The one thing people overlook with dual monitor arms

I've been running a dual monitor setup for about 6 years now, and I keep seeing folks on here post photos of their desk where both screens are perfectly aligned at the bottom. That looks great in photos, but it's a terrible idea for your neck. I made that mistake myself for the first 3 years. Your eyes naturally want to look slightly down at a comfortable angle, not straight ahead or up. When you mount both monitors at the exact same height, you end up tilting your head either up or down to see them both. What I figured out is you should offset one monitor a few inches lower than the other, like a primary and secondary setup. The main screen should sit right at eye level when you're sitting up straight, and the secondary one can sit a bit lower or off to the side. Has anyone else found a specific height difference that works best for them?

2 comments

2 Comments

noahclark5d ago

Holy crap, wait, you ran them perfectly aligned for 3 whole years? That's insane to me. I think I would have adjusted after like a week of that weird neck tilt. I actually run my secondary monitor almost completely vertical now because of this exact problem, I just couldn't find a comfortable height for it sitting sideways. I keep it down low and tilted slightly back, like a laptop screen almost. It's way better than having them both at the same eye level and craning my neck left and right all day.

perez.barbara5d ago

Running them offset drives me crazy though. I had my monitors like that for a month and my brain couldn't stop noticing the different heights. Every time I'd glance over at the secondary screen it felt like my eyes were dropping down a step, you know? Like walking down stairs in the dark. I keep mine perfectly level now and just adjust my chair height so my main monitor is slightly below eye level and the second one matches it. You get used to moving your whole head instead of just your eyes, and I actually think it helps keep my neck from locking up in one position all day. Different strokes for different folks I guess, but level alignment has never bothered me once I got the chair right.