Dive into our guide for choosing the perfect monitor without breaking the bank, covering panel types, resolutions, and more. USB-C has one specific disadvantage, and it’s the fact that many laptops have a limited number of USB-C ports. In that case, you may find you’ll need to get a USB-C hub to widen your options. Make sure it has a passthrough for the power supply, and ideally an extra USB-C port too. Many hubs also have an HDMI connection for added versatility. When purchasing technology of any kind, it’s understandable to wonder whether a new model is just around the corner. Moreover, the questioning might then turn to how long your potential new product will last. The issue at hand is that our society has been taught to replace a product, as opposed to maintaining it. How often have you considered selling your existing product to simply buy the latest version?

Other mention-worthy features are its on-screen scaling overlay, the ability to daisy-chain two screens together via its DisplayPort, and the decent number of ports including the one USB-C. A great display for the price. The monitor’s 15.6-inch 1080p OLED panel delivers exceptional color accuracy, gamut, and contrast. It surpasses many full-sized OLED monitors and nearly all portable monitors. This makes it a great choice for productivity, though it also looks excellent when viewing movies or playing games. Your Apple display automatically turns on when you plug it into power and connect it to your iPad ( supported models) using the Thunderbolt cable included with the display. Your iPad charges while connected to the display.The Asus ProArt PA348CGV is a spectacular ultrawide USB-C monitor. It manages to serve a huge range of people, from gamers to prosumers and professionals, without letting anyone down. To get this working, though, you need to be very careful with cable selection. If your monitor comes with a USB-C cable, then this is the obvious choice of cable to use, and should 'just work'. However not every monitor comes with every cable. In addition, we’d recommend choosing a new HDMI cable unless you’re confident that yours is fairly new. The HDMI specification has also changed over time, and older cables might not give you HD, or even 4K. For the best performance, look for HDMI 2.0 or HDMI 2.1, but anything over 1.4 should function.

Matthew S. Smith is a freelance technology journalist with 15 years of experience reviewing consumer electronics. In addition to PCWorld, his work can be found on Wired, Ars Technica, Digital Trends, Reviewed, IGN, and Lifewire. Matthew also covers AI and the metaverse for IEEE Spectrum and runs Computer Gaming Yesterday, a YouTube channel devoted to PC gaming history. All taskbars: The taskbar buttons for all your open windows will be duplicated on the taskbars on each display. It comes with everything you need, minus a full desktop PC inside. That includes useful multitasking features, different creative colour modes, impressive colour coverage, and naturally, an intelligent webcam that delivers up to 4K at 30 fps or 1080p at 60fps video and comes with a SafeShutter feature. For your ultimate productivity, there's even an Auto KVM (Keyboard, Mouse, Video)feature and what Dell calls "Fast Wake," which allows you to use its power button to wake both the monitor itself and your computer. Microsoft for Business CouponExclusive: 20% off select Surface Pro 9 for Business + Type Cover Bundle Versatile connectivity: Easily charge and connect your laptop with USB-C connectivity and 65W of power delivery. This single-cable solution reduces cable clutter for a clutter-free desktop and transmits power, video, audio and data—all at once.As a hook-up, USB-C to USB-C can be ideal - you can have just one cable carrying the video signal, data (e.g. for the calibration side of things, or to enable downstream USB/ SD card ports on the monitor, audio (if your monitor has speakers, or an audio output) - AND even power. But USB-C without Thunderbolt is still capable of handling video output, data transfer, and even charging. There are already monitors mentioned here that can charge a USB-C laptop while it's in use down the same cable that sends the video output. It's neat, it's effective, and it is the future. USB-C has been around for a few years now, but gradually it is being accepted as the new standard. As more and more laptops and desktop PCs embrace it, having a monitor with the feature will become extremely convenient. Unless you’re limiting yourself to a desktop PC, invest in one of these USB-C monitors for your next display. You’ll also find a few 4K monitors for creatives as well as curved monitors that gamers will appreciate. If you want a more seamless setup and workflow – not to mention, gorgeous visuals – one of these will suit your needs. And, while the included price comparison tool should help you score the best monitor deal. If you want this cable to charge your laptop, it should support the wattage your monitor delivers over this connection. This is normally about 60 to 65W.

The other key difference between USB variants lies in their connective plugs. Type A and Type B, as well as the smaller-sized variants therein, have dominated the USB market for much of the technology’s existence. Since 2014, however, USB type-C has rapidly grown in popularity, particularly given its presence as a one-cable solution. DisplayPort (we recommend at least 1.2 or higher for best results) is the choice of graphic designers, animators and other creative types. If your monitor uses DisplayPort, but you only have HDMI on your laptop, that’s no problem, as there’s a cable for that. Image quality is superb. Color accuracy is excellent, the color gamut is wide, and maximum brightness is high. The monitor’s 34-inch panel has a resolution of 3440×1440, which is roughly equivalent to a 27-inch 1440p monitor and looks sharp in everyday use. The monitor has a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz and supports AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, which is good news for gamers. Ultrawide monitors are gaining traction thanks to their ability to deliver multiple screens' worth of display area with a single product. As it stands now, there are a few ultrawide screens sitting at the top of the pile.

Of course, its performance is top-notch as well, giving us rich, vibrant visuals whether we're getting through a busy Monday full of video calls or streaming the latest releases. Though we haven't done a full review of this monitor, we have utilised it in testing and put it through its paces. And, we're happy to report that it's just as impressive in practice as it is on paper. You could potentially find a VGA to HDMI converter but they’re usually disproportionately costly for the quality of the connection you experience in the end. The MSI MPG ARTYMIS 273CQRX-QD is a good USB-C monitor to consider if you're looking for something affordable. This is one of those enthusiast-level creator displays dressed up as a gaming monitor. MSI indeed touts it as one, complete with gaming-focused features, many of which you'll find in pricier models. Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4 support a data rate of 40Gbps, compared to USB 3.1's minimum of 10Gbps. USB can go as high as Thunderbolt but often doesn't. You might want to go for a Thunderbolt monitor if you want to connect several high-speed storage devices or use external graphics. Splitters are supported in DisplayPort connections, for example, which will allow you to use one port on the laptop to connect a number of monitors, although this isn’t a very economical way to do it since it might be a bit expensive.