27”+ 2k+ curved?

My first advice would be to avoid using the term “2K” to describe the QHD resolution as it massively undersells it. Your S24F350FH was more accurately 2K! I know the manufacturer and how the monitor was listed didn’t help. 😉

But in seriousness, I have no specific curved recommendations in this segment as I haven’t reviewed or used models of this sort for a while. I don’t personally find the curve advantageous for work on a 27″ screen at all, though I don’t find a 1800R curve problematic in that respect either. The viewing comfort benefits are easier to argue for larger screens (32″+ and definitely ultrawides), but it depends on your viewing distance as well. Because you’re using it primarily for work, you can be less fussy about elements some of the cheaper models might get wrong such as pixel response time tuning. Though even there it can help to have respectable results there. VA models also tend to have slightly grainier or generally more noticeable screen surfaces in this segment compared to their IPS counterparts and will have inferior pixel responsiveness and colour performance. So perhaps reconsider flat IPS models such as those those I recommend instead.

I don’t have experience with that CRUA model but I suspect it will feel like a nice productivity upgrade from your current Samsung either way. And it’s hard to argue with the price. Maybe worth giving it a go and seeing how you find it.

It is a beast but possibly overkill or not well suited for primarily productivity. You’d generally want to disable the local dimming of the backlight (which is a key selling point for this model) for productivity work, otherwise you can get distracting inconsistencies in the image. These inconsistencies aren’t generally as noticeable for dynamic content (games and movies), but for static shades which border other shades, as you’d observe during productivity, they can be distracting.

If you want to enjoy some HDR content on the side, it could be a really interesting monitor. But it’s a VA model with unimpressive pixel responses, sufficiently slow that you might find it bothersome even for productivity. According to user feedback it’s slower than the AOC Q27G3XMN I’ve reviewed, which certainly had some weaknesses I could notice even on the desktop (let alone gaming).

Do you mean you need to move your head to look up and down the screen? That could be an issue if you’re frequently having to do that. How close do you sit to the screen? I usually sit ~70 – 80cm from screens of that size and find the amount of eye movement fine and don’t need to move my head.

Curvature preferences are very subjective (and depend on viewing distance as well), plus are very poorly represented by photos and videos. So an article wouldn’t be appropriate. I cover the curvature of any curved monitor I review, in the review itself. But basically I find 1000R too steep and annoying on 27-32″ 16:9 screens and I can’t fully adapt to it. Especially on the desktop, which would be a key consideration for you. I wouldn’t say 1800R is too few, but it gives less of a sense of extra depth compared to 1500R on a 32″ screen. I use a ~32″ screen with 1700R curve as my main monitor (AW3225QF) and I barely notice it most of the time, but that’s fine with me. For a marginally steeper curve (1500R) it would give a bit of extra depth without being annoying to me, but I wouldn’t have a strong preference for 1500R compared to 1800R on a 32″ monitor really.

Might be worth watching the scaling section of the AOC review as that addresses your other question. But basically, either the monitor will support its maximum refresh rate at Full HD or you can use GPU scaling instead – which generally works just fine. ‘Dual mode’ just means it would increase, usually double, the refresh rate at Full HD. At least for the ‘dual mode’ monitors I’ve used, the scaling hasn’t been great, either. It usually has this slightly interlaced effect which looks like a weirdly filtered integer scaling. I haven’t tested lots of models with this capability, but it seems to be a common issue.

It’s similar on 27″ models, but a given curve tends to feel steeper. I have largely the same thoughts for each of the respective curvatures on 27″ (1000R, 1500R, 1800R) etc. as ~32″.

The 34E1C5600HE is a 100Hz monitor and the VRR range is 48 – 100Hz. Meaning the monitor will adjust its refresh rate between 48 and 100Hz to match frame rate (and <48fps LFC is used where the monitor sticks to a multiple of the frame rate with its refresh rate), for both Nvidia and AMD GPUs.

Yup, the Gigabyte is certainly an interesting choice which is priced very aggressively. From purely a productivity standpoint you don’t get the USB hub (including USB-C), KVM support or integrated webcam and microphone. But for pure price to performance it’s likely a good bet.