BenQ XR3501 35-Inch Curved Monitor Review

[ceberle]

BenQ's XR3051 high-contrast AMVA panel offers an impressive 2000R curvature and a 144Hz refresh rate along with some very unique attributes.

BenQ XR3501 35-Inch Curved Monitor Review : Read more

 

[Soul_keeper]

Everytime I see these display news/reviews I look for the power usage numbers and end up having to google for them.
Can you start adding the power usage to the specs tables ?

thanks

 

[Grognak]

A thousand bucks for 80 ppi?

 

[iam2thecrowe]

Everytime I see these display news/reviews I look for the power usage numbers and end up having to google for them.
Can you start adding the power usage to the specs tables ?
thanks

I don't know, I have never looked at power usage specs when deciding which monitor to buy. Ever. It is expensive for only 1080 vertical pixels though. Would rather settle for a 60hz model with 1440 for a similar price.

 

[rajeshgoblet]

'The other curved displays we've seen sport a 3800R curvature, which means a radius of 3000 millimeters.' i think its a little bit typo. 3000 should be 3800 milimeters.

 

[Shankovich]

Seems pretty good. Don't mean to sound like a whiner but for $1000 I would expect 10 bit colour on it. Then again loving that 144 Hz, can't complain about anything else really.

 

[Realist9]

1080p at 35 inches. No. 5 years ago? Maybe. Today? No.

And someone dropping $1000 on their monitor is very unlikely to have a sub $300 video card.

No excuses. This should have been at least 1440p. I was excited until I saw that.

 

[eklipz330]

this is clearly an attempt at milking the market. next year they will have a 1440p variant, and the year after they will finally incorporate freesync/gsync.

they could have at least made it 1200p

 

[HideOut]

1080p. Why wouldnt you just buy a 1080p TV for less at that point...

 

[noobzilla771]

Got excited until that 1080p....

 

[atwspoon]

Waiting for "curved" to die out like "3D." More on this FreeSync and G-Sync tech!

 

[eklipz330]

Waiting for "curved" to die out like "3D." More on this FreeSync and G-Sync tech!

curved monitors are dope. don't know what you're smoking, but it sucks.

 

[atwspoon]

Waiting for "curved" to die out like "3D." More on this FreeSync and G-Sync tech!

curved monitors are dope. don't know what you're smoking, but it sucks.

Iron Man's projected computer screens are dope, and I can't wait for those. Curved monitors are a cosmetic gimmick to me, but to each his own : ).

 

[picture_perfect]

You will start to see tearing when the framerate drops

Hey Christian, good review but I think you mean judder, not tearing. Tearing (horizontal lines) is when frame rate outpaces refresh. Judder (double images) is when frame rate drops below refresh. Nobody is ever going to get tearing on a 144hz monitor without 4-way SLI.

This monitor seems like a bad idea. Without G-sync, the mismatch between frame rate and hz will make a lot of judder and blur. That's in addition to any response time blur, which is why motion performance needs to be tested with a pursuit camera. Then we get the whole story.

 

[peterf28]

Wtf, in Europe this costs more than €1000 Eur . Fuck. I would buy this for €700 Eur max .

 

[ozicom]

I think monitor manufacturers think that we'll buy whatever they make. This monitor means nothing now because there're curved 40" TV's that can be used from HDMI 2.0. So if I can use 2160p at 60hz why should i pay more for a 1080p monitor? Also it doesn't have Freesync or G-sync what they're thinking while designing this product?

 

[eriko]

I can't believe they are ignoring their customers.

If this had been 3440x1440, I'd have pre-ordered immediately.

I nearly bought the Dell, chickened out at the 60Hz refresh rate, I've been watching this other one, but its only 75Hz, or 100Hz on G-sync. So managed to hold off there too.

1080p is annoying now.

 

[gaborbarla]

Waiting for "curved" to die out like "3D." More on this FreeSync and G-Sync tech!

So far everyone (and I mean everyone) that has used 30" curved screen eventually admitted that curved is necessary on such a large screen. Why? Because you don't want such a variance of distance from your eyes from the center of the screen to the side of the screen. It is just not comfortable to work on large flatscreen panels on the edges. Another reason is that you normally only one person working on the PC, while this is not always true for Curved TVs I am sure that curved monitors will break through the ignorance barrier.

Gsync and Freesync is not necessary at higher framerates. Sure it is good to have, but anything over 100FPS does not warrant the need for those technologies if used properly, and by that I mean used with a fast Graphics card or two. This monitor is 144Hz, if you are using freesync you are doing it wrong.

 

[gaborbarla]

Ok so make this monitor 3440x1440 and reduce the curve to be in between 2000R and 3800R and you have a winner...

 

[red77star]

Curvature -> what a useless thing that is. I am more interesting in 16:10 ratio than useless 16:9 or 21:9. Wtf came up with 16:9? It should be 16:10.

 

[Xivilain]

Acer Predator XR34 ... is better than this BenQ monitor at this price range. Oh well.
75hz FreeSync 3440x1440 curved.
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/acer-monitor-umcx1aa001

 

[xenol]

Everytime I see these display news/reviews I look for the power usage numbers and end up having to google for them.
Can you start adding the power usage to the specs tables ?

thanks

You could always look at the rated spec and assume the worst.

 

[picture_perfect]

Gsync and Freesync is not necessary at higher framerates. This monitor is 144Hz, if you are using freesync you are doing it wrong.

You want Freesync / G-sync anytime there is a mismatch between frame rate & refresh rate. That will be all the time with this monitor since no card maintains 144 fps at this resolution. This monitor makes no sense to me at all. You need 144 fps for 144 hz to work!

 

[mrjhh]

Waiting for "curved" to die out like "3D." tech!

For age 50+ people using bifocals, having a uniform distance from the screen to the eye is useful. I'm constantly trying to move my head to find the sweet spot in the bifocals, and would love lenses and monitors that would allow me to just move my eyes and not my entire head. However, until the displays are flexible, what I need in curvature is different than someone else. I'm closer to 1000R,maybe 1200R, 2000R is too far away. I use my monitor for software development and document preparation, not gaming. Large monitors are likely to need curvature in the vertical direction as well as horizontal.

 

[tommyp81]

Just bought the Acer XR341CK 2 weeks ago for a little over a grand.
Seeing this being 35" and around the same price got me a little... for a second.. but then..

Lower resolution - the Acer is 3440x1440
The Acer is 10bit.
Added USB3 ports as bonus is nice (not a big deal of course).
And.. to top it all off.. Freesync

So thanks, but no thanks.
144Hz refresh rate without Free/G-Sync ? why?

To those who comment about the curve, it's one of those things that you can't really understand until you set and worked in front of one, and gaming on a curved monitor... amazing. so, don't hate before you tried it.