Considering ergonomics, what ultrawide monitor should I get for work?

November 21, 2023 10:40 AM

I think 34 inches diagonal looks good, which I think means a curved one would be better? I want to get a really wide monitor for working from home, and my work won’t pay for it. I have neck pain, and I think this would help my neck not lock into place looking straight ahead. Also, I would need less time on the computer if I could have two windows side-by-side.

Ergonomically, is there a way to figure out what angle or degree of curvature is best?

I want it to be easy to switch between having two windows side-by-side and having one centered window. Also, I want to easily switch between the two different side-by-side windows with a quick keyboard shortcut. Does the monitor matter for those things, or is it just what Windows 10 has built in?

Any recommendations for brands or models are welcomed. It will not be used for gaming at all, but nice resolution would help me see small font numbers I need to look at for work in Excel or Chrome or SAS.

posted by catquas to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

I have both flat and curved 34" widescreen monitors, the difference isn't drastic. The curved is slightly better in that the edges of the screen are the same brightness as the middle, but it's hardly a problem with the flat monitor.

There is a claimed "maximum viewing distance" for curved monitors here: Monitor Curvature: All the Info You Need About Curved Monitors!. I don't buy it because the flat monitor works for me too, and I forget after a few minutes.

There are usually bigger tradeoffs - curved usually means a VA-type panel and flat usually means an IPS panel. VA is better with contrast, IPS is better with color and viewing angles, I don't know which one you would prefer. IPS is usually suggested more for productivity. Curved IPS panels are often very expensive.

Make sure you get a monitor that has a stand that is adjustable for height and angle - some budget monitors are lacking some of these features, and you'd need to pony up for a separate monitor arm which negates the savings.

Windows has easy shortcuts for moving windows side by side - press and hold the Windows key then press left or right to move the current window to the left or right half, Windows + up to maximize the window to the entire screen. For more complicated arrangements there is Powertoys Fancyzones which is an official Microsoft utility.

34" ultrawides aren't going to have very high resolutions unless you're spending a lot of money. The cheapest are going to have a 1080 resolution height (82 pixels per inch, "ppi") which I don't recommend. Above that have a vertical resolution of 1440 which have around 110 ppi. By comparison, a 4K 27" monitor is 160 ppi. A 34" ultrawide is exactly the same physical height as the 27" 4K monitor but has larger pixels. There are niche ultrawide monitors that have higher resolution than 3440x1440 but cost much more. You should figure out what ppi your current monitor is and compare: PPI Calculator. Punch in your monitor's current resolution and size, it will display its current ppi.

A higher PPI means that the pixels on the screen are smaller. You can always make things bigger on higher PPI monitors and it won't lose fidelity, but you can make text too small to be read on low PPI monitors. Of course, you need to make sure you can read the text in the first place. You'll also need to make sure your computer is compatible with the ultrawide resolution; some older ones will just refuse to output the full resolution.

This LG monitor is perpetually on sale at Costco; it's a curved VA at 3440 x 1440: LG 35" Class UltraWide Curved WQHD HDR10 Monitor

It is Black Friday season though so you can just punch in "ultrawide" into Slickdeals or other deal aggregator sites and it will give you all the current sales.
posted by meowzilla at 11:38 AM on November 21, 2023 [1 favorite]

I have a curved Dell 38" that's about the width of a 34" but with a slightly taller aspect ratio and WQHD+ (3840 x 1600) resolution. I really like it for productivity type work (lots of spreadsheets)! It's a previous year model that was on sale when I got it early this year, but here's the current version.
posted by Pryde at 1:02 PM on November 21, 2023 [1 favorite]

FancyZones, mentioned above by meowzilla, is extremely helpful for managing the visual space in a big monitor. I will also refer you to another component of the Powertoys suite, crop and lock, that I get a lot of mileage out of.

I've used a 32" curved Philips monitor for a little more than a year, and at 140 PPI it's been a very nice upgrade from my previous work-provided monitor. I have it connected to and switch between my work laptop (data work, loads of reading, wditing, editing) and personal laptop (photo work). I'm not sure if it's the curve's viewing distance or just the increased real estate, but I get much less eyestrain using it than my old setup. I feel at a loss when I work from the office or while traveling and am restricted to a laptop or whatever low-res desktop monitor is available. Their pixels look like gravel now that I've adjusted to working with 140 PPI as my baseline. I really think that this is more important than the specifics of the curvature's viewing distance recommendations.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 2:34 AM on November 22, 2023