Curves, huh? Curves, curves, curves. Not only will such an opening draw traffic from the less-than-pretty corners of Google’s search results, it also sums up how your brain works when you’re standing in front of a curved monitor. Unless you’ve been using one for a while, it’s hard to sit in front of a curved monitor, even one as gentle as this one, the Xiaomi G34WQi, and see anything other than the curve. CRT monitors used to bulge towards us, but now this one’s in your peripheral vision, its wider-than-wide aspect ratio giving you a more immersive view of games than ever before.
The Xiaomi G34WQi isn’t the largest ultrawide screen out there, nor does it have the most aggressive curvature, though it is impressively affordable. The smartphone maker first announced its monitors in 2019, and it’s taken a while for them to start selling outside of China. It offers a mellow 1500R, that’s R for radius, and the 1500 bit describes a circle that measures 1500mm to the center; the monitor thus traces an arc along the circumference of that circle. Remember those geometry bits in school that you slept through and thought you’d never need? Well, here it is, right here in the real world. And there’s no point in carrying a calculator in your pocket at all times if you can’t remember the formulas.
Of course, no one at PC Gamer can remember the formulas, but that doesn’t matter. What you need to know is that the higher the number, the gentler the curve, because you’re going around the outside of a larger circle. So 2000R would be less curved, closer to flat, while 1000R would wrap around the sides further because the imaginary circle is smaller.
The aspect ratio of this 34-inch Xiaomi display is 21:9, making it perfect for watching movies like Avatar 2, which were shot with such a slim, wide frame in mind. Monitors like the Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 offer a 32:9 aspect ratio, which is like having two 16:9 displays side-by-side but without the gap in the middle or hours of fiddling to get them to the same height. With a resolution of 3440 x 1440 pixels, known as WQHD, and a panel height of around 14-inches, it’s more like having one and a half 27-inch 16:9 1440p monitors but with a curvature.
G34WQi Specifications
Screen size: 34 inch
Screen type: VA
Solution: 3440×1440
Refresh rate: 180 Hz (144 Hz for 10-bit color)
Color range (mentioned): 100% sRGB
Inputs: 2x DisplayPort 1.4, 2x HDMI 2.0, 3.5mm audio
Web camera: No
Speakers: No
Functions: Free Sync Premium
Adjustments: -5° / +21°
Dimensions: 811x210x510mm
Weight: 6.9 kg
Price: €329 | €449
Still, it does make a difference. It’s not too skinny, allowing you to display documents side by side and still read them, while Windows 11’s ability to tile windows a third of the way across the screen comes into its own. Over-the-top spreadsheet enthusiasts can indulge their warped desires with a maximized window and more columns than Excel’s original designers ever imagined, while content creators can push their editing tools far to the edges to maintain a clear view of what they’re working on, and streamers can run OBS in a large enough window to actually see what’s happening.
The screen is well packaged, and while curved monitors often come in huge boxes to protect them in transit, the moderate proportions on display here mean it’s less bulky and easier to handle. It does take an external power adapter, which in the case of our review model has a two-prong US plug. You may need an adapter depending on where in the world you live and where you buy it, but it had no problem with our 240V electricity.
The stand is put together using actual screws rather than something you turn with your fingers, although there is a screwdriver in the box, and there are four of them. They’re quite small, so it’s important not to drop one, and you’ll need to use them, because any attempt to push the stand together and hold it in place using good old Newtonian gravity is doomed to failure, as it will tilt forward under the weight of its own screen. So don’t do that.
Even if the stand is screwed in tightly, it can still wobble a little. A stable desk makes a difference, but anything that moves the surface it’s on will cause a sympathetic wobble at the corners of the screen.
The stand clips into a recess on the back of the monitor, where you can also attach a 75mm VESA mount. A ring of LED lights surrounds the mounting point, which can be adjusted via the OSD, proving that there’s no escaping RGB, even on the back of a monitor where you’ll never see it.
Unlike the cheaper Xiaomi G27i , the inputs for this display face downwards and come with a clip-on cover to keep them tidy – yet another indication that the back of this display is designed for viewing, possibly at some kind of tournament, since no one has LAN parties anymore. While there is a boost in inputs compared to the budget display, it would have been nice to see a KVM or USB-C input here too. Still, it is factory colour calibrated and you get Freesync Premium, so there’s not much to complain about considering the price.
Buy as…
✅ Affordable ultrawide gaming options: The Xiaomi has an older screen, but is still a great device for this price.
✅ You’re a spreadsheet slanderer: The ability to view a datasheet in full screen will appeal to some special people.
Do not buy if…
❌ You want HDR, an IPS panel or speakers: Look, this is a really basic, budget-oriented monitor. So if you’re looking for luxury, you’re not going to find it here.
The OSD is a development of Xiaomi’s standard menu, meaning brightness can be easily accessed via the purple joystick on the rear of the monitor. Freesync is off by default, and you’ll want to change the pixel response time to the fastest setting to avoid ghosting at higher frame rates. The colorimeter showed a color response covering 100% of the sRGB gamut, with 89% of Adobe RGB and 94% of the P3 gamut, which will appeal to videographers and other content creators.
A peak brightness of 400 nits is also good to see, though it’s worth noting that as a VA panel its HDR capabilities are somewhat limited. It can only display 16.7 million colours (10-bit is 1.07 billion) and there’s no local dimming, so even if you feed it an HDR signal (it can be enabled in the OSD and Windows, though you’ll have to drop the refresh rate down to 144Hz) it’s not certified and can’t display it anyway.
There are a few budget ultrawides out there with similar specs to the Xiaomi G34WQi, such as the ASRock Phantom PG34WQ15R2B . You could also buy a pair of Xiaomi’s own G27i 1080p displays, put them side by side, and still save money. Xiaomi’s offerings are decent enough, but this Western newcomer has a lot of competition, and the best ultrawide alternatives are worth checking out.