I currently have a 23" 1080p IPS monitor (iiyama X2377HS) which works quite well for me but just doesn't seem to offer enough space. I do quite a lot of coding (primarily C++ in emacs on linux) and commonly need to have both source and header files open as well as a terminal and documentation. If I need all of these at once it tends to leaver barely any space to each individual component. I have also tried reducing my font size a bit to fit more into each section, but I don't really like taking my code below about 11pt as it starts to give me eye-strain after a while.
Due to this I'm thinking about getting a second monitor. Thoughts I've had:
- Grab the cheapest 1080p IPS availaible, possibly mount one of the pair in portrait.
- Get a 1080p 21:9 Ultrawide, use both, with the Ultrawide as my main monitor (These seem expensive for what they are).
- Get a QHD. Use it alone or with current monitor.
- Get a 4K. Use it alone or with current monitor. (The 4K's don't seem to carry a huge premium over QHD's especially considering the extra pixels)
Budget is: ideally as little as possible (Student here and my code isn't actually making me any money), but I would also be willing to spend more on the "right" solution.
I would probably like the monitor to be IPS if only for the viewing angles and brighter colours. I'm not especially worried about colour accuracy, any work I do on art is not going to be overly colour sensitive as it will be something that is designed to be viewed on anyone's monitor, not print work or anything.
Thoughts?