

[PCM2]

Hi shahsmerdis and welcome!

The P2314H is indeed flicker free and overall performs very similarly to the P2414H with all the same pluses to be said for visual comfort. I usually simply recommend the P2414H without mentioning the smaller model because here in the UK it’s actually slightly cheaper, bizarrely enough. You’re absolutely right though the P2314H is slightly cheaper in the US and I think really the one to go for right now. You don’t actually lose a whole inch either, just 0.8″. This shouldn’t really impact on the visual comfort, 23″ is still a good size for the 1920 x 1080 resolution.

Could I also ask a small favour if you’re considering buying from Amazon. If you could go through one of the links on our website it would be much appreciated. I have to thank you for bringing the current price situation in the US to my attention as well. I’ve updated the recommendations section in the US so that it features the 23″ model which is the better buy there currently.

[TheEReader]

HI,
I have been using Dell 1908FP for the last 4 years in my workplace.
Recently i bought a dell XPS laptop which has to my dismay a very very glossy screen.
Most of the time i use my laptop to read PDF and view Word files. I have been experiencing a lot of eye strain due to my glossy laptop screen

I have read in you site , that you recommend BenQ GW2760HS for its anti glare properties.
But in the review i see that it has semi glossy screen.

What i want is a monitor which is exclusively for reading .
I am not going to use the monitor for movies or gaming.

Please suggest some monitor for my need of strain free reading ?

Thanks in Advance

[PCM2]

‘Semi glossy’ used in this context refers to a screen with a very light matte anti-glare surface. There are further details on this sort of surface and how it compares to traditional matte and glossy on this article. Once switched on the screen surface doesn’t really cause what I’d consider troublesome glare unless you’re viewing with bright light hitting the screen. These sorts of lighting conditions would cause fading on a normal matte screen surface due to light diffusing heavily across its surface and wouldn’t really be ideal for any monitor regardless of screen surface. You certainly don’t have to worry about anything like what you’d see on a regular glossy surface like on your XPS laptop.

Having said that if you would prefer a matte surface that’s more similar to the 1908FP without being overly grainy then I’d highly recommend considering the Dell P2414H as per our recommendations. As mentioned above this monitor has an excellent brightness adjustment range, a flicker-free backlight and has a matte screen surface. It’s something we refer to as ‘light matte’ but offers very similar glare handling ability to regular matte surfaces like your 1908FP. If it’s cheaper or easier for you to get hold of the P2314H is very similar but has a 23″ screen. Given that you are used to using a 19″ screen and laptop I feel that these 23-24″ screens with 1920 x 1080 resolution would be very comfortable for reading.

[TheEReader]

Hi,
First of all thanks for your reply .
Do you think Dell U2312HM will serve my purpose ? As i have said , my main purpose is to use this monitor for reading pdf and working with docs with the minimum possible glare and reduced eye strain.
Thanks in Advance

[PCM2]

The U2312HM would be a decent enough choice, but that is one of the monitors I consider to be ‘too grainy’ (with reference to the better surface used on the new P series models in my previous post). I don’t find reading comfortable on a monitor when there is a smeary mess of grain to look past which is why I would recommend the newer models over that one.

[GAINES]

GOT MY MONITOR –REALLY ENJOYING IT. HAVE YET TO SPEND A LONG DAY ON IT, BUT APPEARS TO BE JUST WHAT I WANTED.
THANKS AGAIN

[GAINES]

HOW DO I STOP THE NOTIFY ME OF FOLLOW-UP REPLIES VIA EMAIL?

[PCM2]

Good to hear you’re happy GAINES! 🙂

Towards the top right of the page above the first post and below the page numbers on this page there is a ‘Favorite’ and ‘Unsubscribe’ button. If you click unsubscribe it should stop giving you email notifications.

[John]

Hi from Greece, what’s up? I have almost discover this very intresting site!
i have read almost all the comments here (and besides that they were a lot, at least i learnt some things). I want from you if you can to recommend me a monitor; the use will be for reading pdf’s, sometimes slit screen to read two at the same time and also i want it to work with big spredsheets (MS Excel) . I don’t play games at all, basically for the use i said + browsing of course.The budget is around 200-250Euros but if it would be a vfm product in order to save some money it would be great. The monitor will be conected with a laptop (it has Easy Port IV, VGA-out, HDMI) and the graphic card which is on it is the nvidia 9600M GT .

[PCM2]

Hi John and welcome!

I did check through the monitors you provided initially and they didn’t really change my automatic recommendation for viewing comfort of the Dell P2414H. Unlike many of the models you linked to this has a guaranteed ‘flicker-free’ backlight. Some of the models you linked to always use PWM (flickering backlight) and some have different revisions that do or do not use it. The brightness adjustment range on the Dell is also excellent and it’s just generally a very comfortable monitor to use. You really get a lot of monitor for your monitor with that one.

[John]

Thanx so much ! So you don’t think i need something more than 24″ for this job.
But what’s the difference between Dell E2414H/Dell U2412M/Dell P2412H and the P2414H? Is the last one the best? And what’s your opinion about benq monitors with Senseye Reading Mode, would you recommend any?

[PCM2]

I did wonder if perhaps 27″ would be an advantage for you given that you want to have documents side by side. One particular model I recommend for high viewing comfort that’s 27″ is one with a very good ‘Reading’ mode and just generally a nice image to look at is the BenQ GW2760HS. For your uses the main thing to be aware of is that it has a semi-glossy screen surface. I personally really like this, as do some other users, because it provides good glare handling without introducing any graininess to the image. You can get a slight amount of reflection/glare in circumstances where direct light hits the screen where a stronger matte surface would deal with this a bit better. Such conditions tend to make the image appear bleached on matte monitors because the light is being diffused strongly across the surface, though, so these aren’t ideal viewing conditions for any monitor. Some users also find the graininess of even fairly light matte surfaces (like that on the P2414H) slightly bothersome.

The matte screen surface is very strong (grainy) on the U2414M. Coupled with improved responsiveness, a flicker-free backlight, better colours and a change of resolution the P2414H and U2414H were born. The E2414H and P2412H both use TN panels and use PWM to regulate their backlight. So the image simply isn’t as appealing as on the other models.

[John]

So I have to choose between P2414H and U2412M . The second one is 40E more expensive than the first. Is it worthy to give the extra money for the ultrasharp or buy the first?
[because i believe the difference wouldn’t be that big between these two, but i see very good reviews for ultrasharp+the 1920×1200 and 16:10]

[Author]

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