Have you ever wanted to take out your frustrations on your monitor? I mean really just stand up and throttle that thing like you’re wrestling a wild bear? Corsair has the monitor for you and, as wild as it might sound, it could well be the future of PC gaming monitors.
Corsair Xeneon Flex 45WQHD240 – Design
The Corsair Xeneon Flex 45WQHD240 is a 45-inch OLED ultrawide monitor with a 21:9 aspect ratio. Its most unusual feature is the flexible OLED panel. It can be used flat or flexed into a curve with a radius of up to 800R, which is among the most aggressive curves available on any monitor today.
I understand the method behind this madness. My everyday monitor is a flat ultrawide. I prefer it when writing, editing photos, or viewing multiple windows, as a curved monitor can cause distortion in productivity apps. Unfortunately, the flat display is also less immersive in most games. I made the choice to buy a flat ultrawide knowing that my in-game experience would be slightly compromised – but now, with the Xeneon Flex, I can have the best of both.
That is, if I’m willing to work for it. Flexing the Flex means unclipping and pulling out a handle on each side of the display, then wrestling it into the desired position. It’s unsettling. The plastic rear panel squeaks and squawks while the entire display shakes. The process requires enough physical effort to feel dangerous to the monitor’s health.
Corsair says the display panel can endure 10,000 to 15,000 bends, which is enough to last more than five years with multiple bends per day. Ultimately, any claims I might make about reliability are speculation, since I only used the monitor for a couple weeks. What I can say for sure, however, is that wrestling with a $2,000 monitor to make its display bend is not a reassuring experience.
The curve isn’t uniform, either, which seems to stem from the physical mechanism used to support the bend. It occurs in segments, which means the bend is more significant in some areas of the display than others. Scrolling around the map in Civilization IV, for example, makes the problem obvious, because text, country borders, and interface elements will seem to slightly warp while moving horizontally across sections of the display that are more curved than others. It didn’t sour my experience, but I’m sure it will drive some owners nuts.
It’s a huge monitor, of course, measuring about 42 inches wide and 22 inches tall with the OLED panel kept flat (it’s a bit more narrow when bent). This is almost as wide as my desk and much wider than a 34-inch ultrawide. The large stand takes up significant width and depth, which means the monitor will sit relatively close to you. You’ll need a big desk to handle this beast.
The stand is odd because, unlike most monitors, it’s integrated into the design of the display. All of the monitor’s connectivity, as well as the on-screen menu controls and the power button, are found on the stand, which means you don’t have the option of mounting it to a monitor arm. The stand doesn’t adjust for height or swivel, allowing just 22 degrees of tilt. The good news is that the stand’s height should be in a comfortable position for most people. But if you want adjustability, or need to use the Xeneon Flex as part of a multi-monitor setup, you’re out of luck.
Corsair Xeneon Flex 45WQHD240 – Connectivity & Features
As mentioned, the Xeneon Flex’s connectivity is found on the stand, not the rear panel. That’s mostly a positive, as the ports are very easy to access. They are rear-facing, though, so you’ll need a couple inches of free space behind the stand to accommodate the cables.
Video connectivity includes two HDMI 2.1 ports, plus one DisplayPort 1.4. There’s also a USB-C port with DisplayPort 1.4, for a total of four video inputs. All of these ports support the monitor’s native resolution of 3,440 x 1,440 at its maximum refresh rate of 240Hz. This is a perk, as many high-refresh PC gaming monitors include one or two video ports that can’t support the monitor’s maximum refresh rate.
The USB-C port supports Power Delivery, too, though only at 30 watts – an awkward number insufficient for charging most laptops quickly. It also works as a USB-C hub driving four USB-A ports, two of which are conveniently placed at the front of the monitor stand (something you won’t find on most competitors). The USB-C ports can be driven by a separate USB-C upstream input, so you don’t have to connect a display input over USB-C to use the USB-A ports.
A 3.5mm audio output rounds out the connectivity, and is found on the front of the stand. The monitor doesn’t have speakers.
The on-screen menus are controlled with a joystick on the front of the stand. This location is a bit easier to use than most monitors, which hide the joystick behind the bottom or right side bezel. Corsair’s menu system is well-labeled and easy to navigate thanks to responsive controls. There’s an acceptable range of image quality settings, including a few color temperature and gamma options and RGB color adjustment.
Corsair Xeneon Flex 45WQHD240 – Gaming Image Quality
PC gamers want a display with a big, beautiful canvas for a wide range of games, and that’s what the Corsair Xeneon Flex 45WQHD240 delivers. The monitor’s OLED panel, built by LG Display, provides all the strengths that make OLED a favorite among critics and gamers.
Contrast is excellent thanks to the panel’s per-pixel local dimming, which makes it possible to achieve near-perfect black levels without causing image quality issues like blooming (bright halos around bright objects on darker backgrounds). This is a big perk in games that have many high-contrast scenes. The neon-lit alleys of Cyberpunk 2077 are an excellent example, and the deep, inky blacks can add a foreboding ambiance to moody games like Diablo 3 and horror games like Resident Evil: Village.
The monitor is also reasonably bright in SDR content with a maximum brightness of 250 nits, providing a vivid experience in moderately lit rooms. A higher brightness might be necessary if you’re playing opposite a sunlit window – but that’s only really a problem if you can’t shut your blinds. The monitor’s anti-glare coat also helps minimize reflections.
Color performance is great. The monitor has good color accuracy and covers 100% of the sRGB color gamut as well as 97% of DCI-P3 and 92% of AdobeRGB. It’s a 10-bit display panel, too, which means it can display a broader range color than more common 8-bit panels. For gamers, these perks deliver a highly saturated and pleasing image and cuts down on ugly color banding in scenes with subtle color gradients, such as a sunrise or an ocean vista.
Sharpness is less impressive, as the monitor’s pixel density is almost identical to a 27-inch 1080p monitor. This can be an issue when viewing fine geometry textures, like electrical wires or distant stairs. Most modern games have an anti-aliasing implementation sufficient to combat the problem, but older games can look jagged and coarse.
The ultrawide aspect ratio is a great fit for gaming and delivers an excellent sense of immersion – a feeling only heightened when the monitor is bent into its maximum curvature. It’s especially useful in simulation games, like Microsoft Flight Simulator, and in strategy games. I spent more than a few hours playing the Steam release of Dwarf Fortress on this monitor – and thoroughly enjoyed myself. The Xeneon Flex’s huge, colorful OLED panel provides plenty of room for its bulky in-game windows.
Corsair Xeneon Flex 45WQHD240 – HDR Image Quality
Corsair doesn’t quote a VESA DisplayHDR certification for the Xeneon Flex 45WQHD240, but does claim a maximum peak brightness of up to 1000 nits. That sounds high, but the display’s overall brightness is more meager than the numbers would suggest.
The monitor’s maximum brightness did not increase in HDR mode when displaying a full, bright window. In fact, the maximum I saw was slightly lower at 209 nits. This is typical for an OLED monitor: the Alienware AW3423DW can peak as high as 325 nits when displaying a full, bright white window. The LG 48GQ900-B, meanwhile, maxes out around 220 nits. This is much, much lower than a Mini-LED monitor, and it means the Xeneon Flex can look a bit dim when used in a very bright room.
A dark room is a better fit for the monitor’s strengths. I tested a maximum brightness of 509 nits in a 10 percent window, which is a more realistic test than a bright white fullscreen window. This level of brightness looks fairly vivid in a sunlit room and downright punchy in a dark office or gaming den. It results in an excellent sense of contrast in dark scenes with many bright highlights, such as a starry night sky or a neon-lit alleyway.
The Corsair Xeneon Flex 45WQHD240 has issues with SDR content in the Windows 11 desktop environment. Turning HDR mode on brightens the screen, but reduces perceived contrast and decreases the color gamut that’s presented. This is a common problem with Windows 11 and HDR monitors, but it’s more noticeable here than on other OLEDs I’ve recently reviewed. You’ll probably want to keep HDR off on the Windows 11 desktop (though, to be fair, I’d generally recommend that anyway).
On the other hand, the Xeneon Flex offers good luminance stability in HDR mode. Moving from a bright to dark scene, or vice versa, rarely causes a shift in panel brightness that’s distracting, or even noticeable. Variance does occur on occasion: I noticed occasional shifts when expanding or minimizing a bright, white window, such as a Google Docs document. But these shifts were infrequent and less distracting than on Alienware’s AW3423DW.
Overall, the Xeneon Flex can look impressive in HDR. It’s a great display for a night flight in Microsoft Flight Simulator, or for exploring the seedy underworld of Cyberpunk 2077. Just don’t expect it to blast your eyes out the back of your skull in bright games or scenes.
Corsair Xeneon Flex 45WQHD240 – Motion Performance
The Alienware AW3423DW and its sibling, the AW3423DWF, are great OLED displays – but they’re limited to 165Hz. That’s more than enough for many people, myself included, but the Corsair Xeneon Flex 45WQHD240 goes a step further with a maximum refresh rate of 240Hz. The result? Excellence.
Fast motion looks incredibly clear at the monitor’s maximum refresh rate of 240Hz. High-contrast details as small as just a dozen pixels wide are visible, and fine fonts, such as character names in a MOBA or MMORPG, remain readable when moving quickly or panning the camera. Gameplay feels buttery-smooth when AMD FreeSync Premium Pro or Nvidia G-Sync is enabled.
Clarity is also solid at lower refresh rates thanks to the OLED panel’s fast gray-to-gray pixel response time (quoted at .03 milliseconds). There’s a big gap between 240Hz and 120Hz, to be sure, but overall clarity is respectable all the way down to 60Hz. Fine details become blurred but objects more than a few millimeters in size are still easy to identify in the blink of an eye.
How does it compare to a 144Hz or 165Hz OLED screen? It’s better, but the degree of difference will depend on what you play. I find that MOBA tests show the biggest gain, because character names and healthbars remain hard to pick out on a 165Hz OLED. That’s no longer a problem at 240Hz.
The Corsair Xeneon Flex 45WQHD240 also goes toe-to-toe with new 360Hz monitors like the Asus ROG Swift PG27AQN. I can’t find much difference in the motion clarity of these rivals. The Xeneon Flex’s OLED pane is clearly superior in overall image quality, however, so it’s the one I (a non-competitive player) would choose if given the choice between them. Serious competitors should also note the ROG Swift PG27AQN supports Nvidia Reflex Analyzer, while the Xeneon Flex does not.
Still, the Xeneon Flex is among the very best monitors for motion clarity. It leads the charge into a new era of motion clarity for OLED, as multiple monitors based on LG’s new 240Hz OLED panels are announced to arrive through 2023.
Corsair Xeneon Flex 45WQHD240 – Day-to-Day Use
Corsair’s Xeneon Flex 45WQHD240 is great for gaming, but it’s much less practical for use as an everyday driver.
The big problem? Sharpness. A native resolution of 3,440 x 1,440 on a 45-inch widescreen works out to a mere 83 pixels per inch, just slightly better than a 27-inch 1080p monitor. Fine fonts and interface details can look coarse. The monitor is not ideal for 4K video editing, of course, or for editing high-resolution photos.
This issue is worsened by the monitor’s display panel, which does not use the RGB pixel layout most common to monitors. It instead uses LG’s RWBG Stripe pixel layout. This can result in image quality issues around text and small interface elements when using programs on the Windows desktop. Characters may appear to have a halo, or may blend into those nearby, making text hard to read. This issue is common to many OLED monitors, and is not necessarily a flaw with the display panel itself, but arises from the difference between what Windows normally expects and what it receives. But in any case, the low pixel density of the Xeneon Flex makes this downside even more distracting.
It’s a shame, because the monitor does have strengths for content creators and general use. It covers all the sRGB gamut and most of DCI-P3, and the high contrast ratio helps quality content look its best. Corsair even includes a brightness stabilizer mode that locks brightness to about 150 nits – a very useful feature that prevents the distracting variations in brightness that can occur on OLED displays.
These perks are not enough to outweigh the monitor’s low pixel density. This is a gaming monitor first, second, and third – productivity is not the focus.
Corsair Xeneon Flex 45WQHD240 – The Competition
Corsair’s marketing positions the Xeneon Flex as an alternative to both 49-inch super-ultrawide monitors and 42 to 48-inch widescreen monitors. That puts it up against displays like the Samsung Odyssey G9 Neo and LG Ultragear 48GQ900-B, as well as LG’s similar Ultragear 45GR95QE.
The Xeneon Flex beats the Odyssey G9 Neo in overall image quality, though it doesn’t look as sharp. The Odyssey G9 Neo is $500 less, however, and its extreme immersion is well suited to simulation games.
Conventional widescreens like the LG Ultragear 48GQ900-B are a great fit for gamers who often play on consoles, but the ultrawide Xeneon Flex is better suited to PC gaming and general PC use. A 48-inch, or even 42-inch, widescreen display is awkwardly tall on a desk.
As for LG’s new 45GR95QE – well, it’s hard to say until IGN has a chance to test that monitor. The LG is less expensive at $1,699 and should deliver similar image quality, but it doesn’t have the flexible OLED panel and instead remains set at a very aggressive 800R curve.
Purchasing Guide
The Corsair Xeneon Flex 45WQHD240 carries an MSRP $1,999 and is available to purchase now. That’s a high price, but not unusual for a large gaming display. The LG Ultragear 45GR95QE, which uses the same OLED panel, is less expensive at $1,699 but doesn’t flex.
Most 48-inch OLED monitors have an MSRP around $1,499 and the Samsung Odyssey G9 Neo hit the market at $2,499 (though it has come down to $1,499 at most retailers). This currently makes the Xeneon Flex 45WQHD240 a rather expensive option. But, if you want the flexible panel, you’ll have to pay: no one else offers this feature right now.
About Post Author
