Curved Ultrawide vs Flat Ultrawide - Opinions wanted please

[Euphoria]

Hey everyone, I've been in the market for a 3440x1440 ultrawide monitor for a few months now, gaming would be the primary use.

My budget isn't huge so the prices have held me back so far as the cheapest curved display I can find (excluding the Korean panels on eBay) is around £600 and that was a basic model: 60Hz, VA panel, no speakers or G-Sync and a fair cheap/budget brand.

However, today I found a Flat Samsung 34" 3440x1440 monitor on Amazon for just £290! I read the description about 20 times, literally spent 90 minutes researching it thinking it was a typo or mistake. Of course, for that price it's very basic - no G-Sync, no high refresh rate, no speakers, and of course no curve - but at half the price of the cheapest curved display and Samsung brand, is curved really that amazing?

 

My question: to anyone that has used/owned a curved and flat ultrawide monitor, what is your opinion on the curve - is curved worth the extra price, is it hugely more immersive or just a little bit or none at all, was a flat panel hard to see in your peripheral vision, pros, cons... what is your opinion?? I would really appreciate any feedback from people that have used both types.

Edited October 22, 2018 by Euphoria
To add context

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

Not worth it for a 16:9, but at 21:9 it's really weird to have a 21:9 flat panel so I'd say yes

[Fasauceome]

All monitors are overpriced in my opinion. A 1080p monitor that's decent for gaming costs $100 in most cases, making buying them only worth it on sale in my opinion. I got myself a 21:9 monitor for $175, and it's pretty small, it better last me a long time.

[Lathlaer]

You are making the assumption that the price increase is solely due to panel curvature but this can be a result of numerous factors.

 

First of all - brand recognition, second - panel type (IPS/TN/VA), third - refresh rate, fourth - variable refresh rate tech (Freesync/G-Sync), fifth - build and panel quality

 

So, to answer your question (as someone who has a curved monitor) - no, curved isn't worth THAT much (though it looks really nice) but my monitor also has 120Hz refresh rate, IPS panel with good color reproduction and G-Sync which in turn are worth to me the extra price.

 

The thing is, it's hard to find a 34-35" panel 3440x1440 panel with all those qualities that isn't curved (and made by the same manufacturer which is kinda important though impractical to compare) so I have no way of knowing how much I am paying for the curvature alone.

 

 

[Euphoria]

3 hours ago, Lathlaer said:

You are making the assumption that the price increase is solely due to panel curvature but this can be a result of numerous factors.

-Snip-

 

 

OK, that's a fair point I should have made it a little clearer, I just didn't want to waffle on and turn the post into a wall of text. I'll edit my post to reflect that and word it better.

 

To add a little info: the cheapest curved monitor I can find is the same panel type, same refresh, same adaptive framerate tech, same response times, almost exactly the same... except the curved monitor is a cheap'o brand and the non-curved sub £300 monitor is Samsung, work that out haha. I read the description maybe 20 times thinking it was a mistake and must be 2560x1080, but nope, it's just a promo offer for a month.

 

If I may ask you specifically, in your opinion how much do you think the curve impacts your gaming experience? Is it a nice feature to have but nothing amazing or a huge improvement to games?

[Lathlaer]

11 minutes ago, Euphoria said:

If I may ask you specifically, in your opinion how much do you think the curve impacts your gaming experience? Is it a nice feature to have but nothing amazing or a huge improvement to games?

I don't feel like it impacts my experience that much because I don't sit too close to my monitor. I can't say for sure since I've never gamed on a flat ultrawide but I have mine mounted on the wall and I don't really need it to be curved in order to enhance my peripheral vision. It helps a bit but not by a large margin.

 

For someone who sits, say, 10-15 cm closer than me it might be more beneficial and noticable. 

Here is a reference pic to judge the distance:

 

 

 

[Euphoria]

1 hour ago, Lathlaer said:

I don't feel like it impacts my experience that much because I don't sit too close to my monitor. I can't say for sure since I've never gamed on a flat ultrawide but I have mine mounted on the wall and I don't really need it to be curved in order to enhance my peripheral vision. It helps a bit but not by a large margin.

 

For someone who sits, say, 10-15 cm closer than me it might be more beneficial and noticable. 

Here is a reference pic to judge the distance:

 

1

Thank you, Lathlaer, that actually really does help me.

 

I've been doing some more reading up on ultrawide displays and came across something I hadn't actually considered, games that support that aspect ratio. Many people report that very few games have 21:9 support and even fewer have good implementation of it, many games I play in fact have very poor or no ultrawide support. Damn, I can't believe I didn't think of that.

 

How do you find the 21:9 support personally?

 

P.S. Very nice battle station you have there, clean and classy, I like it.

[Lathlaer]

2 hours ago, Euphoria said:

How do you find the 21:9 support personally?

I don't play many games but so far everything I have played since acquiring the monitor have either supported ultrawide out of the box or required a simple mod to do so. So no problem there.

 

I think people are exaggerating - it's usually someone who heard or read somewhere something about ultrawide not being supported so they keep parroting the misinformation even though they mostly don't own it.

 

Check this out, I doubt anyone has done more research towards ultrawide support than this guy:

 

 

Of course the more indie and obscure game you play the greater chance of it not supporting ultrawide format but if you play AAA or AAA-ish games, chances are there is an out of the box support or easy fix available.