The curved 21:9 aspect ratio NEC EX341R-BK 34″ monitor is the latest ultrawide display to hit the market. Curved displays are supposed to offer an enhanced viewing experience that mimics the curvature of the human eye.
Having a 21:9 aspect ratio display is great if your working with or watching 2.35:1 material, but when it’s just regular 16:9, you end up with black bars on the sides of the screen. This is the main reason why ultrawide displays have not been popular with most consumers.
This latest ultrawide display features smaller bezels, which NEC claims makes it easier to focus on the content being displayed on the screen. The panel supports 178-degree horizontal and vertical viewing angles to enable the monitor to be viewed from different angles with reduced distortion. I personally don’t really see the point of having a curved screen on a monitor that is only 34″. Typically a monitor of this size is going to be on a desk where you will be sitting right in front of it. I don’t know about you, but I don’t sit out on the edges of my desk when I am editing.
The NEC display has an active resolution of 3440 x 1440 resolution, and a 3,000:1 contrast ratio. The brightness is only 290 nits, so it’s not designed to be used in a HDR workflow. NEC claims that the EX341R covers 99.5% of the sRGB colour space and 77.5% of the NTSC colour space to display enhanced color accuracy. Sensors inside the display automatically detect your work conditions to determine the proper display brightness for the environment you are in.
Connection wise the EX341R monitor has a DisplayPort 1.2, HDMI 2.0, and HDMI 1.4 input connectors. The DisplayPort 1.2 output connector lets you use the display in a daisychain configuration. The monitor also has a touch-sensitive, on-screen display and NEC also includes a SpectraView Colour Calibration Kit, that features internal look up tables, colorimeter functionality, multiple calibration sets, and monitor profiling.
NEC EX341R-BK: Pricing and availability
The NEC EX341R-BK 34″ monitor retails for $1149US, which makes it competitively priced when you compare it against other curved ultra-wide displays from companies such as LG, but more expensive than the $699US Acer CZ0 UM.CC0AA.001 34″ 21:9 Curved IPS Monitor and $689US Dell U3415W 34″ UltraSharp LED-Backlit Curved Monitor
Have you used or do you use a ultra-wide display? What do you think about curved displays? Let us know in the comments below.
