Ultrawide monitors

[Pieman68]

Afternoon all

Just looking to replace a pair of monitors with an ultrawide. WFH running a pair of screens from a Surface Laptop Go - I currently have a 23" Elitedisplay and a 24" Samsung running 1920 x 1080 on each

For the purposes of tidying up my desk I was thinking of a 34" ultrawide - I appreciate that my screen sizes will be slightly smaller overall

Questions I would ask - curved or flat? I get the feeling curved would be better ergonomically

Anybody know if the Laptop Go can support the 3440 x 1440 resolution so that I could run at full res and split the screen reasonably

External screens used for web/Outlook/Excel/Sage

I would then run my laptop screen below for Teams calls etc using the webcam/speakers/MIC through that

[mmm-five]

3440x1440 is probably the maximum it can support at 60hz, so you should be fine, and a 34" version would probably only be a couple of cm taller than your current 22/24" screens.

The laptop will also support a single 4k monitor at that refresh rate too.

As to whether a curved screen is better or not, I'll leave that up to you.

[ArsE82]

Curved if you can. I have an LG 34" curved as well as a flat.

I find, with the flat, that I have to move my body slightly each way to view the far ends of the screen, whereas the curved is naturally 'easier' to see. Obviously this is dependent on how far from the screen you are sat.

Obviously my wife has ended up using the curved and I get the flat!

[Durzel]

Curved for ultrawide imo. I've got a LG 38" and its nice to use with a MacBook Pro.

[Pieman68]

Cheers all

Desk is 60cm deep, so I currently have the 2 screens raised on stands with the laptop sat underneath, I am approximately 60-70cm away from the screen. I could wall mount behind to give a bit more depth and clear the desk apart from laptop/dock/keyboard and mouse

[Panamax]

Pieman68 said:

34" ultrawide - I appreciate that my screen sizes will be slightly smaller overall

You'll be fine. I use two identical monitors side by side but with the left one overlapping behind the right one, so overall screen availability is reduced but everything's reasonably well centred in front of me. Essentially the right screen is a rectangle facing straight at me - the left screen appears as a square and angled slightly towards me.

[xeny]

Panamax said:

You'll be fine. I use two identical monitors side by side but with the left one overlapping behind the right one, so overall screen availability is reduced but everything's reasonably well centred in front of me. Essentially the right screen is a rectangle facing straight at me - the left screen appears as a square and angled slightly towards me.

does the mount for the left screen support rotation to portrait - you'd then get to actually use all the screen space and it's great for writing long documents, forums and reading documentation.

I've now gone 34" ultrawide (and definitely in the curved camp) with the 27" 2560 x 1440 it replaced on the right in portrait orientation as the space I'm in doesn't quite have enough width for the full 34" + 34" + 27" combo.

[lightweight73]

If you can, try before you buy. I couldn't get used to the reflection and odd feeling with an ultra wide. I much prefer a single 4k. Less head movement and more screen real estate if you don't scale over 100%

[rodericb]

Go bigger - 38" curved. It has that bit extra vertical space for things which work vertically, like pretty much anything you'd be doing for work purposes!

[Taff107]

I bought one of these last year, Samsung internals with a decent price tag for such a gargantuan display area. Cannot fault it.

https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/electriq-49-qled-d...

[mmm-five]

Taff107 said:

I bought one of these last year, Samsung internals with a decent price tag for such a gargantuan display area. Cannot fault it.

https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/electriq-49-qled-d...

It's a VA panel, so may have some issues with viewing angles over IPS.

It's also a gaming monitor, so the cash may have been spent on features you don't need in a business monitor.

It's only 1080p high (albeit 2 of them)...and the OP is looking at 1440p.

[xeny]

lightweight73 said:

I much prefer a single 4k. Less head movement and more screen real estate if you don't scale over 100%

4k at what physical size? you need pretty good eyesight to run a 27" screen at 4K with no scaling.

Edited by xeny on Friday 25th March 10:10

[annodomini2]

mmm-five said:

It's a VA panel, so may have some issues with viewing angles over IPS.

It's a monitor not a TV, if you've setup correctly viewing angles should never be an issue.

[mw88]

mmm-five said:

Taff107 said:

I bought one of these last year, Samsung internals with a decent price tag for such a gargantuan display area. Cannot fault it.

https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/electriq-49-qled-d...

It's a VA panel, so may have some issues with viewing angles over IPS.

It's also a gaming monitor, so the cash may have been spent on features you don't need in a business monitor.

It's only 1080p high (albeit 2 of them)...and the OP is looking at 1440p.

I've got the slightly older non QLED version, and not noticed any issues with viewing angles.

Works perfectly well for work (software dev). It's not a great gaming monitor to be honest, 8ms response time is pretty slow/noticeable.

Granted, it's only 1080, but for the size and price, it's a great piece of kit. Just need to make sure your desk is big enough

[Stuart2022]

I bought this for WFH:

32" TU87F UHD Thunderbolt 3 Monitor
https://www.samsung.com/uk/monitors/high-resolutio...

I do a lot of excel / ppt work and a few comments about curved monitors distorting the picture put me off (I had been looking at 34/38 ultra wides).

I'm really happy with the monitor.

The picture quality is fine for what I do, it looks ok on my desk and I LOVE the thunderbolt connectivity.

In conjunction with my wireless mouse + keyboard (Logitech MX series), wireless phone charger and wireless headset; I have one power cable going to the monitor and then a further cable to the laptop (with the phone charger and headset charger poking out from behind the monitor).

I spend so much time working, my view is it's well worth investing in a decent setup.

[xeny]

Stuart2022 said:

I do a lot of excel / ppt work and a few comments about curved monitors distorting the picture put me off (I had been looking at 34/38 ultra wides).

I spend so much time working, my view is it's well worth investing in a decent setup.

I've spent quite a bit of time with a flat 1440p 27" 2560 panel and a curved 34" 3440 panel. For general use (web, sysadmin, coding) I prefer the curved ultrawide - I find the way the edges of the 27" are a bit further away and not perpendicular to my eyes uncomfortable.

I plonked my gf in front of the 34" (accountant) for a day and she was happy enough with the curve that I have just ordered another 34" ultrawide for her.

Agree utterly with the spend money on a nice WFH environment.

I would quite like a better understanding of the distortion comments (I've seen them as well). I wonder if some of it is the aspect ratio differs between a widescreen and an ultrawide, and people who naively produce presentations full screen discover they look different moving between aspect ratios?

[lightweight73]

xeny said:

4k at what physical size? you need pretty good eyesight to run a 27" screen at 4K with no scaling
10:10[/footnote]

All the 4k screens I use are 27". My eyesight is actually quite poor but at usual monitor distances I don't have a problem.
Monitors are very user dependent for long term use though.
The added bonus is shoulder surfers have a hard time reading the screen in the office as at that distance it is damn near impossible to read anything.

[PaulW100]

Taff107 said:

I bought one of these last year, Samsung internals with a decent price tag for such a gargantuan display area. Cannot fault it.

https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/electriq-49-qled-d...

I too bought one of these last year. It has been and continues to be the envy of anyone that sees it on my desk.

Can split three working windows over it very easily. Fully recommended from me.

[Durzel]

1080 pixels height seems a bit crummy to me, no?

[Pieman68]

PaulW100 said:

Taff107 said:

I bought one of these last year, Samsung internals with a decent price tag for such a gargantuan display area. Cannot fault it.

https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/electriq-49-qled-d...

I too bought one of these last year. It has been and continues to be the envy of anyone that sees it on my desk.

Can split three working windows over it very easily. Fully recommended from me.

Much as that would be fantastic, just physically too wide for the space that I have. Need it to be no wider than 100cm realistically. The 34" that I have seen is approximately 80cm wide so would actually be slightly narrower that the twin screens I have now but still fit the bill

Something like this one maybe?

https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/electriq-35-wqhd-1...