I didn’t think developers needed a special monitor, until I tried the BenQ RD280U.
Like many developers, I began working from home full time when the pandemic hit and the office I commuted to every day was forced to close. My initial WFH setup was at the dining room table with my 16" MacBook Pro, a leftover 18" Dell monitor as my second screen, and an old Microsoft wireless keyboard.
v0 of the work from setup. It came from humble beginnings.
As the weeks turned into months and it became apparent no one would be going back to an office anytime soon, I began to slowly but steadily build a solid work from home station: laptop stand to raise my laptop to eye level, adjustable desk, extra office chair in the garage.
Then mid-pandemic, I joined the fully remote tech startup I work for now, Blues, and it was game on: upgraded Logitech wireless keyboard, dual 27" HP monitors, upgraded office chair (with the rollerblade wheels, I might add), Thunderbolt docking station, external microphone, key light, and Elgato prompter (for the weekly web dev podcast I started with my friends), and for quite a while I've felt very dialed in at this command station each day. After 5 years of incremental upgrades, you'd hope that would be the case.
The v1 wfh command station I've been perfecting for years now.
About two months ago, out of the blue, the folks at tech product company BenQ reached out to me asking if I'd be interested in trying out one of its RD series programming monitors: a product line designed with developers' needs in mind. Having heard good things about BenQ, but never actually trying their products, I said "Sure!", and received a 28", 4K RD280U monitor shipped to my front door about a week later.
I was a little dubious some of the monitor's claims like coding-optimized color modes and auto dimming features for low-light environments were just marketing fluff, but once I tried it out, boy was I wrong.
Today, I'm going to review the BenQ RD280U 28" 3:2 Monitor for Programming, and tell you how it's improved my day-to-day coding workflow in ways I never anticipated.
Initial assembly and setup of the RD280U was a breeze
The RD280U ships in a what seems like large box, even for a 28" monitor, but all the pieces are well organized and protected, and my assembly of the monitor was done within minutes following the detailed illustrations in the Quick Start guide included in the box.
The box is quite large even though it's not actually that heavy. Based on its bulk, I would recommend you find a second person to help you get it inside and near to where you plan to assemble and use it, if possible.
The screen itself can tilt between -5˚ - 20˚ up and down, swivel right and left 15˚ , and adjust the height on its stand by 4.3" (110mm).
It comes packaged with HDMI, USB-C, and USB-B cords for connecting to your laptop, and also has a display port as well, if that's your preferred connection method. One pleasant surprise for me was the lack of an external power pack that I'd have to secure somewhere behind my desk. Instead there's simply a power cord that runs from the monitor to an outlet.
Additionally, there's a flexible arm version of the monitor (the RD280UA) you can choose instead of the stand the RD280U comes with if you want to clamp it to your desk instead.
Noteworthy RD280U features for devs
Ok, let's talk about the things that developers care most about: the monitor's features! The RD280U has a lot of them.
"Coding Mode"
The BenQ RD series monitors have a feature called "Coding Mode", which is a series of specialized display settings aimed at providing the best possible text clarity for programmers. Coding Mode adjusts settings to sharpen text and reduce eye strain, and has both Dark and Light themes depending on devs' user preferences.
I'm Team Dark Mode all day, by the way.
Below are more specifics on how Coding Mode enhances a typical coding session.
Higher text clarity
This RD monitor has a max resolution of 4K+ UHD, which means four times more pixels and detail than a 1080p display. What this translates to in practice, is less eye strain when looking at code for hours on end. Coding Mode takes this a step further by fine-tuning the contrast, brightness, sharpness, saturation, and gamma settings levels for text, enhancing the overall sharpness and readability of code, even during long working sessions.
Personally, I can see a difference when I compare two IDE windows side-by-side on my existing HP monitor vs the new BenQ monitor: the BenQ monitor does make the code sharper and easier to read.
Anti-reflection screen properties
Until recently (when I was traveling for work and working from coffee shops and hotel cafes), I didn't think too much about screen glare and light reflection. It must just be where my office is set up at home, but it wasn't really an issue for me.
Working remotely, however, screen glare was an issue I had to contend with and the BenQ Nano Matte Panel technology that actively minimizes contrast glare on the screen would have been most welcome.
If you have lights set up behind you that cause reflections on your monitor or even just windows that let the sunlight in during a typical day, you'll probably really appreciate this feature as well.
The Function Bar
An addition the RD monitors include that is very geared towards developers is the addition of a Function Bar at the bottom center of the monitor.
It has a "Coding HotKey" on the front of the bar that looks like a closing HTML tag </>, and when touched, it provides quick access to features like coding modes, screen brightness and contrast, and a customizable "Function Key" button on the bottom righthand side of the bar that can be set to different options you might want quick access to like Color Mode or input source.
Here's a shot of the settings the Coding HotKey displays when tapped on the front of the Function Bar.
In addition to the Function Key on the far right of the Function Bar, there's also a power button for the monitor and a center button that displays all the RD monitor's settings (there's a lot of them). The settings are easy to navigate through as the buttons allow for left/right toggling through menus and the naming is also pretty intuitive.
The full settings panel is accessed by pressing the center button on the bottom of the Function Bar.
The bar also has some LED indicators on the front next to the Coding HotKey to show which settings are currently on.
It has:
- Night Hours Protection indicator (an owl head), which adjusts the screen to minimum brightness for coding in low light or at night,
- Brightness Intelligence Gen2 (a polygon-esque lightbulb), that auto detects ambient light and adjusts the screen's brightness accordingly,
- And Low Blue Light Plus (a lightbulb), which reduces blue light while preserving color quality.
For me, after toggling through my screen's settings on initial setup and ensuring my Color Mode theme was set to "Coding - Dark Theme", I haven't needed to use the Function Bar or Coding HotKey much since.
I don't have multiple different computers I want to use this monitor with and switch between (although it supports that!), nor do I feel the need to change my Color Mode theme frequently, but for some devs this may be of greater value.
MoonHalo backlight
Another interesting feature I hadn't consciously considered but really like, is the backlight "MoonHalo" built into the RD280U.
It's essentially a ring light built into the back of the monitor that can be set to turn on and provide ambient light while working. It can also auto dim to ultra low brightness with color-balance based on how dark your work surroundings are, which is influenced by the sensor in the Function Bar mentioned above that automatically detects and adjusts the display brightness based on the ambient brightness throughout the day.
The auto dimming feature, I appreciate a lot. It makes me feel less like I'm working in a cave at my desk after dark.
Here's an angled shot of what the MoonHalo looks like on the back of the RD280U monitor. At this time of day, it's at a low brightness level.
While the MoonHalo certainly doesn't take the place of a key light if you do any video recording or streaming, it is nice for providing some extra ambient light and offering adjustable color temperature without needing a separate lamp, and doesn't do the "blinding white screen at night scenario" when the monitor screen is set for daytime brightness conditions by default.
Additional monitor features
Those are some of the technologies and thoughtful additions that the RD series monitors offer specifically for programmers via Coding Mode, but there's some additional things worth pointing out in this review as well, that may just sell you on the BenQ RD monitor otherwise.
Display Pilot 2 software
The BenQ line of monitors comes with its own software control app called Display Pilot 2, to let users efficiently control their display settings on their computer.
The app offers a software interface for adjusting many of the settings I outlined above: audio levels, color mode, screen brightness, MoonHalo, switching screen orientation, and so on.
Honestly, until I was writing this review, I hadn't even bothered to download the Display Pilot 2 software to my Mac, and while it provides a nice looking interface to control all the bells and whistles from my computer, I don't see myself using it often after I've dialed in my initial settings.
I should also note that while I was messing with the settings via Display Pilot 2, the software crashed a couple of times and caused my BenQ RD monitor to blink on and off more than once, so your mileage may vary when using it.
Multi-source support for seamless source switching
A lot of developers have different rigs for different purposes: a gaming PC, a MacBook work, a personal laptop, or some other combination of devices.
In the past, it's always been kind of a a pain to switch one machine for another to use the same peripherals (keyboard, external monitor, mouse, headphones, etc.).
Well, the BenQ RD monitor can support more than one machine at a time. It has an HDMI port, display port, two USB-C ports, 1 USB-B port, 1 USB-A port, and a headphone jack. It also has a built-in KVM (keyboard, video, mouse) switch to make shifting from one machine to another easy.
Simply connect Computer 1 and Computer 2 to the RD monitor, and both will be identified. Once both are recognized, you can switch the input video source from Computer 1 to Computer 2, and the monitor will also switch the USB signal to computer 2 as well. No muss, no fuss.
I have not tested this feature out myself, as I do not use multiple laptops with my current setup, but I trust the documentation the BenQ website provides about the KVM switch.
My favorite monitor feature (I didn't see this one coming tbh)
By far my favorite feature of this new RD monitor is (and I'm as shocked about this as anyone else considering all the cool tech I've covered up to now): its 3:2 aspect ratio design!
Aspect ratio? Really?? That's what you're most jazzed about???
The 3:2 screen aspect ratio
My friends, it is.
I (apparently) am so used to the more standard 16:9 aspect ratio most monitors come with, that after a few days of adjusting to this new, bigger screen where I can see more lines of code or more info in my browser's dev tools without having to scroll, I'm surprised no one really talks about how much of a difference it can make when evaluating external monitors.
According to the BenQ website, this RD280U screen shows 7 more lines of code, but I tell you that for me it is quite a bit more than 7 lines, and I absolutely love it. And all this without me even flipping the monitor into a vertical orientation!
I am very seriously considering getting another RD280U just so I can have this much extra screen real estate for both my external displays at home.
Just look at the amount of code visible on my old HP monitor (right side) vs the amount of code visible on the new RD monitor (left side). It's like night and day.
Conclusion
As humans, we adapt quickly to our current conditions until we get so used to it that they become "normal" to us. Another term for this is habituation.
Over the years, I've developed what I consider a very effective and comfortable work from home setup: laptop stand, external monitors, keyboard and mouse, ergonomic desk chair, and even a small teleprompter screen, and I was quite content with it.
Then, BenQ reached out to me with the chance to try one of its RD programming series monitors, and my eyes were opened to features I hadn't even considered I needed as a developer, but made the daily process of writing and reviewing code for hours so much nicer.
A dedicated "Coding Mode" (with both dark and light modes) that enhances text clarity and contrast, anti-reflective screen, a backlight built in to the monitor itself, auto dimming software measuring ambient light, and a 3:2 aspect ratio that dramatically increased my screen real estate.
None of these features were things even on my radar before the BenQ RD280U, but now, I have a hard time imagining working without them.
If you're considering an external monitor to enhance or upgrade your own coding practice, I would strongly encourage you to consider the BenQ RD280U or its other RD series monitors built specifically with developers and programmers in mind. I was skeptical at first that a monitor could really improve my day-to-day workflow, but I was wrong.
Check back in a few weeks — I’ll be writing more about JavaScript, React, IoT, or something else related to web development.
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Thanks for reading, I hope you’ll check out the BenQ RD line of monitors the next time you need a new monitor. BenQ took the time to understand what improves the developer quality of life, and built a monitor with that really raises the bar with a ton of useful features.
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