The Productivity Monitor Buying Guide for 2025

[gentle upbeat music]

So my first video of 2025,

I wanted to cover

some of my favourite monitors

and share what you should be considering,

what you should be thinking

about when buying a monitor.

So who is this video for?

You want a productivity based monitor,

something that will help you
get your work done.

You want high resolution

for sharp text, for sharp elements,
things like that.

And maybe you're also someone

who does design work,
photo editing, video editing,

so colour accuracy is also important.

So one of the first things
to consider is size,

monitors can of course
come in so many different sizes.

You can get them as small as 15 inches

or you can go as big as a TV

if that's what you're into.

From my experience and for most people

sitting at a normal desk,

a good monitor size
is between 27 to 32 inches.

It's why so many monitors
on sale these days

are around that size.

Resolution.

So resolution matters a lot

when you're sitting at a desk

and looking at the monitor.

It's not like sitting and watching a TV

where you'll have many feet away.

When you have a monitor on your desk,

you're naturally sat a lot closer to it,

which also means that information density

also needs to be higher.

That then means you're going
to more likely see individual pixels.

High resolution monitors

tend to make things like text
and UI elements much sharper.

But then you also have to think about PPI,

which stands for pixels per inch.

The more pixels per inch,

the sharper the display looks.

So naturally smaller 4K displays

look much sharper than larger ones.

For some people this will matter a lot.

For others it won't,

it also totally depends on your use case.

If you do any sort of design work,

PPI will probably matter a lot to you.

I do a lot of design work,

so it matters a lot to me.

It actually matters.

So my size

at the top of my list of requirements

for a productivity monitor,

so much so that I'm actually willing

to compromise on other features

to have a higher dense

PPE, IPS, mini-led.

And so I'm going to try

and keep this pen fairly simple.

I'm not going to go super into detail

because of course

there is a lot that we can go into here.

I just want to make it easy

for the average person to understand.

So IPC is actually

what is the most common one I'm on.

It says it's also more affordable

compared to things like Mini-Led and LED.

It's reliable, relatively

quick for productivity.

However, it's usually just one

or a couple of LEDs

that are lighting up the display

at once, which, to be fair,

is great for productivity work

and I actually think will be fine

for most people.

But if you're someone

who likes to use their displays

to watch movies,

you won't get really deep blacks.

And if you like to play games,

it just won't be as responsive

as an OLED display.

Mini LED displays are simply IPS displays

with lots of different needs lighting up

the display independently,

which also means that

if there is a dark part of the screen,

the media

in that part of the screen can turn off.

Now that doesn't mean it turns

individual pixels off, it just turns off.

So if the patch, a patch of the display,

when you have parts of the display

that you can turn off,

it also means that you can get true

deep blacks mini LED displays

could also get much brighter.

The standard displays.

But like I said, the downside

is that the LEDs work in patches.

So you know,

there is a part of the screen where

there's one really by element

and then one very dark element.

It can cause some blooming.

It's one of the downsides of many LEDs.

It's not going to be perfect.

And this is where light comes in,

which is different from IPS and mini LED

outlet tonnes

each and every single pixel

into its own and add on the display,

which results in a truly

fantastic experience.

When you're watching movies

and playing games.

However, it's

not perfect

and there are definitely some cons

they're usually not as bright

as IPS displays and Mini-Led display,

so they're not ideal

for brightly lit rooms.

You've got to control

the lighting in your room a bit more.

There's also risk of burning.

So if you plan to use your only display

for looking at a spreadsheet

for 8 hours of the day,

the risk of burning is quite high.

But these displays are getting better

at negating this, offering

all sorts of longevity options.

And if you are someone

who regularly changes

what's on your display,

the risk of burn in actually comes down

quite a lot aspect ratio.

So most monitors are usually 16

by nine is pretty much

become the standard.

However, you also get ultrawide displays

and they've become very,

very popular over the last few years.

The aspect ratio of those can vary

depending on the ultrawide display.

There's also one very unique monitor

I've actually covered on the channel

called the LG Julep,

which has an aspect ratio of 16 by 18.

So it's actually taller than it is wide.

I particularly like this monitor

because I can see it

actually being very useful

for very specific wide applications.

However, I usually like to avoid using

these different types of aspect ratios

unless I have an actual purpose

and stick to 16 by nine.

And the main reason

I like to stick to 16 by nine

and why I would recommend

sticking to 16 by nine

is that usually the higher resolution

and the have better pixel density

resulting in sharper

text elements on the display.

Now when it comes to ones that I recommend,

I want to cover monitors that are primarily

made for productivity,

some of the monitors that I mentioned,

I do also happen to be good for gaming.

These monitors are also currently

available to buy,

so I don't want to cover

sort of random brands,

random monitors for random websites.

I wanted to make it so that you could

pick it up quite easily from Amazon

or from other major retailer.

I also have one main goal

when choosing these monitors.

All of the monitors

have to be 4K resolution

and up for light because it's 2025.

Now, unless you're a gamer

who needs low resolution, high refresh rate

monitors, 4K

monitors, just make sense.

Also, because I'm a case,

this is going to be Mac user biased

because I primarily use Mac

for productivity.

So first up is the gigabyte M 27 U,

which has a budget option of around 4

to $500 depending on where you're looking.

I've actually had the

M 28 U and the

I think the M 32 U,

which are fantastic monitors.

The M 27 U

is simply an updated

version and it's 27 inches

as a 4K panel at 160.

And like I said, it's 27 inches,

which gives you a pie of 163,

which is pretty decent.

It has a usb-c port, which does mean

you can have one cable set up

with something like a MacBook.

However, it only provides

18 watts of power,

which is actually quite low.

I think if you're a MacBook user

might be able to get away with it.

But for someone like me

who's using a MacBook

Pro and in video editing,

you're doing something quite heavy.

18 Washes

isn't going to be powerful enough.

It's marketed as a gaming monitor,

but it also makes for a really

good productivity monitor.

And with it being sort of $500,

you actually won't really find

a better monitor right now

at this sort of price.

Next up we have the Asus

Pro five K display,

and this is actually a fairly new monitor

that's just been released on the market.

This is probably the best

studio display

alternative right now.

So for someone who was interested

in the studio display,

I would highly recommend looking at this.

It's actually right here, although I have

it has the same a 4K resolution, but

pretty much half the price of the studio

display is 27

inches Africa resolution,

which means a PI of 218,

which is exactly what Apple

tried to go for in their displays.

But unlike a lot of the 4K

displays that you might see on the market

that advertise themselves as five K,

this is actually

a true five K resolution.

It has a resolution of 1520

by 2880.

This monitor is also purely

designed for productivity

and what it is an IPS panel then.

So no led, but

it is a pro display

and access pro

line is specially designed

for colour accuracy.

So if you do any sort of design,

photo editing, video editing,

this monitor will be ideal.

Now the only downside is

of course, that it's 60 hearts.

But I do think unless you're

someone who wants to do

high refresh rate gaming,

it's not really going to be an issue.

It has a usb-c port that can provide

a 96 watts of power,

making it ideal for one

cable sets up with something

like a MacBook Pro.

And of course, unlike the standard

display has a DISPLAYPORT an HDMI port.

So you can connect other things as well.

You're not limited to a thunderbolt cable,

so you could connect a games

console as well if you like.

If you want older

and you want a glossy display,

the MSI 3 to 1,

your axe is one of the best right now.

I actually did a video on this last year

as I feel like it's a great one.

Monitor for everything.

If you plan to do work and you want to

game, it's 32 inches

at 4K resolution.

It has a refresh rate

of 240 highs,

making it ideal

for both console and PC gamers.

240,000 is also

just insanely smooth.

In general, it's a glossy display too,

which I know most people

actually preferring these days.

It has a usb-c port with power

delivery of 90 once again

making it ideal for one cable set up.

Now, of course, the downside of OLED is

that there is a risk of burning

and they don't get very bright.

If you're someone

who can't control the light in your room,

the brightness of light

won't really be an issue.

And with this being a glossy display,

I feel like it's as close to an apple

like experience that you can get.

It's also $1,000,

which at this price point

you will find anything better

and I expect it to also get cheaper

over the next year.

If you're specifically looking for

a 4K OLED

glossy display,

this really is one of the best options

right now.

Next up is the studio display.

So I still recommend this to those

who just want a monitor that works

right out of the box.

I get countless messages from

friends asking, Hey, look,

I'm not into tech or anything.

I want something that just blacks

and I'm willing to spend the cash.

What should I get?

And my default recommendation

is always the studio display.

It's 27 inches a five curve resolution,

but it is only 60 hertz.

It has a beautiful design

that's made from aluminium and glass.

It comes with a thunderbolt cable

that you simply connect to a mac

and it works right away, not having to mess

around with any settings.

Now of course,

this is only designed for Mac users

if you're a Windows user,

any of the three previous monitors

I feel like are better options

and it's not cheap.

It's 1599, which I think is a lot of money.

And now that I have this monitor

a 4K resolution,

unless you specifically want

the studio display

for its design,

for the webcam,

for the speakers or whatever,

this is just much better value.

But if you're someone

who just wants something that works

and you want the aesthetic

of the apple displaying

of like apple and everything

and you want to match your MacBook.

Yeah, I think that was true.

Their display is a good option.

Now those are my recommendations,

the ones that I would recommend

for most people.

However, my personal

What monitor is the apple Pro display?

XDR, which is an insane laser,

is 32 inches high resolution

and mini LCD,

which means it gets super bright.

It's honestly insane how bright

this monitor gets.

However, it is a $4,999,

so it's not targeted

or meant for consumers at all.

This is very much a high end

professional display

specially designed

for specific use cases.

I do a lot of design work photo editing,

but I think I do that on a daily basis.

So the five K investment for me,

even though it was a lot of money to spend

actually with it,

but was, I can make that back

very easily

from doing the work that I do now.

I'm sure

by the end of the year

the landscape of monitors

will have changed again.

So I will have to do an updated video.

I feel like

this is one of those videos

that has to be done every year.

The tech is just moving so fast

and every year

we're seeing some incredible uptake,

some incredible technology

coming to these monitors.

I also wouldn't be surprised

to see Apple update both the studio display

and the pro display, XDR to have 120 hertz.

Now that Thunderbolt five is out

because I don't think a lot of people

realise the limiting factor

and why you don't really see five

or six K

more than 60 hertz

is because

you just can't have that much data

running through the standard

sort of thunderbolt cable.

Now that Thunderbolt five is out there,

we should be able to get it.

Right

now, though, at the date

that I'm uploading this video,

the options that I've mentioned

I think are great.

So hopefully you guys enjoy this video.

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