Super-size, extra-wide monitors for productivity work, pro media editing, and gaming are transforming the desktop experience. Ready to go (really) big? Check out the top-performing sprawling displays we’ve tested.
The past few years have seen the introduction of a whole host of stunning ultrawide computer monitors. They are designed to give discriminating office users, content creators, and gamers a more spacious, immersive view, delivering eye-popping visuals or simply extra room to work. Ultrawides, defined by their extra width relative to their height, come in panel sizes up to 49 inches, measured on the diagonal. This extra horizontal screen space can be beneficial, in different ways, across the professional, gaming, and productivity worlds. Is there an ultrawide monitor in your future? Perhaps, but you’ll want to understand the nuances of these big, bold panels before diving in, as they are also a bit of an investment—in both dollars and desk space. Here’s what you need to know. The Importance of Aspect Ratio Aspect ratio is a fundamental concept to grasp when assessing an ultrawide panel versus one with more conventional dimensions. Aspect ratio represents the relationship between horizontal and vertical pixels on a screen—that is, the ratio between monitor width and height. The two most common ultrawide aspect ratios are 21:9 and 32:9. The latter is a more extreme example, more than three times as wide as it is tall. Monitors with a 32:9 aspect ratio are sometimes called “super wide” or “super ultra-wide.” We see them, however, as a subset of the ultrawide class, and we use the term «ultrawide» for both 32:9 and 21:9 panels. Though the current ultrawide wave is the most radical expression, computer monitors have gotten progressively wider, compared with their height, over the decades. Around the turn of the millennium, many monitors had a boxier 4:3 aspect ratio, which originally came from motion pictures. (It is the standard aspect ratio of 35mm film.) Around 2005, monitors with a slightly wider 16:10 aspect ratio came into vogue, but their popularity was short-lived. Within five years they were largely supplanted by widescreen monitors with a 16:9 ratio—the dimensions of a high-definition television (HDTV) image. The 16:9 ratio remains the most popular today. Familiar resolutions such as 720p (1,280 by 720 pixels),1080p (1,920 by 1,080),1440p/QHD (2,560 by 1,440), and UHD/4K (3,840 by 2,160) all have a 16:9 aspect ratio. The first 21:9 monitors appeared in 2012, and 32:9 displays in 2017. In addition to their unique aspect ratios, ultrawide monitors are physically wide. Most have measured-diagonal screen sizes of 34,43, or 49 inches. The 49-inch models tend to really pack in the pixels, rated for native resolutions of either 5,120 by 1,440 pixels or 3,840 by 1,080 pixels at a 32:9 aspect ratio. Most ultrawide monitors, especially the biggest ones, have large stands, often V-shaped, to support their weight and keep their wide stature balanced. Ultrawide Monitors in the Workplace Ultrawide business monitors are a boon to multitaskers. Why? For starters, they let you open multiple full-size windows on the same screen, side by side. A few manufacturers, Dell among them, include software to help you split the giant screen into neatly arranged windows.
