I Bought A Dell P3421W Ultrawide Monitor

Over the 20 something years I've been a software developer, I have used numerous monitor and monitor setups.

It all started with CRT (Cathode-ray tube) monitors. They were big and bulky - I remember it taking 2 of use to move a 21" monitor to my desk and the worry it may break the desk.

At home I used to have 17" monitors and I remember the first time I bought a flat screen CRT.

Moved to TFT

The next move was to a TFT-LCD monitor. These were the first of the thinner monitors we use today. The originals being LCD, which now we find LED.

This revolutionised my workflow. I could have a bigger monitor and take up so much less space on my desk. Soon this meant I could have 2 monitors. Those 2 x 19" monitors turned into 2 x 22" and 24".

For my home setup I soon moved up to a 27" and 24" monitor. I was happy. 2 monitors meant I could have code on the 1 and examples or research on the other.

However, 2 monitors means 2 spaces taken up on my desktop, 2 ports used in my graphics card and 2 x the electricity. I found myself more often only using 1 monitor. So, I started to think of the next logical change - at least for my setup.

I bought an ultrawide

About 1-2 years ago I started looking at Ultrawide monitors. I liked the idea but they were still not mature enough for me to buy. I did keep my eye on them with some in my Amazon wishlist.

This year we all started to do more work from home. I found myself in my home little office and spending more time coding. I wanted more desktop space so I started to look at both Ultrawide and 4K monitors.

It was almost a toss up between them as I had chosen a particular 4K 16:9 monitor. However, I found that Dell had released a new Ultrawide Monitor - the P3421W. It had everything I was looking for. Was IPS screen. 10Bit (I believe from the colour depth they listed). 99% sRGB coverage.

All that I wanted and needed. So, about a week ago I took the plunge.

I bought it, and to be honest in the week that I have owned it now - it has been excellent. The extra size has proven to be excellent for my work flow:

I have now done away with the 2 monitor setup and I can fit all I need on one monitor. It also works great for productivity where I may have large timelines in video edits or long lines of code with other tools pulled out in Intellij (Project list, Code and Maven for example).

Not for everyone

Now, I would say that an Ultrawide is not going to be for everyone. There are some downsides - such as black bars on either side of a video that doesn't fit the form factor of 21:9. However, this doesn't bother me.

If you're looking for more real-estate on your desktop then I would certainly say check them out. If you prefer 16:9 then they are not for you and I would say go 2 monitor setup.