Curved vs. Flat Ultrawide Monitors

[Crashnburn]

I’m saving up rewards points towards a new computer monitor. I was thinking about getting a curved 38” monitor, but now 43” flat screen monitors with better resolution are less than the 38” curved monitors.

I’m just wondering if anyone has significant experience using curved monitors. Thanks

 

[Salty]

I’m saving up rewards points towards a new computer monitor. I was thinking about getting a curved 38” monitor, but now 43” flat screen monitors with better resolution are less than the 38” curved monitors.

I’m just wondering if anyone has significant experience using curved monitors. Thanks

What is your mission? What kind of things do you do on that computer?

 

[schmookeeg]

I use two curved 55 samsungs (not widescreen) as my home office workstation:

Some thoughts:

1. The curvature is real subtle. I don't think it offers anything but "oh, hey, curved screens, neato" for the $100 premium they represented.

2. The curvature is enough to make the screen about 5x as deep as a standard flatscreen. Moving them takes up FAR more bulk than they're worth. You can't really lie them down anywhere. The curved stand/foot means they take a lot of desktop area. I'm wall-mounting these next time.

3. The curved iterations of TVs/monitors seem very late in getting updates to features/hardware.


If I had it to do over, I would do flatscreens. These have been reliable enough, though, that I'm moving them for the third time to a new home.

$0.02

 

[FastEddieB]

Curved-screen TV’s look really cool at Costco. We may be upgrading our aging Vizio to a larger, 4K model around the holidays, and I did a Google search for pros and cons of curved screen TV’s. The general consensus seemed to be they really don’t add much, if anything, to the viewing experience.

Not exactly the same as a computer monitor, where you sit a lot closer in a relatively stationary position, which could enhance the feeling of immersion. Which might be worthwhile for gaming, let’s say, but not so much for spreadsheets!

 

[Steve Costello]

I use two curved 55 samsungs (not widescreen) as my home office workstation:

1. The curvature is real subtle. I don't think it offers anything but "oh, hey, curved screens, neato" for the $100 premium they represented.

Monitor curvature and TV curvature are two very different animals.

Folks generally don't sit ~18 inches away from their TVs, therefore there is no need for a tight radius. Monitors, however, need a tight radius curvature to account for the user being much closer. Therefore, the curvature you will see in higher end curved monitors will be much tighter than what you get with a 55" TV, making the curvature actually useful.

I'm also in the market. I've been eyeballing (hah...) the Samsung 49". It includes reduced blue light and a flicker-free display, which I find I absolutely need for my eye comfort. Highly recommend that no matter what you buy that you ensure that both of those technologies are part of your purchase.

 

[Seanaldinho]

I

Some thoughts:

1. The curvature is real subtle. I don't think it offers anything but "oh, hey, curved screens, neato" for the $100 premium they represented.

2. The curvature is enough to make the screen about 5x as deep as a standard flatscreen. Moving them takes up FAR more bulk than they're worth. You can't really lie them down anywhere. The curved stand/foot means they take a lot of desktop area. I'm wall-mounting these next time.

3. The curved iterations of TVs/monitors seem very late in getting updates to features/hardware.


If I had it to do over, I would do flatscreens. These have been reliable enough, though, that I'm moving them for the third time to a new home.

$0.02

Great scott - what SPF do you run?

I have a 38" 21:9 LG curved monitor. As mentioned above, the curve does make the monitor much heavier and bulkier. I'm not sure I would get another one just on that front. I do find this setup nicer than my previous 2 x 24" monitors though.

 

[NoHeat]

A disadvantage of a big single monitor is that your camera will not have a frontal view of you. More of a birds-eye-view that shows off your toupee.

Two monitors allow placing a camera in the gap between them, at just the right height.

 

[455 Bravo Uniform]

Is the resolution of those such that you can open dozens of windows, or do you just get a couple windows with huge fonts?

 

[Seanaldinho]

A disadvantage of a big single monitor is that your camera will not have a frontal view of you. More of a birds-eye-view that shows off your toupee.

Two monitors allow placing a camera in the gap between them, at just the right height.

This has been an issue for me but slightly different.. I use my laptop connected to a docking station, so my camera is off to the side. With a 38" it is a long ways to the side. When presenting, I have to remind myself to face the small screen.

If you share your screen a lot, ultrawide can also be an issue. Trying to share the entire screen will be difficult for everyone on the receiving end to view. So I normally share my laptop screen and use that as the "stage" or you have to size your windows to half of the monitor (generally how I use the monitor anyways) and share a specific window.

 

[Crashnburn]

I use two curved 55 samsungs (not widescreen) as my home office workstation:

Some thoughts:

1. The curvature is real subtle. I don't think it offers anything but "oh, hey, curved screens, neato" for the $100 premium they represented.

2. The curvature is enough to make the screen about 5x as deep as a standard flatscreen. Moving them takes up FAR more bulk than they're worth. You can't really lie them down anywhere. The curved stand/foot means they take a lot of desktop area. I'm wall-mounting these next time.

3. The curved iterations of TVs/monitors seem very late in getting updates to features/hardware.


If I had it to do over, I would do flatscreens. These have been reliable enough, though, that I'm moving them for the third time to a new home.

$0.02

Thanks

 

[Rushie]

I have four flats arranged in a “curve” around me. I have no trouble pulling database spreadsheets across them. I don’t see the benefit of getting a curved monitor but then I’ve never tried one.