Working from home/productivity monitor(s) - what do you prefer?

[Somnambulist]

For people who work from home, what monitor set-up do prefer or have settled on? Have you tried different types of screen sizes and combinations?

Started a new job this spring. At some point in the coming months I can work from home 3 days a week, but as my home computer is a MacBook Pro 16” I have no standalone displays at the moment. Bit paralysis-by-analysis on what to get.

Work laptop = Lenovo Yoga X13 Gen 2 (i5, Iris Xe), some version of Windows 10. I’m not too clued on Windows machines but a brief search tells me this is decent enough to run most displays off of, multiple or otherwise.

Work desk set-ups (you find somewhere free) = 24” 1200p + a 22-24” 1080p monitor and I usually have the laptop on a stand level with the screens off to the side and just leave Teams on it or the SOP/standard operating procedures for whatever I’m doing if it’s not yet been committed to memory. It’s a bit cramped for me with everything I have open and I need to alt/win+tab frequently. Useable but I feel it’s slightly pre-historic given the potential options these days and I’m usually twisting my neck or having to spin about to go between the 3 displays.

Requirements:
-Some of the older software/system do not like scaling so ideally everything needs to just run at 100% and still be readable
-Majority of my work revolves around text
-this will purely be for work, no late nights on it or gaming and I’m not likely to use my MBP with it either due to the joys of scaling on that too.
-would prefer something that doesn’t feel 10 years old if I have to look at for hours a day, if that means paying more I’m okay with that

Choices:
1) single 43” 4K display - things like the LG C2 (modern display tech… but text clarity though?) or the Dell Ultrasharp via a Blue Light card discount I get… read some negatives about the light uniformity on an IPS panel this big though. Basically like having quad 21.5” 1080p monitors w/no bezels, obviously need it a bit further away from my eyes than the other options. £££

2) dual 27” 1440p screens - e.g. I see LG do the Ergo Dual where you get the dual arms included in the price albeit with a dated pair of screens. ££

3) some sort of 1600p ultrawide (if I have to screen-share I’ll just use the laptop). Immersive for gaming and no bezels… but for office work? I note that 30” 16:10 2560x1600 monitors are not a thing anymore and it’s basically 30-32” at 1440p (meh PPI) or 4k (needs scaling). £££

5) dual or even triple 24-25” 1600p screens, since they’re still sold. £

6) some other combo?! £-£££

 

[Somnambulist]

LG Dual up monitor? considering one myself, either that or a Huawei MateView

Currently got a 24" 1920x1080 alongside a 27" 2160x1080 with a 16" 2560x1600 laptop. Works well, but you do end up swivelling your head - and having to remember where the camera is whilst on Teams!

DualUp would need scaling which I’d prefer to avoid and although I was initially into it, I feel like it’s just a bit too small if you think of it like being two 21.5” displays stacked vertically though (would prefer 24 minimum!). Three of them look pretty sweet but cost/scaling/not sharing-friendly.

Leaning towards a 21:9 1440p display so there’s a definite ‘centre’ rather than two displays where you either have the bezel down the middle or one screen entirely off to the side, and that splits nicely into 3 panes, with perhaps an additional 27” 16:9 1440p above it given it’s not entirely two 16:9’s across for whatever is least looked at + screen-sharing/Teams and the things I’d normally fob off to the laptop which I can leave in clamshell model. The 1600p UW’s are nice but not double the cost of the 1400p ones nice. Dual 21:9’s feels like overkill as far as real-estate!

 

[Somnambulist]

Still haven’t got round to buying anything as I’ve been mentoring new cohorts of recruits full time in the office and not wfh much. I see the Alienware 38” UW is £799 this weekend which is kind of tempting me but I do think since most of the stuff at work is accessed through web browser or written up on Office apps I’ll be fine with a couple of scaled 27” 4K’s for increased text clarity (although it wouldn’t be 200% ala Retina displays) which would make a bigger difference than the novelty of 21:9.