roundup

The Best Monitors for Reducing Eye Strain and Fatigue

You spend hours looking at a screen. By about three in the afternoon, your eyes feel dry and your head feels heavy. The monitor is part of that. Three types of…

January 3, 2023 · 2 min read

Devs At Home is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program. We earn from qualifying purchases. This never affects what we recommend or what we say about it.

You spend hours looking at a screen. By about three in the afternoon, your eyes feel dry and your head feels heavy. The monitor is part of that.

Three types of panel exist: twisted nematic (TN), vertical alignment (VA), and in-plane switching (IPS). TN panels are cheap and common. They also have poor colour reproduction and narrow viewing angles. VA panels improve the colour, but refresh rates lag and ghosting shows up in motion. IPS panels give the best colour and the widest viewing angles. They cost more.

Resolution matters, but not in the direction marketing implies. A higher resolution makes text sharper, which sounds good. It also makes your eyes work harder to resolve the detail. For most development work, 1920x1080 is enough. If you edit video or work in design tools all day, 2560x1440 or 3840x2160 might be worth it. Might.

Three features actually reduce strain:

Flicker-free backlighting: Many monitors use pulse-width modulation (PWM) to dim the backlight. PWM creates flicker you cannot see but your eyes register anyway. That flicker causes fatigue, especially if you are sensitive to it. A direct current (DC) backlight or a flicker-free mode eliminates the problem.
Low blue light: Blue light has a short wavelength and high energy, which strains your eyes and disrupts sleep if you work late. A low blue light mode or filter cuts the output. It makes the screen look warmer, but your eyes stop aching.
Adjustable settings: Brightness, contrast and colour temperature should change with the room. If the monitor locks you into factory settings, you will squint under overhead lights and strain in dim ones. Adjustability is not a luxury.

Five monitors meet those criteria without asking you to believe they will change your life:

Dell UltraSharp U2718Q: A 27-inch IPS monitor with good colour reproduction, wide viewing angles, flicker-free backlight and low blue light mode. Reviews praise the ergonomic stand and the range of adjustments. Not cheap.
Acer R240HY: A 24-inch IPS monitor at 1920x1080, with flicker-free backlight, low blue light mode and adjustable settings. Reviews call it a good all-rounder for the price. It is.
BenQ PD2700U: A 27-inch 4K IPS monitor built for creative work, with a wide colour gamut and high colour accuracy. Flicker-free backlight, low blue light mode, extensive adjustments and a built-in KVM switch. Expensive, and only worth it if colour accuracy pays your rent.
Asus ProArt PA248QV: A 24-inch IPS monitor at 1920x1080, with flicker-free backlight, low blue light mode and adjustable settings. Reviews highlight the colour accuracy and the ergonomic stand. Solid choice if you do not need 4K.
HP Z27: A 27-inch 4K IPS monitor with flicker-free backlight, low blue light mode, adjustable settings and several connectivity options. Reviews note the colour accuracy and the clean design. Good if you have the budget and the use case for 4K.

None of this matters as much as looking away from the screen every twenty minutes. The monitor helps. Breaks help more.