tech

The last time I got new monitors was 2015 when I purchased two 22-inch ViewSonic LED displays for my new (at the time) standing desk setup. Fast forward almost 10 years and those monitors are still chugging along, but now that I’m staring at these screens for over 8 hours a day, every day (for the past four years since the pandemic) for work, and needing to wear my glasses more, I decided that it might be time for some new larger displays.

I had just a few criteria to start my shopping/research:

• preferably $150 or less (since I need to get two)
• larger than 22 inches
• multiple inputs (so I can switch back and forth between my work and personal laptops)
• easily reachable controls (to switch those inputs)

Nothing crazy there, right? But you’d be surprised how hard it is to find monitors with easily accessible controls. I guess a lot of manufacturers think their displays are going to be used singly, because a lot of the controls are little jog dials or buttons on the back of the screen, typically the right side (as you’re facing the screen). But in a dual monitor situation, I wouldn’t be able to reach that little dial on the left monitor because the right monitor would be right up against the bezel, blocking access to that switch. My current ViewSonics had buttons on the bottom right-hand side of the frame, and luckily I found some new ViewSonic models that had the same configuration (just moving the buttons to the center of the bottom frame instead, which was fine with me).

Once I had ViewSonic pegged as the manufacturer and I had a short list of displays to evaluate, I had to decide: 24-inch or 27-inch? flat or curved? FHD or QHD? After weighing and researching the options, I went slightly above my budget and selected the VX2718-2KPC-MHD.

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