Monitor resolution, ppi, and size for document work?

[Mont Blanc]

I’m a bit confused about resolution/PPI and would appreciate a bit of a steer.

95% of my work is documents/Word/Excel, and a little bit of RAW photo editing in Lightroom.

I currently use a pair of Dell IPS 24” monitors which, when I first bought them years ago, honestly looked really pixelated. Blocky text and so on. But then again I was comparing them to my MacBook Retina screen.

I’m now used to them, but they still don’t look amazing, and text does look so much crisper and nicer to read on my MacBook.

Seen as how I spend 7-8 hours per day staring at my screens reading and editing documents, I would like to upgrade to something better to look at.

Since my Dell screens are now a 10 year old model, I assumed that pretty much anything would now be better as everyone is throwing around terms like Ultra HD, 4K, 8K, etc, but it appears I am mistaken?

I have checked, and my Dell screens have a resolution of 92ppi. My MacBook screen has a resolution of 227ppi.

I was hopeful that a modern monitor would get me a bit more than 92ppi. I would also like to ditch the dual screen and go for a single larger screen as I dislike the break in the centre of the two screens.

I looked at an MSI 40” ‘Ultra HD screen at £299 and found it to be only 93ppi.

I then looked at a few more and it looks like once you get up to 40” or thereabouts the resolution is no better than what I have now.

Ideally I would like to stick with a size of 40” ish as the combined size of my 2 monitors now is 43” and I do use most of the space every day.

What sort of resolution do you all find acceptable for document work?

I’m beginning to suspect that I’ll be no better off in resolution by changing for a new screen, unless I spend a billion pounds on something really high end?

Thanks

[Cupid-stunt]

This is something that has been alluding me as well.
I was thinking with Black Friday approaching, now would be a good time to get a larger monitor.
An ultra widescreen one maybe ... like at work.
Those are approx £1k so it's a hard swerve, and instead look at somewhere 1/3 of the price.

But like the OP, massively confused as most seem to be gaming monitors.
My time is spent on contracts so WORD / PDF files and mostly with Excel... not sure a refresh rate really matters too much.

No answer to the questions raised, but definitely interested to hear the wisdom of this parish.

Your not alone buddy.

[Mr Pointy]

It's not just about the PPI - Macs have a different way of scaling output for different screen resolutions which means you will get variable quality results if you aren't using a 5120x2880 display (or exact submultiple of it). Apple will sell you one if you open your wallet far enough.

https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay/wiki/Ma...
https://appleinsider.com/inside/macos/tips/what-is...

There's lots of other links if you search. A 27" Dell 4K (3840x2160) screen has 163ppi but if you go up to the 35" 5120x2160 model it drops to 140ppi so in general a 27" wil have the highest ppi.

If you work a lot with documents have you tried turning the monitor to portrait orientation?

[Mr E]

Is this not just a function of resolution and screen size.
If you want high ppi on a big screen, you need mega resolution and will feel some pain in the wallet.
2x 27” @4k works for me.

[Mont Blanc]

Mr Pointy said:

It's not just about the PPI - Macs have a different way of scaling output for different screen resolutions which means you will get variable quality results if you aren't using a 5120x2880 display (or exact submultiple of it). Apple will sell you one if you open your wallet far enough.

https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay/wiki/Ma...
https://appleinsider.com/inside/macos/tips/what-is...

There's lots of other links if you search. A 27" Dell 4K (3840x2160) screen has 163ppi but if you go up to the 35" 5120x2160 model it drops to 140ppi so in general a 27" wil have the highest ppi.

If you work a lot with documents have you tried turning the monitor to portrait orientation?

My apologies, this is my fault entirely for not mentioning it, but I'm using the screens connected to a PC (HP ProBook from work) via a newish HP dock. They are not connected to my MacBook.

I'm simply using the MacBook as a side computer for other tasks.

Appreciate the links, they are useful, thank you. Maybe another pair of Dell monitors is the way forward, but I would really like a single large one or ultra-wide.

[Mont Blanc]

Cupid-stunt said:

This is something that has been alluding me as well.
I was thinking with Black Friday approaching, now would be a good time to get a larger monitor.
An ultra widescreen one maybe ... like at work.
Those are approx £1k so it's a hard swerve, and instead look at somewhere 1/3 of the price.

But like the OP, massively confused as most seem to be gaming monitors.
My time is spent on contracts so WORD / PDF files and mostly with Excel... not sure a refresh rate really matters too much.

No answer to the questions raised, but definitely interested to hear the wisdom of this parish.

Your not alone buddy.

Yep, it is a bit confusing. I keep seeing loads of large monitors at a decent price, but they turn out to be for gaming and the resolution is quite low. This really surprises me as I would have thought the gaming community demanded uber-resolution to go with their super-duper ray-tracing graphics and all that sort of stuff.

Mr E said:

Is this not just a function of resolution and screen size.
If you want high ppi on a big screen, you need mega resolution and will feel some pain in the wallet.
2x 27 @4k works for me.

It is, you are right about size and resolution, but considering you can buy a big 75" 8K TV (119ppi) from the likes of LG for £1300, I would have thought a 40" (ish) display panel of similar resolution, minus all the TV, computing, amps, and speakers stuff, would be fairly cheap? £400-500ish?

I'm probably getting too caught up in the ppi figures, but it seems to me the only way of selecting something that will actually produce a nice sharp image.

Edited by Mont Blanc on Wednesday 26th November 08:32

[ATG]

If you don't want to see pixels you need small, tightly packed physical pixels on the screen ... i.e. a high DPI ... and you need your computer to actually use those pixels individually ... i.e. you configure your computer to drive the screen at its native resolution.

I work with documents, like to have a lot of stuff open simultaneously and like smooth, pretty hi res text, so I use a pair of 4k 32" monitors being driven at native resolution. They're Samsung monitors and they only cost a couple of hundred quid each, iirc. So it's pretty cheap and pretty hi res. And I'm driving them with a Raspberry pi running as a thin client. Pretty good compromise. My laptop has a 3k 13" screen which is definitely a bit prettier having something like 250dpi rather than 140ish for the 4k screens, but the 4k screens are still pretty good.

[mmm-five]

Samsung 34" S65TC (LS34C650TAUXXU) 3440x1440 @ 109PPI - £439

LG 34" 34WR50QK 3440x1440 @ 109PPI - £199

Philips 499P9H 5120x1440 @ 108PPI - £750

Dell Ultrasharp U4924DW 5120x1440 @ 108PPI - £1200

LG 49" 49WQ95C-W 5120x1440 @ 108PPI - £1400

I use an Apple Studio Display with my Mac, but that's only 27" and would natively be 217ppi...but you don't run it at native 5k resultion, it runs at half resolution (2560x1440p) by default (as will your Macbook)...but uses some trickery to make the image look sharper than a standard 2560x1440p monitor does. I've got a 27" LG display of that size, and a 34" Alienware OLED and neither can match the text rendering quality of the Studio Display when connected to the Mac.

Edited by mmm-five on Wednesday 26th November 12:12

[Mont Blanc]

ATG said:

If you don't want to see pixels you need small, tightly packed physical pixels on the screen ... i.e. a high DPI ... and you need your computer to actually use those pixels individually ... i.e. you configure your computer to drive the screen at its native resolution.

I work with documents, like to have a lot of stuff open simultaneously and like smooth, pretty hi res text, so I use a pair of 4k 32" monitors being driven at native resolution. They're Samsung monitors and they only cost a couple of hundred quid each, iirc. So it's pretty cheap and pretty hi res. And I'm driving them with a Raspberry pi running as a thin client. Pretty good compromise. My laptop has a 3k 13" screen which is definitely a bit prettier having something like 250dpi rather than 140ish for the 4k screens, but the 4k screens are still pretty good.

I think having 2 x screens at 4K is something I will end up having to do, as the resolution seems stretched awfully thin once you look at a single large widescreen monitor.

I acknowledge that simply due to physics and screen size, I won't get any monitor that has the same 227ppi that my MacBook does (unless I spend £2200 on a 32" Dell 6K Ultrasharp) , but Having something 140-150ish would be a huge improvement in clarity on 92ppi for each of my current Dell screens.

[Mont Blanc]

mmm-five said:

Samsung 34" S65TC (LS34C650TAUXXU) 3440x1440 @ 109PPI - £439

LG 34" 34WR50QK 3440x1440 @ 109PPI - £199

Philips 499P9H 5120x1440 @ 108PPI - £750

Dell Ultrasharp U4924DW 5120x1440 @ 108PPI - £1200

LG 49" 49WQ95C-W 5120x1440 @ 108PPI - £1400

I use an Apple Studio Display with my Mac, but that's only 27" and would natively be 217ppi...but you don't run it at native 5k resultion, it runs at half resolution (2560x1440p) by default (as will your Macbook)...but uses some trickery to make the image look sharper than a standard 2560x1440p monitor does. I've got a 27" LG display of that size, and a 34" Alienware OLED and neither can match the text rendering quality of the Studio Display when connected to the Mac.

Thanks. Those options are really helpful

[Mandat]

Here's an extract from PC Pro magazine in September 2025 with advice on choosing a monitor.

[Captain_Morgan]

Just been through this for my wife, we use Samsung S8 27” 4K screens at home, now my wife is looking for a screen in London when up there for work.

The cheapest 4K screen with hight adjustment on Amazon is
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0D7HKGVTJ/?coliid=I1D...

If you need a usb-c connection and built in usb hub & ethernet port then it’s
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-LS27D800UAUXXU-Ul...

And some folk are keen on 40” 5120 x 2160 which is kinda equivalent to 2 4K screens joined together but obviously without the join between them, but pricy.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lenovo-ThinkVision-P40w-2...