I currently use my laptop next to a monitor with 21" but I am thinking about an upgrade. I casually play some light games, nothing competitive. The rest is a lot of reading, office or coding work and some multimedia.

What is a nice setup in your opinion? One big screen with 27" or two smaller ones with 22" or 24" each?

I did some research and found for a 24" screen 1080p and for a 27" screen 1440p as a minimum. So I figured a 24" 1440p screen would look awesome. Do I miss something about this finding? Is 2K too much for 24" to even notice it?

The problem I have is my desk is only 65cm wide and I frequently have a book or a piece of paper between me and the keyboard+monitor. The monitor uses 22cm and the keyboard another 14cm so there is just enough space for a piece of paper. Many of the modern monitors have huge standing feets and there are not always good measurements given.

I also thought about a monitor arm but I don’t know if that would help with my small desk or just create more hassle after all.

  • FuglyDuck@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    10 hours ago

    So, for a given resolution, size affects how far back you want to sit. a 1440p on a 32" monitor is actually a coarser resolution than a 1440p on a 24" inch. But, if you slide the 32 inch further back, then your eyes won’t see a difference at all- and 32" too close causes you to turn your neck more, but 24" causes you to strain to see small things.

    So the question becomes, does your desk put your monitor closer? go with 24". does your desk have the monitors sit further away? 32". or, alternatively. which do you prefer? I prefer 32’s further back. but my desk is also a workbench for electronics and 3d printing and, uh. shenanigans.

    if you go with multiple monitors, I like them being all the same monitor with a thin bevel, or at least identical bevels. it just bugs me otherwise. As a side note, if youi’re doing a lot of office documents, or coding, You may wish to get one mounted on something that can be turned vertical- the vert format allows full 8.5x11 pages where horizontal doesn’t work that well. (or a third monitor with one turned horizontal. budget decides that…)

    • theorangeninja@sopuli.xyzOPEnglish
      1·
      6 hours ago

      Thanks for the detailed response.

      I think I will try to use my current screen with a monitor arm to see how I like it and think about the screen size and resolution for a bit longer. But I think two smaller screens allow more versatility with turning and so on. But you probably want to have the same resolution and screen size if you have two screens, even if one is vertical, right? Otherwise you probably get weird jumps when you move the mouse across the border. And yes, definitely small beszels lol

      While replying I realized that I heard that you can’t easily split an HDMI signal. So do you know how to easily use two screens with a laptop? Probably you need an USB-C dock with two HDMI ports for that. I should really think about that before settling for a possibility.