Introduction
Since the arrival of the TFT display, there has been very little reason, aside from the price, to not go for the largest screen possible. A large model isn’t deeper than a smaller display, so not much extra space is needed. The rapid rise of the LED backlight technology has made many 27-inch monitors less power hungry than 22-inch models from a few years back. A large screen provides a more immersive experience when playing games and watching films, while editing photos and videos is easier due to the extra size.
There aren’t many real drawbacks, in other words. The current generation of large displays generally neglect to utilise one potential advantage, however, which is the room for more pixels that's there for the taking. Whether you have a 22-inch monitor or one with a diameter of 27 inch, all display sizes have a resolution of 1920x1080 (Full HD). The majority of 27-inch monitors have the same number of pixels and desktop space as a 22-inch model.
1920x1080 is not a bad resolution at all, but it’s not really enough to show two websites next to each other, or to display a large spreadsheet. It therefore would seem like an obvious choice to implement higher resolutions in large displays. In reality this rarely happens, which has to do with the price. Panels with higher resolutions are significantly more expensive. As long as the demand for more desktop space isn’t there, manufacturers will opt for affordable screens to keep prices low for consumers.
Luckily we are beginning to see some movement in the 27-inch market. Several companies now have displays with 2560x1440 resolution. This results in a 77-percent increase in pixels, and therefore much more desktop space. We tested six of these higher resolution monitors, the rest of the models in our test are traditional Full HD displays.
