The Best Computer Monitor for Writing Papers, Doing Research, and Making Reports

I recently wanted to add a second monitor to my studio computer and suddenly remembered a special feature of computer monitors that is extremely well suited to students and professors doing research and writing papers, as well as corporate employees doing market planning and proposals in all sorts of fields — and it is the kind of useful that is explosively useful.

Whisper: I had already bought a second monitor once before, choosing the Philips ‘Philips 43-inch 4K IPS LCD Monitor’. But a 43-inch screen was too big, making me feel like I was sunbathing all day, so in the end I moved it to the living room for everyone to play PS4 games on. If you want to use a computer monitor larger than 32 inches, your desk depth should be at least 80 cm.

Put simply, this kind of computer monitor is a ‘rotatable’ screen (reference: List of Rotatable Monitor Products).

There are quite a few companies that specifically design this kind of monitor structure — including major brands such as BenQ, Asus, Samsung, Dell, ViewSonic, and Philips — but the number of models is pitifully small. In the fiercely competitive monitor market, only about 20-odd models can be found.

But I have to say, a rotatable monitor is damn useful.

Whether reading PDF documents or browsing web content (such as academic papers), a single screen can display perhaps three times as much as a landscape screen, saving the time spent moving the cursor around and letting you focus more on the research content. If you don’t believe me, take out your smartphone or tablet right now and browse a webpage in landscape and portrait orientation respectively — you’ll understand what I mean, not to mention that a portrait computer monitor is several times larger than a phone screen.

If you use dual monitors, the landscape screen can be used for writing content while the portrait screen holds reference materials — this combination is the most perfect setup in my mind.

When buying a rotatable monitor, remember not to greedily choose too large a size. Take a 24-inch monitor as an example: when stood upright, its height is nearly 60 cm, which no longer fits the ergonomic neck pitch angle for working, and long-term use will affect both your neck and your eyesight. In my past experience using an HP 17-inch portrait monitor alongside a 22-inch monitor, the workflow was very smooth, and my neck basically didn’t need to turn much.

Well, after reviewing many computer monitors on the market and combining the conditions our studio needed (high image quality for photography, a budget of only NT$10,000, and my personal preference for rotatable), the product I finally recommend is the ‘BenQ BL2420PT 24-inch IPS 2K Widescreen’ launched back in 2015 by our own domestic company BenQ. If you’re interested, you can take a look.

Of course, if you feel that none of the monitors with built-in rotation structures appeal to you, and what you value more is ultra-high resolution, ultra-wide color gamut, and other high-end display features, you can actually buy a monitor arm (mount) that offers 360-degree rotation. Fix the monitor to the desk and you can turn it however you like.

But I should warn you first: the average price of such mounts falls around NT$2,000–5,000, basically not much different from buying a new monitor. The advantage, besides rotation, is freer up-down-left-right adjustment in space, so how to choose still depends on your budget.