Internet shopping giant Amazon is currently selling the Seiki Digital 39-Inch 4K Ultra HD 120Hz LED TV for only $519.99 with free two day shipping if you are an Amazon Prime member. Additionally, the item qualifies for 6-month interest free financing. If you can bump up your order to over $600 with qualifying items (which seems to be almost anything from Amazon) then you can apply for 12-month interest free financing.
As a coder, the 3840 x 2160 resolution — “4k” because 3,840 is nearly 4,000 — offered by a 4K monitor can boost my productivity significantly since I can have many coding tool windows open and visible at one time without overlap. With smaller monitors, digging through open windows can take lots of time over the course of a day and each time I have to shuffle through windows is an opportunity to become distracted.
The 39-inch Seiki television monitor is limited to 30Hz refresh rates at 4k resolutions due to its HDMI 1.4 interface, but since it uses an LCD panel, flicker is reportedly not a problem. It’s low refresh rate will reduce its attractiveness to hardcore gamers. $520 for a 4k monitor right now is almost unbelievably inexpensive. While 39″ might seem large for a desktop monitor, keep in mind that a single 4k monitor has the same number of pixels as four 1080p monitors.
My Seiki monitor will arrive next week and I will report my experience with it soon afterwards.