With more and more time being spent in front of computer monitors, it is important to protect eye health. Screens are notoriously bad for eyesight and health in long bursts. Luckily, many monitor manufacturers are aware of this and have created specific products to offset these negative effects.
Using technology that reduces eye strain, provides options for brightness and color temperature, and other new developments, monitors are becoming healthier and healthier to use.
The best new computer monitor for your eyes will be equipped with blue light filters and brightness control. Popular choices for eye health include the ASUS PB278Q, the BenQ EW2780Q, and the ViewSonic VA2855SMH. These all come with options to reduce brightness, wide viewing angles, blue light filters, and other bonuses to make using them easier.
Some of the benefits that make a computer monitor better for the eyes are difficult to understand or find. To help combat this and understand more about what each benefit actually provides to eye health, read on.
Which Computer Monitor Is Best For Eyes?
When deciding which computer monitor is best for eyes, it is important to set strict parameters. Computer monitors can vary wildly in price, quality, options, and other settings. Luckily, computer monitors good for the eyes can be found across most resolutions and price points, making it easy to find one in your range.
Other Things To Look For When Buying A Monitor
When looking at computer monitors for your eyes, consider the following aspects as well:
- Price Range
- Build Quality
- Additional Options
- Resolution
- Size
While you can occasionally find software or other ways of reducing eye strain later on, it is difficult to fix problems that occur in any of these other categories after purchasing.
Most monitors will cost at least $150, with prices easily skyrocketing into the thousands. To find a good monitor for eye health, a budget of roughly $350 will provide a wide range of options.
Build quality in technology is often tied strongly to price, as more expensive products can afford to use metals instead of plastics or use higher quality glass on the screens. This will rarely tie to eye health, although sometimes the specific type of panel being used in the computer can have a stronger effect on the eyes.
Additional options for monitors include things like swivel angles, height adjustments, and special software for gaming or editing. Often, these additional options are not needed unless you already know about them. One to consider for everyone, however, is speakers – if you do not have another way of getting sound from your computer, it is important to look for monitors that include speakers.
Resolution and size are two of the most important aspects to consider for any monitor, but especially for those interested in maintaining eye health. Resolution is how crisp the image from the monitor is, representing the number of pixels. For most modern monitors, a resolution of 1920×1080 is adequate. People working with high-fidelity video or extremely large monitors will likely want a higher resolution.
Size is simply the size of the monitor. Most monitors are between 21 and 27 inches, though stretch sizes are available. Consider how close you sit to your current monitor and judge the size using that; if you need to lean into the screen or struggle to read due to the size, this could cause even more eye strain.
When looking at this list of the best computer monitors for eyes, consider these above categories, as well. Certain monitors will share the eye technology that makes them great among others in different sizes and price points, so try to shop around within the same manufacturer if the monitor is a good fit otherwise.
The 5 Best Monitors For The Eyes:
Choosing a specific monitor that is best for the eyes is a difficult task, as there are different needs and requests that monitors must meet. However, there are some clear markers of the best monitors for eyes that are great to look out for.
Some of these things to look out for include flicker technology, blue light filtering, wide viewing angles, brightness adjustment, and others. All of these do specific things to help eyesight, but to rank the different monitors it is just important to know that each of them is valuable. The best monitors for eyes include all of them.
Using these criteria, the best monitors for the eyes are:
- ASUS PB278Q
- BenQ EW2780Q
- ViewSonic VA2855SMH
- ASUS MX259H
- ViewSonic VX2457-MHD
Each of these was designed with eye health in mind, ensuring that they contain or even pioneered some important eyecare technology.
1. ASUS PB278Q
The ASUS PB278Q is a fantastic 27-inch monitor for general use. The monitor include’s ASUS EyeCare Flicker-Free Technology, which is custom developed technology to reduce screen flickering and eye strain. Additionally, the monitor includes automatic brightness adjustment, an ergonomic stand to allow for different viewing angles, and comes with a host of different video modes.
The use of video modes is great for reducing eye strain as it allows the brightness and contrast of the monitor to be changed to what is being viewed. For instance, browsing the internet often does not require significant contrast, while watching a movie does. The monitor allows you to switch this and reduce your eyestrain for most daily uses.
The ASUS PB278Q includes a host of different connection points so it can connect to whichever devices you need it to, and has a WQHD resolution of 2560 x 1440. This resolution combined with the large size of the monitor provides plenty of real estate to work with and ensures that imagery will be clear so your eyes need to strain less.
The ASUS PB278Q can be found new for around $400, placing it in the middle of most monitor prices that include similar features. For bonuses, it also includes speakers and wide viewing angles so multiple people can view the monitor at once with little eye strain.
2. BenQ EW2780Q
BenQ makes amazing monitors that focus on low response times and incredible color accuracy, so they have gained popularity in the gaming and professional video editing spheres. Luckily, they also make monitors that are great for eye health.
The EW2780Q is a fantastic monitor that includes BenQ’s in-house eyecare technology, swirling together blue-light filtering, automatic brightness adjustments, and ambient light adjustments. This eye care technology is one of the best available across monitors, so even if the other options in the EW2780Q are not for you, BenQ’s other monitors are worth a look.
In addition to the phenomenal eye care technology that reduces eye strain, this monitor includes a host of quality of life features including high color accuracy, HDRi built-in, and speakers built into the monitor. The screen can also swivel and turn, providing whatever viewing angle you need.
Of these additions, the built-in HDRi is the most interesting for eye care. This is a new technology that detects dark rooms and ambient light around the monitor and automatically adjusts the colors on the screen to look the best and reduce eye strain.
This monitor is also 27-inches, providing a large screen to use. It also includes a 2k resolution so everything will be crisp and legible.
The BenQ EW2780Q is available for $300, making it highly affordable for the price and features. For those who can afford it, this is one of the best monitors available now, especially for maintaining eye health.
3. ViewSonic VA2855SMH
The ViewSonic VA2855SMH is a great budget monitor that meets the needs of almost all users and includes some fantastic eye care technology to boot. This particular model comes in at an enormous 28-inches, but it is also available in smaller sizes for those who do not want or do not have space for such a large screen.
For eye health, this monitor includes a blue light filter and anti-flickering technology. The blue light filter in particular is useful for those who sit in front of the computer screen for long periods of time, as blue hues are known to cause headaches and eye strain more than other colors.
The anti-flickering technology is great for those who use their monitors for fast-moving things like videogames or movies. Traditionally, computer monitors use lights that flicker rapidly behind the screen to change colors and update images. Some user’s eyes are particularly susceptible to this flickering, which can cause headaches, uncomfortable viewing, or other issues – the “Flicker-Free” technology from ViewSonic aims to eliminate this.
Even if you do not suffer from noticing monitor flickering, your eyes will incur less strain due to the technology, so it is a welcome addition for anyone who cares about eye health.
Other worthy inclusions to help with eye care include manual brightness adjustment and wide viewing angles, improving the quality of the monitor. Additional inclusions include integrated speakers and a mount to place the monitor wherever fits best for your eyes.
For the large size, the full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 is fine, though it could be better. Still, for most users, this resolution is more than enough – you may notice some slight blurring when watching movies or videos in extreme resolutions, though.
The ViewSonic 2855SMH is incredibly affordable at $189. Although the reduction in price loses a few minor quality of life changes – for instance, you have to manually change the brightness of the monitor – it is a phenomenal deal that still focuses heavily on keeping your eyes healthy.
4. ASUS MX259H
The ASUS MX259H combines eye care technology with a crisp, modern look. For those who care heavily about aesthetics along with eye health, this is a hard monitor to beat.
ASUS’s Eye Care Technology returns in this model as well, managing flickering and including options for blue light filtering. These are two of the biggest things to look out for in monitors that care about eye care, so their inclusion makes this monitor a great price.
What separates this monitor from the others on this list are the external factors. It is the smallest monitor so far at 25 inches, which is a more manageable size for the large majority of people. At this size, the monitor will fit comfortably on almost any desk. It is a combination of silver and black which creates a sleek look that fits best when combined with other modern tech, although it can also fit in any office setting.
One of the biggest appeals of this monitor is how thin is it; at it’s thinnest point, it’s only 15mm. This can often create a seamless look that makes the monitor more pleasurable to look at.
The wide-viewing angles of the monitor are important and improve eye care as well. On most monitors, your eyes have to strain to notice the whole monitor outside of a fairly limited angle – this monitor simply removes this barrier, allowing viewing angles across almost the panel, reaching 178 degrees. So long as you are somewhere in front of the screen, your eyes will easily focus on and notice the important parts.
In addition to the slightly above average eye care technology and beautiful looks, the monitor includes some quality of life improvements such as great speakers and high contrast modes for viewing movies.
This monitor can be hard to find new now, but it retails around $350. While this is not the absolute best deal for those interested in eye health, it is one of the best mixes of eye health and aesthetics available today.
5. ViewSonic VX2457-MHD
For gamers who are on a budget and want to protect their eyes, the ViewSonic VX2457 is almost impossible to beat. This includes ViewSonic’s great eye care technology seen on some of their other models, reducing flickering and blue light. It combines this fantastic eye health technology with quick response times for quick imagery and high refresh rates.
Although response time and refresh rates are fairly unimportant for eye health, they are very relevant to some monitor uses. Essentially, both influence how a picture shows up on a monitor – response time dictates how long it takes the monitor to render the image it is being fed. This is measured in milliseconds, and the quicker it is, the better. Refresh rate is how often the monitor updates its image, measured in hertz. The higher this number, the better.
Both of these attributes influence how your eyes interact with the monitor, although they are not directly responsible for any eye strain. These are most important for a select set of users.
This monitor includes a host of connection points to support a wide variety of devices and a full HD resolution that works great on the 24-inch screen. Overall, this is the best value eyecare monitor on the market.
The ViewSonic VX2457 retails around $140, making it one of the cheapest monitors with eye care technology around. If you are looking for a great price, care about gaming, or on a budget, this is likely the best deal you will find. Although the build quality suffers a bit from the price, using plastics instead of metal for the construction, the monitor still includes a 3-year warranty.
What Makes A Monitor Good For The Eyes?
There are a few different things to look for that make a monitor good for the eyes. Due to the way monitors work and the amount of time we spend in front of them, they will almost always have a negative effect on your eyes – this technology is meant to reduce these negative effects and allow you to continue using the monitor in comfort.
While there are a host of different options and settings in monitors that influence eye health, there are a select few categories and technologies that particularly influence eye health. These are:
- Blue Light Filtering
- Anti-Flickering Technology
- Viewing Angles
- Brightness
- Color
Each of these can be thought of as a scale that influences your eyes. At one end of the scale, the technology is not included, and the category is causing eye strain. On the other, the monitor has technology that totally negates the negative effects, stopping any eye strain. Any monitor that touts eye health technology is likely using some combination of these categories but is not fully optimized in any single one.
Some of these influence your eyes more than the others as well. Blue light and flickering, for instance, are known to be two of the biggest causes of eye strain or headaches while using a computer. Because of this, most monitors focus on stopping these two issues and focus less on improved viewing angles or brightness control.
Blue Light Filtering
Blue light filtering is technology that allows the monitor to detect blue light coming from the monitor and filter it out to varying degrees. This causes the computer screen to take on a warm, orange glow, but can significantly reduce eye strain.
The blue lights used in computer monitors to create blues, whites, and other light colors can cause significant eye strain and headaches, especially when in the dark. Blue light filtering combats this by either removing the blue color or masking it with slightly duller blues.
Having blue light filtering on for the first time can be a bit of a shock; depending on how active the filter is, the colors of your computer monitor can change dramatically. Modern blue light filtering manages to replicate the effect of cutting off the blue light without such a noticeable change to the colors, but some change is inevitable.
Blue light filtering is one of the single best things a monitor can have to save your eyes. In addition to reducing eye strain and headaches, it also makes the transition away from the monitor easier, especially at night.
If your monitor does not have blue light filtering, most operating systems have the option to turn on a blue light filter digitally. Rather than actually filtering the lights, these digital fixes simply add an orange hue over the screen, achieving a very similar effect. It is a good idea to turn this on at night to reduce your eye strain even further.
Unfortunately, those who work with colors on the computer may find blue light filtering gets in the way of their work. This is most relevant to video editors and artists, but the color difference will be noticed by everyone. Consider establishing a schedule for the blue light filtering so that it can save your eyes while still allowing you to complete your work effectively.
Anti-Flickering Technology
When monitors change colors or imagery on the screen, the lights powering the image flicker and change color. During times with rapid movement such as videos, games, or even quick scrolling, this flickering happens incredibly quickly and can be noticed by some.
If you are susceptible to flickering and notice it, the uneasy effect can quickly cause nausea and headaches due to eye strain. Luckily, many manufacturers have found ways to negate or lessen this effect through anti-flickering technology.
The name of this technology tends to change between brands along with specifics, but they all achieve the same thing; the flickering effect is masked and lessened to reduce eye strain. This is relevant even if you do not notice the flickering often, as your eyes still react to the movement. The technology allows your eyes to focus for longer, tiring them out slower.
For normal browsing and writing, this technology will be fairly unnoticeable, but it quickly proves its worth when watching films or playing games. Although this flickering is not tied to refresh rate or response time, it can be thought of similarly – the quicker the monitor reacts, the better, so long as it is smooth.
Most modern monitors include some anti-flicker technology, especially those that talk about being good for the eyes.
Viewing Angles
When discussing viewing angles for a monitor, the main concern is how far or to the side you can be while still clearly focusing on the imagery. For most monitors, you cannot be too far, otherwise, the monitor will become too dark or blocked off to notice what is on the screen.
Having wider viewing angles on a monitor makes it better for watching movies, sharing content with others, or getting more comfortable in front of the computer. The easier it is to focus on what is on the monitor, the less your eyes will need to strain, keeping them healthier.
Of course, most people sit directly in front of the monitor while using it, making extremely wide viewing angles feel unnecessary. In truth, widened viewing angles can be considered more of a luxury for your eyes rather than a necessity. The specific cases where it is important will come up, but not very often. Some of these scenarios include:
- Sharing your monitor with others
- Watching videos from afar
- Changing seating position
The wider the monitor’s possible viewing angle, the more freedom you have in any of these activities. Consider how often these situations come up to help decide how important viewing angles are for you. However, expanded viewing angles cannot hurt your eyes.
Brightness
The brightness of a computer screen is important both for usability and for eye health. Depending on the light around the computer, different brightness levels will be necessary. The best monitors for your eyes can detect the ambient light in the room and adjust the brightness level automatically, but others rely on you manually changing the brightness.
As a general rule, the brighter a room is, the brighter the monitor must be as well. Otherwise, the colors on the screen may not show up and you will have a difficult time seeing your work. This makes your eyes strain and can cause health issues.
On the other side of the coin, monitors being used in dark rooms should be as dim as possible. While a bright monitor in a dark room will be highly visible, your eyes will strain against the bright light, also causing issues. You can think of this as being outside during a particularly sunny day – while you can see and will be fine, the sun can become annoying and cause headaches. The brightness of a computer monitor can cause the same effect.
If you are unsure of how bright your computer monitor should be, try setting it to the lowest setting. Then, work up until you can comfortably see everything on the screen without your eyes feeling overloaded with light. Be sure to adjust the brightness with the light level around you!
Even if your monitor does not have automatic brightness adjustment, you may be able to set up a schedule that changes the brightness. This can be helpful for adjusting the brightness with the sun to keep your eyes as healthy as possible.
Color
The colors a monitor is showing can affect your eye health as well, for similar reasons to the blue light filter mentioned earlier. Certain colors, when shown digitally, require lights to be brighter. These colors in turn cause the monitor to glow more and cause more strain on your eyes.
If you are consistently viewing bright whites, blues, and highly saturated colors, this is likely to cause your eyes to strain more than others. To combat this, most websites and programs use off-white colors rather than full white or black.
Consider adjusting the image setting or contrast settings of your monitor to make a more uniform look to the monitor’s image if you notice consistent eye strain.
Making the Right Choice for You
By going to your local computer store, you should be able to test a few different computer screens and see which attributes are truly worth it for you to invest in. The top picks in this article should each be leaps and bounds better for your eyes than the average monitor.
This article was last updated on December 28, 2022 .
