NEC Goes for a Curved Display, Launches 3440×1440 MultiSync EX341R Monitors
by Anton Shilov on February 9, 2017 6:00 PM EST
This week NEC has announced its first curved ultrawide display, the EX341R. NEC is promoting the panel for offices, control rooms, trading rooms, and other applications that typically use multi-monitor configurations but also appreciate color accuracy. The screen has a number of differences when compared to displays for gamers, and the price of the new MultiSync EX341R will be reflected in this.
In the recent years, NEC concentrated on displays for commercial and professional use, whereas its consumer monitor lineup slowly stepped into the background. The majority of curved ultrawide displays nowadays are designed with gamers in mind, which is why manufacturers tend to incorporate very high refresh rates along with dynamic refresh rate technologies and gaming specific features or aesthetics. Nonetheless, ultrawide displays may make sense to replace those used to multi-monitor environments, and this is a reason why Dell introduced its business-oriented curved ultrawide screens last year. NEC now also sees demand for monitors with a 21:9 aspect ratio from its customers, which is why the company announced its new MultiSync EX341R-BK and EX341R-SV-BK products this week.
The NEC MultiSync EX341R-series displays are based on SVA panels (presumably made by Samsung) with a 3440×1440 resolution, a 1000:1 contrast ratio, 290 nits brightness, 178°/178° viewing angles, 5 ms response time and a 60 Hz refresh rate. It also targets customers that need various degrees of color accuracy (NEC markets the panels as supporting 99.5% sRGB) and therefore bundles the Spyder5 color calibration sensor and the SpectraView II software with the EX341R-SV-BK monitor.
As for connectivity, the NEC MultiSync EX341R has one DisplayPort 1.2 with MST support as well as two HDMI headers (one 1.4 and one 2.0). The monitor fully supports NEC’s control Sync technology that allows controlling the settings of up to 25 displays in a multi-monitor setup using controls of only one of them. Additionally, the display supports PBP and PiP features when connected to two computers. Finally, it has a quad-port USB 3.0 hub with two USB Type-B upstream ports (to connect to two different PCs).
| NEC's MultiSync EX341R-Series Displays | ||
| EX341R-BK | EX341R-SV-BK | |
| Panel | 34" SVA | |
| Native Resolution | 3440 × 1440 | |
| Maximum Refresh Rate | 60 Hz | |
| Response Time | 5 ms | |
| Brightness | 290 cd/m² | |
| Contrast | 3000:1 | |
| Viewing Angles | 178°/178° horizontal/vertical | |
| Curvature | 1800R | |
| Pixel Pitch | 0.23 mm | |
| Pixel Density | 110 ppi | |
| Color Gamut | NTSC: 77.5% sRGB: 99.5% '16.7 million colors' |
|
| Inputs | 1 × DisplayPort 1.2 1 × HDMI 2.0 1 × HDMI 1.4 |
|
| Outputs | DisplayPort 1.2 (SST/MST) | |
| USB Hub | 4-port USB 3.0 hub 2 × USB Type-B upstream ports |
|
| Audio | 1 W × 2 audio in/out ports |
|
| Power Consumption (idle/active) | Idle: 0.26 W Active: 62 W |
|
| Product Bundle | Setup sheet User manual Power cord DisplayPort cable USB cable ControlSync cable |
Setup sheet User manual Power cord DisplayPort cable USB cable ControlSync cable SpectraViewII Software USB Spyder5 Color Calibration Sensor |
| Launch Price | $999 | $1150 |
The NEC MultiSync EX341R-BK and EX341R-SV-BK displays will be available in February at an MSRP of $999 and $1,149 respectively.
Related Reading:
- Dell Unveils UltraSharp U3417W: Makes Its Curved Display More Curved
- Acer Launches Curved XR382CQK Display: 37.5-inch, 3840×1600, FreeSync, & USB-C
- AOC Announces the AGON AG352UCG 21:9 Curved Display: 35", 3440×1440, 100Hz with G-Sync
- Philips BDM4037UW Goes on Sale: 40 Inch 4K Curved Display for $800
Source: NEC
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invinciblegod - Thursday, February 9, 2017 - link
I wish the gaming monitors also have the mst output port.madwolfa - Thursday, February 9, 2017 - link
Curved? Pass.Black Obsidian - Friday, February 10, 2017 - link
A 30-second comparison at your local Microcenter (or other purveyor of high-end monitors) will showcase the ignorance of the above comment.A flat 34" ultrawide at standard viewing distance will appear to be curved *away* from the viewer (because the edges are noticeably farther away than the center), making text and fine graphic details at the edges blurry. Curved screens solve this problem by keeping the edges at the same viewing distance as the middle.
A curve that is silly and useless on a 55" TV mounted twenty feet away is essential at much closer seating distances (like with this monitor) or screen diameters in tens of meters (IMAX-grade theaters).
niva - Friday, February 10, 2017 - link
Right on, curve on TVs is silly, but on a monitor actually it works great. I also encourage people to go to Best Buy or Fry's (any electronic stores) where they can compare a curved vs. non-curved computer monitor for themselves.HollyDOL - Friday, February 10, 2017 - link
While true, it works only for a single person sitting on screen axis. Then there are other problems - TV cameras are taking flat shots, not curved ones, so watching movie will create image distorsions since it's projected on a curved surface.Same goes with graphic card 3D rendering. They all render on rectangle and screen edge curving causes distorsions in what you see and what you should see if, let's say the screen was kind of portal to the rendered scene. Only recently nVidia managed to provide rendering for multiple screens each in it's respective angle against the others.
But other than that, if you use ultrawide for office usage, it will certainly be better.
xthetenth - Monday, February 13, 2017 - link
The angle of the screen to you is far more important to the perception of distortion than the relatively small displacement of the edges. On an IPS ultrawide the corners are far enough off axis to get brightness shifts which are highly visible and rather distracting.Beaver M. - Saturday, February 11, 2017 - link
Not to mention color issues at the edges with all panel technologies are fixed with curved surfaces.xthetenth - Monday, February 13, 2017 - link
This applies to IPS too, the color is okay but the brightness goes first.xthetenth - Monday, February 13, 2017 - link
I sold my flat ultrawide and have two curved ones, it's essential. At that size, the corners of the display are at a sharp enough angle from the direction you're looking that they're noticeably dimmer.NZLion - Friday, February 10, 2017 - link
Is MultiSync just branding? I was really hoping to see someone come out with a monitor that supports both FreeSync and GSync