Many years ago at work I got a computer with two giant CRT monitors. I think they were 21 inches (always measured diagonally across the viewable area). I loved having the extra screen area so I could have two programs open and easily copy info or refer to info on one screen to write an email on the other. The next time I got a home computer I made sure it would support two monitors and it was just as great at home though my monitors weren’t as nice. I remember when they switched to LCD flat screens at work and the big 22 inch monitors were $1000 each so we put locks on them.
At home I decided to start using a laptop in addition to my desktop and eventually replaced the desktop with a laptop, so now I have two laptops, one being used as a desktop with external monitor, keyboard, mouse, and speakers. The problem with that is hardly any laptops support two monitors, but they can extend their desktop on to an external monitor and you can have a window open on the laptop and another on the external monitor. I have been using a 4:3 17 inch monitor (1280 x 1024 pixels) that came with my last desktop computer in 2005 as the second screen. This has worked fine for the last few years. What is really amazing is that the laptop, with a screen resolution of only 1366 pixels by 768 pixels, can support an external display of 3200 x 2000 pixels, 6 times as much working area (my newer laptop supports full 4k output).
While Eric was living at my house he splurged for a really nice monitor that used the same screen as the Apple Cinema Display, a 27 inch screen with a “quad HD” resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels. HD broadcasts can be either 720p or 1080i. 1280 x 720 is the low end while “full HD” or FHD is 1920×1080. So his quad HD is 2 of the smaller HD across by two tall. But all of those pixels crammed onto a screen make everything on screen tiny. I did some math and figured that screen’s pixels were 0.23 mm while the less tiny look of my laptop and external monitor had pixels of 0.25 mm.
A 4K TV is a quad FHD, so 3840 x 2160 pixels. At 0.25 mm per pixel I would need a 42 inch monitor, which would be silly. But regular FHD monitors don’t have enough room for two windows (1000 pixels wide seems to be a good minimum size window), so the QHD option seemed to be a goldilocks solution. I was looking at getting a 32 inch QHD monitor for $250-300 (really 31.5 inches, with a pixel size of 0.27 mm). However I talked it over with Eric and he pointed out there are ultrawide monitors with a ratio of 21 horizontal to 9 vertical instead of the normal widescreen ratio of 16:9 that is used on most monitors and TVs now. If I just needed the width of two monitors, not extra height, this could work pretty well and in fact 21:9 is just a little narrower than two old side by side 4:3 screens (4:3 is the same as 12:9, so two would be 24:9). I found a 29 inch LG monitor at Office Depot for $200 and at 2560 x 1080 would have room for two 1000 pixel windows and the pixels came out to a comfortable 0.27 mm.
When I went to the store to get the monitor, the one they had on display actually looked kind of small, but at home sitting right in front it is pretty big. Because it is so wide there is an optical illusion that makes it look kind of like the edges curve away from you, so I can understand the attraction of curved ultrawide monitors. It could be that I am used to my two monitors at work that face inwards a little, so looking at a flat display looks bent backwards.
Once I had the screen home I didn’t have room for the laptop screen but I needed to have the laptop accessible to turn it on, which also meant having it open to get to the power button, which is kind of a pain. However, by changing Dell’s BIOS setting I was able to enable the computer to wake by clicking the external mouse. Now I can just hide the laptop behind the monitor, leaving it closed. I also had to change a power setting so the laptop wouldn’t sleep when closed. Then in Device Manager I changed a setting for the mouse driver to allow the USB mouse to wake up the computer. I put the computer to sleep via the start menu or just leaving it inactive for an hour and wake it up with a click of the mouse. This is just about a perfect setup for me.
So here is the computer setup showing the monitor, external backlit keyboard, and external Tivoli speakers. The laptop is to the left and behind the monitor vertically propped against the wall. The computer tower on the right hasn’t been used in years and now serves as a stand for the lamp.
The monitor is working out great, but today I noticed the price at Office Depot was $20 cheaper. I looked up their price guarantee which will refund the difference if the price drops within 14 days of your purchase. It has been 15 days.