{"id":9192,"date":"2017-10-12T00:01:18","date_gmt":"2017-10-12T07:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/?p=9192"},"modified":"2017-10-07T15:34:13","modified_gmt":"2017-10-07T22:34:13","slug":"the-hunt-for-a-useful-219-monitor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/?p=9192","title":{"rendered":"The Hunt for a Useful 21:9 Monitor"},"content":{"rendered":"

As people keep setting two widescreen monitors side-by-side as a common computer configuration, the question arises: Why not just make one, big, wide, monitor?
\n
\nTo answer the question, I did some research.<\/p>\n

The widest widescreen format I’m able to find is the 21:9 aspect ratio monitor. It doesn’t have an official designation beyond that; each manufacturer has their own marketing term. My favorite is “ultrawide,” which is a registered trademark of LG.<\/p>\n

Superlatives are one thing computer marketing people suck at creating. They use over-the-top adjectives on technology that’s obsolete in 5 years, which weakens the terms. Today’s “ultra wide” will be quaint in 2030.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The 21:9 aspect ratio is geometrically wider than the popular 16:9 widescreen used today. I won’t do the math. And I think the diagonal screen measurements become pointless as a monitor grows wider. Therefore, I’ll just rely upon the monitor’s physical dimensions: How wide is it?<\/p>\n

As an example, my current setup uses two widescreen monitors, which is most common in business settings today. The monitors don’t sit cheek-by-jowl; there’s about three inches of space between them. Yet, far-edge to far-edge, they measure about 54-inches across. This measurement accounts for the angle, as both monitors aren’t flat. So if I measure their separation flatly, it’s just a bit above 50-inches. Figure 1 helps illustrate what the hell I’m referring to.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Figure 1. Measuring how my two monitors sit on my desktop.<\/p><\/div>\n

If I wanted a single replacement monitor that roughly approximates my two monitors do today, I would need a monitor about 50+ inches wide.<\/p>\n

First thought: That sucker would be heavy.<\/p>\n

Second thought: The monitor would also be a bit unwieldy. It must have a stable support system as well as a decent way to move it hither when the time comes.<\/p>\n

Keeping my very-wide-screen monitor desires in mind, I gingerly approached Amazon to browse for their widest monitor. Yes, I’m fully aware that I’ll be bombarded with widescreen monitor advertisements on the web for the new few weeks. I will endure the onslaught.<\/p>\n

You can’t search on Amazon based on a monitor’s physical width, only the diagonal measurement. At 50+ inches, the site lists plenty of widescreen monitors, but the bulk are 16:9 ratio, not 21:9. That means they’re pretty big monitors, about the size of a full living room HDTV. That would be fun to have, but it’s not what I want. Also, it’s not something the business users would eagerly accept to replace their current dual-monitor setups.<\/p>\n

LG does have its UltraWide® series of monitors. These support the 21:9 aspect ratio and many have a curved screen, which I think will be popular (and expected) for this size monitor. The diagonal rating on these monitors varies, but one I found showed 34-inches. It’s physical measurement, side-to-side, is 32-inches. That’s still shy of my current monitor configuration, which is 54-inches.<\/p>\n

My guess is that wider monitors will arrive eventually, and they’ll be desireable. Still, I’ll need to see the thing before I buy it. Computer monitors are one piece of technology I strongly recommend that you see in person before you make the purchase decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wide might not be socially acceptable for a person, but for a computer monitor it’s the bomb.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[15],"class_list":["post-9192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main","tag-pc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9192"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9202,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9192\/revisions\/9202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}