Large curved ultrawide gaming displays featuring a high resolution tend to be quite expensive, but Monoprice has to make a large 49-inch gaming LCD that costs less than $1000.
The Monoprice Dark Matter 49-inch display is designed for gamers that want to have the maximum screen real estate for their titles, perhaps even replacing a couple of 24- or 27-inch displays with 16:9 aspect ratios. The Monoprice Dark Matter 49-inch uses an 8-bit VA panel featuring a 32:9 aspect ratio, 1800R curvature, and 5120x1440 resolution. Brightness isn't exactly class-leading, at 400 nits, but the panel advertises a 3000:1 aspect ratio, a 4ms GtG response time, 120Hz refresh rate, Adaptive-Sync, and a 178°/178° viewing angles.
The Dark Matter 49-inch does not support any HDR technology (and considering the fact that the display only features a 400 nits luminance, this is not exactly a problem), but it comes with quantum dot-enhanced backlighting to make color reproduction more accurate. Speaking of colors, the LCD can display 16.7 million colors and is rated for 93% of the Adobe RGB, 95% DCI-P3, 98% NTSC, and 99% of the sRGB color gamut. Those are very good specs for a moderately priced monitor; it may even satisfy some professionals.
When it comes to connectivity, the Dark Matter 49-inch is equipped with two DisplayPort 1.4 ports, as well as two HDMI 2.0 inputs and a 3.5-mm audio connector. The monitor lacks a built-in USB hub, speakers or a KVM switch, which may not be a big problem for gamers, but will certainly be an issue for professionals. We'll have to wait until we get a review unit in for testing to find out if the Dark Matter 49 deserves a spot on our best gaming monitors list.
The monitor comes with a stand that can adjust tilt, but not height or swivel. If you need more movement, the monitor does come with 75x75 VESA mounts for a robust arm or wall mount.
While the Monoprice Dark Matter 49 may not be ideal for everyone, it has features important for gamers and carries an MSRP of $999, which is lower than some competing ultrawide curved monitors aimed at gamers, although Samsung's similarly specced CRG9 has much higher rated brightness and was selling for about $50 less when we wrote this.
