diff --git a/etc/NEWS b/etc/NEWS
index b18bfc980ee..7a5a8f30b03 100644
--- a/etc/NEWS
+++ b/etc/NEWS
@@ -443,6 +443,10 @@ vertically first, so to get previous behavior, you can customize this
 option to 'vertical'.  The value 'horizontal' always prefers the
 horizontal split.
 
+---
+The default value of 'split-width-threshold' is changed from 160 to 150.
+After splitting it's still comfortable to read text filled to 75 columns.
+
 +++
 *** New argument INDIRECT for 'get-buffer-window-list'.
 With this argument non-nil, 'get-buffer-window-list' will include in the
diff --git a/lisp/window.el b/lisp/window.el
index 2327ffcd5f2..f42784388f5 100644
--- a/lisp/window.el
+++ b/lisp/window.el
@@ -7448,9 +7448,10 @@ supposed to split that window and return the new window.  If the
 window can (or shall) not be split, it is supposed to return nil.
 The default is to call the function `split-window-sensibly' which
 tries to split the window in a way which seems most suitable.
-You can customize the options `split-height-threshold' and/or
-`split-width-threshold' in order to have `split-window-sensibly'
-prefer either vertical or horizontal splitting.
+You can customize the options `split-window-preferred-direction',
+`split-height-threshold' and/or `split-width-threshold' in order
+to have `split-window-sensibly' prefer either vertical or
+horizontal splitting.
 
 If you set this to any other function, bear in mind that the
 `display-buffer' routines may call this function two times.  The
@@ -7482,14 +7483,14 @@ value of this variable."
   :version "23.1"
   :group 'windows)
 
-(defcustom split-width-threshold 160
+(defcustom split-width-threshold 150
   "Minimum width for splitting windows sensibly.
 If this is an integer, `split-window-sensibly' may split a window
 horizontally only if it has at least this many columns.  If this
 is nil, `split-window-sensibly' is not allowed to split a window
 horizontally."
   :type '(choice (const nil) (integer :tag "columns"))
-  :version "23.1"
+  :version "31.1"
   :group 'windows)
 
 (defun window-splittable-p (window &optional horizontal)