Curved Monitor vs Flat Monitor: Which is Better and Why?

Being the major communicator between the system and the user, monitors play a vital role in deciding how efficiently one performs their tasks. Today, when you shop for a bigger screen monitor, the first main choice you need to make is about the screen being flat or curved. Both screen types can be visualized by their names, and we all are well familiar with the flat screens as these screens have always been there. What’s new is the curvature that has been introduced in the screens.

The question is whether you should go for a curved monitor or a flat monitor to do all the necessary job? Both the screens have their own merits and demerits. When you look at the benefits of one, it helps you rest assured that you need this monitor, but as soon as you look at the benefits of the other, you start wondering if this would be the best for you.

But looking at these monitors in isolation with the purpose you need them for will ultimately drag you into trouble. To help you choose from these two types of monitors, we have compared the flat and curved monitor screens in this article, based on their uses.

Before We Continue You Need to know that Curved monitors have more Field of View than flat monitors and less distorted edges.

For Gaming

Although the curved monitors are designed in such a way that they give you an unbeatable immersive experience, compared to the flat screens, it undoubtedly takes your gameplay to the next level, but you must keep in mind that a lot of games out there are designed keeping in view the flat display and thus, give a better view on the flat screen. Curved screens are good as far as you just want to play for entertainment. Curved screens are not recommended for professional gaming.

A professional gamer is always concerned about the way graphics are presented in front of him on the screen because it is the display that plays a vital role in the winning or losing of a game. As any minor delay caused by the system due to the refresh rate or response time can decide whether you win or lose a game, the same can happen on the player’s side.

The player can have some sort of distraction from its surroundings and can lose. Well, when we look at these distractions, the major one that you can not control while using a curved screen is the reflections on the screen from different angles, making it difficult for you to have a perfectly accurate view of the game. That is why flat screens are recommended for someone who is into professional gaming.

When you think of playing a tournament where winning the game is everything for you; you will prefer the equipment and devices that will help you get the most out of your game. For a game that involves fast-moving objects, you need a screen that is not very wide to look at. Because it will surely distract you, as you will be required to move your head to and fro to get all the details of your enemy on the screen which ultimately lowers your efficiency.

And curved monitors come with wider displays, much larger than the flat ones. Another thing that needs to be addressed here is that when you look at the standards set by the gaming tournaments worldwide, they have fixed 24 inches flat-screen displays for the tournaments, that is why the professionals try to get used to the flat screens to enhance their performance for the tournaments. So, having a flat display for professional gaming is always a better option.

For Work

Work is something from which most of us are trying to find an escape, well, at least at some point. But if our offices were made more comfortable to work in, the devices we use there are more friendly and work smoothly, our point of view about work would have been entirely different. If the environment is friendly and welcoming and the devices we use are smoother, we would love going to work, and our work, in itself would have been entertainment.

To make work less tiring, you should get a monitor with higher resolution, presenting a clear image and the one that offers lower eye strain. If your work demands more screen real estate you should go for larger screens, but flat monitors are not recommended for larger screen requirements as they put greater eye strain. Curved monitors offer larger screen real estate horizontally, which helps you view web pages and your documents, side by side. The super-wide area provided by the curved screens along with eye care helps when you are putting references and doing some sort of research work.

But if you do not need larger screens for your work, flat screens are equally good, providing all the necessary features. You should know that there is no difference between curved and flat-screen monitors except for the design thing. So, it is just about your personal preference and the comfort level you want for yourself.

For Coding

If you are a programmer, you would have felt the need to expand your work to another screen as well. Working on your program and the source code side by side is the only way of getting things done smoothly. But switching between windows gets quite disturbing, leading to wasting a lot of your precious time, which otherwise would have led you to earn more bucks by doing more projects.

Having multiple monitors by your side helps you get rid of the toggling between different tabs, ultimately saving you a lot of time. Multiple screens help you keep various pieces of information at separate places easily. The question comes in here, Should you go for multiple screens, or a single large screen will do? The majority of the users report that various screens are better than using a single widescreen. Various studies have shown that using multiple monitors increases efficiency up to 50 percent.

You will surely be using smaller screens as you need to place both of them on your desk. As you will be assembling smaller screens side by side, you should buy flat screens because it will help you have a continuous view of both the screens. In contrast, the small curved screens will be really difficult to work with, as each has its curvature and will suit your eyes only when you are sitting in the center of the screen.

Also, the multiple curved screens placed side by side will make the environment unnecessarily curvy, and you will have to turn yourself to a maximum of 180 degrees to get a complete view of both screens. So, for programmers, we recommend using multiple flat screens that will ultimately help you increase productivity.

For Design

For website designing, you need to work with a device for which you are designing the website because this is the only way to know what the viewers will be looking at ideally. And as long as the majority is comfortable with the flat screen, a website designer does not need to buy a curved monitor as it will not add to his productivity.

Also, the advantage that the flat monitors have over the curved displays is that they do not capture light from different angles, i.e., these monitors do not produce glare. Although flat screens can also produce reflections, they can always be adjusted at someplace where they are no more susceptible to catching any light. The glare produced by the curved monitors makes it difficult to look at the screen due to the reflections. And thus, it is not good for someone dealing with editing colors, i.e., video or photo editors, unless and until they have complete control over the lighting conditions of their environment.

For Watching movies

Working long hours demand some rest from time to time. Otherwise, you may end up in loads and loads of frustration. The best refreshment that one can have as a quick fix is watching a great movie. Having a perfectly immersive display can lead to more relaxation. The more natural the view is, the more comfortable it becomes. To have an engaging experience you need something that covers your peripheral view. Curved monitors allow you to benefit from increased immersion. It is because the motivation behind this curvature was to keep the distance between the screen and your eyes similar.

On movie nights at home, we almost always come across fights over the seating arrangements while watching a movie with family or friends. The person seated in the middle of that largest sofa in the lounge that is placed right in front of the monitor will be considered the one who is getting all the advantages of watching the movie.

It is because every one of us knows that the perfect view can only be attained while sitting at a 90 degrees angle to the center of the screen. This is not something that we have been told about, but something we have been experiencing for ages. We see that viewing the flat screen from an angle other than 90 degrees results in different contrast, which is quite irritating. Although there is this IPS panel technology that takes care of the viewing angles, you can take the viewing experience for all of the members to the next level with the curved screen.

For Eyes

People working for long hours on screens need to be careful about their eyes because ignoring the eye strain problem initially can lead you towards a greater problem. When we look at things, our eyes capture the scenes without getting any strain. This is because our eyes have a natural field of view.

Anything that comes in that natural field of view helps our eyes stay comfortable. Using monitors of adequate size does not produce strain on our eyes, as long as the view of that screen does not extend out of our natural field. But as soon as we shift to larger screens, we start having a strain on our eyes. This issue comes in due to the large flat screens.

Curved screen monitors are designed in such a way that they reduce eye strain by providing the eye with a field of view that is very near to its natural field of view. Although the curved monitors have different radii, and not every curved monitor size is good for the eyes, you need to look for the ones that have a radius near to or equal to the range of the curvature of the eye that is 1000R i.e. 1 meter. 1000R monitors help you get the complete view in a single glance.

For Dual Monitors

Some of us are involved in tasks that demand multiple large displays to view the important details of multiple data. We do not have the bounds of space for such kinds of jobs and can use larger curved monitors side by side. The larger curvature reduces the need to turn from time to time.

But, as mentioned above, you have limited space on your desk, you will have to choose smaller screens, and curved smaller screens placed side by side will be rather disturbing than immersive. So, when you are looking for dual monitors of smaller sizes, you should always go for flat screens. But when there is no space constraint you should go for larger curved screens which will give you a brilliant view.

For Trading

Traders need to evaluate a lot of things simultaneously and by looking at the fluctuations in the deciding factors they decide what their next step should be. Viewing all the tabs simultaneously helps you avoid any mistake that might take place due to the toggling of the windows now and then.

Using a single large screen can help, but to put different types of information into different monitors helps you increase efficiency. This means multi-monitor systems are the best solution for traders. And for an assembly of small monitors, the best multiple screens system would utilize flat screens. But if you need to view your indicators in much more detail, you can go for larger curved screens as well.

For Home Office

We have been transferring our offices to home for the last two years due to the pandemic. But we all know that home is your personal space. You have your family there. And due to the presence of people you love and care about too much around you, you can not focus on your work right? Females taking care of their families know how hard it is to keep track of every single member of the house while also doing their house chores.

So, for the home office, you need something that helps you focus on your work more. Curved displays can do one such contribution. The advantage of curved screen monitors over flat screens is that the curved screen monitors allow you to focus on your work and not get distracted by things happening in your surroundings. It helps keep you focused on your work and thus increases efficiency.

But as you are working from home, the space you allocate for the home office decides whether you can keep a curved monitor or not. Well, why so? It is because curved monitors have a very large width, it demands that the user sits at a distance from the screen, which implies that to have a curved monitor at your place, you need a larger room.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

Curved monitors, being an upgrade seem to be the better form, but in reality, you need to do a need analysis based on the type of task you need to perform on your system. Only then can you decide what features you need. Once you are done with the requirements list, you need to consider your budget and the environment you are going to put your system. Curved monitors with all their glamorous design, are brilliant as long as you have space for them on your desk, have enough space in your room to sit at some distance from the screen, and have conditions to save your screen from multiple reflections.

If you want to go for a larger screen, it must be a curved one to help you deal with the eyestrain, but if you want a smaller screen, flat screens will do all the necessary job without putting any sort of eyestrain.