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I'm looking to replace 2 ancient 19" (non-widescreen) monitors but there's not many of them around nowadays.
The choices are 2 small widescreens, 1 large widescreen or a large curved monitor. What would you recommend?
budget <£300
I much prefer using 2x22" than a single monitor.
I have 2x Dells I think, but used to have 1x dell and a Iilyama that was also fine.
Nowadays with snap, I would probably go one massive monitor. But that's just me.
I like having 2 screens over one but perhaps thats just me. Seems to allow me to better split work between them. I tried one massive screen and just using 'windows' but it didn't work for me. Depending on desk space a couple of 22 or 24 inch?
Use is another factor, the above is for work. For play I prefer using the single big widescreen!
Oops I forgot to say:
they're being connected to a laptop docking station.
I don't need 4k but I do need to be able to have 2 docs side by side, or a doc next to maps/xls etc. etc...
It's for work, I don't do gaming and there's not a huge amount of room on my desk.
Shameless plug but i have this for sale, nice 29inch widescreen.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/LG-Ultrawide-Monitor-DisplayPort-Freesync/dp/B01BFH194W
only upgraded as i wanted Gsync and more Hz
how much you thinking for that monitor jolmes?
2 reasonable 22/24s should do the job, check out dell outlet for some of theirs, using 2x 24 and the 15 laptop in the office these days just about enough
I'd say around tree fiddy.
Serious note, probably £180
BIL has a monster curved wide monitor.
It's brilliant - so much screen room he can have three things open side by side.
He is having to move his desk placement back as it's so damn big though...
I am impressed by my curved 34" Dell U3415W at work. Might be refurb options close to £300 with Black Friday?
out of your budget but after years of 2 or 3 monitors I have just gone 43" 4k. 100% scaling is perfect and I don't have to use all the screen if I don't want to. Its the same as 4x21" full hd screens.
You should be able to pick up a couple of nice 21" but I would consider either a single 27" QHD as well if your PC can drive it.
If budget allows then the Dell 24" with 1200 vertical resolution is nice for that little less scrolling. Not sure how much 2 of them will be though.
A little over budget but I think I used to have one of each of those, both perfect for what you are doing, 2 of the cheaper ones are a little over budget
Running 2 similar ones now and I'm happy to be able to snap 2 things in each of the displays, might be me being old fashioned but it helps me to be able to separate the displays so I can work on different things without being distracted by the others if I want to or work across both
I bought a 40" Samsung 4k TV for just over £300 back in the summer and been using it as a monitor since - I work from home almost all the time. As with andyl, it makes far more sense to run 4k at big sizes than to have to do scaling on a smaller one. Lots of space for having a few things open at once, or in something like Word you can have 4 pages on screen side by side at their actual A4 size.
Used a 34" ultrawide for a while when I was at a client, and the 40" TV feels very similar width just with a bit more vertical height.
AT andyl
What monitor did you go with, can't work out whether to for 2x Monitors or one huge one? Is 43" too big? Have graphics and computer recently updated so can run a 4k one easily. Use mainly deskwork, photoshop and a bit of GTAV and maybe reddead in the future?
You need a serious cpu and gpu to run games at 4k. And lots of Ram.
1440p might be a more sensible option or maybe an ultra wide 144hz for gaming.. With freesync if paired with an AMD GPU..
Or it's just for office work I think I'd go 2 x 24 or 27 inch 1440p 60hz..
A screen much bigger if sat at a desk is too much, you keep having to move your head around to see things.
I run a decent 27” and a 16” poc next to it for mails and in some apps tool windows. Suits me for graphics and publishing. Other disciplines may differ.
I went for the LG in the end. Same as the Dell screen but with a remote which makes sense.
I did have an order in for the new philips HDR but poor reviews for PC use due to the pixel pattern and realising the HDR wont be much use in real life made me cancel the pre-order. I did try the curved 40" philips earlier in the year but found it dreadful. The LG is much better, there is a small band of pixels around the edge that are shadowed but tbh you rarely look at them.
It is big but you get used to it, 43" is perfect for scaling windows 10 at 100% and I figured it's as wide as most of the largest ultrawides (except the new Samsung 49"!) but with the added benefit of some more height which I am always craving when doing monster spreadsheets of test data and I can maximise the CAD to a 43" screen rather than try and span it across 2 screens.
The curved ultrawides are horrendously expensive and often only have 1080 pixel height which is rubbish. Their benefit is really for games as you want width generally more than height and they have much faster refresh rates. The 43" 4k screens are only 60Hz so if you do fast action games you might find it lacking. This was a work purchase for me as I don't game but I am sure I you could just run it in HD mode if you can live with 60hz.
I also have my laptop in a Roost stand next to the screen for emails, I need to adjust the scaling slightly though as the text on the laptop is just slightly smaller at the current setting (15" SB2). My work desk set up is 2x 24" dell screens (nice ones) with a 13" dell HD laptop in the dock, the text size is too different and the laptop too low to make it ergonomic as a 3 screen set up so I now just leave the laptop closed.
This weekend I am hooking up the works laptop to the new 4k and getting stuck into some big reports with all my data sources spread out in font of me. Only down side to such a big screen is my whiteboard behind is now pretty much useless as it's hidden.
What is a 16" poc?
"piece of crap" was my understanding.
indeed. Works for the crap you don’t need on main view.
Given the choice I’d go for a single 30”+ when I replace my work 2 x 24” set up.
Update: I got a Philips 32" Quad HD model (328E9FJAB/00) about £240
It's pretty impressive and takes up less room than 2 small wide-screens
Thanks for the help
I've got 2x 24" widescreens with the laptop left shut.
I've used them for a long time as two side by side screens, but I find the working area too wide, its always a bit eenie meenie miny mo when hunting for applications, and the width means desk space is severely limited for a laptop dock and paperwork. I also don't seem to have a main screen preference.
So for the last fortnight I've had one main screen directly in front, and one portrait offset to the right which is working really well for me, narrower work area/more desk space, and I now keep specific applications such as email and legacy terminal emulation, instant message etc stacked on the portrait screen, and the main screen directly in front of me for wide spreadsheets, web browser etc. Also its nice to see portrait photos etc in their full glory.
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