Curved screens might not be the ideal solution for watching TV or movies (at least for a group of people scattered around a room), but when paired with a single user PC, a curved screen monitor has some serious advantages compared to a regular computer monitor.
Let’s face it—we’re all waiting for the time when screens are obsolete and everything we watch is some kind of holographic wizardry, right? Where’s that gesture-based user interface that Tom Cruise used in Minority Report already? Any day now, I’m sure of it. I mean, Princess Lea’s hologram said “Help me Obi-Wan Kinobe, you’re my only hope” in 1977 for goodness sake!
Curved screens look cool
Okay, okay, I’ll let it go. For the time being we still have to plug a screen in if we want to enjoy a proper visual experience, and one of the coolest looking screens you can plug in right now is a curved screen. These have not been met with universal acclaim, with some reviewers bemoaning the problem they have with glare and reflections. It’s also been said that there is an obvious ‘sweet spot’ from which to view a curved screen; and that’s right in front of it (no surprise there I suppose).
But what if you are the only person using the screen? Well, that might make a little bit more sense. One such scenario is when you are using your PC. Then a curved monitor can actually make a lot of sense. In fact, it can take your experience to the next level, particularly if you’re a gamer.
When you pair your gaming machine with a curved monitor, you are talking about a serious upgrade, one that can bring you a totally immersive experience that is hard to match (next stop: VR).
A more immersive experience
A flat screen is actually a poor substitute for our everyday experience of how vision works. As you rotate your head away from the center of the screen to look at the sides, the distance from your eyes to the screen actually changes, so your eyes need to refocus, whereas with a curved screen the curve compensates for that and keeps the distance much closer to a constant, and hence you get a more realistic and immersive experience.
PC technology being where it is today, there aren’t many hardware upgrades you can make that are going to have the kind of effect that a curved screen will. Graphics cards are for the most part totally capable of handling whatever you can throw at them, as are processors, and memory upgrades are cheap and easy. Moving from a flat to a curved screen is one of the few great leaps forward you can make nowadays, but before you go window shopping be forewarned: an ultra-wide curved gaming monitor ain’t cheap!
One of the top rated monitors among Best Buy customers is the Dell 34 UltraSharp Curved Monitor (U3417W). Instead of the usual 16:9 widescreen format, this monitor is 21:9. As one customer put it: “I didn’t really realize how absolutely ENOURMOUS this thing is until I picked it up from Best Buy and even the employee was just blown away at the sheer size of the thing.” So as ever, make sure you check the specs and do your measurements before you make your purchase!
Curved or not, there are plenty of amazing computer monitors available at Best Buy. Check out the selection for a great way to improve your PC experience.
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