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Thanks everybody for the feedback!
This wasn't exactly a reason for me not to make the purchase as I know it's a preference kind of deal, but it was the only unknown aspect I had going in. I'm glad to hear it's really nothing to worry about.
I have the AD3423DW for nearly 2 years now and the curve still throws me off in games. Even with tweaking FOV, some games will always give me the fish eye effect.
Bought the Alienware one. It's pretty great. I stopped noticing the curve pretty soon, and since I don't do productive work on my gaming machine, it's just used for games and movies/series, so a complete non issue either way. The colours on this thing are great, and stuff on it is just super sharp. Text is super readable when in desktop, though as I said, I'm not using this to do much work there. HDR can be pretty amazing, but for games I set it to the darker DisplayHDR 400 one, since I don't like how the monitor scales up the overall brightness to achieve 1000 nits, in games that's very distracting, as the same content suddenly gets darker when you zoom in and things like that. In films it would probably not be a big issue.
I'm thinking of getting a Chromecast TV and use that for streaming. You pretty much can't make much use of the DolbyVision support on WIndows. No service let's you stream 4K HDR on Windows and game support for DV is all but non-existent
I went with the MSI even while being more expensive here in Europe. But I use it for design work so curved was a no no and I needed a KVM switch because I use it with my mac and my PC. So far it is great and I love it especially for high fps gaming (CoD in 4k with 240fps is really nice).
Nice to see people getting different monitors and enjoying both!
I'd definitely recommend a chromecast or something similar, I use my NVIDIA Shield when I wish to view DV content.
I've got my Alienware DWF but I've been tempted to get one of these monitors to pair alongside it, especially for 16:9 content
remember to set up a screensaver on Windows that shows images of dogs. Ideally with some barking noises playing
I want to buy the MSI monitor but it seems like demand is far outpacing supply right now. Haven't been able to find it anywhere.
I been chasing one for a month. Everytime they go on sale they get snatch right away. There's also some people scalping them which it doesn't make sense as you might as well buy the Alienware that is available instead of buying a scalped MSI
That's strange, afaik it was only a problem before a certain firmware update to fix the EOTF curve of peak 1000 released, where instead of just having the peak brightness higher, it made the image way brighter. After the update, it should be the same overall brightness as the 400 mode, but with higher peak for elements that are brighter. Are you on the latest firmware? Maybe I misunderstood though.
The issue is that OLEDs cannot maintain high Nit levels, like 1000 nits, or even 800 nits, across large parts of the screen. So in games, what happens is that in the 1000 nit HDR options, is that you once you zoom in on something super bright, you can see how it gets suddenly darker as it occupies a larger part of the screen. Or how other parts of the screen get darker once more bright spots appear. It's not about having elevated black levels, it's how the panel simply cannot maintain super high (like 400 nits and above) across the panel.
I personally find the screen plenty bright already, and don't care much about 1000 nit spots that get blindingly bright anyway so it's not a major loss. With a Chromecast with DV support, I wouldn't mind HDR that can make use of the full 1000 nits. I'm sure in non-gaming contents it would be far less noticable, as I said.
I don't have an OLED monitor yet but I feel like hdr 400 mode will be more than sufficient for me. I'm really not a fan of HDR gaming at all because I feel like the entire screen brightness gets raised. I see it on my C7 and on my steam Deck OLED when I try to play in HDR mode. I prefer SDR gaming over HDR gaming by a huge margin for this reason. HDR gaming always seems a bit washed out to me on my screens. Where colors seem to pop more in SDR. But maybe I'm not looking at the right content?
I like HDR for movies, but not for games. I want to be wowed with HDR gaming, but just haven't been.
I like HDR for movies, but not for games. I want to be wowed with HDR gaming, but just haven't been.
Generally SDR ends up oversaturated on such a monitor. HDR would look less vibrant because it's more likely to be displaying the colors correctly in that mode.
Other than that, using Windows HDR calibration tools can help with brightness issues etc.
I guess being in the US there's no real reason to not get the MSI over the Alienware outside of the slight curve which. Does anyone know how the calibration accuracy is for the 321urx model out of the box?
My aw3225qf just arrived today, and I'll be setting it up tomorrow. Going to use it for my gaming PC and PS5. I'm assuming I'll use displayport for my PC and HDMI for the PS5.
Any tips or must-knows for setting it up from any of you who are using it? I'm a fairly "set it and forget it" kind of guy.
Any tips or must-knows for setting it up from any of you who are using it? I'm a fairly "set it and forget it" kind of guy.
Finally pre-ordered the 32.the 27 is nice but man, I want that 1080p mode AND sound.
Got the extra 3 years at LG. Gonna stay with this one for a long time.
I can't believe they didn't put a headphone jack on there. That means with a console, BD player, Apple TV, etc------no sound, unless you have speakers or a reciever or an eARC audio extractor, etc. Incredibly stupid.
Their last 34 ultrawide, the AW3423DWF, has both an amplified headphone jack-----as well as a line-level out.
I had a 32 inch curved Samsung with an 1800R curve and it was great for games and movies. I missed it when I went back to flat displays. (it was a VA panel and it hurt my eyes).
I also think its kind of ridiculous how much youtube reviewers balk at using a curved screen for any kind of productivity. It pretty much affirms to me than many of them only use the monitor for a couple of days or something. Its really not a big deal for web browsing, typing documents, etc. For a video timeline, I actually found it to be immersive, kind of like how it is for gaming and movies. The physical curve can make games and movies almost feel like they have some 3D depth to them.
The Alienware's curve is also subtle enough, that sharing a movie with a friend is no problem------provided you sit close enough. Its when you are trying to hang back and lounge a further distance, that the curve doesn't make sense and actually detracts. You are meant to sit close enough for it to mostly fill your field of view.
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I really don't feel comfortable spending more than £1k on a monitor, but that leaves the Alienware as my only option and I won't risk it with the fan. I had to send back a monitor because of a noisy fan in the past.
My previous monitor had a 3800R curve - far less than anything you can buy today - and I still want flat displays.
I just don't want the curve. It helped with viewing angle on LCDs, but that's not much of a problem for OLED (QD anyway).
I think it's very ugly from an aesthetic point of view - especially since I have a small shelf on my desk that it would sit on.
Shouting around curved screens are not good for any kind of productivity is of course wrong, but as soon as the productivity goes in the direction of professional design work (Photoshop, Indesign and even 3D etc) they are from my experience disqualified immediately. That is the reason why I went with the flat MSI URX.
The curve is always going to be a subjective thing. The 32 inch Alienware one is my first monitor with any kind of curve, and 1700R at 32 inch 16:9 seems like a complete non-issue for my use cases, which are gaming primarily and films and TV streaming secondarily. I would not want to use it for productivity, but mostly because of the 16:9 format. I want 21:9, flat, for actual work. I could probably get used to an ultrawide with a gentle curve for that as well, but at least at 34 inch 21:9 (which I'm currently using for work) I don't see any point to a non-flat design. Perhaps at even bigger sizes, like 38 inch screens, having a gentle curve might actually be an improvement even for productivity.
Been using that monitor for a month now, and the fan is absolutely inaudible to me. I'd say give it a try. I believe Dell has a 30 day return policy, so you aren't standing to lose much more than your time.
Anyone have any luck finding the MSI model in stock anywhere? I've never bought monitors around their release schedule but is it normal for them to be out of stock?
I'm surprised too that are relying on earc, which eats up one of the HDMI 2.1 ports. I crossed the Alienware 32 inch off my list too once I found out it lacked a headphone jack output. That's a much bigger deal than the gentle curve.
Retailmenot has 20% cashback for LG today. Stack with Bing/MS 6%, and Honey/Paypal 7%.
**Rakuten also has 9% for LG today. I've never used it. Don't know if it stacks with the others. I have frequently stacked Bing and Retailmenot. Honey doesn't often have deals for my purchases. But I have tri-stacked them, a couple of times.
Retailmenot also has 8% at Dell today. Stack with Veteran's or Student/Edu coupon 5% (but not both).
**Rakuten also has 9% for LG today. I've never used it. Don't know if it stacks with the others. I have frequently stacked Bing and Retailmenot. Honey doesn't often have deals for my purchases. But I have tri-stacked them, a couple of times.
Retailmenot also has 8% at Dell today. Stack with Veteran's or Student/Edu coupon 5% (but not both).
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Being waiting for the Asus PG32UCDM for a while. I'm out of the loop: is it really on high demand or are there manufacturing issues? Both?
Little bit of A, little bit of B. You have, like 4 different companies using the same panel now. High demand from people who have been waiting for this kind of size in OLED + 4K. I wouldn't be surprised if Dell had priority on panels too since those have seemingly been easily accessible, even if they had delivery dates a little out, from their website pretty much since launch. Of course I could be wrong, I'm not sure how the manufacturing process between the flat and curved panels differs. From everything I've seen though, your best bet for the Asus is by being near a Microcenter.
I consider any monitor launch of the past few years to be a paper launch. Sure some people will get to buy them around launch depending on the country they live in, but it's usually 3-6 months later that stock tends to be readily available.
I know I managed to secure the MSI last night but the more I see from the LG the more I want that one. I know it's not worth the 400 bucks more but it just looks so clean with it's thin bezels and lack of heavy branding on the front. Plus being able to keep my desk clean of speakers with it's pixel sound thing. 😩
I'm damn tempted to get one of the 32 QD-OLEDs but I feel like I'm going to regret not waiting a couple more years for them to get brighter (overall screen, not peak HDR) since I'll use it in a terribly bright room for much of the day. If a 27" was available, I'd probably go for that instead for the pixel density.
I believe that the bigger players like Dell and LG have way better manufacturing/distribution infrastructure over smaller players like MSI, ASUS
I could be entirely wrong on that though
What you want is WOLED. 2024 ones are bright enough for bright rooms. And matte helps.
If you have a very bright room an OLED is a bad choice no matter what.
Any owners of the MSI 321URX? Looks like I secured one and I'm just wondering if there's anything to look out for when setting it up.
The newer WOLED monitors have notably better brightness in SDR. In actual use, its very similar to a mid-range IPS panel. If you have an IPS which can do 500 nits and you use it close to maxed out often, you will notice WOLED lacking some brightness. But, past 400 nits is really bright, especially from a smaller screen like a 27 or 32.
I can't imagine using one over 400 nits, for long periods. I have a 27 inch IPS which Tom's tested to produce like 430 nits or something----and I have it at 43% for gaming, and less for everything else. And I like to have an overhead light on and only have basic, white blinds on the window. I have compared it side-by-side with the 27 inch WOLED from KTC (its a newer refresh panel .May or may not have MLA). And the brightness on the KTC is totally fine. I had to set it more like 70% for gaming. but still, not near maxed. LG refreshed their 27 inch and so did Corsair (and Corsair confirms its MLA and put out a new firmware to maximize brightness).
LG's new 32 is a newer MLA panel, as well.
All of the QD-LED monitors are capped around 250 nits in SDR. There has been virtually no SDR improvement, compared to 1st gen Q-LED monitors from two years ago. And I'm not sure why.
As with any of these new monitors, make sure you are on the latest firmware, if you have a model which supports updates.
I'm planning on building a PC with a 5090 whenever that launches. I'm not knowledgable on DP 2.1, but I'm interested in the LG 32 W-OLED and Asus QD-OLED which lack that specific port. Does it not make a difference or is that port a game changer to HDMI?
No idea where you get your infos but new WOLED Monitors are barely brighter compared to QD-OLED. Neither in HDR or SDR it's a meaningful difference. And even if WOLED happen to be slightly brighter that's just mostly coming from white. When it comes to displaying colours QD-OLED is actually pushing more nits.
SDR
HDR
Colours
Not sure if others are coming anytime soon, but DP2.1 is only going to be beneficial for a very, very small set of people. To understand and compare, HDMI2.1 supports up to a theoretical 48Gb/s bandwidth. Unless if you are trying to run a 4K rez and consistently trying to get >144Hz refresh (and good luck finding a game and a graphics card that can do it), there is no technical advantage you are getting with DP2.1. It's why most manufacturers have not gone above 40Gb/s for DisplayPort.
Things like HDMI support for eArc is way more important for futureproofing if you ask me. If you are plugging in a headphone to your monitor for sound, you should probably reconsider and get a dedicated DAC/amp instead...
From wiki,
