Xiaomi is best known for its affordable phones and accessories, but the list of product categories it is ready to enter apparently grows through the year. One of the latest is gaming monitors, with a 27-inch model launched in June and a 34-inch ultrawide following last month. I tested it last time, and it’s actually very good for the price of € 399 (or ~ $ 469 – real euro-dollar conversions are nowhere near 1: 1, though that will not help US importers) .
The Mi Curved Gaming Monitor has a clean minimalist design with a versatile stand that can be tilted, rotated, turned up, and lowered. The stand also has magnetic covers that easily jump on and off to help with cable management, and attaching the monitor itself was very easy.
The monitor panel matches what you probably expected from a high-end ultrawide a few years ago, before HDR became more of a thing on PC. It’s a 34-inch 3440 x 1440 display, which is the standard 21: 9 resolution for that size – it’s basically like having a 27-inch 1440p screen with a third more horizontal real estate. The curvature of the monitor is 1500R, so it is not as pronounced as some of the more extreme recent models from Samsung, but it feels natural for this size.
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The panel uses VA technology and looks good. I set it up next to my IPS Asus PG279Q, and the color reproduction is at least as strong, with an opaque coverage of 125 percent of the sRGB gamut. The Xiaomi is a bit dimmer at 300 nits after the Asus’ 350, but it’s not really an issue other than when the morning sun streams through the window with the curtains open. For a monitor that is likely to stay in a fixed position, it is not at all, and I appreciate the lack of gloss of the matte finish.
The brightness means that there is no HDR support, not even the DisplayHDR 400 specification with lowest end. But the refresh rate is 144Hz and works with FreeSync, allowing you to play games at high, variable frame rates without tearing. Although FreeSync is designed for AMD GPUs and I have an Nvidia GTX 1080, I did get it to work with Nvidia’s “G-Sync Compatible” functionality, despite the monitor not being formally certified.
The official line from Nvidia about using an unverified FreeSync monitor like this is “it may work, it may work in part, or it may not work at all,” so I can not guarantee full compatibility. I found that the Mi Curved Gaming Monitor could only run G-Sync up to 120Hz, but that was more than enough to enhance my 60fps-ish experience with the shaky PC port of Horizon Zero Dawn.
The Mi Curved Gaming Monitor gets the basics right, but it skips some of the nice features you’ll find on higher-end products. Two DisplayPort and HDMI ports are each a generous recording, but they are all you get (plus a headphone jack). There is no USB hub functionality, nor is there any USB-C support for viewing and charging with a single cable. The UI, controlled by five small buttons on the back of the display, is pokey and inefficient, and I have never been accustomed to working out which button was by feeling. I have a lot of preference for joystick style controls like on my Asus. I also found the monitor unusually slow to wake up when switching input, and took several seconds for each operation.
None of these are deal-breakers for the core functionality of Mi Curved Gaming Monitor, though – at least not for me. If you’ve been thinking about ultrawide gaming or even just getting more desktop real estate, I think this is a really good value option. It is definitely worth checking if you are in Europe, Australia, India, or the other markets where Xiaomi has a presence.
Photography by Sam Byford / The Verge
