ViewSonic XG350R-C 35" Curved Gaming Monitor Review

The XG350R-C is ViewSonic'due south latest ultrawide monitor aimed exclusively at the gaming market. A 35-inch 3440 10 1440 MVA display with a maximum refresh rate of 100 Hz, an 1800R curvature and FreeSync. It retails for $700, then information technology's a little on the premium side, but we'll see how it performs and whether information technology stacks upward to other popular monitors in this category.

ViewSonic has included several gamer features in add-on to the specs we just mentioned, including RGB lighting, something ViewSonic calls 'ClearMotion' (backlight strobing), and black stabilization. This is combined with depression input lag and basic back up for HDR10 content.

Out of the box we noticed the XG350R-C is kind of a chunky monitor, non just in terms of bulk but also the bezels. A lot of monitors are moving to slimmer designs, simply it seems ViewSonic hasn't got the message considering it's bigger than even the Acer Predator X34 which was released back in 2022.

The base is pretty massive, too, though we know some people prefer these designs to the wide three-pronged stands but this thing really takes upwards a lot of room on a desk. The adept news is this adaptable stand does support swivel, tilt and peak adjustability. On more than upkeep offerings it's rare to get height aligning, so this is a welcome inclusion on an otherwise sturdy construction.

On the rear we're moving into gamer territory with RGB LED lighting and some 'gamer' patterns. This isn't as egregious as, say, an Asus ROG design but it also lacks that sleek and subtle aesthetic that I personally relish. There'southward besides LED lighting in the base of the stand which shines towards the front end, and a headphone rest that pops out of the stand on the dorsum.

The build quality is rather unimpressive. Non bad, but the heavy apply of stock standard black plastic doesn't requite the XG350R-C a premium look. When y'all combine this with the general chunkiness you'd exist more inclined to advise information technology was a upkeep display, rather than something priced almost $700.

The array of ports is proficient, two HDMI 2.0, a DisplayPort input, a basic three-port USB hub and a 3.5mm audio output jack. You exercise get internal speakers for basic audio output.

The on-screen brandish is both adept and bad. We like the inclusion of a directional toggle, but ViewSonic has still somehow made information technology hard to navigate past continually switching which buttons perform which deportment depending on the expanse of the menu you lot are in. A nitpick but we constitute information technology annoying enough to mention. The card'due south color scheme is hard to read on sure backgrounds, too, so I oftentimes found myself needing to put a white window behind the menu but so I could see what'south going on.

We did find some useful features in here. ClearMotion, ViewSonic'southward brand name for backlight strobing or black frame insertion, provides additional clarity to motion in some gaming environments. I'g personally not a fan as the backlight brightness drops and you tin can't utilise it alongside FreeSync, simply some people beloved this sort of feature. There's besides a wide diversity of game modes, colour settings, and so on. I was surprised at the lack of cheat crosshairs though given how ubiquitous that feature is amongst other brands.

Ane thing we should mention is our unit shipped with two dead pixels in the far bottom right corner, in close proximity to each other. This does happen from time to time, information technology's not really something everyone will experience, we were merely unlucky with our unit of measurement.

Performance

Let's talk refresh rate before we move into other functioning metrics. This is a 3440 x 1440 console at 100 Hz which we think even so qualifies as loftier refresh these days, despite the availability of 144 and fifty-fifty 200 Hz at this resolution. It'south a smoother experience than lx Hz, the step up to 144 Hz is noticeable but nosotros feel for a lot of gamers, especially those who don't have a loftier-end GPU, this refresh rate is very nice.

The resolution is 1440p-class which is perfect for gaming and productivity tasks, and the 21:9 attribute ratio adds that scrap of immersion to your gameplay. As someone that games on an ultrawide I definitely recommend it. ViewSonic is providing adaptive sync with low framerate compensation, which is a must. Information technology works perfectly on AMD and Nvidia GPUs and certainly no issues with flickering.

1440p ultrawide high refresh monitors have matured a lot in recent years to the point where even VA offerings have decent refresh rates, in contrast to some non-ultrawide displays with similar specs. Using the Ultra Fast overdrive setting, we recorded a grey to gray boilerplate response time of 5.13ms, which equally yous can see is one of the fastest VA response time averages we've measured. Typically for a 16:9 monitor these panels sit effectually 7-9ms simply for some reason these ultrawides are just a lot faster.

The XG350R-C is around 0.7ms faster than the 34-inch VA equivalent of this panel you see in budget offerings like Kogan's 34-inch ultrawide. The departure being 34-inch panels are manufactured by Samsung, whereas AU Optronics makes the 35-inch models. This ViewSonic monitor is also a picayune faster than the best LG IPS panels accept to offer with this resolution, as seen in the LG 34GK950F and its 6.1ms transition time. Even so, there's a flake of a cluster in that v-6ms bracket with not much difference betwixt each selection.

In terms of input lag, another decent event for the XG350R-C with under 4ms of latency, which is inside the usual bracket of gaming monitors. The LG 34GK950F is the fastest ultrawide we've tested at two.4ms of latency simply we're talking about a pocket-sized 1ms deviation here.

Effulgence is good, 330 nits out of the box is going to be likewise brilliant for most users, and without any real HDR support in that location's nothing to be concerned most. The contrast ratio, even so, is a weak spot for AU Optronics' ultrawide panel: it sits at just 1900:i for the XG350R-C, compared to effectually 3000:one for monitors that utilise Samsung's.

The XG350R-C is a standard gamut monitor that focuses on sRGB, in my testing it exceeds the sRGB spectrum slightly just not by enough to exist DCI-P3 compliant. Not that this matters, sRGB is most important for PC usage today whether that's gaming or awarding use.

Color Reproduction

This monitor is surprisingly decent in terms of its calibration. A white indicate of 6554K is excellent, and if information technology weren't for a bit of inaccuracy in the darker area of the gamma bend, nosotros'd be looking at a sub 2.0 deltaE average. When viewing saturation operation, we do striking that sub-2.0 deltaE average which is bang-up and helped massively by the accurate white point. And so nosotros also become a meliorate than average result when viewing ColorChecker numbers.

Considering most gaming-grade monitors ship with very footling calibration to speak of, we're pleased to run into near-accurate results from the ViewSonic XG350R-C out of the box. With a few pocket-sized tweaks and changes to the color controls in the on-screen display I was able to tighten things up further, with sub-2.0 deltaE averages beyond the board, a very strong showing here.

And of form we tin go one step further with a total scale, the results of which you can run across below:

OSD calibration results ( i - 2 - iii ) | Fully calibrated results ( 1 - two - 3 )

While this monitor delivers stiff color results, excellent response times and good input lag, there is one aspect that really lets it down: panel coating. This is something we commonly don't discuss because it's a non-issue, but with the XG350R-C we immediately spotted something foreign well-nigh the way it displays text.

It's a subtle result, but this monitor seems to have a bit of 'smudginess' to it. Text lacks the sharpness and clarity of other 3440 ten 1440 monitors we've reviewed recently, and when viewing the brandish through a magnifying glass I put this downwardly to something strange about the coating that's diffusing the calorie-free slightly, creating the smudge issue.

Click for the full resolution images that depict the smudgy effect more clearly

The subtle lack of sharpness is almost like the monitor is running at a subnative resolution, except it's working equally intended. It's a weird one because the screen coating isn't something nosotros would have bug with. But on this trouble alone nosotros'd detect it difficult to recommend this monitor when like options exist that requite greater clarity.

Moving on to uniformity, again these are adept results for an ultrawide. Nosotros're getting typical falloff along the outer edges only the central zone is reasonably accurate, definitely more so than some curved ultrawides we've tested.

Wrap Up

With all the testing done, the information in and the comparisons made, we think the ViewSonic XG350R-C is one of the rare monitors that we can't recommend. We institute four primal problems: The smudgy screen coating is a rare issue simply a full dealbreaker that reduces the clarity of an otherwise decent loftier resolution panel. The blueprint is bulky and not very appealing. The on-screen menu is flawed in its navigation and colour scheme which makes information technology hard to utilize. And the contrast ratio is lower than equivalent monitors that opt for Samsung's VA panel over AU Optronics'.

There are several positives here, as well. Response time and input lag functioning is bang-up. Not outstandingly better than equivalent monitors, but still very good. Out of the box colour performance is improve than we expected and better than average. And it does come up with features like a height adjustable stand, backlight strobing modes, and RGB lighting.

But unfortunately, those cons are compounded by a price tag that'south non competitive. At $700, a 3440 10 1440 ultrawide needs to be offer a higher refresh rate than 100 Hz to justify its toll tag. For just $100 extra yous can grab the Acer Predator X34P or LG 34GK950G, both of which are all round better monitors with a 120 Hz refresh rate and G-Sync.

Then more affordable monitors such as the $450 Viotek GN34C or MSI MAG341CQ don't offer features like a acme adaptable stand or backlight strobing, simply there is no way those features are worth spending an actress $250 on. To make matters worse, these cheaper options deliver better picture quality. Response fourth dimension and input lag results are similar, but the contrast from Samsung'due south cheaper VA panel is higher, and you don't get the weird coating issue that this ViewSonic monitor has.

Lesser line, the ViewSonic XG350R-C is a hard pass with also many flaws for our liking and meliorate options to be had. Viewsonic produces one of our favorite productivity monitors (check out the ViewSonic ColorPro 32" VP3268-4K), and the data shows adept color reproduction and specs for gamers on this curved XG350R-C, but they will take to tweak the formula further earlier they tin can compete with the top gaming contenders.