Summary
- Ultrawide monitors can provide more screen real estate and visually reduce clutter.
- While ultrawide monitors can be great for many things, for me, I had finally had enough of the added frustration in gaming and wasted screen space in many apps.
- After many years on an ultrawide, switching to a 32″ 4K 16:9 monitor improved my workflow.
What I liked about ultrawide monitors
Better productivity and less clutter (kind of)
I bought my first ultrawide monitor back in February 2018. It was a game changer for me. I went from two 27-inch 16:9 monitors to one 34-inch 21:9 and absolutely loved it.
I was able to have almost the same screen real estate as two separate monitors, but with no line down the middle for the bezel. I loved that. And it was great for gaming, too.
The ultrawide ratio allowed me to see more at once when it came to doing things like video editing and when playing certain games.
Having a single ultrawide monitor on my desk also cuts down on the clutter of two monitors. I didn’t have two monitor stands, two display cables, two power cables, and two huge slabs of screen on my desk. It was just one, and that was a nice change of pace from the cluttered setup that was two screens before going ultrawide.
The downsides of ultrawide monitors
Wider isn’t always better
While I loved my ultrawide setup, it wasn’t without its flaws.
Most things worked great at the 21:9 ultrawide ration, but some apps didn’t love it. When it came to gaming, I was pushing significantly more pixels than a standard 16:9 screen. A normal 1440p 16:9 monitor has 3,686,400 pixels, while a 1440p 21:9 monitor clocks in at 4,953,600 pixels. For comparison, 4K at 16:9 is around 8,294,400 pixels, which is the equivalent of running both a 21:9 and 16:9 1440p monitor at the same time.
This is about a 30% increase in the number of pixels your GPU has to drive. Which, in normal tasks, isn’t a problem. However, when it comes to gaming, if your GPU isn’t powerful, it could result in a significant drop in frames.
However, it wasn’t just the performance hit that was a downside to me when gaming. Not all game have full native support for the 21:9 aspect ratio. Some games do, but others will simply stretch the UI and in-game elements to fill the screen. This doesn’t make for a great experience.
When I first got my ultrawide, this was much more of an issue than it is today. Most games do support the 21:9 (or even 32:9) ratio natively. However, not all games with official support do it well. So, keep that in mind.
Why I chose to go back to 16:9
Full-screen apps and games are just better on a 16:9 screen
Ultimately, I chose to go back to a 16:9 monitor at my desk. I began using the 16:9 gaming monitor I already had, which was a 27-inch 1440p 240Hz screen from Porsche Design.
Using this monitor showed me that 16:9 actually improved my workflow, and it worked better for the tasks I do. Making Obsidian (my writing app of choice) full screen on an ultrawide monitor was quite something, with it taking up the entire 21:9 ratio and me just typing in the middle. There was tons of wasted space. I don’t have that problem with 16:9.
A 16:9 monitor also just looks, well, more proper to me (if that’s even the right way to say it.) Gaming felt right again, video editing felt right again, photo editing felt right again. Everything just felt right again. I’m not sure how else to put it, but I didn’t realize how much I missed 16:9 until I went back to it.
Ultimately, my workflow benefited by going from a single 21:9 monitor down to a single 16:9 monitor.
Why a 32″ 16:9 monitor is a great alternative
Perfect width, perfect height
While I really did like the Porsche Design monitor, the fact that I couldn’t VESA mount it like I could my ultrawide drove me to find something else. And that’s when I found a 32-inch 4K 144Hz monitor on Facebook Marketplace for an unbeatable price.
Once I swapped over to the 32-inch 4K screen at 16:9, I knew I was home. I had taken a slight hit in overall screen real estate when I dropped from 21:9 to 16:9 at 1440p, but going 4K (and more inches) really made up for that.
After using a 32-inch 4K monitor for several weeks now, I honestly don’t see myself going back. If anything, I see myself picking up a second 32-inch 4K monitor and going back to dual 16:9’s. Why? Well, I can then choose whether I want to span my game across both (which is possible), or just game at 16:9 and use the other for something else. I have the choice then of whether I want to have more things open or not. And that’s what I really want: choice.
My new monitor hits the perfect sweet spot
If you’ve tried going from a 34-inch ultrawide down to a 27-inch standard monitor before, and went back to ultrawide, I suggest you try a 32-inch screen. It’s really been what sealed the deal for me, and the main reason I’ll be sticking 16:9 from now into the foreseeable future.
Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
