One screen or two?

[Cassandle]

I’m interested in what people are doing in terms of monitor setup

I’ve just got a 4K 27” monitor for my M1 Mini. It’s great, and gives a large amount of real estate (when scaled to look like 1440p). I already have a HD 24” monitor and had planned to go dual screen, which is what I use at work (or I did, before having to work from home full time).

Based on my experience in the office, I always thought I needed two screens for a desktop, but using a 12.9” iPad Pro for the past few months has trained me to be more restrained in the windows I have open, and I’m now thinking the 27” monitor alone could be enough for the Mac as well.

I’m still undecided about returning the 27” and getting another 24” instead. The 27” and 24” together is way too big...

Not looking for advice necessarily, but curious about other people’s experiences and use cases.

What are people using? And why? People who use 2 or more - how do you utilise the extra screen?

 

[Amethyst1]

Two screens, 21.5" 4096x2304 scaled to 2048x1152 and 23.8" 3840x2160 scaled to 2304x1296.

One - whatever I'm doing right now (usually two or three windows);
Two - email, Finder, reference (browser/pdf)

 

[Geepaw]

I get by with two monitors and feel it's diminishing returns after that number -- although i could see myself going to three and being quite happy with it as well.

 

[uller6]

I run a 27" 5K iMac Pro, a 27" 1440p Dell S2719DM, an Apple 24" 1900x1200 LED Cinema Display, and a Dell 24" P2415Q 4K in addition to my new M1 MacBook Air. Yeah, that's 5 screens, but I use them all. I like to keep a lot of things up at the same time and having multiple screens helps me keep different tasks separate and organized.