What size monitor to go for??
Discussion
Hi guys,
I wondering if you can help! I'm currently home office shopping and looking to upgrade my current desktop PC setup - which is 10+ years old!
I'm trying to get my head around what monitor to go for, I currently use a 21.5" 16:9 screen. This screen is fine for everything I need it to do, albeit a bit small when using the screen as a split screen (could do with being wider). Hence I'm drawn to an ultrawide 21:9 screen but not sure if they are a bit of good looking fad!
The height of my existing screen is fine, I wouldn't want to go much taller, which leaves me with ultrawide screen options of 27" or a max of 29/30". I also do not want to go too big with my screen as I sit approximately 2 feet away from it and don't want any strain in trying to take it all in.
The type of work I do is mainly office work (excel, word, PDF etc), general web browsing and a bit of video streaming etc.
I did consider a two screen setup, but want to keep my desk as clutter free as possible. I like the idea of having the screen on an arm so I can push the keyboard and mouse under the screen and have enough useable desk space to get all my paperwork out.
How useful is a ultrawide screen for an 'everyday' user such as myself? I read they have a real use in the gaming world, but how about for non gamers? Will everything work as well on a 21:9 screen compared to the industry standard 16:9?
I'm keen to hear ultrawide screen users thoughts, did it take some time to adjust, do you prefer it or do you prefer a standard screen having experienced both.
Thanks for reading everyone
I wondering if you can help! I'm currently home office shopping and looking to upgrade my current desktop PC setup - which is 10+ years old!
I'm trying to get my head around what monitor to go for, I currently use a 21.5" 16:9 screen. This screen is fine for everything I need it to do, albeit a bit small when using the screen as a split screen (could do with being wider). Hence I'm drawn to an ultrawide 21:9 screen but not sure if they are a bit of good looking fad!
The height of my existing screen is fine, I wouldn't want to go much taller, which leaves me with ultrawide screen options of 27" or a max of 29/30". I also do not want to go too big with my screen as I sit approximately 2 feet away from it and don't want any strain in trying to take it all in.
The type of work I do is mainly office work (excel, word, PDF etc), general web browsing and a bit of video streaming etc.
I did consider a two screen setup, but want to keep my desk as clutter free as possible. I like the idea of having the screen on an arm so I can push the keyboard and mouse under the screen and have enough useable desk space to get all my paperwork out.
How useful is a ultrawide screen for an 'everyday' user such as myself? I read they have a real use in the gaming world, but how about for non gamers? Will everything work as well on a 21:9 screen compared to the industry standard 16:9?
I'm keen to hear ultrawide screen users thoughts, did it take some time to adjust, do you prefer it or do you prefer a standard screen having experienced both.
Thanks for reading everyone
These are two 34” 21:9. The perspective of the photo is out due to the size of the desk and it being in the standing position.
Ok, you don’t need two of them but one will be very easy to adapt to. I only have two because I run two separate instances and have a monitor dedicated to each instance. The one on the right is where all the work is done and being able to have two applications open at once makes life simple and is like having dual monitors. Before taking the ultra wide plunge, I was concerned about arranging the applications but windows has made that very easy. Either drag the application screen into the side and it will automatically set it to half the monitor, or hold windows + arrow and it will place the application in that portion of the screen.
The benefit of having one monitor doing the work of two is when you do excel in full screen and don’t have to deal with monitor misalignment or boarders.
Having been initially hesitant, I very quickly became a convert.
Ok, you don’t need two of them but one will be very easy to adapt to. I only have two because I run two separate instances and have a monitor dedicated to each instance. The one on the right is where all the work is done and being able to have two applications open at once makes life simple and is like having dual monitors. Before taking the ultra wide plunge, I was concerned about arranging the applications but windows has made that very easy. Either drag the application screen into the side and it will automatically set it to half the monitor, or hold windows + arrow and it will place the application in that portion of the screen.
The benefit of having one monitor doing the work of two is when you do excel in full screen and don’t have to deal with monitor misalignment or boarders.
Having been initially hesitant, I very quickly became a convert.
I think resolution is more important than physical size (within reason).
For the type of thing it sounds like you'll be doing, I think a 27" 4K monitor might suit you. It's not too big to be overbearing, but the extra resolution means it's nice when working 'split screen' with apps side by side.
A 'normal' widescreen 32" is typically 2560 x 1440. 4K is 3840 x 2160, so you get twice as much usable vertical resolution, which is useful for office apps.
Of course a 4K 32" would be best of both worlds - but it depends if you want something that physically big on your desk.
For the type of thing it sounds like you'll be doing, I think a 27" 4K monitor might suit you. It's not too big to be overbearing, but the extra resolution means it's nice when working 'split screen' with apps side by side.
A 'normal' widescreen 32" is typically 2560 x 1440. 4K is 3840 x 2160, so you get twice as much usable vertical resolution, which is useful for office apps.
Of course a 4K 32" would be best of both worlds - but it depends if you want something that physically big on your desk.
Screen size is not as important as the resolution that your computer’s graphics card can handle.
My 14” corporate laptop maxes out at 1,920 pixels wide so plugging in a 32” via HDMI doesn’t let me show more - it’s just bigger but further away, which negates a large part of the benefit.
A previous PC had better graphics and DisplayPort which offered many more options (as does my Surface Pro).
For office work, I prefer a single 32” monitor (over a pair of smaller monitors for example) so long as the 32” can display at least 2,560 pixels wide as this allows me to effectively display two pages of an A4 document on screen at a realistic 1:1 scale and still have enough screen ‘real estate’ available for the application ribbons etc.
My 14” corporate laptop maxes out at 1,920 pixels wide so plugging in a 32” via HDMI doesn’t let me show more - it’s just bigger but further away, which negates a large part of the benefit.
A previous PC had better graphics and DisplayPort which offered many more options (as does my Surface Pro).
For office work, I prefer a single 32” monitor (over a pair of smaller monitors for example) so long as the 32” can display at least 2,560 pixels wide as this allows me to effectively display two pages of an A4 document on screen at a realistic 1:1 scale and still have enough screen ‘real estate’ available for the application ribbons etc.
Not the single screen you mentioned and might not fit within the height limits but would something like (random Google image) work?
msport123 said:
Hi guys,
The type of work I do is mainly office work (excel, word, PDF etc), general web browsing and a bit of video streaming etc.
Stream video on the landscape screen whilst the portrait one is more or less then ideal proportion for most stuff that is the paper equivalent to A4?The type of work I do is mainly office work (excel, word, PDF etc), general web browsing and a bit of video streaming etc.
Edited by Gluggy on Saturday 15th January 21:18
BenQ make pretty nice 4k 32-34” ish screens, 16:10.
So getting on for as wide as the wide ones, but with pixels top and bottom too, in effect.
It all does depend on exactly what you’re doing.
I’ve ended up with 2x 32” screens with one to my left and one straight on, which works ok most of the time.
At one time I had 32” 2560x1440 straddled with 2 24” 1920x1200 for a specific type of work.
Sometimes looking around a lot can be hard though… and yet stuffing everything on one screen effectively can be hard… which has put me off widescreen/curved stuff.
Plus all the widescreen/curved stuff, so far, is more office/gamer end, no colour stuff.
So getting on for as wide as the wide ones, but with pixels top and bottom too, in effect.
It all does depend on exactly what you’re doing.
I’ve ended up with 2x 32” screens with one to my left and one straight on, which works ok most of the time.
At one time I had 32” 2560x1440 straddled with 2 24” 1920x1200 for a specific type of work.
Sometimes looking around a lot can be hard though… and yet stuffing everything on one screen effectively can be hard… which has put me off widescreen/curved stuff.
Plus all the widescreen/curved stuff, so far, is more office/gamer end, no colour stuff.
I have two 27" screens.
The system fits my needs perfectly. I thought the ability of turning one screen to portrait was unlikely, but try it if you can. It's superb for layout, pdfs, Word-type documents. Takes seconds to change.
A double-page layout on two portrait screens is 24" high and 30" wide. Magic. It can be changed back quickly.
Obvioulsy, it depends on what you do, but for me it's about 10% of the time that at least one screen turned though 90 deg.
The system fits my needs perfectly. I thought the ability of turning one screen to portrait was unlikely, but try it if you can. It's superb for layout, pdfs, Word-type documents. Takes seconds to change.
A double-page layout on two portrait screens is 24" high and 30" wide. Magic. It can be changed back quickly.
Obvioulsy, it depends on what you do, but for me it's about 10% of the time that at least one screen turned though 90 deg.
Gluggy said:
Stream video on the landscape screen whilst the portrait one is more or less then ideal proportion for most stuff that is the paper equivalent to A4?
I have this set up but with 32 horizontal Edited by Gluggy on Saturday 15th January 21:18
And 27 maybe vertical.
Find it works really well.
Work did give me a huuuuuge monitor for a while but I found it hard to position things properly when working across multiple bits of software.
h0b0 said:
These are two 34” 21:9. The perspective of the photo is out due to the size of the desk and it being in the standing position.
Ok, you don’t need two of them but one will be very easy to adapt to. I only have two because I run two separate instances and have a monitor dedicated to each instance. The one on the right is where all the work is done and being able to have two applications open at once makes life simple and is like having dual monitors. Before taking the ultra wide plunge, I was concerned about arranging the applications but windows has made that very easy. Either drag the application screen into the side and it will automatically set it to half the monitor, or hold windows + arrow and it will place the application in that portion of the screen.
The benefit of having one monitor doing the work of two is when you do excel in full screen and don’t have to deal with monitor misalignment or boarders.
Having been initially hesitant, I very quickly became a convert.
That is very helpful thanks! Looks like a sweet setup you have there too! I have only recently started using the windows shortcuts for splitting the screen, how I did not know about this sooner I don't know! But like you say makes it very easy to arrange the screen then get to work. Ok, you don’t need two of them but one will be very easy to adapt to. I only have two because I run two separate instances and have a monitor dedicated to each instance. The one on the right is where all the work is done and being able to have two applications open at once makes life simple and is like having dual monitors. Before taking the ultra wide plunge, I was concerned about arranging the applications but windows has made that very easy. Either drag the application screen into the side and it will automatically set it to half the monitor, or hold windows + arrow and it will place the application in that portion of the screen.
The benefit of having one monitor doing the work of two is when you do excel in full screen and don’t have to deal with monitor misalignment or boarders.
Having been initially hesitant, I very quickly became a convert.
Gluggy said:
Stream video on the landscape screen whilst the portrait one is more or less then ideal proportion for most stuff that is the paper equivalent to A4?
Not a bad shout, thanks for the suggestion. I think I would prefer having the one screen and for the work I do, splitting the screen is suffice instead of needing an additional screen. Plus I think it looks better on the desk just having the one screen. Edited by Gluggy on Saturday 15th January 21:18
I did pop into Currys yesterday and they were surprisingly helpful. They were happy to log in to a few different size monitors for me to have a play around with. I was keen to see how web pages looked on an ultrawide screen and if I could take in width of the screen.
I had a play around with 30" & 34" ultrawide screens, both were curved too. Webpages looked fine on both not stretched out or anything like that. Split screen on the 30" felt fine and looked good, could see me getting used to it. The 34" felt a bit big at first, but you soon get used to it too, you could comfortably split the screen into 3 on the 34" which could have its advantages.
I will be buying a new PC too. I did consider an all in one setup, but ultrawide screen options are few and my monitor sits directly in front of a radiator so thought it best to go with a separate PC which can be positioned somewhere more sensible.
PC wise I'm looking at the HP Prodesk 400 G6. This comes with an intergrated intel UHD graphics card which I believe will be fine with ultra widescreen resolutions.
I feel like I've fallen into a bit of rabbit hole with looking at the screen setup, there is much more to it than when I last went shopping! Standard widescreen or ultrawide, size of screen, VA or IPS, resolution, in built speakers, mounting options etc!!
I had a play around with 30" & 34" ultrawide screens, both were curved too. Webpages looked fine on both not stretched out or anything like that. Split screen on the 30" felt fine and looked good, could see me getting used to it. The 34" felt a bit big at first, but you soon get used to it too, you could comfortably split the screen into 3 on the 34" which could have its advantages.
I will be buying a new PC too. I did consider an all in one setup, but ultrawide screen options are few and my monitor sits directly in front of a radiator so thought it best to go with a separate PC which can be positioned somewhere more sensible.
PC wise I'm looking at the HP Prodesk 400 G6. This comes with an intergrated intel UHD graphics card which I believe will be fine with ultra widescreen resolutions.
I feel like I've fallen into a bit of rabbit hole with looking at the screen setup, there is much more to it than when I last went shopping! Standard widescreen or ultrawide, size of screen, VA or IPS, resolution, in built speakers, mounting options etc!!
Windows look exactly the same on a wide and ultrawide - you can just have more of them next to each other on an ultrawide.
If you're spending decent money on a screen, separate screen and PC make sense as you can upgrade them independently.
If you're not an audiophile, built in speakers are very convenient and save desk space. There won't be a lot of bass available, but fine for video calls and casual YouTubing.
If you're tight for space, go with as large as will reasonably fit.
For general office productivity, VA is definitely "good enough" and potentially cheaper. If you're fussed about colour accuracy for design work, you probably need IPS.
For wide and especially ultrawide, a slight curve say 1800R is more comfortable as it reduces the amount of eye/head movement and refocussing to see the edges clearly.
For resolution, 1080p screens tend to have a lower pixel density than 1440p screens (roughly 95 ppi vs ~ 110 ppi) there's a calculator https://www.calculatorsoup.com/calculators/technol... to check for a particular size/resolution combination. If you're going to use the native resolution rather than scaling (and why buy more pixels and then don't use them by choosing scaling?) default text looks to me a little large at 95 ppi and a little small at 110 ppi - decide which is more comfortable for you and that ties down the "right" resolution once you've decided on physical size.
If the ProDesk has DP rather than HDMI out ideally check your screen has DP in.
If you're spending decent money on a screen, separate screen and PC make sense as you can upgrade them independently.
If you're not an audiophile, built in speakers are very convenient and save desk space. There won't be a lot of bass available, but fine for video calls and casual YouTubing.
If you're tight for space, go with as large as will reasonably fit.
For general office productivity, VA is definitely "good enough" and potentially cheaper. If you're fussed about colour accuracy for design work, you probably need IPS.
For wide and especially ultrawide, a slight curve say 1800R is more comfortable as it reduces the amount of eye/head movement and refocussing to see the edges clearly.
For resolution, 1080p screens tend to have a lower pixel density than 1440p screens (roughly 95 ppi vs ~ 110 ppi) there's a calculator https://www.calculatorsoup.com/calculators/technol... to check for a particular size/resolution combination. If you're going to use the native resolution rather than scaling (and why buy more pixels and then don't use them by choosing scaling?) default text looks to me a little large at 95 ppi and a little small at 110 ppi - decide which is more comfortable for you and that ties down the "right" resolution once you've decided on physical size.
If the ProDesk has DP rather than HDMI out ideally check your screen has DP in.
I have a 34" Quad HD monitor as my main display. I use it with the laptop display set to one side to act as another small screen, but for the most part, stick to the ultrawide. As someone else said, its a great solution for a single screen system. My WFH office is very small so I can't have too many screens. I can get plenty of information on the screen and its very clear. I use Powertoys FancyZones for window management and TaskbarX for central taskbar icons on Win10, which are must haves for me, but Windows 11 has all this baked in.
I definitely recommend it. Excellent for split screen, using apps like Powerpoint or Excel in full screen mode, and if web pages have too much white space, just set up a FancyZone to display it centrally.
If I was buying now though, I'd go for one of those 49" 32:9 monitors instead. This is exactly the same width as 2x 27" traditional 16:9 monitor, and effectively allows for triple screen setup without bezels. A bit more money though and frankly 34" is absolutely fine.
I definitely recommend it. Excellent for split screen, using apps like Powerpoint or Excel in full screen mode, and if web pages have too much white space, just set up a FancyZone to display it centrally.
If I was buying now though, I'd go for one of those 49" 32:9 monitors instead. This is exactly the same width as 2x 27" traditional 16:9 monitor, and effectively allows for triple screen setup without bezels. A bit more money though and frankly 34" is absolutely fine.
TameRacingDriver said:
TaskbarX for central taskbar icons on Win10, which are must haves for me, but Windows 11 has all this baked in.
Interesting - I have 11 on a system with a 34" monitor and hated the central icons, so relocated them back to the bottom left corner.I do pretty much all my application launching/switching though with "windows and number" to launch or switch to the corresponding application that is pinned to the task bar, or windows key and start typing application name,
xeny said:
TameRacingDriver said:
TaskbarX for central taskbar icons on Win10, which are must haves for me, but Windows 11 has all this baked in.
Interesting - I have 11 on a system with a 34" monitor and hated the central icons, so relocated them back to the bottom left corner.I do pretty much all my application launching/switching though with "windows and number" to launch or switch to the corresponding application that is pinned to the task bar, or windows key and start typing application name,
Gassing Station | Computers, Gadgets & Stuff | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff