Measuring 34 inches, it has the widest angles ever

Oct 2, 2014 08:15 GMT  ·  By

In-plane switching technology, or IPS for short, has some advantages over twisted nematic (TN), particularly in terms of viewing angles. It is also pretty easy to find in TVs and monitors, usually. Curved displays haven't used it at all, though, until now.

You might say that IPS and curved panels just didn't mesh much, since one of them broadened viewing angles and the other narrowed them down, an inherent consequence of the screen being concave.

On the other hand, IPS is also the only market-viable way of offsetting the naturally narrowed field of view caused by the screen's curvature.

Thus, it was only a matter of time before someone created a display that combined the best of both worlds. LG just happened to get there first.

The LG 34UC97 34-inch Curved UltraWide Monitor

As an UltraWide monitor, the newcomer has an aspect ratio of 21:9, making it far wider than 16:9 normal displays.

That also means that the product has an unusual resolution, specifically of 3440 x 1440 pixels. Not really the same thing as 4K, but it's not like that quality is necessary for a display of this size. LG calls this resolution Ultra Quad High Definition, or UQHD for short.

Do keep in mind, however, that unless you get TV broadcasts in this format, or own movies / music videos in UHD aspect ratio, the form factor will be rather wasted.

Either the image will be zoomed in, thus causing the top and bottom edges to be “clipped,” or it will only fit the height of the screen, leading to a vertical sized blank.

Then again, 3D-capable monitors and TVs were pretty useless for a while at first too, but then 3D films started to sell through blu-ray and now everyone's looking for 120 Hz or faster panels. As for the backlighting, it is based on LED technology, of course.

Availability and pricing

LG Electronics should already be selling the 34-inch 21:9 Curved UltraWide Monitor (actually 32.7-inches measured diagonally) for a price of $1,299 / €1,029.

Not the smallest of prices, but when you think about how some of the larger, non-curved ones can sell for tens or even over one hundred thousand, it's pretty reasonable. You can connect the thing to any PC or Mac via either normal display connectors or Thunderbolt 2.

You can even daisy chain several of them together, but if you want to use a single panel to multitask you can activate the split screen too, and handle two incoming streams at once.

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