MeinMMO editor Benedikt Schlotmann has swapped two screens for one large one in his daily life. And he finds that this has been one of the most sensible decisions for the home office.
A few years ago, I switched from a small monitor to two devices. One monitor was just not enough for me in everyday life:
- I constantly had to move windows, minimize things, or switch back and forth.
- This also affected my concentration over time, as it was straining for my eyes as well.
However, I have since said goodbye to my two screens and purchased a large ultrawide monitor. I do not regret the switch to this day and do not want to go back to two devices.
Two Monitors – Many Cables and Annoying Mounts
Why were 2 displays a problem? My desk simply became too cluttered. There were too many cables lying around that I couldn’t manage even with cable channels. The monitor mount on the table also got on my nerves over time: the monitors could not always be perfectly aligned and the cables could only be attached to a limited extent.
Perhaps the problem could have been solved with a better mount, but I was so annoyed that I just wanted to get rid of the stuff. An alternative seemed better and more sensible to me.
I had also heard from some acquaintances who were gaming on Monitor No. 1 and kept Twitch or their Discord chats open on No. 2. Colleagues and friends always swear by multitasking here. That would have distracted me over time as well; I wanted to focus entirely on gaming and not do 5 things on the side.
Moreover, the gap between the devices annoyed me while gaming. In games like Anno, I could overlook it, but in a racing game, the gap went right through the car. When a friend raved about his “new, great monitor,” I invested around 400 euros.
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1 Large Monitor – Finally More Space and Order, but Not Everything is Great
With the large, single monitor, my desk is nicely organized again. An ultrawide monitor simply offers the same screen size as 2 small monitors combined. Not entirely true, but very close.
Plus, I have a lot of space again now that the other two devices with the mount have disappeared.
In everyday life, the large monitor is noticeable. I can open several documents or programs side by side and do not have to switch back and forth between two display units. Games look much better on a large monitor anyway if you have the corresponding graphics card for performance.
For me, this also means higher concentration abilities: The constant switch between two devices I found quite exhausting over time.
Are there also things that annoy? Yes, this includes that many games only render cutscenes in 16:9 (like Need for Speed: Unbound, Division 2 or the menus and cutscenes in Anno 1800). On my large monitor, I then have a black bar on the left and right. That is annoying, but I can survive it.
“Unhappily” are also the cats, who can no longer sleep behind my monitor because they no longer fit behind it.
A second thing is that the large monitor is officially not supported by the PS5: so I either have to play in 16:9 with black borders or with a stretched image, which looks strange. Why I am annoyed about the lack of support, you can read on MeinMMO:
I tested my PS5 on an ultrawide monitor and feel forgotten by Sony
