Xiaomi is best known for its inexpensive phones and accessories, but it seems like the list of types of items it is willing to join expands by the year. One of the new is gaming monitors, with a 27-inch model released in June, followed by an ultrawide 34-inch screen after last month.
The Mi Curved Gaming Monitor has a sleek streamlined design with a flexible stand that can be rotated, swiveled, raised and lowered. Even the stand features magnetic covers that quickly pop on and off to assist with cable management, and it was very simple to mount the display itself.
Goods:
- Affordable
- Decent Panel Quality
- Minimalist Design
Bads:
- Limited Port Selection
- Clumsy Buttons
- No HDR Support
A few years ago, before HDR became more of a thing on PC, the monitor's panel matches up to what you'd have expected from a high-end ultrawide. It's a 34-inch 3440 x 1440 monitor, which for that size is the usual 21:9 resolution — it's essentially like getting a 27-inch 1440p panel with a third more horizontal real estate.The curvature of the monitor is 1500R, so this is not as pronounced as some of the more extreme recent models from Samsung, but it feels normal for this scale.
The panel is using VA technology, and is looking fine. Color reproduction is solid, with the sRGB gamut being claimed to cover 125 per cent. The Xiaomi is a little dimmer up to the Asus' 350 at 300 nits, but it's not really a concern other than when the morning sun streams through the window with the curtains open. It's not a big deal for a display that'll usually remain in a fixed spot.
The brightness does mean that there is no HDR support, not even the DisplayHDR 400 standard at the lowest end. But the refresh rate is 144Hz and works with FreeSync which allows you to play games without tearing at fast, variable frame rates.
Nvidia's official line on using an unverified FreeSync display like this is "it may work, it may work partly, or it may not work at all," so we can't guarantee consistency across the board. We found the Mi Curved Gaming Monitor could only run G-Sync at 120Hz, but that was more than enough to boost our 60fps experience with Horizon Zero Dawn 's weak PC port.
The Mi Curved Gaming Monitor gets the basics right but it skips some of the cool features you can find on higher-end devices. Two DisplayPort and HDMI ports are both a generous addition, but they are all you get (plus a jack for the headphones). There is absolutely no USB hub connectivity, nor is USB-C support for single-cable monitor performance and charging. The user interface, operated by five tiny buttons at the back of the monitor, is pokey and slow. We also noticed that the computer was extremely slow to wake up or turn inputs, taking several seconds every time.
Neither of those are deal-breakers for the main features of the Mi Curved Gaming Monitor, though. We think this is a very good value choice if you've been talking about moving into ultra-wide gaming or just just moving more Desktop real estate. If you are in Europe , Australia, India or the other markets where Xiaomi has a presence, it's definitely worth checking out.