ASUS Designo Curve MX34VQ Incoming: 34″ Ultrawide Curved Display with Qi Charging

ASUS has started to ship its Designo Curve MX34VQ display that was originally announced in mid-2016. At present, a number of retailers are offering pre-orders on the monitor, starting that it is “coming soon.” The monitor is based around a UWQHD-class panel and is equipped with a wireless Qi charging device as well as an audio sub-system co-developed with Harman Kardon. In addition, the display has a 100 Hz refresh rate, a feature that should appeal to gamers.

The ASUS Designo Curve MX34VQ has a number of similarities with another ultrawide curved display with a Qi charger, the MX38VQ, which was introduced earlier this year. The two monitors share many design elements, such as ultra-thin bezels, a Harman Kardon-developed audio sub-system consisting of two 8 W speakers, a curved stand made of metal and plastic, and a Qi charger with acrylic elements and blue lighting. Where the two displays differ is in their panels, curvature and other specifications.

The ASUS Designo Curve MX34VQ is based on a 34” VA panel with a 3440×1440 resolution (2.39:1 aspect ratio), offering a maximum brightness of 300 nits, a 3000:1 contrast ratio, a 100 Hz refresh rate, 178°/178° viewing angles, a 4 ms response time, and 1800R curvature. The panel can reproduce 16.7 million colors and appears to be a pretty typical sRGB gamut design. As for connectivity, the Designo Curve MX34VQ monitor has three HDMI 2.0 ports, a DisplayPort 1.2 port (PiP and PBP functions are supported), and a 3.5-mm audio jack.

The ASUS Designo Curve MX34VQ can be pre-ordered from Amazon and B&H for $799, which seems to be its official price. If that does end up being the official price then it’ll be a bit lower than I had initially expected, given the stylish design and rather decent specifications. For comparison, similar curved ultrawide monitors without Qi support have tended to retail for $899 and higher. In any case, the exact availability date is unknown, but with pre-orders opening up it’s reasonable to assume that the MX34VQ will finally hit the shelves in the coming weeks.

Gallery: ASUS Designo Curve MX34VQ

Related Reading:

• ASUS Announces Designo Curve MX38VQ: 37.5 Inch Curved Display with Qi Charging
• Acer Launches Curved XR382CQK Display: 37.5-inch, 3840×1600, FreeSync, & USB-C
• NEC Goes for a Curved Display, Launches 3440×1440 MultiSync EX341R Monitors
• ASUS Demonstrates ROG Swift PG27UQ: 4K, 144 Hz, HDR, DCI-P3 and G-Sync

NEC Goes for a Curved Display, Launches 3440×1440 MultiSync EX341R Monitors

This week NEC has announced its first curved ultrawide display, the EX341R. NEC is promoting the panel for offices, control rooms, trading rooms, and other applications that typically use multi-monitor configurations but also appreciate color accuracy. The screen has a number of differences when compared to displays for gamers, and the price of the new MultiSync EX341R will be reflected in this.

In the recent years, NEC concentrated on displays for commercial and professional use, whereas its consumer monitor lineup slowly stepped into the background. The majority of curved ultrawide displays nowadays are designed with gamers in mind, which is why manufacturers tend to incorporate very high refresh rates along with dynamic refresh rate technologies and gaming specific features or aesthetics. Nonetheless, ultrawide displays may make sense to replace those used to multi-monitor environments, and this is a reason why Dell introduced its business-oriented curved ultrawide screens last year. NEC now also sees demand for monitors with a 21:9 aspect ratio from its customers, which is why the company announced its new MultiSync EX341R-BK and EX341R-SV-BK products this week.

The NEC MultiSync EX341R-series displays are based on SVA panels (presumably made by Samsung) with a 3440×1440 resolution, a 1000:1 contrast ratio, 290 nits brightness, 178°/178° viewing angles, 5 ms response time and a 60 Hz refresh rate. It also targets customers that need various degrees of color accuracy (NEC markets the panels as supporting 99.5% sRGB) and therefore bundles the Spyder5 color calibration sensor and the SpectraView II software with the EX341R-SV-BK monitor.

As for connectivity, the NEC MultiSync EX341R has one DisplayPort 1.2 with MST support as well as two HDMI headers (one 1.4 and one 2.0). The monitor fully supports NEC’s control Sync technology that allows controlling the settings of up to 25 displays in a multi-monitor setup using controls of only one of them. Additionally, the display supports PBP and PiP features when connected to two computers. Finally, it has a quad-port USB 3.0 hub with two USB Type-B upstream ports (to connect to two different PCs).

The NEC MultiSync EX341R-BK and EX341R-SV-BK displays will be available in February at an MSRP of $999 and $1,149 respectively.

Gallery: NEC Multisync EX341R-BK and EX341R-SV-BK Displays

Related Reading:

• Dell Unveils UltraSharp U3417W: Makes Its Curved Display More Curved
• Acer Launches Curved XR382CQK Display: 37.5-inch, 3840×1600, FreeSync, & USB-C
• AOC Announces the AGON AG352UCG 21:9 Curved Display: 35″, 3440×1440, 100Hz with G-Sync
• Philips BDM4037UW Goes on Sale: 40 Inch 4K Curved Display for $800

Acer Launches Curved XR382CQK Display: 37.5-inch, 3840×1600, FreeSync, & USB-C

Acer has announced its new ultra-wide curved display for gaming and multimedia applications. The monitor boasts with a rare combination of features, such as a curved panel, 2.4:1 aspect ratio, a USB-C input, as well as multiple features for gamers, including a 75 Hz refresh rate, variable refresh via AMD’s FreeSync, and ambient lighting. The new display is about to hit the market, but with a rather high price tag due to its distinctive mixture of capabilities.

The Acer XR382CQK is based on a 37.5” IPS panel with a 3840×1600 resolution, a 24:10 aspect ratio and 2300R curvature (see the table below for other specs). The distinctive specifications may indicate that the supplier of the panel is LG Display, and we already know two monitors which feature the same screen (1, 2). As reported, the resolution and the aspect ratio of the display are well suited for displaying HD and UHD content filmed in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 or 2.40:1 (a lot of movies are shot in such aspect ratios) as well as for games. Meanwhile the 8-bit + FRC panel allows the reproduction of 1.07 billion colors, and covers 100% of the sRGB color space.

Given the positioning of the monitor, Acer added several features to its XR382CQK that are not available from competitors, including a 75 Hz refresh rate (I suspect the panel is probably overclocked, but not significantly and Acer guarantees that it is going to work fine) as well as RGB ambient lighting that can be adjusted from the OSD (lighting effects include pulse, flash and ripple). In addition, the monitor is equipped with two 7 W speakers with DTS Sound software enhancement.  

As for connectivity, the Acer XR382CQK has HDMI, DP, mDP and MHL inputs, a rare combination not found on many other devices. Moreover, the new display is also the first gaming monitor that comes with a USB Type-C input and therefore is compatible with various notebooks that have this interface and can use it to connect to external screens. Technically, DisplayPort alt mode on USB-C supports Adaptive-Sync (and hence FreeSync) and therefore the XR382CQK is the industry’s first monitor that may supports FreeSync over USB-C. However, we are not sure there are notebooks with AMD APUs or GPUs that have USB-C as their only display output (and there are no graphics cards with USB-C outputs). In any case, the USB-C input support is a nice feature for the future. In addition, the monitor has a headphone output, which is especially useful for gamers.

Update 2/14: As of now, Acer does not activate Adaptive-Sync/FreeSync through the Type-C port because at the moment it is impossible to verify that everything works correctly. Acer says that in the future, if AMD can support Adaptive-Sync/FreeSync through the USB Type-C port, it can use firmware to activate it on its existing models.

The Acer XR382CQK is about to hit the shelves of U.S. retailers with a price tag of $1,299.99. Amazon.com already lists the monitor and is even taking pre-orders, but the product is not in stock just yet.

Gallery: Acer Launches Curved XR382CQK Display: 37.5”, 3840×1600, FreeSync and USB-C

Related Reading:

• ASUS Announces Designo Curve MX38VQ: 37.5 Inch Curved Display with Qi Charging
• LG 38UC99 Announced: 37.5-Inch Curved 21:9 Display with 3840×1600 Resolution
• AOC Announces the AGON AG352UCG 21:9 Curved Display: 35″, 3440×1440, 100Hz with G-Sync
• Acer Introduces A Pair Of Predator Gaming Displays
• Acer Announces The Acer Predator 21 X: 21-Inch Curved Screen Gaming Notebook