Monitor for photo editing and home/office - 4K??

[eman321]

Hi - I'm buying a new monitor and will probably go 27". It will be in my home and I use it for office work and general browsing, etc. I do some photography/editing and that's reason why I'm looking at a higher spec monitor. I don't think that I will need a 4K monitor and am considering 2K instead (like Dell U2717D).

4K seems to be all the rage and I'm just wondering if I'm missing or not considering something that might be important. I've heard of 4K having some issues with scaling or being too small with text, and so forth. Much of my work will be text, spreadsheets, etc. so I'm concerned about that. I'm sure I'd be thinking differently if I were a designer or I spent most of my time working with photos, but that's a small part (and hobby).

What am I not considering? Is there some major advantage to 4K that I'm not considering?

Thanks for any input.

PS. I don't game (on PC) and I don't watch movies on my monitor.

 

[alceryes]

Only you will know if you need a 4K.
My advice would be to go to Best Buy or some other store that let's you work in the OS a bit and compare the two (making sure that any scaling and text enlargement is off).
The issues you list with 4K are legit. Windows 10 scaling sucks and a 4K resolution may make the text too small. How good are your eyes?

 

[Solandri]

Pretty much all external monitors cover 100% of sRGB color space (that's a measure of color saturation), so will be suitable for photo editing. You'll probably want to stick to IPS-type panels though (IPS, AHVA, VA, PLA), to avoid colors shifting due to changing your viewing angle. There are a few monitors which support Adobe RGB color space (more saturated than 100% sRGB), but they cost a lot more and I would suggest avoiding them unless you're serious about photography and color management. The average user would just end up switching such monitors into 100% sRGB mode, and the extra color saturation would never be used.

Whether you'll have scaling issues with 4k depend on the size of the monitor. 1080p (or 2k as you call it) is generally considered insufficient on a 27" monitor like you've listed. The pixels end up being too big. Most people recommend QHD (2560x1440) for a 27" monitor. I'd even recommend that resolution for a 24" monitor unless you like to sit really far from the monitor (like 3+ feet). 4k on a 27" monitor will probably be too small unless you like to sit close to the monitor (it'll be like 1080p on a 13.3" laptop screen). For 32" (about the biggest I feel is comfortable on a desk - you want your eyes to be at the same level as the center of the screen when you're sitting in front of it), 4k will probably work just fine.

For photo work, the main advantage of 4k is that you can see more of the photo when you're zoomed in at 100%. That's pretty much it. For desktop work, you can have more stuff on your desktop at once. It's like having a bigger desk to put your papers on.

Bear in mind that HDTVs are also basically monitors. So if you have a 4k TV, you can also plug your computer into that and put the mouse and keyboard on a small table in front of the TV. The TV's larger size and lower placement on an entertainment cabinet will offset some of the problems with 4k displays.

 

[Karadjgne]

I'd be looking at a 1440p/60Hz or 1440p/75Hz 27/28" IPS monitor. Problem I have with 4k monitors is their 'soap opera' look tends to make things look 'off'.

 

[eman321]

Thanks for the responses. Yes, an IPS display is a given. My reference to 2K is 1440/p. 1080 is not enough desk space. The extra space with 4K would be nice but I'm worried that it might be too small. My eyesight is beginning to get weak already. As suggested, I might have to try it out but I think for a 27", 2K (QHD) might be sufficient.

Thanks!

 

[Karadjgne]

Head on down to a couple places that have pc's, like Staples or Microcenter or Best Buy or Fry's etc even Walmart has some, and take a look at what's what. Look at the difference between 1440p and 4k from about the distance you'd be from the monitor at home.

If you are really after some real estate that's basically home office/editing then you might want to consider a 35" ultra wide instead. It's approximately the same viewing height as a 27" monitor, but a good 10" wider.

Or do as I do, use dual monitors, but I'd prefer an ultra wide and just use windows native splitscreening.