The 5 Best Ultrawide Monitors - Fall 2022 Reviews

The best ultrawide monitor we've tested is the Dell Alienware AW3423DW. It's a 34-inch, 3440x1440 monitor that's great for a variety of uses, whether you need it for watching movies, gaming, or browsing the web. Its picture quality is remarkable and better than most monitors because it has a QD-OLED panel, which results in perfect black levels without any blooming, and it also displays a wide range of colors for a vivid and life-like experience. It means that it looks amazing in dark rooms, but it doesn't deliver the same perfect black levels in bright rooms because ambient light causes the black levels to raise, meaning they look gray. Still, it reduces glare very well and has okay peak brightness if you want to use it in a room with a few lights around.

Thanks to its OLED display, it has a near-instantaneous response time that makes motion look extremely smooth. Not only is this good for gaming, but also for scrolling through the web, as you won't notice any distracting blur. Unfortunately, there are a few drawbacks to this monitor as it has some text clarity issues and color fringing, which isn't ideal for office use, but there are some workarounds to these, and despite the issues, it still offers excellent performance.

If you want something even bigger than the 34-inch screen on the Dell Alienware AW3423DW, consider a monitor with a super ultrawide format, like the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9. Although not as common as standard ultrawide displays, super ultrawide monitors offer a 32:9 aspect ratio and 5120x2140 resolution, which is the equivalent of placing two 27-inch, 1440p monitors next to each other. It's ideal if you need something for multitasking and you don't like having bezels in the middle of two screens like you would in a dual setup. The Neo G9 also has an aggressive 1000R curve that helps bring the edges within your field of vision so you can see more at once.

While this monitor delivers deep blacks for use in dark rooms, you don't get the same perfect black levels as the Dell. However, it's much better to use in well-lit rooms because it gets significantly brighter thanks to its Mini LED backlighting, so you won't have issues using it in a well-lit room, and the reflection handling is very good. Even if you want to use it for watching HDR content, it displays a wide range of colors and has excellent HDR peak brightness, so highlights pop and colors look vivid for a satisfying HDR experience.

If you want to save some money, an upper mid-range monitor like the LG 34GP950G-B is a good choice. It's different from the Dell Alienware AW3423DW because it has worse dark room performance, and it doesn't have the same peak brightness and large screen as the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9. However, that's what you have to expect for getting something cheaper, but it's still a great monitor for both gaming and office work. The 34-inch screen features a 3440x1440 resolution, which results in good text clarity, and there's also enough screen space to open a few windows next to each other.

Its accuracy before calibration is great, and it has an amazing color gamut both in SDR and HDR, so images look life-like. It also has decent reflection handling and great peak brightness, so glare isn't an issue in well-lit rooms. However, in dark rooms, it doesn't look as good because blacks look gray, and its local dimming feature is terrible, so it's better to disable it altogether. There's also a cheaper version available, the LG 34GP83A-B, that doesn't have a local dimming feature, which is good if you aren't going to use it anyways, but the 34GP950G-B still gets brighter, so it offers the best overall performance.

If you still find the LG 34GP950G-B too expensive and want something in the mid-range price category, then the Gigabyte M34WQ is a good alternative. It has the same 34-inch, 3440x1440 screen as the LG and has a few extra productivity features, but the LG still offers better performance in terms of brightness and motion handling. However, the Gigabyte offers good value and has a few office-oriented features, including a built-in KVM switch. It allows you to control two devices with the same keyboard and mouse, which is great if you need to connect a desktop and a laptop at the same time. It also has a USB-C port that supports DisplayPort Alt Mode, but it's limited to only 15 W of power delivery.

In terms of picture quality, it's much like the LG because it has great reflection handling and high peak brightness, so it performs well in bright rooms. However, that isn't the case in a dark room due to its low contrast, meaning blacks look gray. If you tend to use your monitor in a dark room, consider the Dell S3422DWG, which has a better contrast ratio. However, it doesn't have as many office-oriented features, so the Gigabyte is still the better monitor in terms of versatility.

If you want an ultrawide monitor on a budget, you can't expect them to be as cheap as other budget-friendly monitors, mainly because ultrawide models are bigger and naturally cost more. However, there are a few ultrawide monitors that are cheaper than the ones above. Something like the AOC CU34G2X is a good option, as it's still versatile and doesn't break the bank. You don't get the same office-oriented features as the Gigabyte M34WQ or the good picture quality of the LG 34GP950G-B, but it does its job as an ultrawide monitor. It looks best in dark rooms thanks to its high native contrast ratio, and even in rooms with a few lights around it has decent reflection handling and decent peak brightness.

Due to its panel type, it has narrow viewing angles that make the edges of the screen look washed out if you sit too close, but it has an aggressive 1500R curve to bring the edges more within your field of vision to reduce the issue. Despite its budget price, it has better ergonomics than most ultrawide monitors as you can swivel it, adjust the height, and tilt it, which is ideal if you like to readjust the display to put it in an ideal position.