Out with the old and in with the new, and that’s exactly what I did! I replaced my old and ageing 34″ flat ultrawide 75hz Samsung monitor with this X= XG34UWQ 34″ Curved ultrawide 160hz Monitor. I can safely say It’s vastly exceeded expectations and made me fall in love with gaming again and my recent playtime shows it. Doesn’t matter if I am racing around as Lewis Hamilton in F1 2021 or Parachuting into the warzone in Call of Duty Warzones the jump from 75hz to 160hz has been a Night and Day change.
You can really feel the fluidity whether that’s taking corners on track or battling enemies on the battlefield. I absolutely love it. The curve on the monitor is also a very big upgrade over my old panel as it now properly fits into my peripheral vision making it more immersive for shooters, sim racers and just general use.
What’s in the box
- Monitor
- Stand
- Power Cord & Brick
- DisplayPort Cable
- DisplayPort Cable
- Quick Start Guide
Design
The X= XG34UWQ has a simple design with some gamer-focused styling accents incorporated into the design. The Monitor has a matte black finish which means it should fit into both offices and the gaming setups without bringing unwanted attention to itself. The Monitor has thin bezels on three sides and one larger bezel like chin at the bottom, but this does not subtract from the experience.
It’s slim and sleek but well made with a Metal stand and a strong plastic body for the monitor itself. The stand doesn’t protrude too much from the face of the monitor meaning it does not take up space where Xl sized mouse mats and keyboards may sit, unlike some other gaming-focused monitors which have stands that hog up space / Look too “Gamer” focused to ever be used in the office.
Monitor with stand Measurements: Width – 807.4mm Height – 397.86mm Depth – 228.94mm
Monitor without stand Measurements: Width – 807.4mm Height – 361.81mm Depth – 114.43mm
Package Size: Width – 975mm Height – 190mm Depth – 445mm
On the back of the monitor, you will find RGB lighting which you can control it via your OSD to on or off. I would leave it on myself as it is not bright enough to light up an environment instead It lightly provides some ambient lighting if placed directly in front of a wall or similar surface.
My Calibration Settings for X= XG34UWQ 34″
- FreeSync on
- 2.4 Gamma
- Response Time: High
- Standard colour profile or RTS
I felt that from the testing that the default settings out of the box for colour was more than acceptable for great Viewing of Video, Indulgence of Gaming and Content creation.
Display
- 34” UltraWide
- 160hz Refresh Rate
- Response Time: 1ms MPRT – 8ms GTG
- Display Resolution: 3440X1440
- Display Outputs: DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.0
- Aspect Ratio: 21:9
- Panel Type: VA
The X= XG34UWQ has a 34-inch VA panel with a resolution of 3440 x 1440p with a refresh rate of 160hz (Using DP 1.4 and the latest Nvidia & AMD GPUs the XG34UWQ Can achieve 160Hz at 3440×1440 resolution, with Graphics cards that only support DP 1.2 up to 144Hz.) with a peak brightness of 400 cd/m2 which means it does have HDR capabilities but from my testing best viewing results was with this turned off but I would say it’s very much a preference of the user decision.
Panel uniformity for this monitor from the model I had access to I would say panel uniformity was great out of the box and the panel was free of backlight bleed and in Games and Video with dark scenes, the screen was able to look great as the black were not a washed-out grey like some monitors.
On this Monitor, I found that the Motion handling was very strong with the display settings I selected above as I was unable to notice any blurring or ghosting in Shooters, Racing titles alike.
Summary
Overall the X= XG34UWQ 34” has Great Performance despite its budget-oriented pricing compared to other brands in this size and form factor (MSI, SAMSUNG, LG, ASUS). The VA panel is very competitive compared to competitors at higher price points and the colour accuracy out of the box is superb with better Panel conformity compared to other ultrawide monitors such as the SAMSUNG G9 which I have access to which unfortunately in dark sections of games looks distractingly grey on dark scenes which fortunately is not an issue on the XG34UWQ.
However, if you are looking for a monitor to be styling in the piece on your desk then offerings from ASUS, SAMSUNG and ALIENWARE may offer a better solution as the stands and backs of the monitors from those brands tend to have more styling features albeit at no advantage to the Gaming experience and greater costs.
PRO’s
- 160hz Refresh Rate
- Great Colours
- Simple design
- Fluid And Responsive Input
Con’s
- The design may not be suited to gamers looking for “Gamer” styling
- Included DisplayPort Cable was short
Thanks for reading this review, please continue to support us and check out our other reviews and follow us on Social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin and don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter below.
Recent Comments