Screw that.

For $500 you can afford a pair of 21.5" 1920x1080 LED-backlit monitors, and put one or both of them in vertical.

A better coding environment cannot be had in this price range (until you have coded with 1920 vertical resolution, you have not truly coded).

You need to have a high quality monitor to rotate to portrait view. Most monitors have terrible viewing angles when viewed from the side. At work I have a 24" and I leave my laptop open. Pretty much everything I use goes onto the primary monitor, and I just use the laptop screen for pandora and chat app. The main screen is large enough that I rarely have anything maximized. I can easily have two IDE instance side by side, or ide + browser, etc.

Right, and the Dell 2412 rotates really well since it's an IPS!

You need to have a high quality monitor to rotate to portrait view. Most monitors have terrible viewing angles when viewed from the side.

Which is exactly why I picked a monitor with a very good vertical viewing angle. Wasn't born yesterday, you know

At work I have a 24" and I leave my laptop open... The main screen is large enough that I rarely have anything maximized. I can easily have two IDE instance side by side, or ide + browser, etc.[/quote]
1080 pixels is just plain not enough vertical resolution. If your 24" display is 1920x1200, then maybe that'll do the trick, but I'll take an extra 700 pixels any day. How often do you need a text editor that is actually wider than it is tall?

1080 pixels is just plain not enough vertical resolution. If your 24" display is 1920x1200, then maybe that'll do the trick, but I'll take an extra 700 pixels any day. How often do you need a text editor that is actually wider than it is tall?

It is 1200px tall, but that has been plenty for me. If you are having trouble fitting a single function in that vertical space then your functions are too long!
Also, as I said, the text editor is not wider than it is tall since I don't run it fullscreen. Below is a screencap from my laptop which is 1080p.

[quote name='tstrimple' timestamp='1328934249' post='4911876']
You need to have a high quality monitor to rotate to portrait view. Most monitors have terrible viewing angles when viewed from the side.

Which is exactly why I picked a monitor with a very good vertical viewing angle. Wasn't born yesterday, you know

At work I have a 24" and I leave my laptop open... The main screen is large enough that I rarely have anything maximized. I can easily have two IDE instance side by side, or ide + browser, etc.[/quote]
1080 pixels is just plain not enough vertical resolution. If your 24" display is 1920x1200, then maybe that'll do the trick, but I'll take an extra 700 pixels any day. How often do you need a text editor that is actually wider than it is tall?
[/quote]

But that's a separate issue from 1 big vs 2 small, you can rotate the single big just as well as you can rotate the 2 small if you want vertical instead of horizontal (which makes sense in most programming tasks), but i'd still take a single item with 130% total surface over 2 for a total of 200% surface when doing single tasks that don't require switching, hoping from monitor to monitor and refocusing + having to put up with the silly frame in between distracts me to no end.

I'd definately change my mind if they did no frame (or at least no frame on one border) monitors so you could add them together!

Edit: Also while it's uncommon (but that does happen) to need more horizontal space than vertical space in, as you said, the "text editor", when using an ide the space the text editor doesn't use horizontally is usually taken by other useful things. Ex in vs i keep the solution explorer open all of the time and not auto-hidden, because i click on it at "least" once every 2 minutes, there's also other things than typing text (designers for creating databases etc).

$500? Buy two Dell U2312hm monitors, rotate them vertically and place them side by side. Excellent color reproduction, viewing angles (eIPS), black levels. These Dells are very solid for their price (pretty much the best monitors you can buy at this price range) - and you haven't really coded until you've used two monitors side-by-side.

I have a U2311h at home (the previous version of this model) and have bought several U2312hm pieces at work - and we are very happy with the result.

The only downside is that the anti-glare coating is pretty harsh and becomes visible in bright smooth backgrounds.

The Dell U2412 is an appreciable step up, both in quality and resolution, but you won't be able to fit two pieces in your budget. I'd recommend going for 2x U2312 over 1x U2412 - but it's your call.

I wanted to go with the 24" like the above posters, but decided to purchase two Dell U2312HM, the price was decent at the time. I think Dell is still offering $60 or so off the original price (each). I'm extremely happy with the decision (though a little jealous!).

I have one monitor set in portrait mode, for coding and scripting.

My laptop already has a 1920x1080 screen, and it'll only drive one external monitor. So I think I'll go with the U2412M, as it seems to be the consensus for one large monitor in my price range.

Laptop internal monitor won't mesh with any desktop monitor very well (due to pretty much every factor: height on table, pixel pitch, resolution, contrast, color, etc.), so don't expect to use it more than as some kind of status display.

Also, directly facing a single large display is much better ergonomics than constantly turning your head left or right. I have used dual 1200p displays, one in pivot mode, but it wasn't optimal.

Your budget is enough for a 27" 2560x1440 IPS monitor, so you should get one and skip right over the 1080p/1200p stuff. There are multiple Korean brands you can buy via eBay. Yamakasi Catleap was one of them, you can google the others.

I have a Dell U2410 as a primary, and then a smaller 20 inch off to the right as a secondary. I've been enjoying it so far, and feel that it is well worth the money. However, coming from never using anything more than dual 20s, and having used a single 20 for ages, going with the 24 was just huge. And blinding.