Are widescreen monitors any use when NOT gaming ?

**bigblue** · 04-04-2006, 02:11 AM

I've been lusting after the NEC 20" wide GX2 for a while now (can't find stock anywhere decent) but I've not been able to see or try ANY 20" wide monitors and the novelty is wearing off a bit.

For someone who spends more time browsing the web and editing photos than they do gaming would widescreen be a bad idea ?

Would a pivoting widescreen like a Dell be the ideal compromise ?

Thanks for any help !

**EvilWeevil** · 04-04-2006, 02:55 AM

I've got 17'' wide on my lappy, and 26'' wide for my home desktop, and I can honestly say I'd never go back to square.

Of course gaming and vids/dvds etc. make it worth it, but so do...

Photo editing + web browsing: great as you can realistically have 2 windows side by side without going dual.

**MSIC** · 04-04-2006, 07:55 AM

Widescreen is, if anything, more suited to editing than for gaming. Gaming is getting better and better supported, but in my opinion gaming remains the only reason to buy a square (ish) monitor (and only then in games that dont support widescreen).
Buy one.

**jamena** · 04-04-2006, 08:35 AM

I very briefly owned a refurb dell widescreen and I have to say the extra space was very nice for general use. As mentioned above gaming was perhaps the reason not to buy wide due to lack of support and such. Having said that, some monitors such as the dell 2005fpw support a 1:1 pixel mode so you can disply your game at 1280x1024 native and just have black borders around the edges. I think that our vision works better in a wide aspect ratio (you know, watching for tigers out the corner of your eye etc) so there's that to be said for it to

I'm very tempted, it's just that the price of widescreen is still putting me off. My vmpro454 crt will have to keep going for a few months yet!

**Nox** · 04-04-2006, 09:15 AM

Widescreen are absolutely useless when not gaming, unless you're watching a film on it, or surfing, or document editing, or doing arty picture thingies, or making music, or just having it there to look cool.

Nox

**MSIC** · 04-04-2006, 10:48 AM

Or listening to iTunes. Or working in Excel. Or Word. Or looking a windows backgrounds. Or just looking at the back of the monitor.

**bigblue** · 04-04-2006, 05:07 PM

Okay, okay , enough

I get the picture ! I was really mainly worried about viewing web pages that have been "shortened" from 1200 to 1050 res. Guess I should have mentioned that it was a decision between a 20" standard or widescreen.

Thanks for your opinions folks

Guess I'll just need to sit tight then. C'mon Scan !

**bigblue** · 10-04-2006, 05:17 PM

Couldn't make up my mind about whether to go 20" NEC or 24" Dell or whether to put of a buying a premium monitor until HDCP compliance is standard..

In the end decided to wait and just went standard ratio for now (I know, Boooooo !)

I've got a lot of time on my hands so needed a monitor fairly sharpish and went for a VX922 which I got at a very good deal with my new pc.

We'll see when it gets here if I regret it

**MSIC** · 10-04-2006, 06:57 PM

You won't regret a nice monitor like that - shame you didnt get widescreen, but any new purchase always looks lovely

You'll enjoy.

**Koolpc** · 10-04-2006, 07:10 PM

Widescreen is nice, i have had one but had issues with the TFT i had so i now have an ordinary TFT and love it!

**bigblue** · 24-04-2006, 03:09 AM

And the most indecisive guy on the forums changed his mind again !

PC/monitor was due today but as Evesham/Low started stocking the NEC 20WGX2 I cancelled the Viewsonic at the last minute and went wide after all.

Another weeks wait for my system now and I hope it's worth it. It had better be !

**awm** · 24-04-2006, 04:20 AM

I just bought a Dell 2001FP after a few days ago. I thought a while about aspect ratios too and decided to go with the regular aspect ratio since the mostly the wide screen is just shorter. You get more surface area and pixels with a regular aspect ratio. Of course having said that I think widescreen is nice if do much movie watching or want to have 2 windows open at the same time. Anyways this doesn't really matter if you've alreay bought the widescreen, you'll enjoy either one.

**Koolpc** · 24-04-2006, 02:10 PM

Originally Posted by bigblue

And the most indecisive guy on the forums changed his mind again !

PC/monitor was due today but as Evesham/Low started stocking the NEC 20WGX2 I cancelled the Viewsonic at the last minute and went wide after all.

Another weeks wait for my system now and I hope it's worth it. It had better be !

Thing is, i had issues with the WS TFT. It had fuzzy text on one side and crisp text on the other!! I am sticking to normal TFT's.

**shaithis** · 24-04-2006, 02:16 PM

Originally Posted by Koolpc

Thing is, i had issues with the WS TFT. It had fuzzy text on one side and crisp text on the other!! I am sticking to normal TFT's.

Buying a dodgy/faulty widescreen monitor should not put you off widescreen! Maybe the manufacturer tho....

Fuzzy text on half the screen is NOT a widescrren feature =P

**Koolpc** · 24-04-2006, 04:41 PM

Originally Posted by shaithis

Buying a dodgy/faulty widescreen monitor should not put you off widescreen! Maybe the manufacturer tho....

Fuzzy text on half the screen is NOT a widescrren feature =P

Still enough to put me off though!

**BubbySoup** · 26-04-2006, 08:24 PM

Once you go widescreen, you never go back!

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