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The gauntlet has been thrown down, Chad. All right, look. MSI threw down the gauntlet a couple of weeks ago. Well, about a month ago now, actually. And the gauntlet was this 3440 by 1440 UWQHD ultra-wide OLED fifth-generation panel. Fifth-generation QD-OLED. So, I've been using this for a couple of weeks. And I don't like that MSI was right. They're mostly right. I still would prefer not an ultra-wide, but the technology in this QD-OLED it's a five-layer like it's We'll talk about it. But they were right. It is actually pretty legit. Let's Let's chat.
Okay, some context whether or not you follow this channel or not. I love OLED monitors because they can like sear the back of my retina. Even the inexpensive OLED monitors, which you know, I've done some videos on. You can get some pretty good deals. Costco was selling Dell OLED monitors not long ago. The difference is that the technology is like generations of the technology. There's earlier generation OLED, there's later generation OLED. And I like this so much that I reached out to MSI and I said, "Hey, when are you going to make a not ultra-wide version of this that's 4K that has the same basic features?" And I
said, "Well, we're not emphasizing the non-ultra-wide right now, but this is the panel that they showed at CES." And I have to admit that they were right that this actually is really good and I do actually enjoy using this panel cuz they saw me covering other OLEDs and they said, "Well, why don't you check out the ultra-wide? We think you'll like it." And I didn't think that I would like it as much as I do, but I really do. And it's because of the technology that's in the panel. Let me put it another way. If a tree falls in the forest and there's no one around to hear it, it doesn't make a sound. In MSI's case with this monitor, it does not in fact make a sound because the tree is programmable. Or well, I mean
the downside of OLED is that it wears. This monitor has a 3-year warranty. They got you locked up covered with that, you know, even for burn-in. Like, okay, you got some burn-in, some afterimage, they're going to replace the display. And if we're on year two or year three and MSI is giving you a hard time about replacing your monitor, that is what the Level One Techs Forum is for because you can post there and we can talk about those kinds of things and keep companies on good behavior cuz that's why we like that's that's how we roll. I mean see also some of the complaining that I've done about other brands and things for Yeah, but So, burn-in covered in the warranty 3 years. How do they do that? It's kind of
like an occupancy sensor on the front of the display. It checks to see if anybody's around. And so, there's there's a little infrared there like a an occupancy sensor that you have, you know, in a bathroom or a house or whatever these days where it automatically turns the lights on and off. That automatically turns on and off the brightness features of this display because it is 1300 nits peak brightness. A lot of the more inexpensive OLEDs that I've been reviewing, they're 200 to 250 nits peak brightness. 1300 nits peak brightness. And so, yes, that will wear and that is hard on the panel if you're using this thing 8, 12,
16 hours a day. Covered in the warranty though if you're using it 8, 12, 16 hours a day, not a problem. With that level of brightness, the pixels will wear because each pixel emits the light. And as the pixels wear, the ability of a pixel to emit more or less light also changes. And so, the display has to be recalibrated. There's software. There's a lot of smarts in the controller to deal with that on modern OLED panels. This is QD-OLED and it's fifth generation. It's a five-layer tandem OLED implementation and a true vertical RGB stripe in the RGB subpixel ordering.
See, sometimes you get a TV or a TV like a panel that was not really designed for a monitor that has been repurposed for a monitor with OLED. And you get odd pixel shapes or a display that is designed for somebody sitting farther away than, you know, 12 to 24 inches and other things that can introduce Well, and other aspects of the panel design that affect things like text sharpness. Because the subpixel layout here is designed the way that it is and because it is a five-layer pixel, the text sharpness, which is usually the thing that suffers on OLED panels, is noticeably sharper than the other OLED panels that I've been using. So again, it's another technology that I would like to have in modern OLED panels that
don't cost thousands upon thousands of dollars. That's to say that this is not an inexpensive display, but it is up to 360 hertz for gaming and everything else. Actually, it has a lot of gaming features, features like contrast enhancement. It's like, "Oh, I would like the contrast to be enhanced on other players, opposing players that are in the grass in our first-person shooter." It's built into the monitor. There's not really a way to detect that the monitor is giving you enhanced contrast. You can set your own color curves. Basically, a LUT for the display that lives on the display. So, you can turn player colors into fluorescent pink if you want.
That's definitely not cheating. Uh we do We don't We prefer not the term cheating. It's uh just not tournament legal. Oh, and the monitor also comes with a color calibration report. So, if you're intending to use this for a little bit of work and a little bit of play the MPG 341CQD OLED X36 monitor test report DCI-P3 and uh monitor. So, you get really good sRGB, DCI-P3, and Adobe RGB coverage. 99.2% DCI-P3 and 98.1% Adobe RGB. And this is the report for this specific monitor. That's very nice to see. Now, in terms of inputs, you have DisplayPort. It's 1.4, but it supports display stream compression because 360 hertz. You also
have two DisplayPort 2.1. They are designed for variable refresh rate. And, you know, HDMI 2.1 with variable refresh rate for Xbox and PlayStation 5. There's also a USB Type-C input. It does have a built-in KVM function and it does have a built-in USB 3B input, two USB Type-A ports on the bottom. So, you can use the USB 3 Type-B input with one computer and then use the USB-C connection for a laptop connection or whatever and that will all work. There are some controls in the on-screen display that have to do with the KVM function and power and charging and all that sort of stuff. And so, we need to
talk about that in just a minute. When the monitor is in standby, it uses just 3.4 watts. Now, in terms of fit and finish and mechanical design the stand is pretty premium. It has a metal foot. So, the foot itself at the bottom is very thin, but it's very sturdy. It also has a standard VESA 100 mm mounting mechanism at the back, but it does not come with VESA screws or at least mine didn't. Mine might be a little weird cuz I think it was like a CES floor model and I've had to update the firmware on it a couple of times, which we'll talk about that under the quirks and oddnesses section of the review toward the end. But I really like the VESA mount and the monitor is oddly light for how well it's put together. It is curved. There is a very slight curve
that it has for the display, so be aware of that if you do or do not like curved monitors. This is VESA Clear MR 18000 and display HDR True Black 500. The panel is very glossy. But the glossiness is what MSI calls dark armor, which is scratch resistant and it helps the blacks be darker blacks because the OLED panel itself is not the OLED panel that has the outer black coating. It's tandem QD-OLED. So, quantum dot OLED, which is a fun mechanism in and of itself. Um it took me a bit to get used to the level of glossiness of this display given the other OLED displays that I'm using. It is glossier than a television.
It is absurdly glossy. If you are in an area that has really bright sunlight, it will reflect the sun into your eyes and blind you. But it's OLED. The OLED will outcompete the sun. So, I don't know. If you're into burned retinas, maybe it'll be okay. Another feature that I want to call out is the motion blur suppression. So, if you turn variable refresh rate off the monitor will do more processing on the frames to try to reduce the motion blur from the signal that's coming into it. And I don't know how that works, but it is visually apparent that something some sort of dark magic is going on there when playing games like
Doom. I usually turn motion blur off and chromatic aberration and cinematic effects like that in pretty much every game that I play, but you still get like a little bit motion blur even on absurdly fast response time OLED displays, but MSI is doing some processing in the controller on the display to make things even It's It's like the If you've ever seen a soap opera on television where it's like it's shot at an unsettling 60 FPS versus, you know, a cinematic 24 FPS with the motion blur, but it's not really the motion blur, it's really the shutter speed. It's kind of like that. It feels like the soap opera end of things as opposed to the cinematic end of things. There are no less than nine options in the
on-screen display that have to do with pixel shift and pixel control and presence detection and things to extend the lifetime of the display including analyzing what kind of image is on the display, looking for the taskbar, looking for icons, looking for static parts of the display and then dimming the static parts of the display, and knowing if you're in front of the display and how to dim and also just warning you that, "Hey, you've been using this thing for 24 hours or 48 hours or whatever without a pixel refresh, maybe we need to do a pixel refresh. It'll prevent you from noticing that the pixels are wearing unevenly because the display can deal with that when you're not using it. There's a lot of
on-screen options for managing OLED health, which is nice to see. And some of you might be concerned about that, but again, 3-year warranty. So, what's the downside? Like what's the verdict? What's what's you know, what's the real story here? Well, one, I didn't expect that I would like this display as much as I do. The wide screen is really quite good. The worst thing about it is 110 pixels per inch. It's a little Well, it's a little over 110 pixels per inch. I'm used to a slightly higher pixel density. And it's a little off-putting, I have to tell you that the text sharpness here with the lower PPI is better than in terms of like fringing and that sort of stuff on
other OLED displays that I have that have a higher pixel density. Not I mean, it's not dramatically higher on the other displays, but they are higher. And so, that's a very weird sensation. I don't really care for the glossiness of the display, but when I'm consuming media content, it is higher fidelity, and I do like that. MSI has put a lot of work into the on-screen display options, but there are a lot of on-screen display options. It's not necessarily a negative or a positive, but you will have to put some care, I think, into your specific set of selections for the on-screen display for things that make sense for you. For example, it has like the taskbar detection and like static window placement and static content, and
you want to make sure that the combination of options for those things make sense to you because you might get this display and say, "Oh, this is not living up to my expectations for like the you know, a really high-end QD-OLED display." And it might be down to the specific settings that you have in the OSD. Same with like color accuracy, sRGB, Adobe RGB, there are options for that in the OSD. So, you're going to have to dig through the OSD and sort of understand and make sure that you configure it. Uh you're probably going to be If you were, you know, first-person competitive first-person shooter, it's like, "Oh, we're going to play PUBG or whatever." And it's like, "I need to be able to see people in the
grass." Turn your graphics settings all the way down, mess with contrast curves in the display. Okay, yeah, that sort of makes sense. Um I wish the USB-C charging was compatible with more devices. Now, my GPD Win 2023 is a 65 W, works fantastic with that. It doesn't work with my HP G1A, which requires 140 W. So, and it requires 140 W at a weird voltage. So, look at the compatibility options for the display. And the compatibility improved a little bit with the firmware update. And also, this is a monitor that needs firmware updates. Like MSI has improved the firmware a couple of times. The presence detection on the earlier firmware, I was not super enthused about. Now, you can disable
that through the on-screen display, but I would also like to extend the lifetime of my panel. Even though it's got a 3-year warranty, I don't want to fool with the headache of the 3-year warranty and mailing it in. And be sure to hang on to the box for RMA services. It is quite a bulky box. It's not a requirement, but it would make your life easier and less chance of, you know, something going bad when you ship it. So, it's not really a downside, it's just something to be aware of that there may be software updates for your monitor, and you may have to attach USB and connect it. The HDMI mode, because PC and consoles like are a little divergent in HDMI compatibility, it does give you the OSD
option to toggle between the two. That's another thing you have to be aware of. It's like, "Oh, I'm not getting the HDMI experience that I would really want from the PC side of things." Make sure that the HDMI is in PC mode as opposed to console mode here, or you're using DisplayPort to connect to a desktop computer, because DisplayPort's a superior interface anyway. I know. The other downside, maybe, is cost. At this price point, I would love to have a 32-in 4K 3840 by 2160 with the same exact feature set. Fifth generation QD-OLED and all that sort of stuff. That said, I'm going to send this back soon, and it's it's going to pain me to send it back, but I need the pixels.
I need the pixels for work and everything else. Gaming, uh I could maybe ultra-wide gaming, because most games support 3440 by 1440 really well in a gaming context. Maybe I could get used to gaming, but I'm still not somebody who would seek out an ultra-wide display. I would rather have, you know, a 16 by 9 or even a 16 by 10 display as opposed to 3440 by 1440 ultra-wide. But this is an exceedingly nice display. I had no idea that QD-OLED or that like fifth like the gamut of OLED technologies is pretty wide. It's wider than I expected. And so, I learned something in putting this together. So, nice job, MSI. And if you run it full tilt bananas,
and you do experience burn-in or something like that near the end of the 3-year warranty, well, let's hope MSI will honor your warranty. And if not, you can complain in the Level One Techs forums, and you know, everybody will see. But I don't anticipate any kind of issues like that. Otherwise, yeah, that's that's pretty much the long and short of it. I'm Wendell at Level One if you have any questions, or you have a setup with this that you'd like to show off, you know, show us in the community. forum.level1techs.com. I'm signing out, and I'll see you there.
