[M2077]

Hey there!

First of all, before anything, I would like to thank you for the great reviews. The quality of the reviews is really great, and they’re all quite comprehensive and I seriously appreciate how hard you try to convey the ‘real world feel’ of the displays in your reviews, which is great for those like me who don’t quite understand all the specs and thus can’t really understand the numbers from other reviewers. You can really see the great effort placed in the reviews, and I thank you so much for all of this, truly.

So, moving onto the topic at hand, the G34WQC has arrived in my country a few months ago, but with one minor caveat — it costs the exact same as the Odyssey G7 27″, a high-end 16:9 display. My question is… would I regret buying it at that price, or would the 21:9 experience cover its flaws? Both cost $600. It’s also more expensive than the MSI Optix MAG274QRF (non-QD) and the Gigabyte M27Q, both of which are high end 1440p IPS displays.

I have been looking forward to moving to UW for quite some time due to the multi-tasking benefits it offers, as well as the more immersive experience in games, but I couldn’t really afford it at all until now. At the same time, however, the G7 seems to be a wonderful monitor, while the G34WQC does seem to have some regular VA flaws like poor response time, flickering, etc. I am coming from a very old 22″ 1080p60Hz IPS (Samsung SyncMaster TA350) so I don’t have high standards at all. I have never used a high end display before. What mainly worries me with regards to the G34WQC is the ghosting / smearing. I don’t know how bad it looks in the real world, however the videos and .gifs I have seen on the internet really put me off. At the same time, these videos feel… exaggerated? Like, they’re specifically created so as to show how bad it is, by illustrating the absolute worst case scenario. So I don’t know how bad it is in ‘real-world’ scenarios. For example, I read your review of the AOC CU34G2X which is based on the same panel the G34WQC is based on and I understood that the smearing is noticeable in dark scenes in games, but I also watched the video and I really couldn’t see the smearing. However, other videos in other games showed it being much worse (for instance, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SxJerJQdGg).

The Odyssey G7, to me, does have some issues as well — mainly the scanlines / pixel inversion (although I don’t mind stepping down to 144Hz. I am unlikely to ever buy hardware that supports 1440p240 anyway), and the curvature (I have never used a curved monitor before, but from all the pictures I have seen, the extreme curve of the G7 does seem to distort the output image).

Use cases are studying, programming, writing, general web browsing, reading, and gaming (story heavy games, RPGs, some indie titles, some top down view titles, strategy games). And I’d really prefer to have the best image quality I can get at the price point. However, I won’t be able to game until after a few months, so the main focus is on the other uses.

While this post focuses on the G34WQC and the Odyssey G7, I am actually speaking in general — is it worth going for a budget ultrawide over a high end 16:9 display?

Note: The cheapest IPS UW here is $1 200 (Dell AW3420DW). Literally twice the price, so I cannot go for that. LG monitors are not available in my country, and the cheap IPS 21:9 offerings like the Acer XV340CK are unavailable as well (I asked the Acer distributor and they said that the only ultrawide they have is the Z35). The ASUS VG34VQL1B sounds interesting, but it’s not available in my country yet. (should be coming though)

Another note: Consumer laws are not the best in my country, so I cannot buy one and return it if I don’t like it. It has to be obviously defective, and even then, some distributors set a certain minimum for defects. For instance, Samsung only accepts displays with 5+ dead pixels.

Thanks in advance. 🙂

P.S.: Wasn’t sure whether to start a new thread or not, so I am sorry if this belongs in another thread.

[PCM2]

Hi M2077 and welcome to the forum,

I’m glad you’ve found the reviews and the unique insights they give into those particular models and similar screens helpful. 🙂 I’m also grateful that you’ve constructed this thread in a way that shows you’ve clearly read a lot of the content on the forum as well as the reviews. And therefore have a good understanding of the sort of experience offered by the models you’ve mentioned – that makes my job a lot easier as I don’t have to repeat myself so much. It also means I’m happy for this to stand as its own thread as it’s clearly focused on the whole ‘high end’ 16:9 vs. budget UltraWide comparison rather than just one of those.

In isolation, the UltraWide experience is very nice on these 3440 x 1440 monitors and I totally understand why you’re eager to try that out. But you’re also right to point out the flaws in pixel responsiveness, which certainly have the potential to hamper the experience. The video you linked to from the Xiaomi Mi Curved 34″ shows a very good example of what you would observe in person in the scene shown. For reference to others reading this, the Xiaomi is based on the same Samsung SVA panel as the Gigabyte and AOC mentioned by M2077 and they all share the same sort of weaknesses. In some of our VA reviews we give examples of this sort of blending together of shades, with lighter shades darkening during movement and then returning to normal when the movement ceases. That’s what’s happening in the Xiaomi example posted – the lighter areas of snow and ground between the vegetation is darkening so it blends into the vegetation during movement. You can see some examples of this in our CU34G2X review, but if I recall correctly I didn’t explicitly point it out in the the responsiveness section of the video review. Although I did mention it in the written review: “Sometimes the weaknesses in pixel responses manifested themselves as a sort of ‘flickering’ effect, very commonly observed on VA models. Where there were fine alternations between bright and dark shades, such as thatched roofing, the brighter shades were dimmed during movement due to being blended with the darker shades. “

There are further examples of this sort of behaviour in this thread – it’s rather long though and I’m sure you get the idea and the video you posted demonstrates the effect nicely. It’s something that manifests itself on the desktop as well and I’m aware that’s where you’ll be spending a lot of your time. There are some in-game and desktop examples of this blending effect and ‘flickering’ in our video review of the AOC PD27. Which I’ve attached below. This model actually has improved pixel responsiveness compared to the VA UltraWides as well, but this blending effect can still be observed to a fair extent as you can see in the video. With the UltraWides being discussed it’s somewhat stronger and more widespread.

The Samsung Odyssey G7, meanwhile, is rather special in that it avoids that sort of behaviour. You seem to be aware of its pros and cons and have probably visited this thread already, but it’s certainly worth linking to again for the benefit of others. Pixel responses are very strong overall and you don’t get that sort of blending effect or anything that appears ‘smeary’. This is the case right up to the maximum 240Hz refresh rate and certainly true at 144Hz which you would perhaps be targeting. The overall colour reproduction and contrast characteristics are largely comparable to the UltraWides – you also get decent HDR on top. Which is by no means perfect HDR but certainly better than the G34WQC offers due to it having 8 dimming zones and higher peak luminance. It’s good enough that you’ll want to use it from time to time for a bit of extra variety when gaming.

I know you will be forever curious about the UltraWide experience if you go down the 27″ 16:9 route and also understand how you might appreciate the UltraWide for multi-tasking. But equally, you may be forever bugged by the weaknesses in pixel responsiveness on the UltraWide models. It’s very subjective of course, but I don’t want to gloss over these weaknesses and as you’ve said the laws in your country don’t make it easy to return the product unless it’s pretty much DOA. I also feel that even a 27″ 2560 x 1440 (WQHD) model will be such a massive upgrade from your current T22A350 (21.5″ 1920 x 1080, Full HD) that you’re unlikely to feel hard done by in terms of ‘desktop real estate’. I certainly see the appeal of 3440 x 1440 or 3840 x 2160 (‘4K’ UHD) on the desktop and appreciate them when I’m reviewing them. But I also find that initial boost from Full HD to WQHD more dramatic – and my own screens I’ve owned and use between reviews are usually WQHD as well, so I feel this is ‘sufficient’ in many ways. I agree that the 1000R curve on a 27″ model is on the strong side, but it’s still greatly exaggerated by pictures and videos of the screen. I also feel it’s easier to adapt to than weaknesses in pixel responsiveness – if you notice then and they bother you, that isn’t something you can usually get used to in the same way.

[M2077]

Really sorry for the late response, but I got caught up with something.

Thank you so much for your swift reply and great analysis, it’s spot on and you raise many great and important points. I feel that it has completely settled the debate that has been in my mind with regards to this topic. Personally, I think I am going the 27″ 16:9 route. $600 is a lot here, and if I am spending that much, I would much rather spend it on something that doesn’t make me say “But […]”, where the […] is some flaw / compromise that I have to tolerate. As for forever being curious about the UltraWide experience… well, there’s a proverb in my country about how the potential consequences from missing an experience are much easier to bear than having to deal with the consequences from a terrible experience. And, hopefully one day quality UltraWides go down in price a bit (and better offerings enter my country, too). It’s already happening, sort of; the 38″ models have usurped the IPS 34″ models at the top-end, and lowered their [34″ models] prices somewhat. With more media taking 20:9/21:9 in account due to mobile phones, I could see UltraWides becoming more popular leading to further price decreases. However, the monitor market does feel slow at times, so who knows.

The slow response time of the budget UltraWide offerings, while I haven’t personally experienced it, seems to be intolerable to me from most of the videos I have seen. To me, the smearing may not be incredibly noticeable, but the ‘blending’ / flickering effect that you mentioned and is illustrated in the video linked are both things that I feel I just can’t not notice. This would probably be made even worse by the fact that I am aware of it and thus would be constantly looking for it even in cases where it’s not obvious.

So to sum up, high-end 16:9 feels like the better option for me. I suppose the only thing remaining now is choosing the 16:9 monitor to go with, but that’s a debate for another day :D. Currently leaning towards the Samsung Odyssey G7 (I do have some questions about using it as a daily driver, though), however the MSI MAG274QRF does seem interesting as well. And the Gigabyte M27Q is significantly cheaper (or well, was, when it was in-stock) than both — but I am not sure how well I’ll respond to the BGR layout on that one. Whichever I go with, I’ll post my experience in a relevant thread here. I have some things coming up, so this may take a month – month and half, though.

Thank you so much once again for the reply and all your hard effort on this website.

P.S.:

One great thing I noticed is how you constantly try to keep all the threads here as beneficial and educational to others as possible. The hyperlinks to the relevant articles / reviews and the thorough replies that tend to cover everything are really much appreciated and great. Thank you so much!

[PCM2]

I’m glad you appreciate the inter-linking and the information available. It’s always nice to see it being put to good use! And no worries about the late reply, some users never reply at all which is quite frustrating so you’re definitely in the good books still. 😉 I look forward to any feedback you can share on whichever model you go for. People sharing experiences with monitors is always welcome here.

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