Ever since I upgraded my main monitor setup with my
34" ASUS TUF VG43VQL3A ULTRAWIDE Monitor on May 29 2025,
I've since gotten curious about the other monitors of similar size whenever I visit my local BEST BUY locations in VANCOUVER, BURNABY, etc.
And I'm left aghast at whenever I see another monitor that's not wide but the same Advertised height, the size difference is staggering.
For example, Compared to my ASUS TUF ULTRAWIDE,
I also compared it to an ASUS ROG SWIFT Monitor that’s just a normal 16:9.
The two monitors were both 34" VA Panels but the ROG monitor looked bigger than my ultrawide when compared to it.
I wish I had a photo to show but I didn't take the photo.
Now before you say
"ASUS ROG SWIFT MONITORS ARE SUSPOSED TO BE OLED PANELS!!!!"
Keep in mind that I could not find an ROG OLED Panel that was bigger than 27" in my BEST BUYs as those are probably ONLINE ORDER deals.
The OLED Panel I could find on display was this 27" as seen below.
Just for a bit of fun, I'll compare the size of that 27" OLED Panel vs. a TUF 32" VA Panel.
The one on the LEFT is the 27" ROG Swift Monitor.
The One on the right is 32" TUF Monitor
The size difference is real if the width is the same.
And just for fun, Let’s compare my 34” ASUS TUF ULTRAWIDE to a
49" SAMSUNG SUPERWIDE which I did look at while at BEST BUY at CAMBIE ST.
To my eyes, it doesn't look that much taller than my TUF Ultrawide.
Where that SAMSUNG SUPERWIDE really shines is it's width and lets you be totally immersed in the screen.
And that's only if you bought it and set it up on your desk as standing up or crouching when viewing these demo units at stores like BEST BUY isn't gonna do the immersion justice.
So what gives with this discrepancy?
Well what happens is that these monitors are not measured by HEIGHT, nor WIDTH but rather by
DIAGONAL WIDTH.
The monitors are measured diagonally when they're marketed to the end user.
And this has caused some issues with the most seasoned of Computer Users who are so obsessed with large monitor space but are shocked to find that a particular size they've used in the past seems small when you enhance the width.
Let's take a look at this graphic shall we:
I pulled this image from THE 8-BIT GUY's 2024 video about CRTs.
This is sort of a recycled research on his part because it's referring to a certain piece of research he undertook back in 2013 when he was talking about what his ideal monitors were.
But what does this have to do with size discrepancy?
As you can see on the above graphic, computer monitors are measured by size diagonally.
And you can be shocked to discover that what was once large on the 4:3 size looks smaller on a widescreen 16:9 monitor on the same size.
Many enthusiasts who still firmly remember the good old days of CRT monitors criticize this practice of advertising the diagonal dimensions because it's just minorly charging consumers more money for less screen size just by shrinking the size to accommodate the wider aspect but the price remains the same if the same monitor tech is left unchanged because there's going to be a price difference depending on if the monitor uses a CRT Tube, LED Panel, VA Panel, or OLED Panel.
That explains why I felt a little shrinkage on my viewing perspective when I got my Acer Nitro 24" Monitor in 2021 but when I looked closely at the monitor, it sure doesn't look as large as the 21" KDS CRT monitor I had as a kid.
Or maybe I’m just misremembering my childhood memories and the reason that monitor looked massive was because of how small I was back in 2001-2005.
Anyway, my old ACER Monitor looked like this in the image below which also had my original MAVERICK WARHAWK BUILD from 2023
I somehow became one of the lucky ones to have a large monitor like that KDS above.
Even our childhood Computers often were paired with small monitors, mostly those that came with our computer.
The largest you'd ever have in a desktop monitor for your system most likely would have been either a 17" or a 19" CRT.
But some of us either had 17" or smaller.
For example, Billy Coore(Aka THE NOSTALGIA MALL)
had a 1995 Packard Bell Legend 822CDT from his childhood which was paired with a 15" Packard Bell Monitor.
The man in this photo is Billy Coore's late father who passed away in November 2021.
While some people like BEN HECK, THE 8-BIT GUY, LGR, & NOSTALGIA MALL have come to at least accept that the average shmuck is not going to care about screen-real estate,
some people like Nathan Lineback of TOASTY TECH fame are not going to give a flying shit about the advertising scheme and trying to educate him on changing times will instead elicit a diatribe from him on why he demands you go back to a 4K Capable CRT VGA Monitor and he will rudely and vehemently CRITICIZE YOU for spending thousands on an ASUS ROG SWIFT OLED or a Dell ULTRAWIDE that can barely handle both 4K or high refresh at the same time unless you have a really high-end graphics card from either Nvidia or AMD.
So why does this post look like I'm praising the older tech when I already own a 34" Ultrawide?
Because I understand how shocked I was when I compared to how minor the size of my old acer from 2021 looked when compared to my old KDS from 2001 to 2005.
And also, it reflects my bemusement with the difference on screen sizes in cinemas too.
The Screen Size on the original Movie Houses from the beginning to the early 50s were pretty small unless you were attending a screening at a movie palace which were massive.
And the size of a traditional cinemascope auditorium with sloped seating might not compare well to a modern auditorium that demands a larger screen area to accommodate the stadium seating of today's cinemas.
In regards to my old 24” ACER NITRO monitor,
I no longer have it in my possession as I’ve donated it to my Church for their SUMMER Garage Sale.
My ASUS VG27AQ has since taken it’s place as my overhead monitor on my desk while my ASUS Ultrawide has taken over as my main monitor.
And yes, I did not mention IMAX.
They're auditoriums are a league of their own but I still see online fights over which is better:
GT, SR, MPX, DIGITAL, or LASER COLA.
I'll make a future post about IMAX AUDITORIUMS in the future.
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