Technology Tales

From convex to concave: reflections on decades of computer monitor usage

Published on 10^th March 2025 Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

Within the last week, I changed my monitor and am without an Iiyama in my possession for the first time since 1997. The first one was a 17″ CRT screen that accompanied my transition from education into work. Those old screens were not long-lasting, though, especially since it replaced a 15″ Dell screen that had started to work less well than I needed; the larger size was an added attraction after I saw someone with a 21″ Iiyama at the university where I was pursuing a research degree.

Work saw me using a 21″ Philips screen myself for a time before Eizo flat screen displays were given to us as part of a migration to Windows 2000. That inspired me to get a 17″ Iiyama counterpart to what I had at work. Collecting that sent me on an errand to a courier’s depot on the outskirts of Macclesfield. The same effort may have been accompanied by my dropping my passport, which I was using for identification. That thankfully was handed into the police, so I could get it back from them, even if I was resigned to needing a new one. More care has been taken since then to avoid a repeat.

The screen worked well, though I kept the old one as a backup for perhaps far too long. It took some years to pass before I eventually hauled it to the recycling centre; these days, I might try a nearby charity shop before setting off on such a schlep. In those times, LCD screens lasted so well that they could accumulate if you were not careful. The 17″ Iiyama accompanied my migration from Windows to Linux and a period of successful and ill-fated PC upgrades, especially a run of poor luck in 2009.

2010 saw me change my place of work, and a 24″ Iiyama was acquired just before then. Again, its predecessor was retained in case anything went awry and eventually went to a charity shop from where I could go into a new life. There was no issue with the new acquisition, and it went on to do nearly twelve years of work for me. A 34″ Iiyama replaced it a few years ago, yet I wonder if that decision was the best. Apart from more than a decade of muck on the screen, nothing else was amiss. Even a major workstation upgrade in 2021 did little to challenge it. Even so, it too went to a charity shop searching for a new home.

This year’s workstation overhaul did few favours to that 34″ successor. While it was always sluggish to wake, it did nothing like going into a cycle of non-responsiveness that it had on numerous occasions in the last few months. Compatibility with a Mac Mini could be better, too. The result is that I am writing these words using a Philips B346C1 instead, and it has few of the issues that beset the Iiyama, save for needing to remove and insert an HDMI cable for a Mac Mini at times.

Screen responsiveness is a big improvement, especially when switching between machines using a KVMP switch. Wake up times are noticeably shorter, and there is much better reliability. However, it did take a deal of time to optimise its settings to my liking. The OSD may be more convenient than the Iiyama, yet having Windows software that did the same thing made configuration at lot easier. While getting acceptable output across Windows, Linux and macOS has been a challenge, there is a feeling that things are nearly there.

Another matter is the fact that this is a curved screen. In some ways, that is akin to the move from a 24″ screen to a 34″ one when fonts and other items needing enlarging for the bigger screen. After a burst of upheaval, eventually things do settle down and acclimatisation ensues. Even though further tinkering cannot be ruled out, there is a sounder base for computing after the changeover.

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