21:9 V. 16:9 Curved: Thoughts?

[ThatsAgood1jay]

Today, I worked remotely from home and was able to use my Wifes recently purchased LG 34UC88 21:9 curved monitor. It's my first experience using an ultra-wide, and first time using a curved.

I have been in the market to upgrade my main desktops display from a samsung S32D850 (WQHD model) to something more gamer focused with at least 120+hz refresh and FreeSync. In looking at what's out there, it seems that there are both 16:9 and 21:9 ratio monitors (the former obviously not being ultrawide, but with the same resolution as my Samsung)

I was wondering if anyone had used both a 21:9 and a 16:9 curved screen and could enlighten me as to the differences between them? The things I notice immediately at the 16:9's seem to be less expensive, and there are more options.

thanks!

 

[bigbluefe]

My general rule of thumb is that it's better to stick with standards. Companies can barely support the normal let alone the abnormal.

 

[kasakka]

16:9 would need to be pretty large for the curved aspect to become useful, I'd say 36 inches or bigger. I like curved for ultrawides because it brings the sides better to my view.

 

[Canon]

Really, some of this is up to personal opinion, but I'll share my experience.

I used a Samsung 275T 27" 1920x1200 display for ~10 years. I upgraded to an Asus PG348q 34" Ultrawide (3440x1440).

For gaming here are my observations:
1. Some games lack ultra wide support, even some new games. Sometimes you can make it work with a config edit, sometimes not. It's not every game by any means, but enough that it is anoying. Recently World War Z does not support ultra wide.
2. In games that do support Ultrawide, I noticed weird (FOV Scaling?) issues where the ediges of the screen have a noticeable stretch to them. Yes, the resolution in the game was set correctly...
3. Immersion was pretty cool, but honestly in some shooters, I find it hard to pay attention to what is going on because I literally have to move my head to see the whole screen. For racing games like Forza Horizon 4, it is a really cool effect though.

For productivity:
1. It is super cool being able to easily work on two windows side by side, or even squeeze in a 3rd.
2. I found I needed to enable font scaling to 125% for comfortably readable fonts.

I ended up upgrading my primary display to an Asus PG27UQ 27" 4K (3840x2160). I strongly prefer the higher game compatibility, and I am preferring it so far. I moved the ultrawide to my secondary display and in that role, it is insanely useful to have such a vast wide work space to have various things open while I am gaming. I LOVE it.

1. For the PG27UQ, I found the reccomended font scaling of 150% to work surprisingly well so far. Fonts are nice and sharp and an appropriate size for reading.



TL;DR (IMHO)
1. If you want this for productivity, get a nice ultra wide, you will likely be happy.
2. For gaming, strongly consider game compatibility, it is still an issue, in some games ultra wide is pretty cool.
3. If this post was specifically asking about curved screens (that isn't too clear to me), then IMHO on the 16:9 27" monitor, there is no need for a curve, nor would I want it. On the 34" ultra wide, I would say it greatly enhances the experience just because it is so wide...

 

[ThatsAgood1jay]

Really, some of this is up to personal opinion, but I'll share my experience.


TL;DR (IMHO)
1. If you want this for productivity, get a nice ultra wide, you will likely be happy.
2. For gaming, strongly consider game compatibility, it is still an issue, in some games ultra wide is pretty cool.
3. If this post was specifically asking about curved screens (that isn't too clear to me), then IMHO on the 16:9 27" monitor, there is no need for a curve, nor would I want it. On the 34" ultra wide, I would say it greatly enhances the experience just because it is so wide...

Thanks for the feedback. I am specifically asking about curved screens. I had not considered the issue of games not supporting ultra wide. That is certainly a major factor in the decision.