MSIMPG 341CQPX QD-OLED 34-inch Curved OLED Gaming Monitor, 3440 x 1440 (UWQHD), 0.03ms Response Time, 240Hz, HDR 400 True Black, HDMI, DP Port, USB Type C, Tilt,

I'm very pleased with this monitor so far, having had it for a week. Playing through the intro to Horizon: Forbidden West, in glorious HDR, is simply incredible. Even the HDR demos on youtube leave me with my jaw to the floor.What surprised me the most was all the things that reviews of QD-OLED monitors warn you about, and how those turned out to be nothing, at least for me.- HDR on at all timesI'm using Windows 11, and a GPU that supports HDMI 2.1 (with a 2.1 certified cable). The internet says that HDR needs to be off for SDR (ie standard) content, but I am finding that is not the case at all. I have it on all the time, and everything looks perfect to me. The HDR effect is noticeable in most things, and as far as I can tell, the colour accuracy is also there (caveat: I'm no expert). I went through the Windows HDR Calibration app later, and it claims to have improved the highlights. I had no complaints before, so, yay.- BrightnessI don't understand what people are talking about when they say that QD-OLED technology is not bright enough. I have mine set to True Black 400, and it's plenty bright. I find I'm reaching for the dark modes in apps even more aggressively than before, since a sudden white screen (eg a website, or Excel) is almost too much for me :). Tip: look for a Chrome extension that automatically turns most websites to dark mode.- Text clarityI had forgotten that this was even something I was supposed to worry about. It was days later that I remembered about it, and I went looking for it. I still cannot see the problem, at all. White text everywhere has a healthy white glow to it (compared to my old IPS monitor - I don't mean actual backlight bleed or anything), which ought to improve clarity if anything.- 1800R curveHaving been used to 3400R for 9 years, I thought 1800R might be too much for me. That has not been the case at all, thankfully. I don't even notice the difference, most of the time. 1800R is very pleasing, and might even be the new sweet spot for me.- Reflections in a bright room / pink tintThis just hasn't been an issue for me at all. If anything, the situation is better than my old monitor. However, I am usually in a dark room, and the monitor is facing away from the window. Plus, I have dark curtains.Other easily solvable issues:- 110 vs 240 volts (power input)I ordered the monitor from Amazon US, but I live in the UK. Luckily, I had no problems with the mains voltage difference. As stated in the manual, the monitor supports both kinds. I used a UK power cable from another monitor, and that was it.- The sockets at the back are placed too low, for some reason. I have the monitor on a flexible arm, and I need it to be almost at desk level (long story). That problem was easily solved with angled adaptors, like https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00T2TP7VM and https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BGJ96WHY.- I used to use VLC as a video player for most things. It seems the current public version has a bug with the rendering of the subtitles in HDR. I now recommend switching to MPC-HC. It seems better in a lot of ways, so far.Speaking of VLC or MPC-HC, they both play back my own HDR videos beautifully. Both those from my phone (with HDR on) and my camera (HLG mode). Even my photos from my phone look much more pleasing on this monitor.It's not all positives though. The risk of burn-in is still something to be taken seriously, by all accounts. My experience so far with MSI OLED Care 2.0, and Panel Protect specifically, has been mixed. On the one hand, I got the first popup after 4 hours, and I easily dismissed it with a click of the mouse (via the Gaming Intelligence app). For a few days, I didn't hear from it again, and I even wondered if it's working at all. Of course, even though I switch all my devices off at night, I make sure not to switch this monitor off at all. I can confirm via the monitor's built-in menu (not sure why the Intelligence app doesn't show this) that Panel Protect has been running, seemingly once a day. Great, I thought.However, I work from home, and sometimes that means the monitor is on for 8 hours for work, and 8 more for my own entertainment in the evening. That's 16 hours, which is the maximum you can go without running Panel Protect. Two nights in a row, it interrupted me during a film :(. That was NOT a great experience. It takes about 6-8 mins, and you can do nothing while it's running. If it ever happens in the middle of some multiplayer game, I'll be extremely annoyed! So, I have started building a habit of manually running it at the start of my lunch breaks, while I prepare food or whatever. That seems like a good compromise. I wish they had a setting to force the protection at 24 hours, or even 18. 16 is just at the limit for me, sadly.Having said all that, I was thoroughly warned about the issues with burn-in, from all the online reviews, and I expected to face these problems. It is just a limitation of the technology, and we just need to accept it really. If this is the only problem I will ever face, I'll be very happy, considering the amazing picture quality I get.One related thing that worried me before I bought the monitor was all the Chrome tabs I tend to keep open, usually for months. I even have pinned tabs that are permanently there. Everything else was solvable, with things like hiding the Windows taskbar, switching to dark mode for everything, ensuring the screensaver is active, setting Windows to go to sleep after a bit, etc. There was no solution for the Chrome tabs though. In the end, I did some research, and found that Vivaldi (a Chrome-based browser, therefore easy to switch to it) supports customisation of its window. Some kind person on their forums wrote a script that will auto-hide the tab bar in Vivaldi, much like Windows can auto-hide its taskbar. Search for "AutoHide Tab Bar + Address Bar | Show on Hover". It's not perfect, and you have to keep reinstalling it every week, when Vivaldi updates itself, but it solves the problem.I don't know how the problem of burn-in will play out in the long term. I will try to remember to update this review, if I ever notice this problem (or any others). Meanwhile, I take comfort from people's burn-in experiments, eg on youtube.Another issue I noticed, which I was also warned about, is VRR flicker. At least I think that's what it is. I've not noticed it in games so far, only in Windows. I have the monitor set to 120 Hz for every day use, and I use the Windows 11 setting called Dynamic Refresh Rate (Settings > Display > Advanced display). With that, whenever Windows is idling, the refresh rate drops to 60 Hz, which is great in theory. However, with the slightest mouse movement or screen scrolling, the refresh rate instantly switches to 120 for a bit. I think that results in noticeably increased smoothness, but it also seems to cause this almost imperceptible flicker, sometimes. It's only really noticeable in dark or gray backgrounds. Once you notice it, it's hard to unsee, unfortunately. Well, there are easy solutions: stick with either 120 Hz at all times, or 60 Hz (and only switch up for games), or ignore it. I haven't decided yet. Hopefully it will be as easily solvable in games, if I ever experience it.Overall, I'm assigning 4 stars to this monitor, easily. I'm subtracting one mostly for the amount of effort I had to go through to solve the issue with the Chrome tabs. I'm glad there is a solution to that though, and I can now easily recommend this monitor to most people.