That's the curse of the tech enthusiast A normal person would simply buy a product and be done with it. Us geeks will always be updated on the new products though, and regrets will happen It's also good though, means there's been a progression, which os exciting
@@martingorbush2944 True. I try to buy something better for longer term and my excuses not to upgrade is: 1st - still works; 2nd - can't afford anything better :D
Same here! I am hoping that programmable hardware "macro button" can be programmed to switch between computers. Many other monitors with integrated KVM still require you to go into the OSD and navigate the menus to do the switch.
@@CheekSoda Surely that's problematic though as how often are you going to need to switch between multiple Windows PCs? More likely you want to switch to Linux, or a game console, so you still need to use the OSD to switch back.
@@alexatkin The OS you're on is irrelevant as the KVM switch/macro should just switch between outputs. That's the case on my M34Q; I hit the button and it switches between DP for my PC and whatever I have plugged into the USB-C (my work laptop or even my phone with Samsung Dex). There's no reason to go into the OSD if you're just switching inputs.
@@rahelwijeyekoon9403 Ah sorry I misread your post, thought you meant a keyboard macro. Yeah a hardware button on the monitor is good, have the M28U myself. The only flaw with my monitor is the lack of decent power output on USB-C so if I plug the Steam Deck in the battery still drains.
OLD OLED panels - so don't get excited. End of FY23 the new OLED V2 Samsung QD panels will drop into computer monitors. These current OLEDs are never worth more that $700 ish tops. OLD OLD OLD. Don't fall for it.
Of course we are. I've had quite a few monitors over the years and nothing really comes close to this one in terms of the overall package. Perfect size, perfect blacks, insane response time, godly HDR.
@@MiDnYTe25bro u better not be lying, I'm thinking about picking this up in a few when micro center open. I'm going to take ur word for it. I own the g8 oled, and the input and response time is soon high, I'm returning it for this one
Can't wait for this stuff to get cheaper tbh, I remember forking out for a 'nice TN' with 144hz years ago when it was pretty much a choice between 1080p 144hz or 1440 60hz unless you were going to really splurge. Yet now I'm sat with an ips 1440p 165hz monitor which wasn't much more than my old 1080p one. Don't get me wrong, it's cool looking at this higher end stuff but I love seeing the tech trickle down over the years
I still love my VAs. But I’m a big fan of curved monitors, and the fact that we’re getting curved IPS and namely OLED displays now is great, but I’m more than willing to wait another 5-10 years for those to cost me the same $400 my 32” curved 1440 165hz monitor did 😅
Likewise, due to exchange study I've been out of a loop in PC hardware for 2 years, and remember looking for 1440p TN 60hz monitors with gsync which costed 500 usd. Last summer i finally got back and got a 165hz, 1440p, IPS, hdr400, gsync monitor for 240 usd. (Approx, i got it in Taiwan) As exciting as the high-end can be, it's awesome seeing the new standard of affordable choices.
I also have a 144hz 1080p TN, it does actually look nice enough when sitting in the centre. I'm currently waiting for a 1440p high refresh rate monitor with good local dimming for HDR. Cooler Master has one already for ~$500, but I did hear it has some issues.
The delta E is less than 2, but that might not be true for HDR content. If it’s already accurate I don’t think your complaint is valid, but I haven’t finished the video yet.
I'll fully believe it when I see documentation that states it in writing, but this is claimed to have a 3 year warranty with burn-in coverage, at least according to MSI's own livestream for the release of this monitor. While it's 1100 USD, in Europe this has a 1499 EUR MSRP price tag (assuming included 20% tax). Very hard to swallow when it's competing against the Samsung OLED G8 (1299 EUR), Alienware DW (1199 EUR), DWF (1099 EUR).
Indeed, I have the G8. And apart from the infinitely better ui the Msi has, there isn't a big difference. The G8 does have an external power brick and uses non standard cables. So overall the Msi does seem to be better but not for that price increase. Also the G8 has been discounted recently on German Amazon. I got mine for 1,100 a month ago
Alienware AW3423DWF is often sold for £900 or less and I definitely prefer the design. €1,499 is too much, I'm not seeing anything here that justifies the higher price. It is an outstanding panel though.
@@SinisterSkip yeah, that's a good price, if it was 6+ months ago. Today, the 32" 4K 240 Hz monitors are now slowly becoming available on the market, and for me at least, the MEG 342C is no longer relevant. I believe this is the case for many people and MSI knows this, so they are forced to lower the price to move existing stock.
I think 175Hz is perfectly fine for 95%+ of PC users who don't play extremely fast shooters. Also, if you talk about 'relevance', a monitor above 1k is not relevant for most people. @CheekSoda
I wish they would demo the KVM functionality. As someone who has a KVM for work n play, I wanna know how if it works well before I buy it. Could be a small demo they could do in the future
@ 13:10 ... so that is actually a bug in windows. If you set your refresh rate first then switch to portrait mode you can have a high refresh rate on your monitor. for some reason when you switch to portrait mode in windows it locks your refresh rate to whatever it was previously set at.
I have the original G9 and even though it only has like 9 dimming zones, the HDR looks super good in games that support it. I love how headlights in Forza actually look like they are emitting light.
@4:52 One more thing - this monitor is supposed to have 4× USB-A ports. There are 2× USB-A near the DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.1 ports, and another 2× USB-A ports on the side of the monitor.
He regrets his purchase of his monitor from this $5000 tech upgrade. And regrets not getting this one. So. Not misleading. And clickbait is the life blood of this platform. Get used to it.
@@andrewwunder7255 Not everyone watches ETG. It's misleading in the context of a MONITOR REVIEW. I appreciate clickbait, I don't appreciate misleading titles that implicate a negative experience from a new product.
11:34 That is one of my favorite videos you got on display there, I absolutely love watching those tour videos or the like in a big high resolution screen and just relaxing. I watch a lot of bus tours and things like that after a long day at work cause I find it relaxing to just sit back have my meal and then turn in for the day. I personally can't drive anymore due to an accident and I used to like my trip to work cause it was a short drive through the valley or back roads and so this is kind of an extension of that. I miss those daily trips there was a river alongside near my place that I got to stop by and it meant I was near home.
oled has me apprehensive af especially for a monitor. Buying a 1k+ display and hoping it'll last 5 years without your screen degrading is just a strange concept to me.
for those on the fence, this monitor is better than the alienware because it has KVM built in and logo dimming, something that the alienware lacks entirely, the logo dimming pretty much prevents the static elements from burning in, that feature is amazing and something that all OLED's should have
this is so gonna be my next upgrade alongside a new 16:9 monitor cuz im getting 200-300 fps in most of my games but im only sporting a 75hz monitor at the moment i used to have a 120hz laptop so i can also tell theres decent room for improvement
I think the I/O for this monitor is really good. I got the Samsung G8 OLED version of this panel and their I/O is MiniDP, MicroHDMI, USB-C (65W DP), and USB-C 15W and that's IT. Then they included a MiniDP to DP cable which would be fine with a GPU but I only had my laptop at the time so I had to go hunt down a Thunderbolt/high throughput USB C cable. Wish Samsung just included one of those or an HDMI cable instead as that seems more standard. But I will say having the USB-C inputs is really cool for sharing my keyboard and for DP/power delivery with my work laptop.
I dunno, they keep getting better and better at reducing burn in. Before I bought my Alienware I watched a review where the dude intentionally left is on a static image for like a week while he was on vacation to see what would happen. It was totally fine. I just turn mine off when I’m not using it, and if I forget when I go to work it’s not a big deal.
Great video! I totally agree with you on UW, curve, and screws to secure monitor, even if it clips in. However, I disagree with you on brightness and height. The height you mentioned the posture ramifications, but the brightness is bad for your eyes. Several Techies recommend turning it down, not up. Better for your eyes long term, and you can play longer without eye fatigue. I have an older MSI 34" UW with 1800R, great initiation to the market, now I wish I had 1500 or 1000 R curvature. Oh well, I am not changing monitor as there is nothing wrong with it and it is still great for work and gaming.
Coming from a 34in 1440p UW to a 42in LG C2 I have to say that I like the C2 better in almost every way. No wasted space/black bars, super sharp, and if you really want you can emulate an UW with a custom resolution. Also I bought my C2 new for $800, $1100 seems too high even if it is QD-OLED.
That C2 is a TV that goes to 120 Hz. Whereas the QD-OLED goes up to 165-175 Hz, supports full KVM functionality (WITH USB-PD at 65W), and is generally better for PC gaming.
I love that I can see the coating damage from here, 1000's of miles away. Like the Alienwares, no thank you. Protect your super sensitive panels better manufacturers, how hard is it.
Yeah, I saw that too. At 3:54 the left side looks to be ruined already. It seems only Samsung had more than 1 brain cell to at least slap a screen protector on this panel. Then later on they're eating RMA + restocking/packaging losses because people return them for scratched panels out of the box.
Its insane how much more expensive this monitor is in Europe... 1499 MSRP is crazy with other monitor brands being 200-300 euros lower. Its still an amazing looking monitor!
Just purchased this monitor yesterday.. I also have the 49 inch super ultra wide made by msi that thing is a beast…. It’s not 240hz or even 175 but it’s still flawless..
Black bars had been my biggest issue with ultrawides for a long time. For example i stopped playing resident evil 7 because i couldnt stand the bars and no way to mod the game. Im still so happy for every 99% black loading screen to appear on my aw3423dw now. I have had it for a year and still its so magic to see small icons floating in the void.
Bro I played re7 on my samsung 49 inch ultrawide with no black bars, I think i used some program/patcher. Almost every game I've come across that doesn't support ultrawide, there's an easy fix out there just do more research.
@@lakzerk2344 the black bars problem is a game and video dependant thing. On the OLED its actually not that bad because you wont have this "bright black" from lcds making the black bars very obvious. I play in a dark room and when the oled switches to 16:9 i cant see the rest of the monitor anymore as if it was 16:9 in the first place. Now nearly 1 year of extensive use later i start to nitice burnin especially noticable at the borders between 16:9 and 21:9. The "unused" outer part of the 12:9 is clearly brighter than the 16:9 overlap and with steam in fullscreen for example there is a noticable color difference resulting in a straight line from top to bottom on boths sides from "fullscreen" videos. With OLED the black bars are less of an inconvenience but still kinda frustrating if you cant use the whole monitor.
1800R on a monitor this size is nice. I picked up a Samsung G8 Oled (same panel) last week and love it but at least the MSI has full size connectors........what where you thinking Samsung?
Same, I love the G8’s stand and UI, and the speakers are surprisingly usable. But yeah the ports are scarce and weird. It should at least come with a microHDMI to HDMI adapter.
Wait, how often does that &^#@!$ controller plushy in the background blink??!? I saw it at 12:05 and now i'm questioning every video shot on this set.....
I got an lg c2 11 months ago and it's absolutely great, the issue is that it's not as easy or cheap to run 4k games than it is to run at 1440. Just something to consider if you're looking for high end oled screens.
Depends on set up, but generally I agree it won't mesh well with most. You should be using a custom mounting solution with these anyway (with the exception of Samsung's own model). I couldn't wait to get rid of the Alienware stand, take's up too much space and causes the monitor to push out too far.
Man I wish someone would actually review these panels for productivity content as well. Such a huge miss from all these monitor reviews. How do these panels hold up with the static windows bar for example over the long term. Text display clarity, image retention... I game as much as the next person but trying to figure out which oled display is going to do well for anything but gaming is incredibly difficult.
Damn, I sure would like to have a QD-OLED that wasn't expensive as hell and curved. Maybe I'm just showing up to the party too early and there won't be any QD-OLED monitors for mere mortals until 2024.
Im so excited for OLED Panels and you really see that he is too! Love it! Im so close to selling my LG Ultrawide to get something OLDE but i payed 1k for that thing and its hard to justify one thats even more expensive.....
@@Gatorade69 Same. On one hand, if you want to put a small stripe on my motherboard or whatever sure, I just won't look a it. But on the monitor's frame ???? Hell no, imagine having rainbow vomit in front your eyes, trying to play some horror games or watching movie in the dark. At that point surely you'd realize that's a stupid fucking idea 🤣
@@vuri3798 I turned all mine off, except for the ram. I mean I would have bought ram without RGB but this 32gb of DDR4 3200 Corsair Vengeance ram was a steal at $5.99 I couldn't pass up. I do kind of enjoy the RGB on my keyboard, that's because I can make it one solid color and use it as a backlight, but besides that It's just annoying on anything else.
This was the monitor i wanted for a while before it came out. I decided i didn't want to wait to make an upgrade and wemt with the LG C2 OLED 42 EVO and I have no regrets.
I think I'm going to have to wait for 4k 175Hz+ OLED monitors to justify upgrading from my 1440p 144Hz IPS panel... but I can't wait for that day to come lol
My understanding when trying to look for info on this monitor a few months ago is that it has the same panel as both Alienwares (the DW and the DWF), the first of which was released a year ago. Supposedly there will be newer qd-oled panels coming out this year with better brightness and less burn-in. For this price (the same as the Alienware DWF model released a few months ago), it feels a little late to the party
I’m rlly curious about the article or video u found talking about upcoming better panels later this year. I want to buy an ultra wide qd oled but might hold out if this is true
@@EthanDolman I don't remember the exact articles I read, but if you search for Samsung Display qd-oled 2023 you will find press releases with at least some of the details
Despite MSI, Alienware, and Samsung are using the same QD-OLED panel, their actual products that carry those panels are tuned to be noticeably different. This review channel should reveal those differences instead of just posting something that is common to know. For exmaple, how is 342C tunned in peak HDR1000 mode? Is it more accurate that alienware's tuning, etc.
Nice review. Currently rocking the LG 45" OLED but text can be just a touch fuzzy so thinking of grabbing this just to do a side by side and see who wins the spot on my desk
text fuzzyness is also dependent on how the cleartype is set up. But if you sit too close you can see color fringing (tbh normal rgb monitors also have this issue but cleartype can work around it better)
I'd like to see Plouffe try a grey burn in test on his aw34. With reports of QD-OLED experiencing burn in faster than conventional OLED I'm wondering how is panel is holding up.
@@alfredthibodeaux2414 yes, with multiple HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 2.0 and USB 3.2 20gbit + DP over USB-C with KVM functionality. I should be able to have my laptop connected via DP either directly of via my thunderbolt dock and easily switch between the laptop, my rig or a PS5.
I own an MSI G27C 1st gen and it was a nightmare. It wouldn’t detect most inputs that other monitors have no problem with and would randomly turn blue. Now the HDMI and DP connectors only work at 1280 x 800 and look terrible.
I'm fairly sure daisy chaining isn't a thing without thunderbolt, and possibly USB 4.0? Either way, it would need to have 2 ports, this just has a single USB C.
I've been watching the 342C for a hot minute, since it was announced like, a year and a half ago, and seeing this has confirmed that im gonna finally make the jump to QD-OLED from the Odyssey G5, which will be relegated to a 3rd monitor.
I had an earlier model MSI monitor. MAG 27 (I can’t remember all the numbers that came after). Within 3 months, screen isn’t even usable for the first 5 minutes. Just flickers and looks…broken. Tried to RMA, MSI’s RMA team says they didn’t do RMA on screen related issues. I got denied. Never again. I do not care if the policy has changed.
To all you money splurgers (like me), I had an AW3423DWF and just sold it after 3 months and bought a Neo G9. Because in real life after the 3 seconds when you first use it, you forget it's QD-OLED until the pixel refresh pop-up comes on your monitor. Of course everyone has different use cases but as a gamer, Neo QLED is gives you a very similar experience and you don't have to worry about static windows etc. I chose the Neo G9 because I have a Neo QLED TV that I chose over an OLED and blacks are just as black that you can't even tell if TV is on or off. My point is if you're trying to decide between these QD-OLED monitors or mini-leds, choose the monitor with the features you want because you'll be WOWed with either panel.
No screen peel out of the box, just like the AW3423DW, not smart from MSI, the screencoating loves to scratch fast, the Odyssey G8 OLED does have screen peel tho.
QD-OLED still rubs me the wrong way because of the purple hue you get in lit rooms. Doesn't have to be very lit either in my experience. It's so extremely noticeable that everything black is actually just purple-ish. WOLEDs might have some disadvantages compared to QD-OLED (though MLA removes most of them), but I prefer it so much more for the actual pure blacks.
the purple hue is due to the stupid coating (semi glossy) all brands use, samsung, msi and alienware. QD oled panel itself is pitch black, i own a qd oled TV.
Im thinking about getting this one because of the USB C connection. Im just not sure how much the fringing and lower ppi is going to bother me since currently in my studies to becoming a programmer. Sadly, there is not a single store in reach that has ANY 110 ppi oleds out for show.
I haven't found the 110 ppi oled fringing issue to be that bad at all. It honestly looks just like my older 110 ppi lcd. I have an LG panel, so maybe the Samsung is different, but I think this issue is not as bad as its made out to be.
12:23 its your neck you need to worry about. My posture is bad while gaming for 40 years. It's only in the past few years my neck is hurting from bad posture. The pain starts in my neck and works its way to my head and forehead. I get a massive headache from it especially on warm / hot summer days. My necksometimes hurts when I'm not gaming. I saw videos 15+ years ago warning it would happen and I thought it would never happen to me
If more 34 in oled ultrawides are coming out can we soon get a video comparing them this year I never thought of ultrawide cause of them being made under 34' but now I'm interested to switch instead of my two monitor setup
No one is going to talk about the AWESOME headphone microphone combo jack? Never seen a monitor with it yet I've always wanted mine to have it. Only having headphone out is such a bummer
