Curved Screen vs Flat Panel for Gaming
In theory, a curved gaming monitor offers a more immersive gaming experience – literally wrapping around you to immerse you in a different world. They can fill your peripheral vision and make you feel like you’re really in the game. In practice, there are a number of tradeoffs and things you’ll want to consider before buying a curved gaming monitor over a flat panel like this. In this video I want to talk you through the different factors – so let’s jump straight in.
The biggest difference between flat and curved screens all has to do with what types of panels they can use. A flat screen can use any type of panel – that being IPS, VA, TN, Quantum Dot, or OLED. Curved panels don’t have that luxury, as not all panel types are suitable for literally bending into the desired curve. Generally speaking, curved monitors make use of a VA, or vertical alignment, panel. While I won’t go into too much detail in this video – in fact there should be a video in the cards above explaining more if you’re interested – the long and short of it is that VA panels are remarkably slow most of the time. It takes them ages to change colours – regardless of the refresh rate – which means you get blurry, smeared visuals on screen, especially when there is fast motion. For gaming, that’s normally a pretty bad thing as it makes it harder for you to see what’s going on, and especially for shooters it makes it a lot harder to hit your targets.
There are some upsides to VA panels, like their excellent contrast ratios – basically how dark they can get versus how bright they can get. A VA panel doesn’t let functionally any light bleed through when it’s meant to be displaying black, whereas an IPS panel – that’s in-plane switching – looks more grey when it’s meant to be black. That means the VA looks more true to life, and has a lot more depth to what it shows. That’s great for movies, but for gaming it’s more of a hindrance.
There are a few curved IPS panels, and the most notable exception is the recent collection of curved OLEDs – including the one I now use full time, the Philips EVNIA 8600. Curved OLEDs change the usage experience completely. They are of course pretty expensive right now, and while I’m clearly biassed, I really think it’s worth it. OLEDs combine basically all the best parts of standard LCD panels – infinite blacks as the pixels can turn themselves off fully, instant response times making for a perfectly clear and crisp image even with fast motion, and the new spat are even high refresh rate – my EVNIA is 175Hz! Combine that with the subtle curve and you have what I think is the best gaming experience you can get right now.
One big factor I haven’t mentioned though is the aspect ratio of the display. A lot of curved monitors – in fact I’d guess the majority of curved monitors sold today – are the standard widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio. You know, 1920×1080, 2560×1440, 3840×2160. Regular old widescreen. The problem here is that “widescreen” isn’t actually that wide. It’s only really wide compared to the old 4:3 square screens, so adding a curve to that really isn’t noticeable. It’s not much if any more immersive, and generally it forces you into using a worse panel type for gaming. By contrast, an ultrawide, a 21:9 monitor has more use for a curve. A 34 inch ultrawide already spans a lot of your vision, so having that wrap around you helps suck you into your game.
Of course, it depends how tight of a curve the monitor has. Most monitors I’ve tested have anywhere between a 1500R and 1800R curve, with only the most extreme featuring a 1000R curve. The number there is the millimetres, and the R is telling you that’s a radius. So a 1500R curved monitor is curved to match a circle with a 1500mm – or 1.5m – radius. The smaller the number, the tighter the circle, and therefore the more of a curve you’ll get. 1000R, especially on an ultrawide or a super ultrawide is frankly insane. It genuinely wraps around you making it remarkably immersive. Those monitors tend to be pretty pricey though. 1500R and 1800R are generally more common, with my EVNIA being an 1800R monitor. It’s a much more subtle curve, but personally I prefer that. It’s easier to fit other monitors around a less tight curve, which is more important to me than a little extra immersion.
Your personal preferences will naturally dictate how you feel about these various options, but for what it’s worth, my experience with 16:9 curved monitors has been pretty lacklustre. I don’t find them any more immersive than flat panels, despite testing countless different options over the decade or so I’ve been reviewing tech, so I can’t say I generally recommend them especially if there’s a flat panel option with a better panel type at the same sort of price. When it comes to ultrawides, especially the new crop of OLED panels, adding a curve is definitely worth it. It looks great, feels more immersive and is an all round great experience to game on. Long story short, 16:9 curved? No. 21:9 or 32:9 curved? Yes.
