Microsoft Verdana vs Bitstream DejaVu

Packs lots of information into your screen space while remaining clear and never looking crowded.

Again, particularly in Windows

Looks good elsewhere as well, but the world-class hinting here really comes out with the windows rasterizer (probably optimized for it).

The Vera fonts changed the way the game was played regarding typeface display on digital displays with full hinting for every glyph, allowing the compositor to tweak any character to render well for the specific pixel pattern it had to use for the position it was placed on the screen. It's a pleasant and high-quality foundation for any typographic endeavour.

LaTeX wouldn't be the juggernaut it is currently in academic circles if it weren't for the DejaVu fonts hitting their stride in the same era of computing. So long as there's a bottle of liquor handy and a way to browse the mathematical symbols in the Vera fonts, you'll never be bored and lonely again.

These were easily overlooked until we all started spending half our lives looking at screens that literally fit in the palms of our hands. They're available for all the font weights of both typefaces and the oblique styles as well.