Solved Your experience with curved monitors

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What is your actual experience with curved monitors? Dizziness, distortions, minimum distance... inconveniences? pros?
I'm thinking of buying a 27" 16:9 1500R VA, mainly for gaming and media.
 
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I recently purchased a 32" flat monitor, and I regret doing so. I have to move my head laterally to comfortably view the left and right extremes of the screen.

Only some of us can learn by other people's mistakes. The rest of us have to be the other people. Should have got a curved one...
 
Love 'em. I have a Gigabyte G27FC curved monitor at home, and flat HP Z monitors at work... To me, there's no real difference. When the monitors are brand-new, the only real difference (to me, at least) is the vanity from the 'cool factor' of having a curved monitor. It helps to have a quality monitor, true, but curved or flat - that makes no real functional difference to me.
 
sidetone said:
Never had one.

arstechnica.com

The flat-out truth on curved TVs

Many companies showed curved TVs at CES. Gimmick or valid innovation?
arstechnica.com arstechnica.com
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Without a doubt the last two paragraphs are devastating.

I'm very skeptical about cutting-edge technologies. I could see the image aberrations on early large curved TVs, the reflections of light (it's a magnet), and the need for an ideal viewing point.

In this case it's a desktop gaming monitor and I wanted to know first-hand the drawbacks.
Since it's a gift, I'm precisely looking for the "Wow!! effect", even if it's a month-long feeling.
 
Well different strokes for different folks applies here. I have curved monitor at work, 24'', and I absolutely hate it. At home I have 27'' and 24'' classic (non-curved) screens.

I do have curved 62'' TV, there I don't mind the curve. Maybe because I'm not so close to it.
 
_martin said:
Well different strokes for different folks applies here. I have curved monitor at work, 24'', and I absolutely hate it. At home I have 27'' and 24'' classic (non-curved) screens.

I do have curved 62'' TV, there I don't mind the curve. Maybe because I'm not so close to it.
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😭 Any logical reason related to the work you do?

With this... The monitor will end up being a basket of fruit behind a screen.

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CuatroTorres said:
😭 Any logical reason related to the work you do?
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Not really. These do get updated every 4 years or so. They were remodeling offices after covid, I guess they went with this hipster thing.
But then old habits die hard. I was always 2-monitor guy. With 27'' (left-right) splitting screen is an option (I'm heavy iTerm2 user). But I still like to move "stuff" to the other display. Or if I'm testing something on the other computer(s) I connect to it using synergy and mimick the 2nd screen option.

I had sore eyes when I did split screen on that curved monitor. My eyes were focusing too much on the edges, they were too close. I don't know if that explanation makes sense, it's very subjective feeling.

CuatroTorres said:
With this... The monitor will end up being a basket of fruit behind a screen.
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:)

Recently I updated my old imac (2012) to 2020 one. It would be one long beer session me complaining about many apple things :) but one thing is true: that monitor (5k retina) is beautiful. I keep starring at my iTerm2 session looking at the fonts and keep smiling.

The best thing for you would be to test that curved monitor. Ideally in a shop. The worst case scenario - order one, and return it if you are not happy with it.
 
I've been using the slightly curved LG "34CB88-B" for ~4.5 years. The distance between the monitor and my eyes is ~73cm, and the width of the monitor is 80cm; The corresponding angle you've got to look at is what's IMO relevant when it comes to curved or flat.

In my case: 32" - below it doesn't make sense to me, upwards I don't want to miss it. In the first few hours I saw everything a little distorted (as a tiler you have a good eye for absolutely straight lines), but that soon changed: All lines are flat again.

And for my distance I would say a monitor width of 92cm is a maximum. Curved or not: You don't want to turn your head to see what's in the corner. But back to 4:3 instead of [16-21]:9 would be great… (And: A single large monitor is less stressful and more flexible than the cool & trendy setup with two smaller monitors.)
 
I just got back from the store. There aren't many units in the lineup for curved monitors. I haven't tried it but the difference in image was evident next to a flat one, something I had read in the reviews.
The variation in color and brightness is notable, you can see how the VA technology compared to ISP is inferior, at least the monitors that I have seen.
The doubt is served.

The corresponding angle you've got to look at is what's IMO relevant when it comes to curved or flat.
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By the way, these types of monitors are 1500R, I think the tightest curve (radius).
 
My opinions only:
Curved monitors function much like a lens in a camera. Lenses have a focal length, so I can see a curved monitor being picky about exactly where your eyes are in relation to the the focal point. If you're too far forward or back it could affect how sharp things look to you, same with vertical positioning.
If you spend a lot of time at a computer, get the best keyboard (for you), the best monitor (for you) and the best chair (for you). And get up and walk around for at least 15 mins every couple of hours.
 
Local friend uses ultrawide curved exclusively. I had a good look, but decided to go flat with my current monitor.
 
I have a small mat monitor. It is important that does not blend.

Flat, not curved. The question arises perhaps for big monitors, but as I said,
I want a small one to avoid to be blended.

Unfortunately not square like the old ones. I work with text, more vertical size is important for me.
 
CuatroTorres said:
Without a doubt the last two paragraphs are devastating.
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Well, that's about TVs. People sit much further away from TVs than they do monitors, on average.

I have a curved monitor at work, and a flat 32" at home. The only thing I noticed about the curved one is how small text is in the default setting. Too small for my aging eyes. After that one tweak, I really do not notice the difference, but I only use the curved one once a week.
 
Using a mildly curved 49" Ultra-Wide Screen (32:9, 5120*1440) here, this is the same as having two 27" 2580*1440 screen right next to each other. Extremely happy with this screen, I am not noticing any colour, contrast or brightness variations anywhere on the screen. Only drawbacks I noticed: some very few applications do not handle ultra-wide resolutions very well.
 
I'm a little on the fence with regards to curved monitors or TVs. Have a 55" TV, flat as a pancake. Love it. As for monitors, currently have a flat 2K 27" but have been ogling for something bigger. I think 27" is too small to really benefit from a curve. On a 49" ultra-wide on the other hand, the curve appears to be quite useful.

Bigger issue with these fancy, high refresh rate "gaming" monitors seems to be just simple text. Apparently letters are often quite fuzzy, not what you want to be staring at for several hours a day. Looks great in games, and I like gaming, but have to do some actual work on my computer too.
 
The monitor is pending delivery. I won't be able to put any feeling on the device for another month, the gift.
Thanks for the feedback.
 
I have a Samsung Ultra-Wide, which has been a vast improvement over my previous two 27" screens, including text display. For office work, I love to expand spreadsheets over the Ultra-Wide screen. Much easier than a two-screen setup. Test and return if you are not happy.
 
SirDice I think size and use are the important parameters relating to curved screens.
If one is writing code sharpness of letters is very important and may be very different from games (where everything is moving so there aren't really static sharp edges).
 
As long as you have a decent working graphics driver, you can adjust the resolution on just about any screen, and adjust the size of the font you use to your preferences.
 
mer said:
I think size and use are the important parameters relating to curved screens.
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Distance too. Like you said, it's like a lens. If it's big and wide enough, and you are close enough, it'll fill your field of view. That viewing plane will be at the same distance if it's curved the right way.
 
I had used a curved monitor for one year, and I am not missing it.
The curvature is good only if you are sitting at or near the focusing point.
But I prefer to have some distance to the screens, 2-3 times the screen width, and this apparently is too distant for curved monitors.

SirDice said:
Bigger issue with these fancy, high refresh rate "gaming" monitors seems to be just simple text. Apparently letters are often quite fuzzy, not what you want to be staring at for several hours a day. Looks great in games, and I like gaming, but have to do some actual work on my computer too.
Click to expand...

But, this is the main reason why I do not miss the curved monitor. Well, that one was gamer/consumer grade (Samsung) monitor, and it was distinctly worse than its non-curved equivalent from the same manufacturer, which didn't show these distortions.
I could imagine that, for example, Eizo would use better panels, not the cheapest consumer grade-ones with their monitors.
 
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