Anyone else prefer smaller monitors?

Tech Talk Hardware
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Computers seem to be heading to wider and wider monitors. You cannot even find the older type of 15" or 17" rectangle monitors anymore, unless you buy old ones on E-Bay.

These wider and larger monitors are just too big for me. That much screen overwhelms my eyes. I get optical migraines frequently. But, having anything larger than a 17" older style monitor (NOT a wide screen model) just gives me eye strain.

I am the only one at my work that still uses an old Acer 17" monitor. In fact, after they replaced all the old monitors with wide screen ones, I asked the IT guy to keep at least 1 on the side for me… Before he got rid of them all. In case I need another one in the future.

I have the same size monitor on my desktop at home. And, I never buy laptops with more than a 15" screen.

These giant all in 1 PCs with the huge screens… I could never use one of those.

Today - everyone seems to want these giant monitors. I hear Leo talking about 30"+ monitors all the time on the Tech Guy show. I’d never want anything that big.

Am I the only one who doesn’t like huge monitors?

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What a weirdo! :wink:

Lisa wants more monitor all the time. She has a 38" widescreen Dell and wants to stack another one on top. Anthony has the 43" Dell @PadreSJ used to use.

Having said that I am on my 17" laptop right now and it seems quite commodious!

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That’s crazy. My main living room tv - a Sony Bravia LCD - is only 40" :stuck_out_tongue:

I can’t imagine using a 38" or 43" computer monitor. I would need it to be several feet away. Wow.

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You might be alone :slight_smile:

At home alone the 27" Mac I have a 23" monitor attached to it. On the other side a 23" windows machine. At work it’s almost the same story 2x23" and the 17" from the laptop. But working in BI I need to see a lot of data. Big screens small fonts.

But you know what I’ve noticed? I rarely print anything anymore. Burning electricity but saving trees.

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I use a 34" 1440p ultrawide g-sync 120Hz panel for main and a 27" 16:10 in portrait as secondary for my desktop setup.

I used a 4K 40" TV as a monitor for a while, but having to scale things up negated some of the inherent real estate benefit. It was still usable and very immersive for games, but I prefer 32"-34", and ultrawide is like using two monitors side-by-side without bezels in the way. 1440p is also easier to drive.

I don’t find bigger monitors for me cause eyestrain or migraines. Small text/poor scaling might. Actually, at work I’m using an old 17" and the screen is a bit blurry (old LCD); that screen hurts my eyes more. I keep the screen dimmed a lot on that so I don’t potentially trigger migraines.

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Since I spend most of the day on a 9.7" iPad, and an iPhone XS, my 21.5" iMac seems gigantic for me. It’s big enough for my use. Now if someone were to give me bigger Apple products, I wouldn’t hate them! :sunglasses:

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Apparently so… :stuck_out_tongue:

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Hello, maybe you run your windows full screen on a widescreen monitor, i don’t know. But i use widescreen monitors so i can put two browsers side by side and drag and drop between them. Large monitors aren’t designed to give you bigger windows, although you could do that too i suppose, they are designed to allow us to have more windows open side by side as if we are using multiple monitors.
Your problem is interesting. be sure to turn that brightness down down down, and i hope your eyestrain doesn’t get any worse. Don’t use a computer in the dark, have a light on too and you might like Dark Reader browser addon to take away the glare of all that white space the internet offers.

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Yes, I have the brightness and contrast on my monitors turned down. Only way I can use them inside.

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Comes in handy for editing video, but would need to be a higher resolution. At home I use a 21" LG monitor, but could do with trading up to something a bit larger. At work, I use two 22" monitors, which is very useful for keeping my code on one screen and running applications on the other screen.

In the end, It really depends on your use case. You can certainly still get smaller 4:3 aspect ratio monitors new, but you seem to pay a premium for them nowadays. Example is the LG 17MB15P-B (only have Australian model number).

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I agree I think you might be alone on this one. The more screen real estate the better IMO! I am in the market for a new monitor to accompany my new SL3…and I want to go for a super wide screen, vice the two I have now.

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What is G-Sync? Can you tell me the model you have? And/Or any suggestions you might have for monitors…I’m looking for kind of the same thing you are. Ultra-wide for my main monitor and perhaps something smaller/portrait for a secondary if I really think I need it.

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G-sync is one of two standards for variable sync/adaptive refresh, the other being FreeSync (and now FreeSync 2). G-sync is Nvidia’s, while FreeSync is AMD’s. More monitors support FreeSync because it’s an open, free standard, while G-sync requires certification/licensing from Nvidia. This makes the monitors that support G-sync a little more expensive, also because of the additional built-in hardware for monitor to handle it.

Adaptive refresh is better for gaming as it reduces tearing from frame rate/display refresh rate mismatch - there are better explanations than I can give as to why - but a lot of the benefit from newer monitors also comes from higher refresh rate, which is allows for more fluid and smoother motion in games and high frame rate videos, as well as for UI/UX (just using Windows is a little smoother).

100Hz, 120Hz, 144Hz (most common high refresh now), and 240Hz offer visibly smoother experience than the common 60Hz LCD panels, though it may not be as obvious until you actually compare monitors side by side, or try going back to a monitor without high refresh after using one that does have it.

The monitor I am using is the Alienware AW3418DW. It’s native 100Hz but overclocks (just a switch in the monitor settings) to 120Hz.

Choosing between FreeSync and G-Sync is a whole can of worms, though FreeSync 2 is easier to recommend now because AMD wasn’t as strict with FreeSync 1, which led to monitors of varying capabilities with the “FreeSync” badge. But whichever you choose, you will have to match your monitor with your graphics card (though now there are some FreeSync monitors that Nvidia cards will work with, as Nvidia loosened up just a bit).

I went with a G-sync monitor because it paired well with the GTX 2070 mini in my PC, but I could have easily gone AMD for GPU if adaptive sync were the only consideration.

I don’t have specific monitor recommendations, but can help you narrow it down. Mostly it comes down to use case (whether you want it primarily for gaming, professional graphics use, movies/TV viewing, or mixed use), what size you want, what GPU you plan on using with it, etc. Color accuracy, HDR support, resolution, refresh rate range, viewing angles, response time, and more vary between monitors.

I chose mine based on size and it being fairly color accurate while also having 1440p resolution and high refresh, but it doesn’t have HDR or support 4K. Trying to get everything (4k, high refresh, HDR, larger than 27") and you end up in the $1,500+ monitor market.f

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I’m certainly not interested in spending over a grand on my monitor. This will be paired with the Surface Laptop 3, which does not have a dedicated GPU, but the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11.

Very little gaming, mostly just Civ 5. I primarily use the machine for development/VM’s and standard office stuff.

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That makes it easier. It looks like the AMD version Surface Laptop 3 does support FreeSync (maybe not FreeSync 2, though I think FreeSync 2 monitors are backwards compatible). Something like this would be good, though you can certainly go cheaper and/or wait for Black Friday sales (if you are in U.S., though I guess we’ve exported that “holiday” now :D)

A 30-34" should be good real estate for development stuff. You need to use mini displayport out to take advantage of FreeSync, I believe.

I haven’t researched that specific model, but specs in that ballpark would likely be good for your use case.

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No this is perfect, this is actually for sale here locally (I’m in Guam, so not US but still US)…

it was one of the monitors I was looking at but really wasn’t sure what to buy. I really appreciate you helping me with this!

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This might be better actually:

The other one is good, too, just a little lower res and refresh. May not matter for you, as 1080p, 75Hz isnt bad, and this one is more expensive (almost half what I paid for my Alienware, though).

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Oh, Leo, you crack me up. All my love to you and Lisa

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They had the exact LG Model at my local NEX. Headed home to set it up now.

Thanks for the suggestions!!

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Would love to know how it turns out! :slight_smile:

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