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Comment by exitb | Hacker News Reader

After 15 years of having a desk job I find that I’m more sensitive to the position I sit in. My back feels a lot better if I have a single, regular sized screen right in front of me, instead of having additional screen estate on the sides or below (as with a laptop).

At the same time I use virtual desktops that I can switch with both keyboard and mouse.

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The general advice is to have top of monitor at eye level, but it's been wrong advice for me personally. I now put the middle of the monitor at eye level. Keeps my head up and posture better. Leaning back instead of stooping.

The general advice provided to me, and relayed by me is eyes centered @ 2/3th of the screen. The best advice received and relayed by me regarding posture might surprise you. If you struggle with posture, stop caring about what other people might think about your posture. Changing/Tweaking posture all the time might look bad, but it also tends to mitigate the effects of being frozen in bad posture(!) The health impact is too significant to ignore.

Yeah I think the only ergonomic advice I believe anymore is that there does not exist a position that is ergonomic to sustain for more than a couple hours. Humans are not evolved to stay stationary, few mammals are really.

Also use a chair with at least “multi block” (changes seat/back angle when swaying).

I do this too, though mostly out of necessity. I use a 27" screen a couple feet away. To get the top of the monitor level with my eyes I'd either have to lower it so the bottom of the monitor was almost flush with the desk (which my current monitor's stand won't do anyway), or get a taller chair/lower my desk, both of which would leave my legs rubbing up against the desk underside and my arms at an uncomfortable angle for typing.

Either I have an abnormally short torso, or that advice was written back when most people were using a 14" display.

I switched to a VESA arm so I can put the bottom of the monitor flush with the desk and leaned back at a bit of an angle. It’s fantastic.

Indeed. AIUI your head needs to be back, chin tucked in, which means looking down a bit. If you're looking level or up you're going to be sticking your head out a bit

I'm the same. I use a single 27" 4k monitor and use virtual desktops. The best upgrade for me though was getting a computer prescription for some glasses that I keep on my desk.

Sometimes I think about upgrading to a 5k monitor. The Apple Studio Display looks great, but I'm a Windows user and I'm guessing a lot of the nice features of that display are Mac-only.

There aren't a whole lot of options for 5k monitors. Other than Apple I think there's a Dell, but it's too wide. There's a Samsung but I've been burned by Samsung too many times. There's also an LG 5k monitor but it gets pretty weak reviews.

> The Apple Studio Display looks great, but I'm a Windows user and I'm guessing a lot of the nice features of that display are Mac-only

I can possibly be of some help here. I have a Studio Display, however my work-provided machine is a Dell laptop and so that is what is connected to it most of the time.

Providing your machine can output video via Thunderbolt or USB-C, it will work. That is fairly common these days, though Windows machines capable of driving a 5120x2880 signal can be harder to come across, particularly in the corporate laptop world, though I don't know how much of a concern that is to you.

My last work machine maxed out at 4K which the Studio Display would happily scale up to full screen. I would describe it as substantially sharper than e.g. a 2560x1440 display of equivalent size, but still noticeably less sharp than the full native 5K (obviously). My current machine can do the full 5K, but the performance leaves a lot to be desired (however the thing is a turd anyway, too much corporate security crap bogging it down).

Speakers, camera, and microphone built into the display all work totally fine from Windows. What may be a total non-starter is that you need a Mac or iPad to change the brightness, because there's no physical controls on the display itself and Windows doesn't expose a way to control it. I am lucky/unlucky in that my home office does not get a huge amount of natural light, meaning I've been able to set it to a comfortable brightness from my Mac and then just leave it.

Overall it's a very nice monitor if you can work around the brightness thing. A possibly better contender though is the recent-ish 5K variant of the Asus ProArt[0]. I was using the 1440p version of the same monitor before I got the Studio Display, and I was very happy with it. Good colour reproduction, USB-C Power Delivery for one-cable laptop docking, and a far more adjustable stand than the SD. Worth a look.

[0] https://www.asus.com/displays-desktops/monitors/proart/proar...

Apple has a pretty generous return policy. I might have to order one to try it.

The ASUS one is pretty interesting and it's only $800.

I've got the LG 5K and it's been totally dependably kick ass for the 4 years (i think) since I got it (from the Apple Store). Mostly using it on macOS but have used it with Windows and haven't tried with Linux.

There are several 5k to appear next year: Benq, ALogic, maybe somrthing else. There are also chinese noname 5k monitors which use panel rejects of ASD.

Agreed. To each their own, but the obsession with the biggest and/or most possible screens is something that is very hard for me to relate to. As soon as I am regularly craning my neck to see all of my screen real estate, it is no longer a positive in my life. I'm glad these solutions exist for people who enjoy them, but they are definitely not for me.

Same here. I only use and want a single monitor setup. I can alt-tab between windows faster and more comfortably than turning my head to another screen.

Also a dual/multiple setup bothers me for losing the mouse boundaries when it crosses to another screen - I'd rather have the mouse bounded on one screen for faster access to menu bars at the edges.

Same, I switched back to a single 27" screen last year. For me it's better to focus on one thing at a time especially since my eyes aren't the best, and I switch between virtual desktops with F1-F4 (or when I use my mac with the 3-finger swipe gesture).

MacOS also has ctrl+left/right for switching virtual desktops. The gesture can get a bit tedious if you're jumping across multiple desktops in one go. I don't think it's particularly ergonomic either.

I used to use dual monitors 50:50 in front of me, but after a few years I started getting neck pain.

Now I put a monitor directly in front of me, and a secondary monitor on the side. No more neck pain.

Same, and wherever I put the second display, it's going to hurt my neck after a very whort while.

Same for me. I just tried a curved 27 inches monitor and I hate it.

That's too small for the curvature to provide any benefit.

I have dual 27 flat monitors at home and dual 27 curved monitors at work and the ones at work are far more comfortable to use.

I find curved beneficial even on 24”, but I’m also quite nearsighted.

yeah I'm fine with just an ultra wide, no more stacked monitors for me

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