In the new working from home environment, my 13" MacBook Pro screen is inadequate for detailed 10hr+ daily Excel work (often with multiple windows). For the past 6 weeks I've been working with this linked up to my 10yr old 37" TV, but I do find my eyes get more tired compared with when I was in the office (which was a wide screen 4k monitor) - possibly as the resolution on this TV when hooked up is 1920 x 1080. So, I think it's time to buy a specific display monitor for home. My budget was £300 but find I'm now up to £400 - I've currently dithering between an Asus VP28UQ (28" 4K) and the BenQEW3270U (32" 4k), where I've chosen 4k as a consistent resolution with the one I used at work. I normally work on my dining room table with the screen around 2-3 feet away. I would prefer to use just the external monitor, not also use the laptop screen. A few questions:


  1. Is 4k overkill when hooked up to a 2015 MacBook Pro which itself has a resolution of 2560x1600 (i.e. is the MacBook graphics card limited to 2560x1600)? If yes, then maybe I'm better limiting my search to a 2560 monitor (although 4k would future proof to some degree for laptop upgrades).
  2. I assume the Mac would provide the same max resolution on the 28 and 32 monitors, with the only quality difference being the PPI (pixels per inch)? Although I doubt I would notice the difference between the two for Office work.
  3. The cost difference is not insignificant (£240 vs £400), but 32" obviously gives a bigger canvas (e.g. for split windows) and 32" may better suit my 2-3 feet distance from the screen.


This will be mainly used for Office work no gaming, but I might occasionally hook it up to my PS4 (if better than my 37" TV).

Just wondering if I'm missing anything, or if anyone had some advice having gone through a similar exercise and maybe from actual user experience.

Much obliged!