If you’re an avid gamer or content creator, you’re likely familiar with the ongoing debate between flat and curved monitors. Enter the Corsair Xeneon Flex Gaming Monitor, a unique innovation that aims to settle this discussion once and for all. This monitor boasts an adjustable curvature, allowing you to switch between a flat and curved display as per your preference. But does it live up to its bold claims? Let’s dive into an in-depth review.
CHECK PRICE: HERE
Unique Selling Proposition: Flexibility
The Corsair Xeneon Flex Gaming Monitor is a 45-inch WOLED ultrawide panel with a resolution of 3440 x 1440 pixels. It offers a whopping 240Hz refresh rate, HDR support with a claimed peak brightness of up to 1000 nits, and adaptive sync support from both AMD and Nvidia. Not to forget its swift response time of just 0.03ms. However, its standout feature is its flexible OLED panel that allows you to adjust the curvature from a flat to a curved 800R display.
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Adjusting the Curve
Adjusting the curvature of the Corsair Xeneon Flex is a straightforward process. Pull out the handles on either side, bend the display to your desired curvature, retract the handles, and voila – your tailor-made monitor is ready. The monitor stays in the chosen shape unless you decide to adjust it, ensuring it doesn’t easily bend from an accidental knock. The process of bending the display requires a fair bit of force, establishing that the display is designed to flex without leaving any visible creases.
However, it’s worth noting that the handles on each side are independent, allowing you to create an uneven curve if you so desire, although this is not recommended for optimal viewing. The handles, unfortunately, are not as smooth in their operation as one would hope, but they get the job done.
Design and Build
The Corsair Xeneon Flex is a behemoth, even by ultrawide standards, offering about 75% more screen real estate than a standard 34-inch ultrawide. Its unique design houses the main electronics in the stand, making it inseparable from the display itself. This design choice does come at the cost of height adjustability and VESA mounting, leaving the monitor with limited adjustability, offering only tilt support.
Despite these omissions, the build quality of the Xeneon Flex is impressive. The front of the display, with its ideal bezel size, looks sleek, while the thin OLED panel and the handle and bending mechanism are well integrated into the back.
Port and Interface
The Xeneon Flex houses its ports in an accessible strip down the middle of the monitor’s rear. These include two HDMI 2.1 ports, a DisplayPort 1.4 port, and a USB-C port that supports DP Alt-Mode. Additionally, there’s another USB-C upstream port for facilitating the USB hub, which includes two ports on the rear, and two on the front in an easy-to-reach location.
The monitor’s on-screen display (OSD) is controllable via a directional toggle located next to the USB ports on the stand. The OSD offers a standard set of features, including basic OLED care features like pixel cleaning and pixel shifting, but does not include a KVM switch.
Display Performance
When it comes to motion performance, the Corsair Xeneon Flex delivers similar to other OLEDs. Capable of elite speeds at 240Hz, it delivers excellent motion clarity. The monitor maintains consistent performance across refresh rates, ensuring an easy single overdrive mode experience – a feature LCDs typically struggle with.
HDR Performance
As with other OLED monitors, the Flex excels in HDR display. Each pixel is self-lit, providing the best contrast ratio possible from a modern display technology. However, in terms of brightness, the Flex lags slightly behind, delivering a peak brightness of 627 nits for a 10% window and up to 788 nits for a 2% window.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Corsair Xeneon Flex Gaming Monitor is a unique product that brings innovation to the table. Its adjustable curvature is a genuine and practical feature that caters to varied user preferences. However, its low pixel density and non-standard subpixel layout might be a deterrent for some, especially considering its lofty price tag. While it’s not the perfect monitor for everyone, for specific use cases, the Xeneon Flex could be a worthwhile investment.