Laptop / Curved Screen advice

[sbk1972]

Hi all,

Xmas is near and I need help with my kids presents.

My son wants a curved screen / monitor. He uses his PC for 50/50 homework and games. Used to have two monitors but one broke so decided a curved one would be better.

Been looking at Philips 345B1C (£339). Is this a good screen ? Reliable make ? Could I get big for a little more ?

My daughter wants a laptop. Be the first time Ive brought one as I used to have works ex units. Currently she has a Lenovo thinkpad T470. Love these laptops but she wants a new one as buttons have falen off etc. She uses it for homework / friends etc. Budget of about £450. I would like something that runs windows 11, has a SSD, touch screen ? reliable and 14/15inch screen. I was looking at Acers but these dont seem to be as reliable as Lenovo. Anyway, whats the groups thoughts ?

Thanks

Simon

[Mr Pointy]

Would your daughter put up with a refurb? There are lots of good Lenovos on ebay which would give much better bang for her buck.

[sbk1972]

I will take a look. I think the issue there is more me. I dont tend to go for refurbs. I realise they are ok / work but I would rather have something new so I can track its history.

[sgrimshaw]

34" is a big screen on a desk, personally wouldn't want to go bigger.

Faster response times and higer refresh rates available for the same money as the Philips ... I'd avoid the no name cheapy.

I find LG panels to be excellent, mine is not curved but couldn't be happier with it.

https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/nav/mc/monitors-an...

[Mr Penguin]

The 34 inch monitor is a big one, but its good with the higher resolution and extra width. The only problem you'll face is trying to play games at high resolution because its a lot of pixels to process. Some older games don't accept ultrawide and you get black bars on the sides.

[anonymous-user]

Does she really want a touch screen as this is one thing I have never wanted on a laptop.

[captain_cynic]

Joey Deacon said:

Does she really want a touch screen as this is one thing I have never wanted on a laptop.

This.

I doubt you'll get a decent touch screen model for under £450. The specs would be abysmal.

You can easily find a good i5/Ryzen 5 laptop with 8 GB of ram and a 512 GB SSD (or more) for under £400 if a touch screen isn't a requirement. Cheapest touchscreen i5 I can find on Currys is £600 and it's a HP so I'd avoid it like a case of the clap.

[parabolica]

Joey Deacon said:

Does she really want a touch screen as this is one thing I have never wanted on a laptop.

Not to make generalisations and assumptions about the OP’s daughter but my little cousin (16) has grown up with touchscreen devices and her laptop is no different; simply a case of what she is used to. I was told using a mouse gives gen Z vibes.

[xeny]

sbk1972 said:

My son wants a curved screen / monitor. He uses his PC for 50/50 homework and games. Used to have two monitors but one broke so decided a curved one would be better

One thing to be aware of is cheap large screens tend to be VA technology, more expensive ones are IPS. Either is fine for homework (I WFH on a 34" curved VA panel), but fussy gamers who play fast moving games dislike the smearing of VA panels.

Depending on your relationship with your son, you may want to have a screen size/vs responsiveness discussion to find out what is the best fit.

[anonymous-user]

I personally love Honor products, I think they are excellent value for money and have brilliant build quality. If I had to buy a laptop today I would be buying this

https://www.hihonor.com/uk/laptops/new-honor-magic...

i5-12450H, 8GB Ram, 1TB SSD, Windows 11 and a 16 inch screen.

It's currently £404.99.

However, if you daughter is anything like mine she will turn her nose up as it doesn't have the right badge on the front. Both of mine went for a lower spec Dell purely for this reason.

No touchscreen, but I struggle to understand why you would want this anyway.

Does your son play games as the refresh rate of the Philips 345B1C is only 100Hz.

Edited by anonymous-user on Thursday 2nd November 18:17

[sunbeam alpine]

I work from home and have 2 x 27" screens connected to my work laptop. This IMO is the perfect setup.

On the other side of my desk I have my personal PC with a 34" curved screen - as I couldn't get another 2 screens on the desk. Despite having it for nearly a year now I can't get used to it and I much prefer the 2 screen setup.

[snuffy]

I bought a curved screen a few years ago. Took it out of the box, 10 minutes later put it back in the box and sent it back; they are a solution looking for a problem.

[rodericb]

I have had a 38" Dell curved monitor for two or so years and it's brilliant. Now that the Samsung Odyssey 55" is in version 2 and has better inputs and a KVM I'm getting monitor YOLO..... If I wasn't working from home/studying the case for such a big screen would be marginal.

[xeny]

snuffy said:

I bought a curved screen a few years ago. Took it out of the box, 10 minutes later put it back in the box and sent it back; they are a solution looking for a problem.

I'd agree for TV use. For computers, I find a curved screen means I can use a wider monitor will less neck ache and my eyes don['t get tired from having to refocus as I look at the edges of the screen. Those to me are problems a curves screen goes some way to solving.

[sbk1972]

Thanks guys, apologies for my delay.

So Ive spoken to my daughter and we can forget touch screen. :-) You were all correct about that one.

I love thr Hono laptop example, will show her that one tonight.

Any suggests for a good 34inch curved screen that isnt that philips one ? Any good examples ?

Simon

[captain_cynic]

Not entirely sure about curved screens, it's largely a matter of preference... I'm sure it's not the first time we've all been asked if we prefer it curved or straight.

But I recently bought a new gaming monitor and here's my advice on that. The three things you're really looking out for are refresh rate, response time and panel type.

Response time, 1 ms is good. Panel type is the most important, cheap TN panels can be forgotten about, that leaves you with VA and IPS. Both have their advantages and their drawbacks. VA have better contrast (I.E. deeper blacks) and IPS have superior viewing angles. Again, it's largely a matter of preference although VA's are usually a little bit cheaper, as long as you get a 120Hz and 1ms response time either panel should be good.

I bought a Gigabyte M27Q (flat rather than curved).

[sbk1972]

Thanks captain.

How about this sexy little pig

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/samsung-34-odyssey-...

Samsung 34" Odyssey G5 LC34G55TWWPXXU 3440x1440 VA 165Hz 1ms FreeSync Curved Widescreen Gaming Monit


SBK

[snuffy]

sbk1972 said:

Thanks captain.

How about this sexy little pig

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/samsung-34-odyssey-...

Samsung 34" Odyssey G5 LC34G55TWWPXXU 3440x1440 VA 165Hz 1ms FreeSync Curved Widescreen Gaming Monit


SBK

I jought one of these last week to replace one of my three 32 monitors (same resolution as I already had):

https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/-32gp850-b/version...

It also has G-Sync.

Then after a couple of days I bought two more !

[LeeM135i]

I have one of these Dell 34" curved screens. Had it for 6/7 months now. I mostly bought this one for the price and the fact it's a USBC connection with power delivery so I only have to plug in one cable for screen, charging and other USB hub devices.

https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/dell-34-curved-usb...