The Best Curved Monitors for More Immersive Visuals

There was a time when curved monitors were little more than curious novelties that were out of most people’s price range. Nowadays, it’s become a legitimate option for many PC users alongside more traditional color-critical displays and gaming monitors, with a wide selection of models currently available at pretty reasonable prices.

The best curved monitors can enhance the overall viewing experience by wrapping the screen around your peripheral vision, allowing you to focus more intently at whatever’s onscreen. For playing games and watching movies, this can lead to heightened immersion. When working on tasks, it can help minimize potential distractions. Either way, it creates very real benefits that most PC users can appreciate.

The best curved monitors come in a variety of sizes. Some take on the same width as traditional monitors, albeit with an inward curved shape. Others take on wider profiles to occupy more of your visual periphery. Some people prefer the latter as they allow for more multitasking possibilities, all while offering greater immersion for gaming, especially now that many newer games support their 21:9 and 32:9 aspect ratio. Of course, ultrawide monitors do tend to be some of the more expensive options in the market, so they’re not exactly a no-brainer option for everyone.

One thing to note about the best curved monitors is they don’t usually offer the same angle adjustments as traditional monitors. While they do offer height and tilt adjustments, swivel and pivot control aren’t really provided for most, since they’re meant to wrap around the user’s head and most models are designed to stay that way. Alternatively, you can mount them on a monitor arm for more versatile placement options if you really must have that.

These are the best curved monitors for a more immersive computing experience.

AOC C32G2ZE Curved Frameless Gaming Monitor

Pros

• Excellent contrast
• High refresh rate
• Very responsive

Cons

• Only 1080p resolution

Screen size: 32 inches
Screen type: VA Freesync
Curvature: 1500R
Specs: 1920 x 1080 resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio, 240Hz refresh rate

AOC is one of our favorite go-to manufacturers for economically-priced monitors that get you excellent value. Naturally, they have one of our favorite curved monitors, too, and it’s one we heartily recommend if you’re on a limited budget. It’s equipped with a 32-inch VA panel that delivers really good colors and contrast, with the latter being especially notable if you’re used to IPS panels. Designed for gaming, it boasts a whopping 240Hz refresh rate and a half millisecond response time, making this easily one of the best low-cost gaming monitors you can get. Do note, you’ll need to use a DisplayPort connection to achieve the full refresh rate (it only has HDMI 2.0), so make sure you have one in your setup. Otherwise, you’d be limited to 120Hz, which still isn’t so bad. The big issue here is the resolution, which tops at 1080p, creating a softer-looking image on the 32-inch screen. It still looks really good, though, although you can also opt for the smaller 27-inch version (which is probably better for 1080p) or a QHD version, although the latter costs around $50 more.

Gigabyte G27QC A

Pros

• Wide color coverage
• Looks brighter than listed specs
• Sharp visuals

Cons

• Ports are placed at the bottom, making them hard to reach

Screen size: 27 inches
Screen type: VA
Curvature: 1500R
Specs: 2560 x 1440 resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio, 165Hz refresh rate

There are plenty of things to love about this curved monitor, from the sharp 1440p resolution and 165Hz refresh rate to the 1ms response time and the HDR support (albeit without official certification). Being a VA panel, it has really good contrast, with very uniform blacks and grays, as well as very fast pixel response, an impressively wide color space (very saturated reds and greens), and a lot more brightness than we expected. We really like the Black Equalizer feature that makes darker scenes look a lot more detailed, as well as the range of adjustments you can make from the outfit’s OSD Sidekick software. We did notice some minor ghosting with some games, which we were able to fix by changing the Overdrive mode, so you’ll have to play around with that, in case you encounter the same issues during your use. We also appreciate the simple, straightforward monitor design, which is free from distracting RGB lights and flashy colors.

Alienware AW3423DWF

Pros

• Excellent image quality
• Great value
• Very low latency

Cons

• No dedicated G-Sync module

Screen size: 34 inches
Screen type: QD-OLED
Curvature: 1800R
Specs: 3440 x 1440 resolution, 21:9 aspect ratio, 165Hz refresh rate

OLED panels are not cheap, even more so when you use them on a curved monitor. That’s why we find this ultrawide OLED monitor to be incredible value at this price range. It creates gorgeous images, with striking contrast, vibrant colors (it covers 99.3 percent of DCI-P3), and up to 1,000 nits of brightness, which produces seriously vivid and punchy highlights. Creatives get the option for dedicated sRGB and DCI-P3 color modes, so they can lock the display to whichever color gamut they need for their projects. Gamers, on the other hand, will love the near-instant pixel response speed, the seemingly nonexistent input lag (0.3 ms), and the FreeSync Premium Pro certification, which enables super smooth variable refresh rate across all games. There’s quite a number of useful gaming features, too, like the Dark Stabilizer (for better visibility in dark scenes), a console mode (if you decide to use a monitor instead of a TV for console gaming), picture presets, crosshair overlays, picture in picture, picture by picture, and more.

LG 45GR65DC-B Ultragear Curved Gaming Monitor

Pros

• Very good contrast
• Wide color coverage
• Incredibly immersive for gaming

Cons

• HDR not as bright as we expected

Screen size: 45 inches
Screen type: VA LCD
Curvature: 1500R
Specs: 5129 x 1440 resolution, 32:9 aspect ratio, 200Hz refresh rate

While we prefer 21:9 ultrawide panels, some people want the more extreme 32:9 aspect ratio and that’s exactly what LG offers with this curved monitor. This display is, basically, equivalent to two 24.5-inch 1440p screens side by side, so you can use it as a dual-monitor setup using picture by picture for normal productivity tasks. For gaming, the 32:9 aspect ratio delivers an entirely new perspective for supported games, since you get a lot more things going on in your visual periphery. Paired with a 200Hz refresh rate, a 1ms response time, and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro certification, this is an incredible PC gaming display. We also loved the 400 nits of brightness, which is plenty bright for most tasks, as well as the HDR support that even boosts peak brightness to 600 nits. It does lack full-array local dimming, though, so the HDR brightness doesn’t quite pop as much as we’d hoped. This monitor also has HDMI 2.1, so you can get the max refresh rate whether connecting via HDMI or DisplayPort.

MSI MPG 341CQPX

Pros

• Beautiful visuals
• Excellent HDR performance
• Accurate factory calibration for color space presets

Cons

• Glossy screen surface

Screen size: 34 inches
Screen type: QD-OLED
Curvature: 1800R
Specs: 3440 x 1440 resolution, 21:9 aspect ratio, 240Hz refresh rate

Built on Samsung’s QD-OLED panel, this curved monitor delivers wide color coverage, impressive brightness, and dramatic contrast. The subtle 1800R curvature does boost immersion for gaming and movies, all while keeping the monitor plenty usable for all sorts of productivity tasks. We love the factory calibration for the colors, by the way, with the dedicated color presets for sRGB, DCI-P3 and Adobe RGB color space looking absolutely flawless. Suffice to say, this is a monitor that’s very suited for color-critical work. What’s not as accurate are the color presets for different gaming genres, with the images just not looking good. We recommend not touching those and just going with the default. This monitor also boasts DisplayHDR 400 True Black certification for HDR viewing and CLEARMR 13000 for clear pixel performance, ensuring it delivers the goods for various entertainment pursuits. Gamers will also appreciate the 240Hz refresh rate, the instantaneous pixel response, and the 0.03ms input lag, which just makes your game visuals look absolutely seamless.

Asus ROG Swift 34-Inch PG34WCDM

Pros

• Stunning visuals
• Deeply immersive curvature
• High peak brightness

Cons

• Curvature might not be ideal for productivity tasks

Screen size: 34 inches
Screen type: OLED
Curvature: 800R
Specs: 3440 x 1440 resolution, 21:9 aspect ratio, 240Hz refresh rate

If you prefer a more pronounced 800R curve, then you’ll probably love this curved monitor built on LG’s W-OLED panel. If you’ve been following the developments in OLED, then you probably know that the latest W-OLED represents a boost in brightness, which is why this monitor has a listed peak brightness of 1,300 nits. This leads to downright outstanding and immersive visuals, especially when combined with OLED’s excellent contrast, the wide color coverage, and the very extreme curvature. Do note, we still found the Alienware model above brighter, especially in color-heavy scenes, so it’s probably not quite as bright as the high rating might suggest. We also found the extreme curve a bit distracting in some productivity tasks, especially since it can distort text somewhat. Suffice to say, it takes some getting used to. For gaming, though, it’s the kind of display that really pulls you in, especially with the 240Hz refresh rate (with LFC support) and 0.3ms response time. We also appreciate the HDMI 2.1 and the USB-C charging port with 90W power delivery.