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The arguments for ultrawide monitors

The more you can see, the more you can do

Jon Peddie

Most, if not all, of us, spend our workday in front of a monitor. One of the most glued-to-the-screen group of users can be found working in the financial sector. Traders often have 4, and often have 8 to 12 monitors at a single desk in order to capture all the activities of various markets, trades, and accounts that can help them make fast decisions. Those monitors can be critical to their survival—how’s that for mission-critical.

Over the last few years, the financial sector has moved to larger and higher resolution monitors such as 43-inch monitors from Dell (Ultra HD 4K P4317Q), HP (LED-backlit LCD), Lenovo (P44W and Y44w) and others, and the massive 49-inch ultrawide monitors with a 21:9 aspect ratio from Dell (UltraSharp 49 curved U4919DW), HP, and LG. These big boys are being used to replace some of the smaller monitors that traders were previously using.

In a dual setup, you have two monitors typically side-by-side. In most cases, these two screens will each have a 16:9 aspect ratio. The resolution of each display can differ. For example, one can be 1080p and another can be 1440p.

A drawback of the dual monitor setup is the bezel gap between the monitors. Even if the edges of your monitors touch, the bezel gap still interrupts the visual field, and it can have a jarring effect especially if you’re working on an image that spans both screens. (If your work fits neatly into each of your displays, the bezel gap might not have any effect on your efficiency, but the aesthetics can still be annoying.)

An ultrawide monitor, solves the problem of bezel gap and can mean an improved workflow and an enhanced ability to manage several open windows.

Nonetheless, we found in our surveys that the productivity one can obtain from dual (or more) monitors approaches 60%. That same productivity benefit carries over to a single widescreen display.

In another example, a recent Dell-sponsored IDC research study found that more than 80% of employees surveyed believed that monitors with bigger screens help improve productivity at work.

In many workplaces, including the financial sector, workspaces are shrinking as offices modernize and seek to maximize people per square foot. One of Dell’s customers in the financial sector came to Dell with a desire to redefine their traders’ work desks. They wanted a simplified and clean desk for traders without compromising their visual experience. That was the inspiration for the Dell UltraSharp 49 Curved Monitor—the world’s first 49-inch curved dual QHD monitor.

Focusing on the requirements of traders, which includes large screen space, crisp images, and excellent viewing experience, Dell developed an ultra-wide monitor at a high resolution that is curved and height-adjustable. The monitor offers more screen real estate to view content, dual QHD resolution.

Doing more by seeing more. (Source: Dell)

 

Dell also commissioned Forrester to study the benefits, and they concluded there was a 12% productivity gain when traders switched from four 19-inch FHD monitors to two 34-inch WQHD (larger screen size, higher resolution) curved monitors, resulting in nearly 100 hours of annual incremental productivity per trader.

We play games on them too. Immersive technologies continue to drive demand for high-performance monitors with higher resolution, larger screen sizes, and newer form factors to support rich content and workloads that include a variety of data-centric and design-heavy tasks.

Gaming on a 49-inch monitor is like no other experience

 

There are some truths in life—you can’t be too rich, too thin, or have too many pixels.