Large displays, am I missing something?

[RCBH928]

Hello everyone,

All of you know that people lust behind large screens, and Apple made their standard
desktop machines(the imac) at 21.5 inches, you can't get smaller than this and the largest
at 27 inch.

So this is my first move from desktop to laptop, and I thought to myself I might want to play
some emulation and games so I got myself a 22inch samsung.

I think there is something I don't get. This screen is too large to browse and its an arm length away from me. I still cant look at the whole screen. I can't read articles I have to zoom in like 300% to be able to read.

Sure, video looks amazing on such a large screen, it might be great for using stuff like photoshop with multiple palettes or doing video work. It might be great for using it to monitor anything, stock market, or a system processing. But for your regular browsing, email, word processing (which i bet is like 70% of the market) its too huge. The monitor is like 3x my face.

am using this the wrong way? Am I like supposed to use only half the screen to browse?
I was thinking that I won't get VGA for my Dreamcast, because this is too small to play a game on it. I think this is more than big, I would hook my 360 on it I think it won't be a problem.

Do you think I should sit further away? but that will only make reading and finding icons harder.

[otaku]

I have two 20-22 inch monitors and pretty much sit right on top of them-no problem at all. I could see a 30inch. That said I have no problem with 15-17inch screens at all and use them most of the time (laptops)

[Ivo]

I think there is something I don't get. This screen is too large to browse and its an arm length away from me. I still cant look at the whole screen. I can't read articles I have to zoom in like 300% to be able to read.

I don't know what to say - 22'' isn't so big. My home screen is that big and I have no issues with it, I find it much better than the smaller ones. I think I sit a bit farther than an arm's length though, try that.
Maybe you don't see well? Look into that (if you already have specs, see if you need new ones).
Also, you can change font size in browsers etc.

If you are finding trouble with the mouse, (e.g. can't cover all the distance before "running out of space"), increase the sensitivity so it moves more distance for smaller movements.

I hope I'm not coming off as condescending, that's not my intention.

Ivo.

[RCBH928]

I don't know , its too huge.
I added two images here to show how big it is as I view it.
Please tell me if this is normal and pleasing to the eyes.

http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/3109/scrn2k.jpg
http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/8813/scrn1.jpg

I believe I even see it a little bit smaller than this.

[arion]

Maybe try lowering the resolution ?

[Upsidedown Fuji]

Arion is right. Lowering the resolution would help you read text without having to zoom. Yes, of course you do loose image quality for other stuff, but if you want to be able to read anything after a few years of straining your eyes, you may consider either moving to a smaller display for daily computing or lower the resolution only when reading stuff.

[deathclaw]

I don't know , its too huge.
I added two images here to show how big it is as I view it.
Please tell me if this is normal and pleasing to the eyes.

http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/3109/scrn2k.jpg
http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/8813/scrn1.jpg

I believe I even see it a little bit smaller than this.

It was exactly the same with me, I had my first 22" monitor and the resolution was the same as yours - 1680x1050. Give it some time to get used to it and you won't want to have anything smaller I just love how much I can see on my screen. Sure, you can lower the resolution, but I would not do that. If you still suffer after 3-4 weeks, do so. But until that, try to get used to it. You've had your new monitor for how much, a few hours? Maybe a few days? It's just not enough. As I have already said - give it some time, and you will not regret it And when you get used to it, lower resolution on the same monitor will look like crap to you, trust me

[deathclaw]

Arion is right. Lowering the resolution would help you read text without having to zoom. Yes, of course you do loose image quality for other stuff, but if you want to be able to read anything after a few years of straining your eyes, you may consider either moving to a smaller display for daily computing or lower the resolution only when reading stuff.

No, he does not have to lower the resolution, it would be counterproductive. It would be better just to adjust zoom - be it MS Office, Firefox, or anything else.

[Hobie-wan]

Its just going to matter at what you're comfortable reading. I'm sitting at a 21" 4:3 LCD at 1600x1200 that doesn't bother me to look at the whole thing with no zooming going on. I do have my mouse sensitivity cranked all the way up in Windows and on the mouse itself all the time though. It usually annoys me if I sit at someone else's computer and have to keep picking up the mouse to get across the screen.

[deathclaw]

And if it's still a lot of space for you, there are many ways how to use it, for example stretch the tabs in your browser, so you can see it (don't know if FireFox supports this), put your instant messenger contact list on the left or on the right permanently, you can have 2 pages in Word next to each other, which may be useful sometimes...or do whatever you need to make your work more efficient.

It could look like this:

http://www.underground-gamer.com/imageb ... rd011.jpeg

But I usually want to have as much space as possible, so this is how does usually look my browser and desktop:

http://www.underground-gamer.com/imageb ... rd01s.jpeg

http://www.underground-gamer.com/imageb ... d01ss.jpeg