1. The list in brief ↴
2. Best overall: BenQ EW3880R
3. Best for gaming: LG 38GN950
4. Best 5K2K: LG 34WK95U
5. Best 49in: Samsung G95NA
6. Best small: BenQ EX3410R
7. Best value: LG 34WN750
8. Another gaming: AOC AG493UCX
9. Other options
10. FAQs
11. How to choose
12. How we test
The best ultrawide monitors can be a boon for creative work, gaming and for anyone who tends to work across lots of windows. The extra space of a widescreen monitor means you can keep more panels visible, which can speed up your workflow and make it easier to find things. The best widescreen monitors – particularly the best curved ultrawide monitors – can also offer a more immersive experience because they surround more of your field of vision.
Below, we've picked out the best ultrawide monitors based on our own expert reviews as well as feedback from regulator contributors to the site and our sister sites. Ultrawide doesn't have to mean so wide it won't fit on your desk, and in this guide, we've evaluated smaller and widescreen monitors from 34in right up to very wide 49in displays, including the best curved ultrawide monitors. We've compared the advantages and disadvantages of each, analysing resolution, brightness and colour accuracy. We've also evaluated options at different price points to help you find the best screen for the budget you have available, whether you need a monitor for graphic design, photo and video editing, gaming and general productivity.
For tips on how to choose the best ultrawide monitor for you, see the frequently asked questions section at the bottom. If you decide not to go for an ultrawide, take a look at our guides to the best 4K monitors, or if you do a lot of Zoom calls, you might want one of the best monitors with webcam. Remember that whatever screen you go for, if you're using it for visual design, you'll want one of the best monitor calibrator tools unless the display comes with one included.
The quick list
We find the BenQ EW3880R is a great all-round widescreen monitor for work and media with a solid sound system, lots of space and a comfortably subtle curve. With 95% DCI-P3 colour coverage, it has many creatives covered too.
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Those that need faster specs for gaming should find what they're after in this 38-incher from LG. And while that super fast refresh rate and response time will satisfy games, content creators are also covered with an excellent colour gamut.
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Creatives working are well catered for by the LG 34WK95U, which provides a massive 5K2K native resolution with a 21:9 ultrawide aspect ratio. With a DCI-P3 98% colour gamut, decent HDR support, Thunderbolt 3 USB-C and 2 HDMI ports and surprisingly good speakers, it's a great screen to pair with a Mac.
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The best ultrawide monitors available now
Why you can trust Creative Bloq Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
Best ultrawide monitor overall
The BenQ EW3880R is a great general all-round ultrawide display both for work and watching media (the built-in 2.1 sound system is surprisingly impressive, and can save you a pair of speakers). At 37.5in, the screen offers a lot of screen real estate for flexible working, and it has a subtle curve for added immersion and eye-comfort features. This monitor is expensive, and with a 60Hz refresh rate, it doesn't have the best specs for fast gaming, but it does make a great premium screen for comfortable multitasking and enjoyment of media.
Best ultrawide monitor for gaming
The LG UltraGear 38GN950 is a 38in ultrawide monitor with a QHD+ (3840 x 1600) resolution Nano IPS panel that offers vibrant colours. We found the HDR image quality to be very impressive, and it boasts a quick response time and a very decent 144Hz refresh rate, which, together with G-Sync support, make it a great ultrawide monitor for gaming. The 3840 x 1600 resolution isn't quite 4K (3840 x 2160), but it’s not far away, and we find that actually has the benefit of allowing better gaming performance with lower-end cards.
And does it serve as non-gaming monitor? Absolutely. While the speed for high-paced gaming is its main selling point, we reckon its 21:9 aspect ratio and 98% DCI-P3 support make it a great choice for content producers too if you have the money to spend. If you don't game at all, however, you really won't need a lot of the features, which may make it an unnecessary expense, and you might be better looking at the BenQ monitor above.
Best 5K2K ultrawide monitor
4K has become the norm, but if you want more than that, the LG 34WK95U offers a massive 5K2K native resolution with a 21:9 ultrawide aspect ratio. It boasts a stunning 34-inch nano IPS LED screen and has a host of features that justify its rather hefty price tag, including DCI-P3 98% colour gamut, HDR support (although that's not the best we've seen) and great connectivity options with Thunderbolt 3 USB-C and 2 HDMI ports. It looks the part too, with a nice minimalist design.
Note that with a 60Hz refresh rate, this isn't a monitor to choose if you're specifically interested in gaming, but it's a great screen for content creators working with high resolutions and we've been impressed using this with a Mac mini or a MacBook Pro for design and video work.
Best 49in ultrawide monitor
There's ultrawide, and then there are monitors like the Samsung G9 (and the Dell U4919DW and Philips 499P9H further down on our list) with whopping 49in screens. A standard monitor has an aspect ratio of 16:9, and most of the monitors in our pick of the best ultrawides are 21:9. But this trio of stunning screens are all 32:9, effectively giving you the space of two 16:9 monitors side by side, but with less of a footprint on your desk.
The Samsung G9's massive screen can offer a great boost to productivity if your desk can hold it. We've rated this higher than the Philips below mainly for value as it's significantly cheaper, while still having great specs for creatives and gamers. Like our other choices of monitors of this size, it offers multiple inputs and a picture-in-picture mode so you can connect two devices and use them together. We find it offers superb image quality, with 108 pixels per inch providing lots of screen space and vivid details without scaling, while the backlight's quantum dot enhanced film layer enhances the colour gamut to 95% DCI-P3 (equal to 125% sRGB) for more vibrant, lifelike colours. The refresh rate and response time are also reasonably fast for gaming.
Best smaller ultrawide monitor
The BenQ EX3410R monitor is designed for gaming with a fast refresh rate, Adaptive-Sync and blur reduction features. The curved design offers an immersive field of view and colours are beautiful and saturated. When we reviewed this screen we were particularly impressed with the built-in speakers and we found the monitor can serve for a lot more than gaming, offering a great value screen for multi-tasking, media consumption and video game designers. Unfortunately, it doesn't have the colour accuracy that many creatives will be looking for if working in photography or visual design.
See our full BenQ EX3410R review for more details.
Best value ultrawide monitor
The LG 34WN750 UltraWide QHD IPS Monitor is a solid ultrawide monitor that finds a balance between great features, brilliant pricing and fantastic quality. With HDMI and DisplayPort, it's ideal for creatives and it's compatible with HDR10. too. We found it to be nice and bright, while colours really punch. Tilt adjustment is welcome – the only negatives being that it doesn't include other connectivity options like USB-C, and it doesn't pivot, but that won't really matter if you're in the market for an ultrawide.
Best large ultrawide for gaming
Samsung may have started the trend for 32:9 monitors, but this curved ultrawide gaming monitor from AOC is a very solid contender. The superb display panel offers vibrant, accurate colours and rich detail for gaming and desktop applications alike. It doesn't support HDR as well as some more expensive ultrawide monitors, but the AOC Agon AG493UCX has everything else you'd want for a fantastic ultrawide gaming experience.
It boasts a premium build with a firm height, tilt and swivel adjustable cast aluminium stand. As for ports, it carries two DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.0 plus USB-C, USB 3.2 upstream port and a 3.5mm headphone jack. With a smooth 120Hz refresh rate, this is beautiful curved screen. Just make sure you have space on your desk because this is wide and with that curve also fairly deep.
Other options
The Philips 499P9H is another massive 49in, 32:9 monitor. It doesn't offer quite the speed of the Samsung option above, and it's not as bright, but it's still a great display for creative work, supporting 94 per cent of P3 and 91 per cent Adobe RGB. The brightness of 450 nits is still fairly decent although not spectacular, and the monitor can be adjusted for height, tilt and swivel for an ergonomic setup. t's a great connection hub too, with dual HDMI ports, DisplayPort, and USB-C to transfer power, video and data over a single connection. There are also three regular USB ports for accessories and a handy Gigabit Ethernet port. All in all, this is one monster display.
We recently reviewed the Philips 34E1C5600HE and found it to be a well-built ultrawide curved monitor for a very reasonable mid-range price. It falls short in a few areas, such as the webcam and speaker quality, and connectivity is fiddly – there's a fine array of ports, but they're hidden around the back.
Aside from that, though. We actually found it pleasant to use. The anti-glare coating was effective in reducing unwanted reflection and the matte frame looks nice. Gaming performance was surprisingly considering it's not pitched as a gaming product. For an ultrawide monitor for general work, programming and perhaps entry-level video-editing or photo-editing, it's not bad at all. It seems that there's no availability in the US at the moment, so this is only an option for those in Europe.
See our full Philips 34E1C5600HE review for more details.
FAQs
How wide is an ultrawide monitor?
The definition of ultrawide is fairly broad, ranging from 34in to around 49in. Most ultrawide monitors sit at 34in, which is big enough for most uses, but an even wider screen can allow you to effectively replicate a dual monitor setup with a single screen.
It's a tidier option, you'll just need a large enough desk to accommodate it. Make sure you've taken some measurements before you buy so you know you have the space you need, and see our guides to the best desks and best L-shaped desks if you need new furniture).
At the opposite end of the spectrum, if you need a screen that can travel, see our choices for the best portable monitors. We also have a guide to the best monitors for Mac mini.
Is an ultrawide monitor better than separate monitors?
The answer to this depends on what you want to use the monitors for, your style of working and also the physical setup of your workspace. Multi-monitor setups are popular and have the advantage that you can place the two (or more) screens where you want them, whether that's side by side, at an angle to each other, or even on separate desks or on each part of an L-shaped desk.
However, the best ultrawide monitors have the advantage of being a neater solution with fewer cables and no fuss with connections and daisy-chaining. A single ultrawide display will also usually be cheaper than buying two or more standard monitors. Ultrawides also have the benefit that they can be used for watching media and or for gaming on one large immersive screen, without any division. Also, most people also find that dragging windows around one large screen feels smoother and more intuitive than working across one or more smaller screens.
The best ultrawide monitors can be useful for those that have to make regular Zoom calls or use collaborative workspaces because you can view the video or chat display alongside your work, notes or spreadsheets.
How close should I sit to an ultrawide monitor?
If you sit too close to a large screen, it'll be uncomfortable to use, as you'll be turning your head to view certain parts of the screen. Often the edges will be slightly outside your peripheral vision when sitting at a normal working distance so that's something you need to bear in mind. To solve the effect of this, most ultrawide monitors are just slightly curved at the edges.
Can I divide the screen on an ultrawide monitor?
Yes, most of the best ultrawide monitors offer features that allow you to divide the screen so you can connect two sources (like two computers, or a computer and tablet) to the same display. This feature is called picture-in-picture, or PBP, and can usually be turned on in the display settings.
A monitor that has PBP mode activated will display the screen from two inputs at the same time, side-by-side. you will be able to select the input you want to see and swap them left to right. A KVM (keyboard, video and mouse) switch will allow you to use one keyboard and mouse to control both devices, saving clutter on your desk. There is also software such as DisplayFusion that can help you set up and manage the inputs on an ultrawide screen.
How to choose the best ultrawide monitor
First you'll want to decide just how wide you want to go. In terms of resolution, look for at least WQHD (Wide Quad High Definition) – which gives you a pixel count of 2560x1440 – and a wide aspect ratio of 21:9. Usually the bigger the screen, the higher the resolution.
There are some ultrawide monitors that offer 2560×1080 resolutions. While this still gives you more workspace compared to a regular 1080p widescreen monitor, we feel it's still a little too low to get the full benefit of the ultrawide aspect ratio. They are quite a bit more affordable than ultrawide monitors with higher resolutions, so if you're on a budget, these could be a good choice. However, in our guide to the best ultrawide monitors above, we've restricted our choices to at least WQHD since we find this offers the best ultrawide experience.
Ultrawide monitors also vary based on panel technology and features. Ultrawide screens generally look just fine with vertical alignment (VA) panels, but the sharper, brighter and considerably more expensive in-plane switching (IPS) panel technology will offer better image quality. While 21:9 is the most common ultrawide aspect ratio, there are even wider monitors with 32:9 aspect ratios. These offer even more workspace, but they are also more expensive, and they take up more room.
How we chose the best ultrawide monitors in our guide
To choose the best widescreen monitor in our guide, we compared hands-on tests by our own expert reviewers along with feedback from the creatives who regularly contribute to our site and from our sister site TechRadar.
We also made sure that we covered different needs, including ultrawide monitors at different ends of the definition, from smaller 34in ultrawide monitors right up to 49in displays, while also covering different budget requirements, so we've included some relatively cheap ultrawide monitors but also more professional screens for those who need excellent colour coverage or fast specs for gaming.
