Philips Preps for PS5 and Xbox Series X with 144Hz Ultrawide Monitor

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But are the new consoles even going to support ultrawide?

Phillips Console Gaming Monitor
(Image credit: Phillips)

Philips unveiled its new 34-inch ultrawide 345M1CR Momentum this week that competes with the best gaming monitors with a 144 Hz refresh rate. There's one caveat through: it’s intended for consoles, not PCs.

Capable of supporting 21:9 resolutions up to 3440 x 1440 and running at 144 Hz with a 4ms response time (1ms with the blur reduction mode), Philips is calling on gamers to use the upcoming monitor to “take your console gaming experience to a new level.”

With no release date for the monitor yet and no current consoles capable of playing games above 60 frames per second, we have to conclude that this monitor is for the upcoming PS5 and Xbox Series X.

You'll find some differences in terms of capabilities when pitting what we know about the PS5 versus the Xbox Series X. However, both are confirmed to support games at 4K resolution and refresh rates as high as 120 Hz. But neither Sony nor Microsoft has made any claims of ultrawide features yet. Earlier this year, PCGamesN cited a source at Samsung as saying the Korean panel maker is pushing Microsoft to support 21:9 monitors with Xbox, but we have yet to hear anything since.

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Michelle Ehrhardt
Michelle Ehrhardt

Michelle Ehrhardt is an editor at Tom's Hardware. She's been following tech since her family got a Gateway running Windows 95, and is now on her third custom-built system. Her work has been published in publications like Paste, The Atlantic, and Kill Screen, just to name a few. She also holds a master's degree in game design from NYU.

2 Comments Comment from the forums
  • tummybunny
    It's outrageous to target next gen console owners with a monitor that doesn't support HDMI 2.1. The monitor industry is keeping hush about hdmi 2.1 as it exposes their current high end models as obsolete, proprietary and overpriced as they try to flog off inventories to uninformed consumers while they can

    The best high end 'monitor' for next gen is to wait if at all possible, or buy an LG tv if you can't. Unfortunately the wait will be a long one as the monitor industry does not talk about HDMI 2.1 at all.
    Reply
  • cryoburner
    But are the new consoles even going to support ultrawide?
    That was my first thought as well. Even if the consoles end up "supporting" ultrawide aspect ratios, it would likely be up to developers to decide whether or not to implement them in their games. Seeing as most consoles are hooked up to televisions, where ultrawide resolutions tend to be unheard of, it seems unlikely that a resolution like this would get much developer support. So, most of the time you might be running games on this screen with black bars as if it were a 27" 2560x1440 display.

    If I had to guess, the marketing people are just trying to push this screen to an additional market without bothering to consider the logistic of how well it might work there.
    Reply