Anybody used ultra wide monitors

[Adsibob]

I’m looking at getting a 21:9 aspect ratio monitor, probably in the 34” size with a slight curve at either end (1500mm radius).

 Just wondered if anybody had used such a setup as their main/sole office computer and whether they liked it.

 On the one hand it’s meant to be useful for having three documents open side by side. But on the other hand, it’s not quite high enough for some applications.

[fatgus]

I’ve had a couple of 34” ultra-wide monitors, one flat and one curved, but moved to a flat 32” 16:9 and much prefer it. It’s mostly office work and a little photoshop/indesign, but the 16:9 seems to suit my eyes way better than the 21:9.

 

I fleetingly had a 43” 16:9 in my home study. It looked spectacular, but it was truly horrible to use… not recommended at all 🤢

 

 

[oliwoodings]

I have a Samsung ultra wide with support for picture-in-picture and picture-by-picture. I've ended up using it always in PbP mode, with an equal split. Basically the same as just having two monitors but with no bezel in-between. I'm pretty happy with it, and occasionally I'll switch it back to single screen mode for massive spreadsheets.

[Adsibob]

39 minutes ago, fatgus said:

I’ve had a couple of 34” ultra-wide monitors, one flat and one curved, but moved to a flat 32” 16:9 and much prefer it. It’s mostly office work and a little photoshop/indesign, but the 16:9 seems to suit my eyes way better than the 21:9.

 

I fleetingly had a 43” 16:9 in my home study. It looked spectacular, but it was truly horrible to use… not recommended at all 🤢

 

 

I currently have a flat 32” display, which is 16:9 and has a screen resolution of 2550 x 1440. It is a fairly old low spec machine, only 75Hz and doesn’t even have vesa mounting points. I am trying to work out what the difference is between this same size but higher resolution, or wider. If you could explain the reason behind your preference that would help immensely.

 

 

[SteamyTea]

I hate wide monitors, but then I do have persistent vertigo.

[Pocster]

13 hours ago, Adsibob said:

probably in the 34” size with a slight curve at either end (1500mm radius).

Sorry - my mind wandered …. Monitors yeah 

[fatgus]

I think it probably depends on how the monitor would be used. For me, as the monitor gets wider the usability decreases…. I can see why it might be good for gaming, but if I’m viewing docs side by side I don’t really want to be turning my head to do so  IMHO the additional height of the 16:9 is more useful than the width of the 21:9. Two pages can be viewed side by side with a decent font size without having to scroll. My current 32” 16:9 is also something like 2560x1440, which is much lower res than the last 21:9 I had, but I’d still choose it over the wide ones.
 

Also, no matter where I position a 21:9 monitor I find that anything towards the sides of the display get a little blurry, so I have to lean towards the monitor slightly. Really pisses me off, but I suspect others might not have that issue. 

 

 

[Adsibob]

Ended up going for a more standard 16:9 ratio but in a rather huge 32” size, so that there is plenty of width if I’m so inclined. The screen is slightly curved, which will be interesting. Deciding what to choose from all the options available was utterly mind boggling. Didn’t realise the tech in this field had changed so much since I last bought a monitor, some 14 years ago. Hasn’t arrived yet, so no idea if I made the right choice.

[FelixtheHousecat]

Have 21:9 monitors at work and I moderately dislike them.

Have 2x 32" 4k monitors at home and love them - I can rotate them into portrait and typically do with one of the two most of the time - this makes it useful for stacking apps vertically.

I work in cybersecurity, so it's useful to have a lot of space for the obligatory binary waterfalls and meaningless green code while I'm slouching in a hoody.

 

I think you made the right choice with the conventional aspect ratio in 32"

[Conor]

I've tried all sorts of combos. Currently three ~24" monitors, perfect for me. If you use lots of ssingle window applications like excel, word etc, then I find having a adequately sized monitor dedicated to a single window is better than trying to split larger screens.

[SteamyTea]

Got some men to the moon.

Even comes with an ashtray, how (expletive deleted)ing brilliant is that.

 

[TonyT]

The display screen regulations or whatever nonsense it’s called now wouldn’t allow the moon landing now , no wrist support, no foot support, no 5 star wheely chair, breaks every hour away from the screen…

 

 

[SteamyTea]

24 minutes ago, TonyT said:

The display screen regulations or whatever nonsense it’s called now wouldn’t allow the moon landing now , no wrist support, no foot support, no 5 star wheely chair, breaks every hour away from the screen…

 

 

Easy to get around that, just call everyone a manager and get them to waiver their employment right.

[Pocster]

9 hours ago, FelixtheHousecat said:

I work in cybersecurity, so it's useful to have a lot of space for the obligatory binary waterfalls and meaningless green code while I'm slouching in a hoody.

Can you hack into buildhub and make me a mod please ?

[SteamyTea]

40 minutes ago, Pocster said:

Can you hack into buildhub and make me a mod please

@TerryE was after someone to take over all the system admin.

With your skills you could be more powerful than a mod, I see a new horizon.

[Pocster]

Just now, SteamyTea said:

@TerryE was after someone to take over all the system admin.

With your skills you could be more powerful than a mod, I see a new horizon.

Yes I agree .

[Mr Blobby]

Whatever you do don't get a 4k monitor at 27 inches.  The font's don't scale right at 4k on a 27" monitor and it looks awful. 

 

I use two 27 inch monitors at 2560x1440 on an amzon basics dual mount and that works great for me.  As @Conor mentioned, multiple monitors with a single app maximised on each is a lot easier than messing around resizing windows on a single big screen.

 

Before doing anything, make sure your desktop/laptop can support monitors at the desired resolution with the proper port(s).  Which may or may not need to carry audio as well.

Edited January 17, 2024 by Mr Blobby

[joth]

Think it depends on the application. My partner is an accountant and all those spreadsheets apparently benefit with the-wider-the-better monitors.

Many SW engineers I worked with prefer vertical monitors (ideally 2 side by side, 24" or even 30", flipped up vertically) as code tends to scroll vertically more than horizontally. Especially my last employer had an 80 col line length in the coding standard for many years, hence very tall skinny code layout.

 

 

[TerryE]

2 hours ago, Mr Blobby said:

The font's don't scale right at 4k on a 27" monitor and it looks awful. 

Welcome to the world of Windows. Not an issue with Linux, ChromeOS or iOS

[ProDave]

5 hours ago, Mr Blobby said:

Before doing anything, make sure your desktop/laptop can support monitors at the desired resolution with the proper port(s).  Which may or may not need to carry audio as well.

That is the issue.  I have an old desktop with an old monitor and it has a really sharp image.  I was given a larger Samsung monitor so thought I would try it.  The larger monitor has higher resolution, but I found everything was blurred and no way as sharp as my old monitor.  I concluded it was because the native resolution of the monitor would not match any of the native resolutions available on my video card, so the monitor was rescaling to fit making the blurred image.

 

I am still using my trusty old sharp as a pin monitor.

[Adsibob]

15 hours ago, Mr Blobby said:

As @Conor mentioned, multiple monitors with a single app maximised on each is a lot easier than messing around resizing windows on a single big screen.

This may be true, but having now committed to a single screen for my home office I’m determined to learn all the keyboard shortcuts to make this work. The version of windows which I’m running, I think is Windows 11, has a clever way of splitting the screen up for you which seems to be working quite well, though learning the keyboard shortcuts detailed in this article on screen splitting  will make this better.

Edited January 18, 2024 by Adsibob

[FelixtheHousecat]

4 hours ago, Adsibob said:

... Windows 11, has a clever way of splitting the screen up for you which seems to be working quite well, ...

 

You can also easily do this in Windows 10 with FancyZones from Microsoft - had it installed for years, works very well 

 

[SteamyTea]

9 minutes ago, FelixtheHousecat said:

FancyZones from Microsoft

I just use Alt+Tab to change open applications.

 

But then I come from a time before Windows.

[FelixtheHousecat]

31 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

But then I come from a time before Windows.

 

I do too, just not a Luddite