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Comment by Chris_Newton | Hacker News Reader

When I code, horizontal space is never at a premium. It's always vertical space I'm short on.

I’m seriously considering buying an LG 34UM95 monitor¹ for precisely this reason. It’s so wide (34" screen, 21:9 aspect ratio, 3440x1440 resolution) that I could sensibly divide the screen into 3-4 full-height columns with different source files open in each for development work.

Currently I have a decent Dell 30" as my main screen, but at 2560x1600 resolution I wind up using it with a 2x2 split for coding, which roughly halves the number of lines I can see at once in a long file.

I’m a little sceptical about trying a 1920x1920 screen at that physical size for similar work, simply because I’d worry about what prolonged use would do to my neck with that much vertical movement being needed all the time.

¹ http://www.lg.com/uk/monitors/lg-34UM95

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I've just set up 3 different work areas consisting of laptops with external second monitors. I've settled on the configuration having the external monitor above the laptop display as being the most optimum. I find that I never need to move my neck to glance from one screen to the other, and only require a slight tilt at the waist to comfortably switch for longer periods. Contrast this to a side-by-side configuration, where it feels awkward to merely shift my eyes sideways, so I move my neck more. This in itself isn't so bad, until I need to focus on one screen that's off-center for prolonged periods, keeping my head in an awkward angle that doesn't seem healthy. Naturally, any configuration should still be augmented with regular stretching/activity breaks.

tl;dr: Vertical: Mostly eye movement. Horizontal: Lots of neck movement.

The ultrawide LG is quite nice, I trialed a coworker's for a week or two. Beautiful screen and great features, and using it was interesting. It was really nice to have four or more full-height source files tiled. However, from my typical centered vantage point, windows near the corners appeared skewed. (They weren't physically skewed of course, this was just because of the angle I was viewing). I found myself rolling my chair left and right so that I could more closely center myself in front of the current window, which wasn't a big deal, just something I noticed myself doing.

Given proper resources, I'd consider getting one. Just wanted to share my funny anecdote that it's so large, I rolled back and forth to take advantage of it all :)

Thanks for sharing your experience.

However, from my typical centered vantage point, windows near the corners appeared skewed.

Presumably this is the advantage of the new curved screen version¹, though so far it’s considerably more expensive and it looks like at least here in the UK no-one has it available for immediate purchase.

¹ http://www.lg.com/uk/monitors/lg-34UC97

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