computer peripherals | Tech Gadgets Finder

Things to consider before buying a monitor

Tech Gadgets Reviewer — Tue, 16 Apr 2024 04:46:10 +0000

Before investigating the monitor to buy, ensure that you understand your use case for purchasing a monitor. Do you want a portable monitor that you would want to move from one room to another or a fixed desktop monitor? Portable monitors will be limited in options per the factors mentioned in the article. For desktop monitors, it would be beneficial to understand your main use case. Are you planning to use it for browsing and office work? Or do you play to watch movies and game on it? Once the main use case is identified consider the factors listed in the article. You also want to decide on a budget, as you will notice that as you look for better specification, the price will also go up. Below is a cheat sheet for quickly understanding the different parameters to consider for making an educated buy. Below the cheat sheet, we go into each important factor in detail.

Monitor buying cheatsheet

Factor	Is higher better?	Comments
Technology	Not applicable	Such as OLED, LCD or LED might determine the viewing experience. OLED have deeper blacks and improved viewing angle.
Screen size	Depends	Generally larger is better. But check whether the workspace can accommodate.
Shape	Not applicable	Flat or curved. Curved screen may be appealing to movie watchers and games.
Resolution	Yes	Full HD to 5K. Graphic card and the content should support higher resolution to notice the difference. Higher is good for future proofing but comes at a cost
Aspect ratio	Not applicable	Represents the width by height ratio as such as 5:4. 16:10 is preferred by content creators. There are wide and ultrawide options. It depends on personal choice.
Refresh rate	Yes	Measured in hertz (hz). Higher refresh rates are important for games and videos. It helps smoother the images.
Response time	No	Measured in milliseconds (ms). Lower the response time the better the viewing experience.
Brightness	Yes	Measured in nits. Higher values above 300 nits are better when there is too much light in the room.
Connections	Not applicable	Ensure the monitor support USB-C, display port, HDMI as per the option available on your computer. Also consider number of ports, if you plan to connect multiple devices.
Touch Screen	Not applicable	Mostly non-touch monitors. But some touch screen option might be available.

Technology - LCD vs LED vs OLED

Without getting too much in the weeds, LCD and LED are quit similar in performance. OLED has some advantages and disadvantages. OLEDs have deeper blacks and better viewing angle as compared to LCD and LED. Unfortunately, OLEDs have a burn-in problem especially with static images. OLED is a better choice when impeccable video or image quality is required. For normal office work or browsing LCD or LED monitor will suffice.

Screen size - HD to 5K

In general, higher the resolutions better the image quality. This is because the image is formed by higher pixels in a high resolution screen as compared to lower resolution screen. This means each pixel is smaller. The resolution can be from 1280 x 720 (standard HD) to 5120 x 2160 (5K). Preferred is at least Full HD, which is 1920 x 1080 resolution. If you go for higher 4K and 5K resolution, ensure that your graphic card supports the higher resolution screen, otherwise you will not notice any difference. 4K and 5K monitors will give the immersive experience required for gaming and movie watching. Of course, the better image quality comes at a cost.

Shape, screen size and aspect ratio

I am considering the shape, screen size and aspect ratio together as they go hand-in-hand. For example: if want an ultrawide curved screen such as the Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 49″, since the width is way greater than the height, it would be reflected in its aspect ratio: 32:9. As such curved screens, wide and ultrawide screens are excellent for providing the immersive experience craved by gamers and movie enthusiast. The larger the screen size, the easier it is split the screen to three or four windows even while working, eliminating the need for multiple monitors. That said if your desk space is not large enough it might not be able to fit the large, wide and ultrawide screens. Consider measuring the room available on your desk and stack it up with the specification, to prevent a return trip to Best Buy.

Refresh rate and response time

Refresh rate is the frequency with which the monitor refreshes the screen. It is measured in hertz (hz). Higher the frequency, the smoother the gameplay and videos. The common range for the refresh rate is between 60hz and 360hz. For normal office use and browsing, 60 hz should suffice. For watching movies and playing games a frequency of 120hz to 200hz would be great. If the budget allows and if watching videos or gaming is part of your usecase, it is highly recommended to purchase a monitor with at least 120hz refresh.

Although it would be displayed as a different specification, the response time has a similar impact on the display of movies and games. Response time is measured in milliseconds (ms). The lower the response time, the smoother the video and gameplay experience. Response time of less than 2ms is preferred. Lower response time prevents blurring of fast moving objects and characters.

Connectivity and ports

There are different option to connect your laptop or desktop to a monitor. HDMI port is very common. DisplayPort is also a great choice when higher frames per second is required for smooth display of videos and games. However, USB-C connectivity is becoming more and more common these days. USB-C is very common on portable monitors. Previously, DVI and VGA were common connections.

It is also good to have multiple ports available on the monitor, especially, if you have multiple devices. It is similar to having multiple devices connect to your TV, but only one will be active at a time. But it lets you easily switch devices without having to unplug a device and plug a different device.

Other factors

There are other features and specifications that we do not consider as important as the above. However, they are quickly touched on for the sake of completeness:

Panel Types – It is listed as IPS, VA and TN. A type by itself does not make a monitor better or worse. It would be the specification such as refresh rate that would make one monitor better than the other. IPS do offer a better viewing angle and is often considered premium. However, ensure to check the main factors in the cheat sheet before making the purchase.

Smart Features – Smart monitor by itself can have apps such as Netflix that you can stream and view without connecting a device. However, most monitors are going to be connected to a PC or Mac or tablet, all of which is capable of play those apps without the smart monitor features.

Blue light reduction – Most modern operating system have this feature. Hence, blue light reduction feature on the monitor might be pointless.

The post Things to consider before buying a monitor appeared first on Tech Gadgets Finder.

Logitech MX Anywhere 3 review: perfect mouse with buttery scroll

Tech Gadgets Reviewer — Sat, 16 Mar 2024 19:23:43 +0000

Over the period of time, I have purchased many different mouse. However, to this date the MX Anywhere 3 is one of my favorite mouse. I bought the it in 2021. I currently also own the Logitech Pebble M350 and Logitech triathlon m720.

MX Anywhere 3 - Right Side

MX Anywhere 3 - Bottom View

MX Anywhere 3, Pebble M350 and Triathlon M720 - Picture 1

MX Anywhere 3, Pebble M350 and Triathlon M720 - Picture 2

MX Anywhere 3, Pebble M350 and Triathlon M720 - Picture 3

MX Anywhere 3 - Back / Forward buttons

MX Anywhere 3 - Scroll front view

My Use case

I was looking for a mouse in 2021 as I had too many devices and had to constantly move the mouse dongle around. Hence, I specifically wanted a mouse with an ability to connect to at least two devices, if not more. I wanted the mouse to last for a long time. Since, I was going to start going to school in spring of 2021, a smaller footprint would be good too to carry it in my backpack while travelling to University.

I was mainly considering the Logitech Pebble M350, which was available at a cheaper price point. I decided to purchase the MX Anywhere 3 as it had a far superior and ergonomic design. I felt that I can invest in a better mouse as I spend lot of time on the computer for my day job. Furthermore, the MX anywhere 3 was able to connect to one more device than the Pebble M350.

That said a year later, I also purchased the Logi Pebble M350. I used the Pebble mainly when I was travelling to school. The MX Anywhere 3 is my daily driver when I work from my home office, connecting mainly to my work laptop, and my Mac Mini.

About MX Anywhere 3

The MX anywhere 3 has an impeccable design. Its ergonomic design makes it comfortable to use even when using it for the whole day. In believe that the scroll wheel is the crown jewel of the MX Anywhere 3 mouse. It is noise free. It can scroll through hundreds of lines of code or many pages of a document with just a flick of the finger. Just below the scroller, there is a button to toggle between a traditional ratchet feel and a free-spinning mode. In the bottom, there is a button to turn off the mouse. Furthermore, there is a small button that can toggle between the three connected devices. The light indicator shows which device is currently active. For connecting to a different device in a particular slot, click the button till the number changes to the one you want, then long hold the same button and the light will start blinking, indicating it is ready to pair. My mouse came with a USB receiver but there are variants of this mouse that do not come with a receiver. The mouse can be charged with a provided USB-A to USB-C cable. The mouse also has two button on the left side that can be used as forward and back buttons. Most of the buttons can be configured by installing the Logitech software. Furthermore, the buttons can also be configured to work differently in different apps. For example: the back or forward button can be configured to mute the microphone using Zoom app. I have used this mouse on Windows, Mac and Samsung Galaxy Tab in DeX mode and works well.

I personally prefer the AA or AAA batteries that can be replaced, as I hate to discard any gadget just because it cannot hold a charge. However, Logitech did a good job making sure that battery run for a long time with each charge, potentially increasing the life of the inbuilt batteries due to reduced number of recharges. It almost feels as if the mouse does not need a charge for months. I use this mouse and the MX Mini Keys keyboard as my daily driver for work. Roughly, I estimate that I have to charge the MX Mini keys twice before I have to charge the MX Anywhere 3. The MX Mini keys easily seem to not need a charge for two weeks at least. Moreover, I love that even when the red light starts to blink indicating the battery is low in between my work day, I can connect the mouse to charge and continue to use it.

Should you buy MX Anywhere 3 in 2024?

Given that Logitech has pulled off creating an almost perfect mouse, the answer would be a resounding yes even in 2024! One reason not to pull the trigger would be to see what’s new in the next version of the MX Anywhere mouse. However, I am curious to see what incremental improvements Logitech can bring to it.

The post Logitech MX Anywhere 3 review: perfect mouse with buttery scroll appeared first on Tech Gadgets Finder.

Logitech MX Keys Mini for Business: Portable keyboard with an ergonomic design

Tech Gadgets Reviewer — Sun, 03 Mar 2024 03:10:26 +0000

Logitech MX keys mini for business and MX keys mini were released in major markets towards the end of 2021. The keyboard look very similar to the laptop keyboards but feel very different than most laptop keyboards. The business version can connect through a Logitech Ubolt USB connector provided, in addition to its ability to connect using Bluetooth. The keyboard can be configured to connect three different devices.

My Use Case

I recently purchase a Mac Mini M2 pro as I wanted to learn iOS App development. Although I had a few keyboards, I constants had to swap devices. I also wanted to be able to pack up my Mac Mini, a keyboard, a mouse and a portal monitor. Hence, I was looking for a keyboard with a smaller footprint. Since I already was enjoying experience with my Logitech MX Anywhere 3, I started looking at the Logitech MX keys but it felt insanely pricey. However, the joy of using the MX anywhere 3 kept the keyboard contention. The Logitech K380 was the top choice not just because of its price but because it also offered connectivity with three devices just as the MX keys mini. However, when I saw the MX Keys for business that was priced around $69.99, I went with it. My rationale was that the MX keys seems to have better feel that would be enjoyable to work. Furthermore, since I was planning to use the keyboard on multiple devices for a

The two models MX Keys for consumer and business are very confusing. It looks like two same products with only a few differences:

- Packaging – Consumer version having better packaging

- UBolt USB receiver – Business version having one but not the consumer version

Logitech’s pricing strategy seems to be little weird, especially when the business version is available for consumers. The business version provides a little more but at a lower price point. The only reason I can think is that Logitech has recently opened to sell the business variant to the consumer because of too many unsold inventory. However, this is just my speculation.

My Experience

Pairing the devices was fairly easy. I remember the Windows laptops quickly prompted the whether I want to connect to MX keys. It prompted me to enter a pin number and followed by enter. I was able to connect to multiple devices on the first attempt. The Bluetooth pairing with MacOS, iOS and Android all worked first attempt without any glitch.

For a week after receiving the MX keys for business, I used it only for a few minutes and pulled a full-size keyboard. The main reason that I wanted to use the full-sized keyboard was because I had a hard time typing. Eventually, I forced myself to use the keyboard. Once I started using it, I was able to function well with it. The feel of the keyboard exceeded my expectation as with the MX Anywhere 3 mouse. Beyond the feel of the keyboard, I appreciated the MacOS specific keys as I am new to the Mac. Furthermore, the keyboard does not need any batteries. It has internal battery that can be charged through a USB-C connector that is provided in the box. So far I have found that the batteries seem to hold the charge forever similar to that of the MX Anywhere 3 mouse.

The downside that I noticed was the missing ‘Home’ and ‘End’ key. Only after using this keyboard, I started realizing how often I hit ‘Shift + Home’ or ‘Shift + End’ to highlight lines for copying or deleting. After searching, I realized I found that you can use below key combination for the missing keys:

Fn + Left -> Home
Fn + Right -> End
Fn + Down -> Page Down
Fn + Up -> Page Up

I still find it a pain to remember to use these combination that I need them. Another minor annoyance is not having the ability to turn off the keyboard backlit. I often like to turn the backlit and use it only when I am working in the dark, which is very rare. Furthermore, the backlit comes on and go off without any good reason, at least I could not figure out the true logic behind it.

Over all, I am please with my purchase. I look forward to type on this keyboard as often as I can. While it is not the cheapest mini keyboard in the market, I believe it serves my use case well and will be one of my favorite tech gadget for a while to come.

Competitors

Mini keyboards by default finds its use as an alternate keyboard that will be used for a short time during travel. They generally are look for daily use. Because of such a use case, the cheaper mini keyboards will give a stiff competition to the Mini Keys. Logitech’s other mini keyboards such as K380 and K480 are comparatively cheaper and provide lot of benefits that the MX keys. Amazon.com also has many other less reputed branded mini keyboards, which are almost one fourth the price of the consumer version of MX keys. Some of the keyboards even seem to have similar key design as the MX keys. Hence, the MX keys relies heavily on the brand reputation of Logitech to compete amongst the competition. Although I haven’t tried all these keyboards, I am pretty sure that because of the premium design and feel of the MX keys, Logitech targets to sell these keyboards to the high-end consumers, who are brand loyalist and relatively less price sensitive.

Conclusion

Overall, the MX keys mini is well worth it. Well, at least at a discounted price. If you are making a switch from a full-size keyboard to MX keys mini, it will have its own challenges as getting used to a mini keyboard as a daily driver at work took some getting used to. But if you are looking at this keyboard for occasional use during travel or a backup, there may be many other alternate options available that should be considered. Some of these options are also from the same brand, Logitech.

The post Logitech MX Keys Mini for Business: Portable keyboard with an ergonomic design appeared first on Tech Gadgets Finder.