MSI MEG 342C QD-OLED Review
Introduction and Technical Specifications
Introduction
It is amazing how different the display options have become over the years. For the longest time monitor technology was way ahead of televisions. They brought a whole raft of features to market that made the people on their sofas feel jealous. Recent times has seen a reversal of that trend though. Modern televisions, especially those at this price point, support 4K resolution, OLED, 120Hz framerates, the whole nine yards. Monitors, meanwhile, seem to have been left behind. Thankfully though the newest MSI display, the MSI MEG OLED 342C QD seeks to rectify that. Ultra wide 21:9 resolution at 175Hz, gentle curvature, OLED technology. It’s the antithesis of the last MSI monitor we reviewed.
Naturally we understand this feature set is way beyond what most of us need. Ultra wide displays are still a niche product. OLED displays have always had the frightening burn-in possibility, and given how often the Windows taskbar is visible it’s perhaps even more so on a monitor. To have the GPU horsepower necessary to push 3440 x 1440 @ 175Hz is more than most of us own. However, if you game seriously. If you are committed to getting the best visuals you can, then the MSI MEG OLED promises to leave you smiling.
Testing Procedure
Regular OC3D readers will know that we eschew the more in-depth display review style. Yes you can see tons of graphs of colour accuracy or response time under precise conditions. We prefer to review our hardware in the same way that you would use it. Namely unbox, have a look, plug it in, and go by our eyes. It’s akin to the processor diagrams you see. Nobody really needs to know how the cache in your CPU works. We only need to know if it’s fast. Displays are the same. We can see ghosting, or fringing, or tearing. We can tell if the highlights are blown out. If the first MSI OLED display is anything like as good as OLED technology is on our televisions then this should be epic.
Technical Specifications
With a 21:9 aspect ration the 34″ size of the MSI MEG OLED is actually not as enormous as you might think. It’s almost closer to a 27″ display in height terms. Like the majority of current displays the 342C is frameless, even though the picture doesn’t go edge-to-edge. We like the idea of a gentler curve than a lot of its contemporaries at a mere 1800R. Supporting DisplayHDR 400 might not sound like much, but we know OLED panels do HDR spectacularly well. In fact, OLED screens have their own DisplayHDR standard called HDR true black. This is an DisplayHDR True Black 400 display, and its promise of true blacks make a big difference. Let’s actually look at it in the flesh though, rather than get bogged down in the minutiae. Should you wish to, you can do so on the MSI site here.
