Best Curved Gaming Monitors 2024

Although curved monitors are commonplace today, this wasn’t always the case. There used to be a time when non-CRT desktop monitors were all flat, which remains the case today with most laptop displays. However, as people spent more time in front of a monitor during the day, engineers looked for ways to help alleviate eye strain, which became more apparent as display sizes increased.

Curved monitors are designed to match the field of view humans see with their eyes more closely. With larger and wider displays, images towards the right or left edges tend to look distorted in peripheral vision. However, a curved monitor that gently wraps around your periphery allows the picture to more closely align with your field of view, which should, in theory, reduce eye strain.

Some standard curvature ratings include 1,000R, 1800R, and 2500R. What do these numbers mean? The lower the number, the tighter the display curvature appears to the user. For example, 1800R refers to a radius of 1,800 millimeters. So, if you line up enough monitors from end to end, the circle they create would have a diameter of 3,600 mm.

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While most monitors come with a fixed curvature, some products on the market allow you to adjust this setting. For example, the Corsair Xeneon Flex 45WQHD240 allows the user to manually adjust the curvature from completely flat to a very tight 800R, which translates to a radius of 800 mm. At 800R, the 45-inch Xeneon Flex provides an optimal viewing experience at just three to four feet. 

Quick List

Best Curved Gaming Monitors You Can Buy Today

Best Overall Curved Gaming Monitor

The Samsung Odyssey Neo G8 tries its best to be the jack of all trades, and it's mostly successful in that endeavor. It features a 32-inch VA with a Quantum Dot film and Mini LED backlighting with 1,196 dimming zones. As a result, it achieved an outstanding contrast ratio of 25,000:1 in our testing compared to the usual 3,000:1 we see on traditional VA monitors.

The 4K (3840 x 2160) panel has a 1000R curve and is good for a maximum 240Hz refresh rate. The Odyssey Neo G8 also gets the basics right with excellent gaming performance and accurate color. 

Although it debuted with an MSRP of $1,499, the Odyssey Neo G8 can now be easily found for under $1,000. 

Read: Samsung Odyssey Neo G8 Review 

Best Bendable Curved Gaming Monitor

Corsair’s 45-inch Xeneon Flex is a premium monitor at a premium price. But its price tag is justified by its unique, bendable OLED panel that allows you to choose between a flat panel or an 800R (maximum) curve. You manually bend the screen using two handles extending from the chassis sides.

The Xeneon Flex exhibits good contrast and color accuracy. You also get a fast, 240 Hz refresh rate and low input lag. Adaptive Sync is standard, with support for AMD FreeSync Premium and Nvidia G-Sync. The wide-screen format with a 3440 x 1440 resolution should appeal to gamers and productivity workers alike.

There’s no such thing as a perfect product, and the Xeneon Flex suffers a couple of dings due to its relatively low pixel density courtesy of the 45-inch panel and slight misses with HDR color. However, the $1,999 MSRP will likely be the biggest hurdle for many gamers (although we’ve seen its street price dip below $1,700 recently).

 Read: Corsair Xeneon Flex 45WQHD240 Bendable OLED Review

Best Large-Format Curved Gaming Monitor

The Samsung Odyssey Neo 57 G9 is one of the most extreme monitors on this page (or any page, for that matter). With a massive 57-inch diagonal, this monitor will dominate even the largest desks, so you’ll need to ensure you have enough room to accommodate it. 

Samsung uses a VA panel with 2,392 Mini-LED dimming zones, effectively giving the Odyssey Neo 57 G9 infinite contrast with HDR content. The monitor has three HDMI 2.1 ports, one DisplayPort 2.1 port, and USB 3.0 connectivity with a KVM feature. But, of course, its most impressive features (other than the sheer size) are the DUHD (7680 x 2160) resolution and 240Hz refresh rate. Even the mighty GeForce RTX 4090 can’t support that resolution at 240Hz, so you’ll need to look at something from the Radeon RX 7000 family.

However, all of this goodness doesn’t come cheap: the Samsung Odyssey Neo 57 G9 has a street price of $2,000.

Read: Samsung Odyssey Neo 57 G9 Gaming Monitor Review

Best 34-inch Curved Gaming Monitor

Prices for desktop-class OLED monitors have dropped dramatically in recent years, which has given way to excellent gaming monitors like Alienware’s AW3423DFW.

This 34-inch ultra-wide monitor features an 1800R curve and a 3440 x 1440 resolution. But the attention-getter is the Quantum Dot OLED (QD-OLED) panel, which delivers a wide color gamut and blacks that blow away the VA and IPS competition.

Contrast and color saturation are excellent straight out of the box, so calibration is unnecessary. And as you'd expect from Alienware, build quality is top-notch.

RIght now, the AW3423DFW can be had for around $800, which makes it a perfect companion for Nvidia’s newest high-end graphics cards, like the GeForce RTX 4090 and GeForce RTX 4080 Super. 

Read: Alienware AW3423DW Gaming Monitor Review

Best Budget Curved Gaming Monitor

The Dell S2422HG measures just 23.6 inches across and an equally small sub-$200 price tag.

Dell uses a 1500R VA panel with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 and a refresh rate of 165Hz. The use of a VA panel means that contrast is excellent at a measured 3,261.8:1 (versus the factory claim of 3,000:1). However, we only measured brightness at 324 nits, which came up short compared to the factory claim of 350 nits.

AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync are supported, and video processing for the S2422HG was good in our testing (along with low input lag). However, Dell had to ditch some features to get to its low price tag, which means you won't find integrated speakers, a USB hub, or an sRGB mode. 

The suggested price for the S2422HG is $199, but you can find the monitor for as low as $170 if you do some bargain shopping.  

Read: Dell S2422HG Review 

Most Immersive Curved Gaming Monitor

The Philips Evnia 34M2C8600 aims to impress, starting with its gorgeous QD-OLED panel. This is a significant upgrade from the VA panel found on its “lesser” 34M2C7600 sibling. The basics don’t stray too far from many 34-inch widescreen monitors we’ve tested, with its 1800R curvature, WQHD (3440 x 1440) resolution and 175Hz refresh rate. Still, the QD-OLED panel delivers accurate colors (without the need for calibration out of the box), a wide color gamut and excellent overall image quality.

However, the ace up the 34M2C8600’s sleeve is the inclusion of Philips’ Ambiglow technology. Ambiglow provides bias lighting to project light on the wall behind the monitor. As we found in our testing, Ambiglow helps to increase the perception of improved contrast and sharpness of the image.

With a price tag of $1,299, the 34M2C8600 definitely isn’t aimed at the budget crowd, but its image quality, features, and uniqueness of Ambiglow make it an attractive option for gaming enthusiasts.

Read: Philips Evnia 34M2C8600 Review 

Benefits of Using a Curved Monitor

As we mentioned before, a gentle curve can help reduce eye strain with a larger screen. While this is, of course, beneficial to gamers who spend hours hunting down opponents in online frag fests, it’s equally appealing to office workers who spend their 9-to-5 staring at a screen, working on everything from documents to spreadsheets to photo editing.

Beyond that, thoguh, curved displays also provide a more immersive experience by wrapping the picture around your field of vision. Just imagine a racing simulator, like F1 2023, with three curved monitors arranged around you. The monitor to your immediate front would give you a clear view of the road ahead. Monitors to the right and left would provide for glanceable views of your periphery, allowing you to see vehicles trying to overtake you or the ability to see around an upcoming corner. And since the monitors are curved, there’s a gentle transition from panel to panel that cannot be achieved with flat panels.

Quick Shopping Tips

Here's what you should consider when looking for the best curved gaming monitor.

✅ What size do you need? The smaller the display, the less need for a curved panel. You don’t typically start seeing curved monitors until you get to 24 inches and higher. From there, the options are practically limitless, with 32- and 34-inch curved monitors being among the most popular on the market. For those that want to go big or go home, 49-inch behemoths with an 800R curve are ready and waiting.

✅ What curvature best suits your needs? 1900R, 1800R, 800R, oh my! The key thing to keep in mind is that the lower the number, the more exaggerated the curve. Larger widescreen monitors (think 45 inches and greater) tend to adopt 1000R to 800R curves. As you step down to smaller monitors, the curves tend to see 1500R and 1800R more frequently – this isn’t an exact science but more of a general trend. For example, the 34-inch Alienware AW3423DW features an 1800R curve, while the 24-inch Dell S2722DGM features a more aggressive 1500R curve.

✅ VA, IPS or OLED? VA displays are most prevalent in the curved monitor space, and typically have great response times. IPS panels offer better color, but slower response times (and generally less contrast). OLED displays offer the best of both worlds along with infinite contrast, but they are the most expensive, by far.

✅ What refresh rate should you choose? First off, bigger is better. This is the number of times your monitor updates with new information per second (in hertz, Hz) — and, therefore, how many frames per second (fps) the monitor can display. A larger number means smoother images. Refresh rate is essential for competitive gamers, so you'll want to shoot for a monitor with at least 120 Hz (most gaming monitors offer at least 144 Hz), combined with the lowest response time you can find.

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