Home Office Setup - 3 options, thoughts?

Overmused · June 4, 2020

With my job going full remote, I've come to discover that, for my own sanity, having a dedicated Home Office set up will help keep me from sitting at my same computer all day long. I currently have a decently powerful gaming setup (couple years old but still works), along with a 27inch 1440p and a 34 inch 1080 ultrawide. The 27inch is my gaming monitor (Dell S217DG) so on the gaming front I am more that good (my ultrawide is mostly just there to stack chrome tabs together, or to split between work and a youtube stream during or something). I've been using this for the past two months as I work from home.

I want to take my work laptop (couple years old lenovo thinkpad 20FY0002US) and create a new home office setup in a separate room. That way if I need to take the laptop into an office for meetings I can easily disengaged it from the docking port (multiple USB, couple display port, ethernet, etc) and have an easy travel system. But I could never got back to just a simple laptop or even laptop + second screen set up. I've grown accustomed to screen real estate!

There were 3 options I had in mind: Laptop + Ultrawide, Laptop + 2x non-ultrawide, or after doing some reading online, laptop + 4k TV. I've done some reading, but it's hard to find an article that doesn't just talk about 1 single setup (and why YOU should make the swap) rather than truly comparing the different options.

I thought an ultrawide was the way to go initially, until I realized that ultrawide monitors are bloody expensive (I thought 1 ultrawide would be cheaper than 2 monitors, but I was wrong apparently...especially if you want something of decent quality). But a 4k tv, for the price, seems like a good option as well!

I do web development, so I don't need to worry about color accuracy or graphics. All I'm doing is setting up an IDE, a test page, and then various tabs and monitoring programs (database window, terminal, web pages for reference, web page i'm testing, etc) and then probably slack + email just sitting on the laptop screen off to the side.

Any thoughts or experiences on these various setups? Is a 4k TV the best way to get a ton of screen real estate without breaking the bank? As drool-worthy as a 49" ultrawide is, I don't want to spend $1k (usd) on a work-only monitor. I'm trying to keep the full budget under $500, and the best bang for my buck is the goal.

Thanks in advance!

Dedayog · June 4, 2020

Laptop and 2x 1440p 27" non-UW is my setup for my office/work. UW is nice and can double for working but I still prefer 2 or 3 dedicated separate screens.

4K TV? No benefit for office work but if you can find them priced well, it's an option. Size is an issue tho, because I'd want 2x of them as well.

Overmused · June 4, 2020

14 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

4K TV? No benefit for office work but if you can find them priced well, it's an option. Size is an issue tho, because I'd want 2x of them as well.

The main benefit would be the screen real estate, several static pages in their own dedicated corners, etc. I don't think I could handle 2x of them on a desk though From what people were saying online, one large 4k tv is the same as having 4x 1080p which seems great.