How important is screen shape in a continuous glucose monitor?

Some CGMs have square screens, and some have rectangular screens. It really doesn’t matter in the long run, but CGM “traces,” the visual depiction of blood sugar data and context over time, displayed on a rectangle look very different from the same trace data displayed on a square.

Squares tend to make smaller changes look more significant than they look on rectangles; or if you prefer, rectangles tend to minimize changes in blood sugar traces compared to squares. Either way, you’ll get used to whatever you live with.

That said, which format you have will affect which graphs you’ll find most useful. A square 3-hour display is pretty handy. A rectangular 3-hour display will always look flat unless the shit has really hit the fan. At the same time, a six hour graph on a rectangle is pretty sweet while changes in six-hour blood sugar on a square screen look more severe than they are.