The Best Curved Monitors for 2025

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Remember when all displays were flat? Curved monitors have gone from showroom rarities to familiar sights in a few short years. Pinpointing the model you need, though, is just as tricky as ever. At PCMag, we have been reviewing computer displays for decades, including curved monitors since the first ones hit the desktop. Our analysts test all panels with industry-standard equipment using rigorous test methods. They quantify panel characteristics including brightness, contrast, color-gamut coverage, and lag. They also assess monitors on design, menu usability, adjustability, and (of course) value. Our current best overall curved monitor is HP's E45c G5, a large-screen productivity monitor. If a display that big isn't for you, no problem—we've also outlined our favorite curved gaming and budget monitors, some widescreen and some ultrawide, in other sizes. Read on for the best we've tested and all the shopping advice you need.

What Are the Pros and Cons of Curved Monitors?

The biggest pro? The experience of using a curved display is often described as "immersive." It draws you into the scene, lending a feeling of dimensionality that you don't get with a flat panel. Many recent ultrawide monitors, including all the 49-inch gaming and business monitors we've reviewed, are curved, which gives the user a wider field of view with minimal distortion at the edges.

Not all curved monitors have the same amount of curve. General-purpose displays typically have a gentle curvature, while gaming and ultrawide productivity monitors tend to be more tightly curved.

As it turns out, the degree of curvature is a measurable stat. Many curved monitors have what's dubbed 1800R curvature, while more sharply curved ones have curvatures as tight as 800R. An 1800R curvature means that if you were to place enough of these monitors side by side to form a circle, its radius would be 1,800mm (1.8 meters or 5.9 feet). If you were positioned that far from the screen, the center, the right edge, and the left edge all would be equidistant from your eyes.

Few viewers would normally be that far from the screen, except perhaps when watching movies in a group. When you do move closer, especially with a large ultrawide monitor, the curve makes for a panoramic experience as the screen's edges almost seem to wrap partway around you. This creates a three-dimensional, immersive effect and is often said to reduce eyestrain.

The biggest con around curved monitors has to do with multi-display use. It can be less convenient than with flat displays to arrange more than one curved monitor side by side, bezel edge to edge, due to the curvature and the amount of desk space required to accommodate the arc they would create. Curved panels also generally require a bit more space front-to-back on a desk because of their shape, but depending on the design and the degree of curve, that may not be much more than the depth of their stand.

What Is a Good Curved Monitor Size?

Curved monitors tend to be big. The smallest we've seen is 24 inches (measured diagonally); most are 27 inches or larger, with clusters at 30, 34, 35, and 49 inches.

There is a good reason for this. With a smaller monitor, you view the whole screen straight-on and can take it in at a glance, while with wider flat monitors, the ends extend outward, and you are viewing them at a bit of an angle. With a curved monitor, the ends are bowed toward you—to a greater or lesser extent, depending on the display's degree of curvature—making for a more comfortable viewing experience.

For most users, an optimal size for a curved monitor is around 35 inches, providing enough room for tiling multiple windows and providing an immersive gaming or video experience while being small enough to fit easily on most desks.

What Is the Best Resolution for a Curved Monitor?

You'll see several popular resolutions for curved monitors, and which is best for you depends on your own computing needs.

Most curved monitors are ultrawide panels, defined by having 21:9 or 32:9 aspect ratios instead of the 16:9 horizontal-to-vertical ratio of most ordinary widescreen monitors. Ultrawides are great for multitaskers as well as some gamers—they're particularly good for racing games and flight sims; you will want to avoid ultrawides if you're into esports. Most recent AAA games have native support at least for 21:9 panels. Curved 21:9 displays tend to offer HD (3,440-by-1,440-pixel) native resolution, while 32:9 monitors—which include all the 49-inchers we've reviewed—have native resolutions of either 5,120 by 1,440 pixels or 3,840 by 1,080 pixels. (The 32:9 displays, especially the larger ones, are sometimes referred to as "super ultrawide" panels.) You can watch movies on ultrawide monitors; they won't fill the full screen width, but you can run some other program in a window in the unused part of the screen.

Other curved monitors have a standard 16:9 aspect ratio, and generally come in either 1440p (2,160-by-1,440-pixel) or UHD, aka 4K (usually 3,840-by-2,160-pixel) resolutions. These are particularly good for photographers, artists, and videographers, as well as movie connoisseurs. (Movies and most video content are made to fit a 16:9 widescreen format.)

Ergonomics, Connectivity, and Controls: What to Look for in a Curved Monitor

As for ergonomics, height and tilt adjustment are common, swivel control less so (it's seldom seen on the really wide monitors), and pivot control—allowing you to rotate the monitor from landscape to portrait orientation and back—is basically nonexistent. For obvious reasons, a curved screen doesn't make sense in a vertical orientation.

The ports or connectors on these displays tend to face downward in back, which is less than ideal considering that most of these monitors are large, heavy, and unwieldy. It's a good idea to connect any cables you might ever want to use during the initial setup process.

Whether they're gaming, productivity, or professional monitors, curved displays commonly have at least one DisplayPort and at least one HDMI connector; an upstream USB port for connection to your computer (commonly USB-C in newer monitors); and several downstream USB ports for flash drives and other peripherals. Most add an audio-out jack for plugging in a headset or external speakers. Some have their own built-in speakers, but these vary widely in quality.

For making brightness, contrast, and other adjustments, the controls to navigate the on-screen display (OSD) are either four-way mini-joystick controllers or small buttons. The button control system is most often found on general-purpose curved monitors, while gaming and professional displays usually provide the mini joysticks. The latter are easier to use.

Curved Monitors for Artists, Gamers, and Multitaskers: Factors to Consider

If you look beyond general-purpose use, you can lump curved monitors into three categories: for multitasking (productivity work with several application windows at once), for professional use (usually, with a high-quality panel geared toward content creators), and for gaming.

With a large, curved productivity monitor, you can have several documents (or one gigantic spreadsheet) open at a time, viewing them with a minimum of eyestrain. A few monitor makers provide software to let you easily size, tile, and configure windows. You could even take this multitasking to another level by adding a second identical monitor for a dual-monitor setup.

That said, you'll want to look with care at the size of the bezels and the degree of curvature if you are considering pairing up more than one curved panel. Obviously, you'll need a big, wide desk with adequate depth or front-to-back clearance to allow for the curve to align across two displays. Also, monitors with thick side bezels could put a big black bar in the center of your sightline.

As for graphic designers, photographers, and other creative professionals, they could have several illustrations or photos open side-by-side on a curved monitor. This would provide more natural viewing angles than on a flat screen, so the artist could examine, say, three images at once without the outside ones appearing stretched.

Gamers get a more three-dimensional, immersive view with a curved monitor than a flat panel provides. Curved gaming displays are particularly good for racing games, flight simulators, and other games (particularly non-shooters) that provide panoramic views. One thing to note, however, is that some older games don't support the ultrawide aspect ratios typical of curved gaming panels.

Are Curved Monitors Good for Your Eyes?

It has often been claimed that the immersive experience provided by a curved monitor makes for more comfortable viewing and reduces eye strain. There is some evidence to back this up. For instance, in a National Institutes of Health (NIH) study from 2016 pitting a flat panel against monitors of varying curvature, users viewing the flat panel reported more eye pain than those using curved monitors, with the least amount of pain reported by subjects using the most highly curved (1000R) display. Other ergonomic factors, such as placing the monitor at a proper height and distance from the user, also play a role in eye comfort.

Is It Worth Getting a Curved Monitor?

Curved monitors are generally more expensive than flat panels of similar size and feature set, but for many users, the premium is money well spent.

For monitors less than 27 inches, you will see less benefit to a curved display, but you will probably want to consider a curved panel if you go wider than 32 inches, and even more so a 40-inch or larger panel. Curved monitors are good for most gamers, artists, and multitaskers, and for anyone who likes their aesthetics and potential to increase eye comfort. As mentioned earlier, though, think twice if you plan to set up a multi-display array.

Ready to Buy the Right Curved Monitor for You?

Curved monitors aren't for everyone. They're a mixed bag for gamers, and they don't provide practical advantages at small to medium sizes. Apart from their aesthetic appeal, what sets curved displays apart from other computer monitors is that the edges of the screen face you, which isn't the case with a flat panel. This provides a more panoramic view with less distortion, which can be a boon to gamers, graphic artists, and multitaskers alike, and may help to reduce eye strain.

Now that you know the basics of curved displays, you're ready to dig into the details of some of our best-reviewed models. You can also find more information in our roundups of the best ultrawide monitors, gaming monitors, and 4K monitors we've tested. Also, check out the spec comparison of our curved favorites.