I have my eyes on a 43" or 32" Smart monitor for my work desk. My home office doubles as a craft room, so this would allow me to pull up Netflix, Pandora and such on the monitor when I’m not working. We also have a couch and coffee table in there. I used to have a 32" TV in that room before my other half moved in, but I sold it to make room for furniture that he brought with him. This would enable me to essentially get it back.
What I can’t decide, is if 43" is too big, or if I should go with the 32". On my desk currently I have a 23" monitor, my 14" laptop monitor, plus a 15" portable monitor. They’re essentially set up in a triangle (laptop on left, bigger monitor on a monitor stand that lifts it up, and portable monitor in front of that monitor stand). It’s very disjointed and sometimes a pain in the butt and I’m always forgetting which screens I have things on. I use all 3 monitors every day, and often wish that I had more room. These monitors are 4k and allow you to split them into quadrants, essentially becoming 4 monitors in one.
I’m debating between essentially replacing the 23" and 15" monitors with a 32" Smart TV and continuing to use my laptop monitor as a 2nd screen next to it (which is also nice bc it allows me to use my web cam when needed), or setting my laptop up to run while closed and just using the 43" screen and nothing else. I’d struggle to fit the 43" plus my laptop screen on my desk in it’s current setup.
The 43" would fit the room better too when operating as a TV, as it’s a decent sized office/craft room (about 14 ft by 18 ft)… but that would obviously be less frequent.
Has anyone ever done this? I definitely have the room for it, and money isn’t a concern… I’m just wondering how big is too big when you’re sitting right there with it.
yeah, that’s my concern, that it might be too big to use right in front of you so close. I have flashbacks to my time as a kid when the adults were always yelling at kids for sitting too close to the tv. I think 32 probably would be better. My one friend has a 40" monitor and swears by it though… and my desk is bigger than his. So, I’m not really sure. Maybe I can find either of these in a store and go check them out in person.
Seeing one in person and also having measurements of your desk and your home office would put it in perspective, literally and figuratively.
The internet is a great and awful thing. Here’s a great use of it: I just googled “42 inch monitor too large for working” and found TONS of articles and videos on this. Perhaps that will help too.
I have 2—24” monitors, as does D. S bought them for us and I never knew I needed them but they’re a perfect size for us. I personally wouldn’t want bigger or to go back to one monitor.
Adding…my DH uses a laptop and that also has a screen🙄. The 32 inch was necessary because sometimes he needs to look at drafted drawings…and the laptop screen wasn’t big enough.
I use two 32” monitors. One typically has YouTube TV running or a browser , the other is for work - Adobe tools: PremierePro video editing, InDesign, or Photoshop.
I have a 40" curved ultra widescreen in my home office and love it. When I first unpacked it, it seemed massive. Now I al ready to upsize to the newer 49" versions! It very quickly doesn’t seem excessive and I take advantage of its screen real estate all the time. At work people often stack two 49" ultrawide’s on top of each other. They sneak a small webcam in-between the two so that they view is always dead on center in meetings and it works great.
Yes, side by side. Can run background stuff on one and work on other. There are charts you can google that tell you how far away you need to be away from a tv or monitor based on the size.
I use a 38” ultrawide with my laptop closed. I looked closely at 43” monitors at the time but decided I wouldn’t be able to use the additional height - basically I liked the width but would have to crane my neck to use the top few inches.
Also I seem to recall ppi at the native resolution being higher than the 38”, i.e. text would look smaller on the 43” than my 38” at native resolution.
When considering the size of the monitor, also think about how you use it. I have email and slack just about permanently set up on one side, and the other side is my more active working space. But sometimes I need to stretch a spreadsheet out across the entire thing, or the same for a graphic I’m working on, so the square footage is really invaluable for those times.
You could accomplish the same thing on a 32” 4k unscaled monitor, but everything would be significantly smaller (ppi again) - I was perfectly fine with that back before my eyes got old but now I need things bigger. I seem to recall shooting for ppi of 100 or less. If you don’t need to run at native 4k resolution and are happy running scaled then this wouldn’t apply to you. For my work I need native resolution and a lot of real estate as I always have a lot going on.
For my ultrawide I wasn’t sure about the curve, but I bet if you look at your 3 monitors, the left and right ones are angled towards you. That’s basically what curved displays are doing, and I personally find it does help.
All that said, you should probably consider choosing the optimal monitor for your work requirements and a separate tv for entertainment.
I think 32 probably would be better. My one friend has a 40" monitor and swears by it though… and my desk is bigger than his. So, I’m not really sure. Maybe I can find either of these in a store and go check them out in person.