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You are finally ready to buy the perfect new PC monitor or update your old one. You have your card out and are super excited – why wouldn’t you be? But then, terms you’ve never heard of like “FHD” and “60 Hz refresh rate” are thrown at you, making you want to save yourself the trouble and buy the best-looking PC monitor you can find for a low price. However, with the prices of PC monitors in Australia ranging from around 149 AUD to even 2400 AUD, there are clearly several differences in the models’ features to warrant the wide price range.
Well, we believe you deserve to spend your money on a PC monitor that serves your needs best, whether you’re looking to buy gaming monitors or a monitor for the work PC. That’s why we’ve put together this quick guide explaining all the basic terminology you need to know to make your choice:
Table of Contents
Resolution
No matter what purpose you plan to use your PC monitor for, the resolution of the screen is something that will be important to the user experience. The resolution is the number of pixels in a monitor given in a width by height format. But all that you need to know is the higher the resolution, the more the number of pixels and the better the picture quality.
Here are the most common resolutions found in PC monitors:
- 720p Resolution – the terms HD, HD Ready and HD Standard is also used to refer to this
- 1080p Resolution – some other terms that refer to this are Full HD and FHD
- 1440p Resolution – the terms QHD, WQHD and 2K are also used to describe this
- 4K Resolution – This is sometimes also called Ultra HD, UHD, or 4K UHD
But do keep in mind that more pixels don’t necessarily guarantee a better viewing experience. In fact, the best resolution can depend on the viewer and also on the size of the monitor, so definitely experience monitors of different resolutions before making your decision.
Refresh Rate
For those looking to buy gaming monitors, the refresh rate will certainly be an important consideration. The refresh rate is the rate at which the monitor is updated with new information. The refresh rate is measured in Hertz (Hz), which tells you the number of times the monitor is “refreshed” in one second.
The general rule is that a higher refresh rate results in smoother image transitions. For non-gamers, 75 Hz is a good refresh rate for comfortable use.
Aspect Ratio
The aspect ratio of a monitor is simply the ratio of the monitor’s width to its height. Some common aspect ratios in monitors today are:
- 16:9
- 21:9
The 16:9 is arguably the most commonly seen aspect ratio in TVs and monitors, but you may find a lot of gaming monitors with the 21:0 aspect ratio as well.
Pixel Response Time
This aspect of a monitor will mainly be of interest to the gamers out there. The pixel response time is how long a pixel on the monitor takes to change colour (typically from black to white or between different shades of grey). Pixel response times are measures in milliseconds (ms), and almost in all cases, a faster response time – smaller value in ms – results in a better gaming experience. A faster response time helps avoid blurry images and image ghosting.
That’s all we have for you! Now all that’s left is to walk into a store or browse through your favourite online store and buy the perfect monitor!
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