Life in Ultrawide – p.1 – User Article

Some decisions are not made voluntarily. When, at the beginning of November 2021, my almost one-year-old second monitor surprisingly gave up the ghost and was declared not economically repairable, I was faced with a choice: just replace it or invest in the future and buy a larger screen? I’ve been eyeing an ultrawide monitor for a while, but never got to try one myself. My graphics card was already reaching its limits in current games with the WQHD resolution used up to now. Upgrading in this respect was not planned, especially since that would only result in a rat tail of further upgrades that I could buy a completely new calculator right away.

After some thought, I decided on the future variant and bought a monitor from AOC with the handy name CU34G3S. After almost a year of use, I would like to tell you about my experiences with the extra-wide format.

My setup is actually relatively simple: I have two monitors, one directly in front of me and the second offset to the right. I mainly use the primary for work and play. On the second there is additional information, be it my Steam client, Thunderbird, foobar2000 for music or a second browser window with a stream or (longer) YouTube videos running alongside. I’ve experimented with three monitors, but since I don’t use the additional space productively, I don’t do it. A larger, primary monitor gets me more than another to turn my head to.

My current desktop setup with two screens

Height adjustability is important to me, I put almost every one of my monitors all the way down. I like it when I look down slightly on the PC. Aligning my primary monitor upright is therefore not an issue for me. Even less the vertical stacking of multiple monitors that I’ve seen. For me, looking up while sitting is an ordeal that I want to spare my neck.

I don’t like turning my head to do this, which is why I currently have my second screen, a 27″ screen with 2560×1440 pixels resolution (formerly my primary monitor), turned upright. Although I rarely use the top area, it only takes about a quarter of the time I used to be able to comfortably use the width of the screen, but only up to about half, so that’s an improvement.

Externally, the monitor conforms to the standard gamer design: black and red are the only colors, relatively aggressive angles are used, especially on the back. But since I never see them, they don’t bother me anymore. There is no additional lighting or similar bells and whistles. When it came to the panel, I first thought that it was built in without a border. But that’s not the case, the screen has a 5mm thick edge. However, it is not specially separated, the screen has a completely smooth surface. The lower edge is wider because the buttons for the on-screen display (OSD) are also located there.

AOC uses a VA panel, which is often used in curved screens. It is a compromise between the fast TN panels, which have poor image quality, and the slow IPS panels, which have stable viewing angles. Since I’m not an artist, the color fidelity is enough for me, and the viewing angle stability is also okay, since I almost only sit in front of the screen. The times when I was studying when I used my screen as a substitute for the television are long gone. That common problem with fast movements I didn’t notice it, maybe I’m not sensitive to it.

The panel has a resolution of 3440×1440 pixels, so it is only wider compared to my previously used WQHD resolution, which results in the changed aspect ratio of 21:9. The graphics card also has to create a good quarter more pixels. As an emergency solution, I can also go back to WQHD without getting scaling artifacts – but then with black bars on the left and right.

The panel refreshes at 165 Hz, supports AMD FreeSync and, according to the manufacturer, is compatible with Nvidia’s GSync. The graphics driver claims something else to this day, but the variable refresh rate has worked without any problems for me so far. And I don’t want to do without it anymore either, since my Nvidia Geforce RTX 2070 Super achieves the 165 frames per second necessary for optimal utilization in very few titles.

In addition to the size, the curvature is the most striking feature – and it has it all. I’ve only had brief experiences with similar large, flat panels, primarily in gameplay stations at GamesCom. And they were all too big for me (or too close for me, or both). For a screen of this size, therefore, only one with a curvature came into question. On the CU34G3S it is given as 1000R, which corresponds to the curvature of a full circle with a radius of 1000 millimeters. This is a relatively strong curvature, most monitors of this size are 1500R (1.5 meter radius). So the smaller the R value, the stronger the curvature! And you can see that clearly in certain passages. When I move windows or scroll horizontally in a strategy game, the impression is a bit strange at first because the image shifts on the curved surface. Over time I was able to get used to it.

The screen has a built-in USB hub as an extra, but only with two connections, which is not enough for me. I use it for a Bluetooth USB dongle and my wireless headset – if I connect it to my computer next to my desk, the reception is significantly worse. The two integrated loudspeakers are only good as an emergency solution. Instead, I use the jack output, to which I connected a small soundbar. This means I can also use it when I connect my notebook via HDMI. The monitor accepts images via a DisplayPort in version 1.4 or two HDMI 2.0.

The OSD was immediately familiar to me as I’ve used several of the manufacturer’s monitors and it hasn’t changed much. Four buttons at the bottom of the monitor are used to navigate and set everything. That would be a bit cumbersome in the long run, but since I rarely use it, I can live with it. There are preset profiles for the panel, but I don’t use any of them because they’re all too bright for me. I turned the brightness of the monitor down to just 25%, everything else is already too bright for my eyes.

As soon as it was delivered, it became clear to me: I have an impressive device in front of me. This was confirmed when unpacking, the screen is very wide, as expected, but the effect can hardly be put into words. Especially when I sat in front of it for the first time, the impression almost killed me.

My desk isn’t exactly small at 160×80 cm, but it’s almost dominated by the ultrawide monitor; there is no more room for much else.

A device of this size needs a lot of space. Even with the curvature, the screen is still 80 cm wide. Due to the base, it also takes up a lot of space in depth. You have to have that much space on the table first, but that’s not all. In addition, everything else moves further away, for example my drinking cup and the other screen. Since I arrange the second fairly flush, as a continuation of the curved panel, there is quite a large space behind it that I cannot use at all. I used to put USB hard drives or a charger with a USB cable there before. But now it feels like there is a lot of unused space.

The base seemed a bit weak at first, especially the small, triangular feet. However, it is very stable, I am no longer afraid that it will fall over. Also probably because the feet are very long, giving the screen even more hard-to-use real estate on my desk. However, a monitor arm can be used, and even the included stand uses the VESA 100 standard. However, it wobbles visibly on the sides of the hinge to turn the screen upright. Not all the time, but even with slight vibrations from my point of view, it visibly starts to wobble. Intensive typing can be enough for this.

In everyday life I mostly used one or more browser windows. Due to the enormous width, two next to each other are no problem. Before that, they were always a bit too small in a 50-50 arrangement to comfortably display videos or text. Then I spent a lot of time dragging windows bigger and smaller because their size just doesn’t suit me or my attention wanders. If one window was big enough, the other was too small. Now both are big enough that I can use them well in parallel. This also includes programs that are already divided into windows, for example development environments such as Visual Studio or Visual Studio Code (more on this later).

I no longer use most programs in full screen because the windows are very large and the main functions are very far apart. A good example is my favorite file manager Total Commander, it’s always running somewhere, but now in a more or less large window depending on your needs.

I’ve also experimented with other configurations, like two narrow pieces on the sides and a big one in the middle, but all too often the windows aren’t made for the very unusual formats and end up looking weird. Websites in the browser partly interpret the upright format of the window as a mobile device and then show me this version of the page. On my second monitor I use a virtual division, from the very bottom to the top of the main screen, everything above is a second area. I use the Display Fusion software for this, which is chargeable, but I’ve been using it for years (because an Ultramon license was simply too expensive for me). In addition, it has a number of other useful functions for multi-screen users, such as a button in the title bar to quickly move a window to the next screen or much more free configurations of wallpaper and lock screen. The FancyZones addon to Microsoft’s PowerToys can also divide the screen into zones, although it’s not that convenient, it’s free.

There are numerous tools for configuring multiple screens, but I use DisplayFusion – FancyZones from the PowerToys also works.