Laptop vs monitor
If there is a device that is proving most productive and useful during the coronavirus pandemic, then it has to be your laptop. It is true that most people are not complaining about working from home, but they are experiencing one issue: stress associated with the laptop form factor. One major problem with working on a laptop at a stretch is lack of comfort. A lot of people complain that sitting in front of a laptop all day is impacting their body posture. I have also found people complaining a lot about the tiny laptop screen that may not be enough for growing work needs. Show
There is a solution: add an external monitor to a laptop. That will help them with the issue of productivity and lack of comfort. By having an external monitor to a laptop means they will be able to edit documents side by side and enhance multitasking whatever line of work you might be in. Buying a monitor isn’t quite as simple as it may seem, but this guide will help you find the best options. This guide is for average users who have never hooked up the second screen to their laptop or desktop and need solutions that fit within a budget. So we will not get into high refresh rates and fancy terms like colour gamut and HDR. https://images.indianexpress.com/2020/08/1x1.png Screen sizeThe thing with computer monitors is that they come in various sizes. While in the past the 15- and 17-inch monitors were pretty common, now times have changed. If you search for computer monitors on Amazon or Flipkart, you will find a lot of options between 21- and 27-inches. The best option is to go for the middle range, the 22-inch screen size — large enough, but still not taking up a lot of space. ResolutionMost monitors in the budget segment have either 720p or 1080p resolution. I insist on getting a monitor with at least 1080p resolution. A 1080p monitor should offer sharp visuals and that should be your priority. Don’t get into high refresh rates, panel type, HDR, and Color gamut. If you’re interested in added features like high refresh rates and HDR, then you have to shell more money. Ultrawide or basic LED monitorThere is no dearth of fancy monitors. Ultrawide may look enticing at first but they don’t add any real value in terms of experience. My advice is to get a basic monitor with an LED display with good viewing angles, high contrast ratio, and a 16:9 aspect ratio. Any monitor with a 16:9 aspect ratio is great for movies or gaming. Try these tricks to make your iPhone speakers sound louderSpeakersSome budget monitors have built-in speakers but most don’t. There are a few monitors in the vicinity of Rs 14,000 that do have speakers but if your budget is under Rs 7,000, I don’t think there’s a single option with built-in speakers. In that case, the sound will come out from your laptop or an add on speaker. Adjustable heightBefore you buy the monitor, just make sure that the model you have zeroed in has an adjustable stand. Experts advise the screen should be directly in front of you. Since you use two screens for work they should be at a similar height. Otherwise, there would be too much strain on the neck. Ports and connectivityThis is the most cumbersome part of buying a new monitor. Earlier, VGA and DVI were considered the standard connections but now new monitors come with several ports, like HDMI, DisplayPort, Mini DisplayPort, and USB-C. Without these ports and connectivity, you won’t be able to connect your laptop to the monitor. Look for the monitor with HDMI connectivity. If your laptop comes with an HDMI port, then you need the standard HDMI cable to hook the laptop with your monitor. A lot of budget computer monitors still use a VGA port. If you opt for the monitor with a VGA port, then you need to buy an additional adapter that converts HDMI to VGA. Setting up your second screenNow that you have decided on which monitor to buy, it’s time to hook up your display to a Windows computer or Mac. Setup is not complicated but you need to follow some steps. For Windows *Right-click on the desktop and select Display settings to open the Display page. *Scroll down to Multiple displays. *Select Extend desktop. *From here, you can configure the brightness, resolution, and orientation of both screens. For Mac *Tap the Apple menu and click System Preferences. *Click on Displays. *Click on the Arrangement tab. *Make sure that Mirror Displays is unchecked. Surprising things you can do with your Nintendo Switch at homeAdvantages of dual-screen setup*By having two screens, a user can run multiple applications. For instance, on the laptop, you can edit a photo while on the external screen browse the web or watch a video. *Another big advantage of working on two screens is greater work meeting flow. Imagine you can use Zoom on one monitor while you access an important presentation needed for meetings on the other monitor. Note: Make sure that your graphics card supports multiple monitors.
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It is such a waste to only use the LCD for desktop computers. Connecting it up with a laptop PC has many merits for the user and can also bring out the latent power of the laptop. Note: Below is the translation from the Japanese of the ITmedia article "The dual display in Windows 7 is now even more convenient" published March 1, 2010. Copyright 2011 ITmedia Inc. All Rights Reserved. An "external" LCD expands the potential of a laptop computerMost laptops have a handy "external display output" port. It can be used in the home to transmit videos played on the laptop to a large screen TV or, in the office, to connect up with a projector for presentations. In fact, there must be many users who already use it like this. However, people tend to use just the laptop in their daily routine and there are probably not so many cases where they use the external display output.
This time we would like to suggest a style that can be used in both the home and the office, where a laptop and stand-alone LCD remain connected. A laptop already has an LCD, but using it with an additional stand-alone LCD offers various merits. Not only does it make the laptop environment more pleasant and convenient, it also expands the potential of the computer itself, for example by making it possible to use it for new purposes. Even if the LCD is already connected to a desktop computer and being used for something other than the laptop, most monitors nowadays have two or more video inputs and they tend not to use this capability to the full. It is such a waste to let the laptop's external display output function and the monitor's video input function remain dormant, so we would like them to be put to effective use. Of course, we would also recommend the introduction of a new LCD to connect to your laptop. Using a large screen and high resolution with a laptop makes it even more user-friendlyThe biggest merit of connecting a laptop with a stand-alone LCD is that it gives you a large screen and high resolution dual display environment. Standard laptop models usually come with a built-in 13-inch to 15-inch wide-screen LCD with a 1280 × 800 dot or 1366 × 768 dot resolution. This level of resolution is good enough for basic Windows operations, but it goes without saying that a large, high-resolution computer screen is much more user-friendly. Combining a laptop with one of the latest wide-screen monitors enables you to easily construct a large-screen, high-resolution dual display environment. It is a real boon to dramatically boost the screen size and resolution while continuing to use your familiar laptop. In particular, the increased vertical resolution makes applications such as web browsers and document display and editing far easier to use. For example, you can do things like check things with the web browser, refer to pdf files, organize data using word processing or presentation software, and create spread sheets and documents without having to change windows. Another plus is that you can create the luxury of a "watching while" environment where you run the web browser, for instance, on the laptop's built-in LCD and watch the video content on the large screen of the external monitor. This can be really useful for hobbies too. For example, while playing a game on the large external LCD screen you can check out strategies on websites, post information on a BBS or communicate with other users.
At the office, it is very helpful for presentations to use "clone view" for the laptop's built-in LCD and the external LCD screen. Clone view means showing exactly the same content on two display screens. It is normally set by a graphics driver function.
When holding small meetings it is certainly very convenient to be able to offer simple explanations of the presentation materials displayed on the external LCD, rather than having to ready a projector. Being able to explain about what is displayed on the screen means fewer documents to distribute, helping your office to "go paperless", which can only be a good thing. We would like to point out here that you should check in advance the maximum resolution that the laptop's external display output can handle. This can be found in documents such as the laptop's specifications chart and support information. This is because, although most laptops can handle output up to 1920 × 1080 dots or 1920 × 1200 dots, some slightly older computers have an upper limit of 1680 × 1050 dots or 1600 × 1200 dots. Even if the upper limit is 1680 × 1050 dots, the LCD can still display the data if its own resolution is 1680 × 1050 dots or higher. In such cases, it is better to use a monitor that offers dot-by-dot display, which displays the input resolution as it is, or enlarged display, which maintains the screen's aspect ratio as it is. You do not need to worry because EIZO wide-screen LCDs can handle such display methods (although in some cases they do not function properly depending on the laptop computer or input resolution).
The superb usability of an EIZO wide-screen LCD to connect with a laptop computerWe would recommend a wide-screen model with a screen resolution of 1920 × 1080 dots (Full HD) or 1920 × 1200 dots (WUXGA) as the LCD to connect to a laptop, so that you can make full use of the advantages of dual display. EIZO has an extensive line up of wide-screen LCDs which can offer many benefits, in addition to the merits of a large screen and high resolution, when used with a laptop for dual display. One such feature is the flexible stand adjustment. For example, the tilt, swivel and height can be adjusted for the FlexScan SX2462W, a 24.1-inch WUXGA model, and the FlexScan EV2333, a 23-inch full HD model. This enables users to adjust the screen position for easy viewing according to their own posture, which not only boosts work efficiency but also reduces physical strain.
The SX2462W is also equipped with vertical display function, turning the screen through 90 degrees. Vertical display is really handy when viewing elongated documents, graphics or web pages. In addition, when used as a standard horizontal screen, a 24.1 wide-screen, with its 518.4 × 324.0 mm display area, can display two A4 sheets, in other words one A3 (420 × 297 mm) in actual size. As well as being very useful in areas such as graphics or desk top publishing, this is also bound to come in handy when checking large business or accounting documents.
We must not forget that EIZO's wide-screen LCDs have non-glare screens (processed to reduce ambient light reflection). Nowadays the trend is for laptops to have an LCD with glare (glossy) surface treatment. While these can display images in bright color, reflected ambient light can sometimes be distracting. A laptop screen is not so large and adjusting its angle can avoid the reflection of lights and so on, however it is not so easy with the large screen of an external LCD. When it comes to the large screen of an LCD in habitual use, a non-glare type that is not reflective is probably easier to see, as well as being kinder on the eyes. A large screen, high resolution and non-glare ensure that you can comfortably continue viewing over a prolonged period of time.
Another distinctive feature of EIZO wide-screen LCDs is a commitment to energy saving. They incorporate various power saving features that support "EcoView". A pivotal feature is the "EcoView Sense" adopted in the FlexScan EV series, such as the EV2333W.
This is the motion sensor on the front of the LCD. It constantly monitors the user's movements to automatically take finely-tuned power saving measures. To be more precise, if the user's presence is not detected for a specified period of time, for example if he leaves his seat, the monitor automatically switches to power save mode, and then automatically switches back when the user's presence is detected again. Other features include "Auto EcoView", which automatically optimizes the brightness of the LCD based on ambient lighting, and "EcoView Index", which displays a meter on the screen showing how much power is being saved. All these features can be expected to have a strong energy saving effect and to boost the user's awareness of power saving, making them particularly useful in the office.
Insist on good image quality for your laptop with an EIZO displayRecently some high-end laptop computers, such as the Sony VAIO F, are insisting on good display quality for their LCDs. However, a typical laptop's built-in LCD does not have as good image quality as a stand-alone LCD. This is only natural since the costs allowed for display quality are completely different for an LCD incorporated into the PC as one of its parts and a specialized LCD. However, by using an EIZO wide-screen LCD a laptop user can still fully enjoy such benefits of a stand-alone high-quality LCD as excellent color reproduction, a wide viewing angle, more even display and a wealth of items that can be adjusted to improve image quality. This is a crucial point for people who use their computer for photographs and videos in particular. EIZO's wide-screen LCDs emphasize color reproduction, and the coloration in sRGB mode has a high degree of accuracy. The standard color gamut used in PC environments and Internet content is sRGB, so you need have no worries about viewing or editing videos and photographs. They can also display images on web pages, such as products in online shops or goods for sale in online auctions, in colors that are very close to the real thing. (This is also influenced by how the seller took the photographs and processed the images, so we cannot say that the colors will always be accurate.) Furthermore, in addition to sRGB color gamut accuracy, the high resolution-oriented FlexScan SX has the added benefit of covering more than 95% of Adobe RGB. Adobe RGB is a color gamut whose definitions encompass more highly-saturated colors than sRGB. In other words, it can represent a larger number of colors and brighter hues than sRGB. Adobe RGB is the de facto standard in the publishing field and, closer to home, is used in digital SLR cameras and high grade compact digital cameras. The FlexScan SX series can reproduce the colors of photos taken in Adobe RGB mode with almost perfect accuracy on the screen. Retouching photographs proceeds more efficiently since subtle differences in color can be checked on the screen. ITmedia LCD Course II, Lesson 1: The important thing is being able to display "true color" – An explanation of LCD "color gamut".
In this case, if the image is edited on the external LCD with its high color reproducibility and the many tool palettes in the application are grouped in the laptop's built-in LCD, there is less need to display or hide the tool palettes or to switch back and forth, and the image data to be edited can be displayed in a large form, making for more efficient work.
Going back to the subject of laptop computers, it is not going too far to say that applications and functions are being spoiled in laptops whose built-in LCD's image quality is not too good. Connecting a laptop to a monitor with high image quality dispels any concerns about work that deals with colors and also helps to bring out the laptop's potential. Combining an EIZO wide-screen LCD with a laptop computer makes viewing videos and images even more fun. Just being able to see them on a large screen is a pleasure, but what makes it even better is that our LCDs are equipped with Fine Contrast, the optimum image quality mode for video and visuals. You can also use the Custom mode to create the image quality you prefer. We recommend a EIZO wide-screen LCD for connection to a laptopWe expect that you now understand how displaying screens from a laptop computer on a stand-alone LCD can create a very pleasant environment. It feels as if your everyday laptop has been transformed into a completely different desktop machine. Even if you only use laptop computers, it is definitely worthwhile to add a stand-alone LCD. When choosing the type of LCD the most important consideration is to choose one with overall high quality. When it comes to that, we can recommend EIZO wide-screen LCDs to a broad range of laptop users. In addition to their high image quality, EIZO wide-screen LCD are built with careful attention to detail, including non-glare screens, versatile stand features, dot-by-dot capability, abundant image quality modes, and our proprietary eco-functions. We want you to make full use of your beloved laptop computer along with an EIZO wide-screen LCD.
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