Corsair XENEON FLEX 45WQHD240

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StoleMyOwnCar

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I saw a few other topics for this, but they're a bit old, so I wanted to ask about this monitor here in my own topic. I've been using some budget LG panels and have been considering a better monitor, but I don't want to grab a hard to drive 4k, and I don't want to sidegrade to a same-size 34-35" 3440x1440. So I was a bit lost.

I stumbled on this at the Microcenter monitor page:
https://www.microcenter.com/product...qhd-(3440-x-1440)-240hz-curved-screen-monitor

It looks like it's about $1300 everywhere right now, which is lower than it ever has been. It's still high, but it's an OLED panel with an odd resolution and a very high refresh rate. It ticks a lot of my boxes:
1. 3440x1440 which is doable by my 4090 even in many demanding games, rather than 4k
2. Really big, but still sort of reasonable since it's an ultrawide.
3. Curved (and a custom curve, too apparently?)
4. Very high refresh rate.

My main concerns:
1. It's OLED. Last OLED I remember had a weird pentile matrix. Is this okay on that front?
2. No VESA (but I guess I can grumble through that)
3. What about burn in? Honestly probably my biggest holdback with these.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this thing? If you know of any competitors or reasons to hold off on it (ie something better on the horizon), post them. I'm just idly considering it at this point since my cheapo LG ultrawides are a bit lackluster on motion clarity; it's something I've been noticing more and more.
 
3440x1440 at 45 inches you'll have pixels the size of pennies. The bending is a pointless gimmick. OLED burn-in isn't such a big issue and Corsair has a great warranty (I've RMA'ed a monitor to them for exchange and it was painless). I think Corsair makes quality products but this one seems like a solution in search of a problem.

I had a cheapo Dell 34 Ultrawide hooked up to my 7900 XTX and felt the same way you did - I wanted a nicer image, but 4K just requires too much compromise in image quality to drive at high frames. Ultimately I purchased the Alienware AW3423DWF and I'm wondering where this monitor has been my whole life because it's awesome. 165hz on OLED feels a ton smoother than 165hz on an LCD, I'm not sure why.

You might want to consider a 4K with your RTX 4090 though. There are a lot of good options at 32" - I have the Corsair 32UHD144 hooked up to my RTX 4080 and I can get 100+ FPS in most games with settings maxed and DLSS on. With an RTX 4090 it wouldn't even be an issue.
 
Zinn said:
3440x1440 at 45 inches you'll have pixels the size of pennies
Click to expand...
That's kind of an overstatement:
1700866377244.png

A penny is 1.52mm thick. That's kind of a far cry from that. I do reckon the pixels might be visible if I squinted hard enough, but my projector does a 1080p image stretched to 150" wide (not diagonal, wide). I'm willing to live with this sort of compromise for being much easier to drive. Or at least I think I am. It'll probably make it hella easy to spot dead pixels, too...

Zinn said:
The bending is a pointless gimmick.
Click to expand...

I actually quite like a curved display when it gets to this size. Does it need a custom bend from me? Eh no, but I'd at least like it to be curved at this size.

Zinn said:
Corsair has a great warranty
Click to expand...

I'm... not sure if this applies to this monitor, to be honest. I've been reading about peoples' issues on Amazon, and there are a worrying amount of individuals that are having bad experiences with Corsair's tech support on this thing. I hope they're just fake posters or something....


I also see this one at Best Buy:
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/lg-ult...itor-with-hdr10-black/6530356.p?skuId=6530356

Seems basically the same, $100 cheaper, too. Again main thing I'm worried about is burn in. Can you comment on how your monitor handles burn in, and if it's annoying or anything?

Zinn said:
You might want to consider a 4K with your RTX 4090 though. There are a lot of good options at 32" - I have the Corsair 32UHD144 hooked up to my RTX 4080 and I can get 100+ FPS in most games with settings maxed and DLSS on. With an RTX 4090 it wouldn't even be an issue.
Click to expand...

I've considered it, but frankly I don't know when we're going to be there if ever. I far prefer 3440x1440 with DLAA on than 4k with DLSS on, to be honest...
 
They actually had a model out on display at Best Buy, so I decided to look at it.

I dunno, it kind of didn't really "wow" me. It's not really a ppi thing, because it's not like I could see the pixels at what my normal sitting distance would be.

But:
1. The colors didn't quite pop as much as I thought they would.
2. The curve was slightly too aggressive. I like a curve on ultrawides, but that sort of curve would probably be difficult to work with for text.
3. I already saw image retention and/or burn in on it, where the LG logo was for the demo...
4. I couldn't actually test it for desktop use while I was there. It would only run the demo loop.

Honestly 3 and 4 were sort of big points. When I asked myself, even with their return policy, if I wanted to try it out for $1200, ultimately I couldn't do it. I think if it was under 1000, I would, but for $1200 it was too much.

And frankly, for some reason I think I would like a bigger one than this rather than smaller... but that would be getting into 4K resolutions. Oh well, I'll have to mull over it.
 
Bro you don't sound so sure of this purchase. I would force myself to think about it for another 2 weeks and see how many times you will reconsider.
Sometimes you don't need the monitors refresh rate to be higher when unlocking the fps gets you good enough results. On my 144hz HDR display I play competitive fps at 600fps and it's blazing fast. Faster then my hands and eyes can deal with. No tearing and as fast as hell. Try unlocking your fps see how you like it when you just let the 4090 run wild.
 
I'm definitely not. I was just kind of urged on by it being a "Black Friday" deal, but honestly, doesn't seem like quite enough of a deal for me to jump on it.

Right now, I'm using two of these stacked on top of each other with some monitor arms:
https://www.costco.com/lg-35"-class-ultrawide-curved-wqhd-hdr10-monitor.product.100695387.html
I flipped the second one upside down to minimize the bezel between the two. It's been fine, but I'm starting to wonder if I would benefit from a much larger single monitor. Or at the very least, one with much nicer colors and better fresh rates and pixel response times. Since it's kind of a waste to have a 4090 with budget monitors.

OLED seems to be great at that, but atm seems to just have too many drawbacks, considering even the showroom model had image retention and/or burn-in. The Corsair still seems interesting because it looks like you can customize the curve, so you can have it be flatter for desk work and then more curved for gaming immersion, but the panel would likely be the exact same one as in that LG, so all of the other issues apply. Meh.

Also, I tried out a 34" OLED variant at the store (which did allow me to browse the desktop), but the text looked like it was freaking pulsing to me or something. I think it's due to the pentile matrix they're using, combined with maybe some anti-burn-in measures? Either way it looked pretty... meh tbh. I think my next monitor I want to at least be 38", and definitely bigger.
 
StoleMyOwnCar said:
I also see this one at Best Buy:
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/lg-ult...itor-with-hdr10-black/6530356.p?skuId=6530356
Click to expand...

So, I found an open box one of these listed on Best Buy's web site at my location, for $960. Turns out when I got there it was marked down even further to $901. It was in excellent condition (according to them). So I took it home with me. At this price, I just wanted to try it out.

So far, only using it for browsing and stuff. The text isn't the best, but isn't bothering me quite as much as I thought it would. And for all the bitching about pixel pitch by other people, it's also not bothering me nearly as much as I thought it would. I certainly can't see the individual pixels at my sitting distance. The size is amazing, and while the slightly aggressive curve takes some getting used to for using in a web browser setting (as does the entire thing in general tbh), I don't mind it so far.

Also Best Buy apparently has an extended return policy for the holidays, so I have a pretty long time (till like January 13th) to decide whether I like it. Supposedly also has manufacturer warranty as well, and only lost about a month of it at most.

All these factors got me to say "well fuck it, I'm gonna at least give it a shot". Now I'm going to try actually firing up a game on it (probably Hogwarts Legacy) to see how it games. I'm looking forward to the supposedly extremely high refresh rate. What I'm scared of, on the other hand, is the possibility of burn in. We'll see. I'll report back when I gamed on it a bit.
 
So, it looks pretty amazing. The colors are great, the motion clarity is something I haven't seen since my OG ROG Swift in ULMB mode, and best of all it's BIG. It fills quite a bit of my vision and the curve with the size of this thing just REALLY helps with immersion. It has to kind of be used to be believed. It's not its forte, but it's still usable as a desktop monitor, provided you sit about as far away as I do (~34-38 inches, which is about where I recline in my Steelcase Leap). Also I can just barely get my old ultrawide to fit on top of this one with a monitor arm behind both, holding them up on one mast. That was one of my biggest concerns with this resolution, was losing my secondary above my primary, but looks like that's a non issue.

The motion clarity is really crazy at 240Hz (which I can actually reach because this isn't 4k), as I said. I fired up No Man's Sky and went out into space and I could clearly see everything moving as I panned around. I'm noticing a lot of gameplay habits that I had now, that were based on me assuming that I didn't exactly know what was happening within a certain timeframe due to blur/input delay/etc. It was pretty jarring to go "wait, I can actually kind of see what's happening now."

Again, I don't think the pixel pitch is much of an issue. I saw a lot of people parroting that issue online, but I certainly didn't give a shit while I was playing basically any game, and for desktop it's still quite usable.

There are some issues, though:

1. This particular one has 1... half dead (? looks like dirt or something is covering up part of it?) pixel? And then one dead blue subpixel and one dead red subpixel. None of them are in the center and it's kind of imperceptible in daily use, but still. It was over $900. The me of 4-5 years ago would have been freaking out and already packed it up. These days I give less of a shit. I've been a panel perfectionist before, and it's never really done me any good, mental health wise. Still, I might return it just because of this just on principle. Best Buy probably knew about this. I have no doubt the last user returned it because of this. The thing looks like it basically hadn't been used at all. It looked like they just took the adapter out, hooked it up, and put it back almost immediately. This is probably why. Geek Squad. Didn't really check much. I could also try hitting up LG support to test out the "still under manufacturer warranty". I kind of expected this to be the case either way tbh. This is just a cheaper way for me to try out the monitor, and it's not hurting anyone's feelings if I end up returning it since it was already open box anyway.

2. Actually the bigger dealbreaker is the anti-glare coating. I don't know wtf they were smoking when they decided to use AG this disruptive. Like I literally looked up at the skies in Hogwarts Legacy, Red Dead 2, etc, and I can easily see the AG coating. Like I get that part of it is the curve so you don't want internal reflections, but while it doesn't have to be glossy, I know LG has a shitton of AG coatings they could have used besides this one. My cheapo costco LG Ultrawides have a near-imperceptible AG coating. This shit looks like someone decided to shit skittles out all over the screen.

3. Even if I don't mind the pixel pitch, I can't help but wish the resolution was just a bit higher. Like not 4k, but somewhere in the middle.

I have well over a month to decide, but tbh I might end up returning it just because of this AG coating. But I like it so much for gaming that it's gonna be hard to let it go. I wish there was an equivalent replacement with a better AG coating.

As far as burn in, it's kind of interesting (to me). The monitor detects whether the image hasn't changed for a bit and then outright turns off if it stays static long enough. But when I put the mouse back inside of it, it turns right back on instantly. Probably using some sort of sleep tech. It's pretty nice, better than I expected. I remember I used to have all kinds of annoyances with using my Samsung plasma as a gaming screen, like having to pause every now and then to clear HUD elements and stuff. So far after playing for hours, I don't see any retention of the Hogwarts HUD at least.
 
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Well, I ultimately returned it. I really loved the size and most things about it, but found even more dead subpixels lol. Apparently LG is kind of known for their OLED panels having dead pixels?

But mainly it was just the AG coating. It was too ridiculous. I also saw that there was an Acer version of this monitor. I would be interested in seeing it, but I don't think any brick and mortar store nearby me has it out on display. I don't trust Amazon with monitors very much, and B&H wants shipping for it...

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCgjf8TLQRs
According to a reviewer it has this thing where it auto adjusts brightness based on content. I've had monitors that did that, and it would drive me insane.

The Corsair I linked in the OP doesn't have VESA mounting, which is kind of a deal breaker (assuming that its anti glare is any better than the garbage that is on the LG).

Sooooo I guess I'm out of options and it just wasn't meant to be.

If anyone knows of any monitors that are coming out, that are similar to this one, I'm mainly looking for:

1. OLED
2. Curved!
3. High refresh rate.
4. Preferably ultrawide
5. Close to this size, because it really fit my desk and viewing distance perfectly.
6. No ridiculous AG coating

Probably not happening, but not got much to lose by casting my fishing line. I think if I saw this monitor on sale brand new for <$900, I would definitely consider it again, but that's going to take a while.
 
StoleMyOwnCar said:
It does, but no VESA mounting unfortunately, which is a bit of a deal breaker. I have no idea how the AG coating on it is.
Click to expand...
Oh, I missed that the open box you tried at home, wasn't a flex.

Bummer about no VESA. That's a big omission.
 
chameleoneel said:
Oh, I missed that the open box you tried at home, wasn't a flex.

Bummer about no VESA. That's a big omission.
Click to expand...

Yeah, unfortunately it's a huge one considering the way I like to set up my desk.

I've been scouring around, but no monitor that's currently available checks my boxes as well as these 45" ultrawides. It was an incredibly immersive monitor when combined with the curve, and the resolution made it much easier to drive.

I guess I need to ask around to see if the Acer has a less intrusive anti-glare coating, but then again there are supposedly some more OLED monitors coming down the pipe, anyway. Hard to say if I should invest now, when next gen might bring far superior tech with it. But I definitely want this size, aspect ratio, and curvature, with whatever else comes out.
 
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