Ultrawide monitor (for development) - flat or curved screen?

Gary R Wheeler

I bought a new monitor a few months ago. I lost my right eye in a fall year before last, and the 20" monitor I had wasn't working well. I chose a 24" flat model. 24" seems to be the starting point where curved screens are available. I looked at a lot of monitors in the store, including curved ones and even an ultrawide curved model. I think the curved model looked great when playing video or games, but I didn't care for it looking at text. In a standard wide-format, I wouldn't like a curved screen. For ultrawide I might change my mind, but that's probably due to my monocular vision peculiarities more than anything else. I'd definitely go look in the store. Take some text or source code with you to see how it feels. The demos they run on monitors aren't good for judging this sort of usage.

Software Zen: delete this;

Andreas Mertens

Funnily enough (not, don't ask) I had an accident with my 43" Sony Bravia flat screen I was using. Was 10 years old, but still pretty nice for 1920x1080. Its flat, and while I thought about a curved screen for this it didn't really seem to matter. It was arms length away, so not like I was doing a lot of head turning from left to right. Ordered a refurbished 43" Samsung tv, quad density, for only a quarter of the price that I paid for the Sony. I think the higher density will be nice, we will see....

Roger Wright

My last monitor was one of those curved thingies (yes, that's a technical term) from Sam's Club, about a 32" I believe. I liked it quite a bit until I discovered that it didn't like the free-flying recoil spring cap from a M1911 .45 ACP pistol any better than its predecessor. I promised its replacement that I would refrain from doing any gunsmithing whilst sitting in front of it.

Will Rogers never met me.

5imone

... and if it is big enough to be curved thingie*, which R-size? *I learnt new tech word this morning :)

'Just because nobody complains doesn't mean all parachutes are perfect.' Benny Hill

Lost User

The further away, the flatter, I would say. Unless it was really wide.

"Before entering on an understanding, I have meditated for a long time, and have foreseen what might happen. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly, secretly, what I have to say or to do in a circumstance unexpected by other people; it is reflection, it is meditation." - Napoleon I

Ravi Bhavnani

Thanks everyone for your replies. I should have substantiated my question with some background information. I often need to view Visual Studio (often 2 files side by side), an Android emulator and a Zoom window at the same time. I currently use a single 1920 x 1200 monitor at home only because I have limited desk space. At work I have 2 1920 x 1200 flat panels with the option of having a third, but these days I work from home most of the time. I've been asked to select a an ultrawide of my choice, so I want to ensure I do due diligence (reviews can be misleading because they're often sponsored by the manufacturer) before having my company fork out $$ for the device. As I understand it, the value of a curved ultrawide is that it provides better edge-to-edge clarity than a wide flat panel since the distance from the eye is roughly the same throughout the width of monitor. On the flip side, curved monitors provide a less than accurate rendition of extreme detail at the edges and therefore aren't recommend for CAD, design or photographic applications. While curved ultrawides come in a wide array of widths, my desk will allow for a maximum diagonal size of 34", which in my informal testing seems ideal for development. I intend to face the left half of the monitor head on and view the right curved portion from time to time. If I had more desk space, I would just use 2 flat panels, with the one on the right being tilted a bit towards me. I'm leaning towards one of these 3440 x 1440 (21 x 9) monitors which are priced at the lower end of the market:

Again, thanks very much for your input. /ravi

Stepan Hakobyan

I'm using 34inch 1000R curved monitor for a year now, and I love it. Previously I used two monitors, but lots of applications nowadays are optimized for bigger screens rather then two screens (ex. VSCode). Browsing web is weird, many web pages does not optimized for 34inch, so I wrote many custom css scripts for some of the most used ones. It's all good now.

Michael Rockwell 2021

I have used both and I prefer a curved screen. However, a curved screen does take up more desk space. I also like that my monitor has a Thunderbolt connection because it is a much cleaner connection to my PC and it powers my laptop PC. No additional power brick connection is needed freeing up a power outlet and reducing cabling.

CodeZombie62

I have a 55” 4K Toshiba fire tv connected to my laptops. I have the resolution set to 3840x whatever (I’m not sitting in front of it right now) and I normally have the windows sized so each fits in its own quadrant. I also have a 40” Sharp tv setting next to it at 1920x whatever.

mmwlada

Since you have a limit of 34" I would say go with 34" :D I am very happy with my Dell S3220DGF. It is 2K curved monitor, but I think that 4K would work well too on this size as long as it isn't too far away from you. There can be only one.

Gary Wheeler

Ye gods. How far away do you sit from these monsters?

Software Zen: delete this;

thewazz

Google 'troy hunt monitor'. You'll find images and blog post(s) about his search. I forget the results.

CodeZombie62

They're both around 3 feet away from me. I mostly look at the lower half of the 55" screen. The 55" monitor was less than $500. By the way, the resolution of the monitors is 3840 x 2160 for the 55" and 1920 x 1080 for the 40".

Lost User

I bought the Dell 32 Curved 4K UHD S3221QS about a month ago and am happy with it. I can fit two instances of VS side by side. I really like the added vertical space compared to my old school 24" monitors.

Cpichols

Do you think you'd have space for 2 monitors if the one on the right were vertical instead of horizontal? I've not tried it, but I know several who prefer their second screen to be vertical.

MikeCO10

Personally, I'd look to find a solution to get two monitors, such as using a wall mount or one of those two monitor stands. I keep my main monitor just a bit to the left of center and the second one to the right. I get a lot of screen real estate since when developing, there's often a need to have something else open that you may refer to and it may need more than just a "sidebar" view. That's a personal preference but I really wonder if a wide monitor really accomplishes the same thing since you want to keep your center of focus on your main IDE. I'd have to try both out personally, I think.

Mark Starr

I, too, have limited desk space at home, and only set my second monitor up occasionally. I have 2 24” screens. I’ve been considering a dual monitor arm, such as the Ergotron at Amazon. I saw one in use at a doctors office and was pretty impressed.

Time is the differentiation of eternity devised by man to measure the passage of human events. - Manly P. Hall Mark Just another cog in the wheel

Steve Naidamast

I have a 32" monitor but have recently switched over to using my laptop more extensively for all my work. I find the closeness that the laptop provides is a much easier work experience. However, for flight simulations my 32" screen cannot be beat...

Steve Naidamast Sr. Software Engineer Black Falcon Software, Inc. blackfalconsoftware@outlook.com

jochance

It's hard to recommend a G9 for development, but it's really easy to recommend a giant curved screen. Maybe a high refresh rate (120hz+) is actually a pretty great thing if you're staring at it for hours. Reasons: 1) No futzing about with monitor 1 vs 2 and their relative positions, one of them not getting signal one day, etc. 2) The curved screens are supposed to be better on your eyes because the focal point remains the same, less refocusing. 3) No matter if you buy the exact same brand of monitor and then you calibrate them, they will still not be "the same". 4) Nobody needs to be turning the monitor sideways to see more code without scrolling, you can only look at a few at a time anyway. 5) It's a cheaper way to get the same amount of screen real estate. Granted, you can't really go cheap low-spec big curved screen, but you don't really want the corollary of multiple cheap low-spec panels anyway if you care about your eyes.

Ravi Bhavnani

I might, but I prefer to work in landscape mode. I experimented with a vertical screen at work and found it hard to use. /ravi

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