Or so the saying goes, right? The lazy minimalist in me wants to say the utterly wrong “Less is More”.
Wrong as I am writing about Solid State. Which is a mystery itself… was there ever a Liquid one?
When talking about screen size (and many other less interesting subjects), the more and bigger the better. I, myself, have been spoiled for so long with plenty. I had been a happy member of the triple-monitor club, but my membership was put on hold when I moved out from the office office to work most of the time from my home office. Neither my desk nor my work laptop were up for it, but I was content enough with a dual arrangement: my valuable own 22” Samsung 225BW paired with the 20” HP LP2065 kindly provided by my employer (which is indeed a nicer display with a higher resolution then mine’s).
Nice and all that, but Julemand (the local version of good-old Santa Claus –amongst other names–) came early this year to take advantage of a nicely priced offer on a stunning 27” IPS-paneled Dell U2711. Julemand also left some seriously stiff neck that prevented me from jumping to unpack it and install it as soon as I got it, but that’s another story.
The Subject
Important thing is: boy it is huge! Place it facing upwards, pour some water and you have a freaking swimming pool. Do you think I am exaggerating? You may be right, but that’s how excited I am. I have not had the chance to spare the time it deserves, but I think it is a cutie. A cutie beefy screen. It does not matter it won’t earn many design prizes, but to me, hideous it is not.
My Relationship with the Subject
I have another confession. I know nothing of displays, calibration reviews and articles are gibberish to me. Reading them makes me feel as ignorant and visually-crippled as I feel hearing-challenged when I read discussions about audiophile headphones. I notice when something looks better when compared to another display, regardless of gamut, deltas and all the other jargon; just as I can hear differences between cheap-o headphones and the more expensive ones. Just do not make me choose amongst the quality ones as I simply cannot tell the difference.
I am not a designer. I like my home pictures stunning with real colors; I like my IDE windows happily sharing space and I hate scrolling in order to compare two-plus pieces of text. And I like, not, love, durable, quality pieces of equipment. And a quality display is one of the best investments one can do. You are going to be using it all the time and it is not going to become “obsolete” in 2-3 years time, like most of computing equipment you are currently using.
Facts of Life
Not all is candy floss and bouncing elves. Having a set up with such disparate displays comes with some quirks. the first one is that the difference of resolution makes impossible to span a window amongst the two displays. Not that I do it that often, but I have done it. I tried and it dos not work. It feels like major refraction. In fact, it is so big that makes dragging from one screen an uncannily weird experience.
But the most annoying one? Here’s a fact for you: it is impossible to calibrate two monitors side by side, unless they are the same model. And even there you’ll find subtle differences. And mine do not even use the same technology! They look crazy different. I will give it another frustrating shot when the new monitor image settles down (or is it just another urban legend?)
What else can I say? Oh, yeah, I like them big.