I do a little bit of everything with my home PC - browsing, streaming, gaming, programming, photo/video editing, light CAD work, spreadsheets, writing reviews on the stuff I buy. etc. I had been looking for YEARS for a 21:9 panel that had the right combination of features/price/brand but had never ran into one that I felt comfortable committing to; now that I have found the MSI MAG342CQRV, I'm glad the search took me that long.
This thing is just a hair off from perfect. Colors are vivid, darks are dark enough, images don't tear or blur, the curvature is immersive from the normal 36" sitting distance from the panel, I don't find myself having to crane my neck to see what's over in this corner or that one, and frankly, it just looks GREAT sitting there on the desk.
Functionally, this monitor has about 109 pixels-per-inch, which, you want 100 or better. I haven't noticed any backlight bleeding, but I usually work in a semi-well-lit area and it would take extreme bleeding for me to notice it. The buttons are in a logical position and placement under the bezel, and the menu is easy enough to navigate once you figure out how each button navigates through it.
My only nitpick is that it does not have USB passthrough, which is a "nice-to-have" feature but hardly one most people will miss. As many reviews state, it *does* have a large footprint, but, it's a large monitor... I'd be more concerned if it had a SMALL footprint! As it is, the stand is simple to look at, easy to assemble, and has just the right amount of 'give' in its adjustments to where getting just the right angle doesn't require brute strength, but it also doesn't spin around on its axis if you sneeze.
Some reviews point to the external power cable as a 'con' but I actually prefer it... the thinner cable is easier to route/hide than a standard C13 power cable, AND it moves the most common point of failure outside of the monitor and into a package you can replace if it ever does go bad on you.
Some caveats, if you're moving from a dual-monitor setup (like I was) and consolidating to a single, large panel. Where I used to silo applications by opening them on a specific monitor, I now have to do that by dragging the app boundaries so that app occupies a given portion of the screen. It's not a big issue, but it did necessitate a workflow change that I hadn't considered prior to purchase. Also, most web pages are not built to scale to such widths, and I found myself zooming in - not because I can't see the text, but because it seems like such a waste to have a foot of white space on either side of the main page frame.
All in all, I am very pleased with this monitor, it has been a huge upgrade (literally) to my twin 1080p panels, and does everything I ask of it.
| Standing screen display size | 34 Inches |
|---|---|
| Screen Resolution | 3440x1440 |
| Max Screen Resolution | 3440 x 1440 |
