Optimal Dual Screen
A dual screen setup that doesn’t suck…
I’ve been dual screening for a while now. For almost as long as I ditched my 15" MacBook for the smaller, more portable 13" model . I love the portability of the smaller formats but sometimes it’s good to have a little bit more screen real estate. Especially as a designer.
Yet, dual screen always kinda sucked.
First: it takes room on your desk. That big screen is rather fine but you’ve got to put your laptop somewhere, preferably raised and leveled to the bigger screen.
And then, once everything is finally in place, I have to admit that I never really knew what to do with the smaller screen. It’s too far away from my sight to make it really useful.
Apart from some rare occasions where I needed to compare different things or use reference material, most of the time my beautiful 13" screen was a glorified iTunes player…
And then I started to work at :ratio. In a UX and web design company you’d expect people to have big powerful computers.
Nope: the most popular computer at the office is the 11" MacBook Air. But we all work with a beautiful 27" external Monitor. And this is how everyone uses his:
I was used to see my laptop on the side, as that had been my usual setup for years. But I now use the laptop under the external screen. And my MacBook sits in front of me, where I would normally have an external keyboard.
I was a bit skeptical at first because I was a bit conservative of my setup (even though I knew it wasn’t great). But I decided to give it a try and here’s why I’m not going back.
Both screen under the eyes
Now your second screen is right under your nose, literally. You don’t have to turn your head, you don’t have to lean on your table: it’s right there.
A real extension of your big screen
Your laptop screen is not a secondary screen anymore, its a real extension of the big screen. I use it for my finder windows, for productivity tools (Harvest, Basecamp and obviously email and calendars) and as a real complimentary screen real estate. Moving windows and apps between screens is not awkward anymore.
Trackpad + mouse + keyboard
I love the trackpad, but not every time. Its perfect for certain tasks such as browsing the web or handling finder tasks but I don’t like doing Illustrator work without a mouse. Now I have best of both worlds as I have my laptop in front of me, I can use the trackpad or the mouse when I want and I got rid of the external keyboard in order to use the built-in one.
More room on your desk
Final point: your laptop comes under the big screen, just where you would have your external keyboard. Now you have everything you need where you need it and more room on the rest of your desk. It might come as a detail, but it is not if you like uncluttered workspaces and/or you have little room.
We spend lots of time in front of those screens. I love my laptop as I often work on the move and in different places. But I also love the comfort of a bigger screen. So its really important for me to have the best setup possible.
And with that kind of dual screen I think that I’m close to the perfect setup!
