Two 27" monitors or a single ultrawide?

[Flying machine]

Advice and experience welcome from those who have used two monitors and then gone to one larger ultrawide please. I have a 27" Dell S2716dg and also an old 24" Samsung run on a GTX 980. My PC is used mostly for work (office documents and photographs) and I'm not a massive gamer, but on occasion I do play the odd game. I like to have photos on one screen (clarity and accurate colour reproduction are important) and a word document open on the other. Clearly there is a big difference in the two screens that I have, and so I was going to buy another 27" Dell and put them side by side on a dual arm VESA mount. But... I'm wondering if a single ultrawide monitor might be a better idea? I was looking at the 49" Samsung LC49RG90SSUXEN to replace both. Any experience of doing similar from the PH readers?

[Deep Thought]

I think theres a thread where someone asked similar, so maybe have a scan through recent posts in this section, but to answer your question...

I did similar to you. I had a 27 inch widescreen ACER screen with a very thin bezel and i simply bought another identical one and used a good dual mount i got off amazon. I think it works exceptionally well. I've my work laptop to my left then the twin monitors in a line to the right.

What i also do is i have an HDMI switch button on my desk which allows me to change the right hand monitor to display from my own PC if i have some down time or for non working hours.

I'm pleased with it overall and should work out much cheaper than a ultrawide of similar size and capability.

[devnull]

I have both - couple of 32" 4k monitors and a Samsung CHRG90.

I thought that the Sansung would be my answer to all things productivity wise, but it's just massive. I have a large desk, but the footprint is huge, and it sts out a tremendous amount of heat - feels like you're getting a suntan.

I'd also recommend a window manager app of some sort too - you spend half your time rearranging windows to make the best use of space.

I should point out that if you want to run it at the full 5120x1440 120Hz, then you will need a beefy GFX card - I have various laptops, some with 1060 GPUs in them, and they struggle.

Day to day i use a single 32" 4k screen, but if i know i have some extended work to do (such as multiple excel spreadsheets etc) i usually swap out to the samsung.

[sgrimshaw]

Deep Thought said:

I think theres a thread where someone asked similar, so maybe have a scan through recent posts in this section

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=95&t=1880714

[Kermit power]

sgrimshaw said:

Deep Thought said:

I think theres a thread where someone asked similar, so maybe have a scan through recent posts in this section

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=95&t=1880714

You can add my thread as well, which started from a different place, but ended up with me buying 2x24".

I have them set up on a VESA arm, and have my laptop (a Lenovo Yoga) flipped around below them in tablet mode. Having initially thought I'd be better off with an ultrawide to avoid having the bezels in the middle, I've actually left a 2" gap between the two screens, both of which are angled in towards me, and it does everything I could ask of it absolutely perfectly!

[spikeyhead]

I've got twin 27s and if anything they're slightly too wide, a 27 and a 24, or even twin 24s would probably have been enough.

[Atanasoff]

I recently had this issue and plumped for two screens - it means that I’m a bit more flexible than with a single screen even though it perhaps is t as slick as a single screen. By using a mount it has also given me more desk space.

[Glade]

Now WFH looks to be fairly long term I have been musing on this. I often have a Web dashboard, an excel list of items to work through Athan need to be referenced against another excel sheet, and often I need to Google information as I go. So I need 4 windows. Plus teams / outlook.

2x 24" monitors don't give enough space for this... and one of my monitors is 1440p and looks nice, one is 1080p and next to it looks fuzzy on text which is jarring.

The 49" needs to be 5120 x 1440p... if you get a cheaper 1080p screen, at that size the pixel density is very low and the experience won't be as good as my crap 24".

However you are looking at £1k plus for a 32:9 49" 1440p monitor.

Sizing it is the same as 2x 27"

It seems cheaper to buy 2 decent spec 27" than the 49" samsung. For £600 to £700, and easier to snap windows to the sides of the screen without some program to help set up zones (which I can't install without going to corporate IT).

However if you ever intend to do some gaming in the future, having one epic wide screen would be much better.... but perhaps not worth an extra £400 to £500?

You also have to consider if your work machine can run the resolution. I have a dell d6000 Dock which supports 5k using 2x display port cables.... but i know that using USB-C only my laptop won't run the 5k (ish) resolution.

[mikef]

I’ve gone from two 24” 4K NEC monitors to an ultrawide. The things that clinch it for me are
- wrangling mahoosive financial spreadsheets
- using IDEs for software development (XCode, IntelliJ Idea,, Pycharm, R-Studio, etc) that work best with multiple panes, with maybe a smaller document open next to them
- Video editing with a nice wide timeline
- easier switching between inputs and fewer cables (Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, gaming PCj

[sjg]

IMO what will swing it one way or the other:

- screensharing in calls, particularly if you can’t share a single app window for whatever reason. Much easier to share a single desktop on a dual screen setup.

- switching computers. If you have a home PC as well as a work laptop to hook up it’s all easier with a single monitor, whether you KVM or just switch inputs.

[tomsugden]

sjg said:

- switching computers. If you have a home PC as well as a work laptop to hook up it’s all easier with a single monitor, whether you KVM or just switch inputs.

Not true. I have 3x24 monitors with 2 in portrait, and 1x49 curved. They are all plugged in to a targus USB hub and a switch. I can flick between home and work pcs seemlessly, and speakers, microphone, keyboard and mouse all switch.

[peterperkins]

tomsugden said:

Not true. I have 3x24 monitors with 2 in portrait, and 1x49 curved. They are all plugged in to a targus USB hub and a switch. I can flick between home and work pcs seemlessly, and speakers, microphone, keyboard and mouse all switch.

Tongue firmly in cheek.

That's PH Director level impressive until the fake bookcase wallpaper drops it back down to council.

That thin curved screen does look like you're looking through a letterbox.

[tomsugden]

The picture on the screen doesn't help, but in reality it doesn't appear narrow at all. I can use it is two screens, or stretch a speadsheet across both.

[David A]

tomsugden said:

Not true. I have 3x24 monitors with 2 in portrait, and 1x49 curved. They are all plugged in to a targus USB hub and a switch. I can flick between home and work pcs seemlessly, and speakers, microphone, keyboard and mouse all switch.

Hi which Targus hub/switch is it you have. I have the same need but past products I’ve tried have been a bit cheap and not worked well.

[maniac886]

I've just replaced my two 25" monitors with a 38 inch LG ultrawide and a Dell 27 inch QHD monitor. I prefer the height of the 38 inch rather than the 49inch monitors. Just waiting for some monitor arms so I can mount the screens to free up desk space.

[Derek Smith]

I've been running a 27" QHD and a 24" HD side by side.

I thought I would have been happy with the smaller screen but I'm now considering buying another 27" as the lower quality and the 'step' are distracting.

[tomsugden]

David A said:

Hi which Targus hub/switch is it you have. I have the same need but past products I’ve tried have been a bit cheap and not worked well.

I have an older version of this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Targus-SuperSpeed-Univers...

And the switch:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01AJP7FLC/ref...

And one of these to give me more HDMI ports:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0725K1MHH/ref...

Model number of mine is ACP71EU. It opens up and inside are lots of different tips for different laptops.

Targus customer services have been amazing, probably the best company I have ever dealt with. I bought the dock second hand on Ebay several years ago, but they still send me cables and tips free whenever I need anything.

Edited by tomsugden on Sunday 2nd August 08:42

[David A]

tomsugden said:

I have an older version of this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Targus-SuperSpeed-Univers...

And the switch:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01AJP7FLC/ref...

And one of these to give me more HDMI ports:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0725K1MHH/ref...

Model number of mine is ACP71EU. It opens up and inside are lots of different tips for different laptops.

Targus customer services have been amazing, probably the best company I have ever dealt with. I bought the dock second hand on Ebay several years ago, but they still send me cables and tips free whenever I need anything.

Edited by tomsugden on Sunday 2nd August 08:42

Thanks - how do you switch displays between sources though?

[TameRacingDriver]

I’ve just got a single 34” ultrawide for work. I didn’t buy it for that though, I bought it as a gaming monitor. I used 2 monitors at office (2x 23”). If I’m being totally honest, I prefer the ultrawide, but 2 monitors might be considerably cheaper!

[tomsugden]

David A said:

Thanks - how do you switch displays between sources though?

All the screens, mouse, keyboard, camera, microphone and speakers are plugged into the targus USB hub. The output of that goes to the switch, and the switch has two USB leads that go to my work and my home PC. When I switch between input 1 and input 2 on the switch, all the devices switch too.