Are Curved Displays A Fad?

[HungryHamster]

Hey everyone,

 

I wanted to know what your thoughts are on curved displays. Do you think they are a fad that will die out and look tacky in a few years or are they here to stay? Last time I was buying a monitor, 3D was the big thing and that sure didn't seem to last long. This time around I am noticing brands adding a greater curve to their monitors. Particularly, the Acer Predator X34p will have much greater curvature compared to the X34 (1900r vs 3800r). What do you all think?

 

Thanks.

[GDRRiley]

no they are not. there are specific sizes that make sense.

[MegaDave91]

Gimmick you mean? A curved monitor is actually beneficial given the distance most sit from them.

[WereCat]

For game/media consumption? Definitely not a fad.

For work? Depends on what you do really.

[Enderman]

Hm, idk about you, but I'm a human and my two eyes see a hemispherical projection of my surroundings, not a flat rectangle

[Glenwing]

3 hours ago, HungryHamster said:

Hey everyone,

 

I wanted to know what your thoughts are on curved displays. Do you think they are a fad that will die out and look tacky in a few years or are they here to stay? Last time I was buying a monitor, 3D was the big thing and that sure didn't seem to last long. This time around I am noticing brands adding a greater curve to their monitors. Particularly, the Acer Predator X34p will have much greater curvature compared to the X34 (1900r vs 3800r). What do you all think?

 

Thanks.

My prediction is yes, and that it will go out of style in a few years. It is a somewhat situational feature, and depending on where the display is located and what it's used for, curvature may not be desirable. Since it is a "niche" feature by its nature, it will be very difficult for it to become the norm, companies will get tired of having to choose to alienate some customers every time (by choosing to make a display curved or not, and alienating the opposite market), or else double their product lineup by making a curved and non-curved version of everything, and it will start to die down as companies tend towards favoring the more versatile design.

 

Not many people have experience with curved displays. Although you'll see lots of people saying how great it is (because it is a fad, and so everyone thinks it's the greatest thing ever), a lot of people have never used one extensively and are just using their imaginations to predict whether they think it will be great or not, which means you will hear lots of "logical arguments" like things about it being natural for humans, being equidistant from the eyes, or whatever... But as always, theorycrafting is no replacement for experience. I would point out that the aspect ratio of human vision is roughly 4:3, but I don't hear the same people arguing for the return of square displays, despite them being "more natural". Turns out that doesn't mean it's better. Just the opposite in fact, wider displays seem to be better for a lot of uses.

 

If you want some anti-theorycrafting-theorycrafting, with a wide field of view (see triple monitors for extreme examples) the image begins to stretch at the sides. This is because games assume monitors are flat, and at wide angles they will stretch the image to compensate for lack of curvature. If you have an actual curved display, the games don't know this and will still curve the image to compensate. Thus it will just end up overcompensating and look unnatural and weird. See? I can do it too  you can theorycraft any direction you want.