MSI Non-Glare Ultrawide 21: 9 Screen 8ms 3440 X 1440 100Hz Freesync 3K Resolution 34" Curved Gaming Monitor (Optix MAG341CQ)

Look, I'm not tech YouTuber. I'm no writer for the Verge. I can't tell you how the color accuracy is or how smooth the pixels respond to motion. I just know a few things that I think are important for the typical user.The first, this is a good stepping stone to getting into higher refresh rate monitors. It's not 144hz, but unless your pairing this with a highend GPU, 100hz will more attainable, and still feel smoother than 60. The Freesync is a great bonus (just make sure you enable it in the monitor software) since that will work with either AMD or NVIDIA GPUs that really helps smooth out tearing in games. Moving around the desktop also just feels nice and responsive. Once you get a taste of something above 60hz, you'll start wanting higher everywhere.The second is that this is a big monitor. It'll fill up your vision and really help you get immersed while gaming. 1440p is nice in gaming and text crisp on the monitor and reading isn't bother for me. Multi-tasking is great since this ratio is like having two 4:3 monitors. Shopping on one half, Video on the other, or article on one half document on the other half still feels spacious for both tasks. In fact, having almost any web page in full screen is almost a waste since it's so wide. If you're someone that is still and will continue to be working from home, I would suggest this over getting two monitor since you'll have less cables to manage and no bezels.If you can get this for less than $500, it's a no brainer for me. It's big, it's got higher than average refresh rate, 1440p, and Freesync. To my knowledge, there's not much else that checks off these boxes, certainly not for the price.

My rating is 100% based on the price. I was able to pick this up for $379. It was an instant buy at that price and I believe that holds true for any price under $500.Pros:- Coming from a 60hz monitor (overclocked to 73hz), the jump to 100hz is incredibly noticeable and welcomed.- I was able to overclock this monitor to 115hz. I was able to overclock up to 120hz, however, Windows would freeze and upon restart I'd get a black screen. Anything over 115hz, on my unit, caused instability. But 115hz is just gravy.- The build quality is excellent. She's a sturdy girl made with seemingly quality material (metal stand). Sure, it would be nice to have a height adjustment but the monitor is so large it doesn't end up mattering to me. You'll see everything in all it's glory. For those who care, there are bezels but if you're looking at those instead of the screen, you're using your monitor wrong.-The 1440p resolution is beautiful. Using a 1660ti, some games (in order to take full advantage of the 100hz and run at least 100 fps) I had to turn the resolution down to 1080p. I was concerned the image would appear stretched, but it seemed to look even better than my previous LG 1080p ultrawide. That could just be the size, but it was a breeze switching back and forth where needed in regards to picture versus performance.Cons:- The menu buttons take some getting used to navigating. I preferred the single joystick navigation of my old LG. Monitors should only ever have joystick navigation. Not a big deal though. I'll suffer through it. :)- Not sure if this is a "con" as I'm not sure how much it would drive up the cost, however, HDR is the only other thing that would have made this monitor better. If it drove the cost up by $200, my review would be exactly the same or they may have to add more stars to the reviews on Amazon.In conclusion, budget or no budget, this monitor is worth your consideration. Especially if you're just beginning to dip your toes into 1440p gaming and/or looking beyond 60hz.

For gaming this is great. If you have never had a widescreen monitor, then once you use this for gaming, you'll NEVER be able to go back to a 24" or 27" screen again. Widescreen gaming, greatly increases what you see on your screen, giving it a new level of immersion.In regards to work productivity, the screen is so wide that you can easily have 3 to 4 tabs open, side by side. Greatly increasing work efficiency.Coming from a Dell 24" IPS glass glossy screen, the colors were rich, in-depth and very vibrant. The blacks were pitch black. The tradeoff was that, being that it was a glossy screen, any sunlight in the room, would GREATLY diminish those colors. So having the curtains closed or using it when the sun wasn't really out, was truly the only way to enjoy it.However with the MSI screen, even with adjusting the color settings, the colors are still excellent. Just not on the level of that Dell screen. This is because this is a anti glare screen. That's makes it great for viewing in a sunlit room. But it does take away some of the vibrancy from the colors. Still a very good tradeoff though.Price to performance, THIS IS the monitor to buy. You are getting alot of bang for your buck.