Are curved monitors a fad?

Man of Honour
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I recently got my first 34" curved ultrawide. I love the monitor for gaming but I miss my old flat monitor for productivity work. I'll stick with it because overall it's an amazing monitor. It's hard to fault. But it got me thinking about whether curved monitors are a fad. I think the next monitor I buy will be flat again.

So do you prefer flat or curved monitors?
 
Soldato
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I recently got my first 34" curved ultrawide. I love the monitor for gaming but I miss my old flat monitor for productivity work. I'll stick with it because overall it's an amazing monitor. It's hard to fault. But it got me thinking about whether curved monitors are a fad. I think the next monitor I buy will be flat again.

So do you prefer flat or curved monitors?

My main interest is gaming so I love my curved X34.

I used to program for a living and I can't see any problem with using it for this.
 
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Over a certain size the curve comes in to its own so not fad (unlike TV's) IMO at 27" it can have or not a curve and be fine either way (mine does) but 32" upwards the curves works well.
 
Soldato
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I've got 2x 38" ultrawides that are curved. I don't even notice the curve any longer. Except flat monitors feel weird to look at because I'm so used to the curve.
 
Associate
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Not opposed to them but for me they massively negate a huge positive of having a flat screen, basically that a flat screen is such a nicely compact, space saving and functional unit. A curved screen takes more physical space, is less easy to move or store, and doesn't look quite as clean. Flat screen on a vesa arm in particular gives a lot of function for saving space.

Something about the flat form factor is so appealing to me as I grew up with massive, heavy CRTs that hogged a lot of space.

That's unless they're part of already curved architecture already and fit in the space nicely. A curved office room with a large curved screen could look really nice.
 
Soldato
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Not opposed to them but for me they massively negate a huge positive of having a flat screen, basically that a flat screen is such a nicely compact, space saving and functional unit. A curved screen takes more physical space, is less easy to move or store, and doesn't look quite as clean. Flat screen on a vesa arm in particular gives a lot of function for saving space.

Something about the flat form factor is so appealing to me as I grew up with massive, heavy CRTs that hogged a lot of space.

That's unless they're part of already curved architecture already and fit in the space nicely. A curved office room with a large curved screen could look really nice.

How’ve you figured out that a curved monitor takes up more space?
 
Soldato
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Curve once you go over a certain size, so 34 ultrawide what I have been using for nearly half a decade now. Compared the flat and curved dell ultrawide 34” when they were both brand new and the gentle curve brought in edges ever so slightly given the close proximity from my face that for me made it a better choice.

do know some people who prefer a flat panel as apparently it affects work they do detailed design work and want a flat surface to work on, but not an issue for me so meh.
 
Man of Honour
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I don't bother with them personally - the only exception might be a dedicated gaming setup for certain types of games. For FPS gaming I prefer a flat screen and for most productivity tasks I find them a negative though depending on task not a huge negative but still.
 
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Whilst I have never invested in a curved display, I owned a 34" widescreen, recently sold as I reverted back to a triple setup. The latter works for me as I can angle the screens for respective games. Yes, there are drawbacks (bezels).

I just never got the same immersion factor with one flat screen, peripheral vision on one screen does not quite work (for me); whereas with screens angled (despite bezels) has a better effect. You subconciously block out the monitor frames without really noticing.
 
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How’ve you figured out that a curved monitor takes up more space?

How have you figured out that they don't?

Flat screen against a flat wall, extrudes no more than the depth of the screen. Curved screen against flat wall extrudes depth of screen plus the curve.

A curve on a flat item increases its depth for packing and storage.

The same principle works with a curved wall but opposite, curved wall + curved screen, better use of space than flat that wastes the space behind the flat screen and curved wall.

Eg:Flat screen depth totally extrudes 3 cm, curved screen total depth extrudes 8 cm. Fairly simple concept.
 
Soldato
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How have you figured out that they don't?

Flat screen against a flat wall, extrudes no more than the depth of the screen. Curved screen against flat wall extrudes depth of screen plus the curve.

A curve on a flat item increases its depth for packing and storage.

The same principle works with a curved wall but opposite, curved wall + curved screen, better use of space than flat that wastes the space behind the flat screen and curved wall.

Eg:Flat screen depth totally extrudes 3 cm, curved screen total depth extrudes 8 cm. Fairly simple concept.
The volume of a screen doesn't change with a curve though...
 
Soldato
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The volume of a screen doesn't change with a curve though...
The smallest cube it can be bounded by does, though - which is what he meant, I suspect - as I feel the same way as he does. A wall mounted flat screen holds much more appeal - not least because it doesn't offer two tempting climbing handholds for little children who want to climb up onto my desk.
 
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