OLED display, Quantum Dot technology, 34-inch panel and a slight curvature: this is, in short, MSI MEG 342C QD-OLED, a monitor that was created for gaming and that gives its best when paired with a PC even if it doesn’t disdain consoles either.
The price, we’ll tell you right away, is not national-popular: let’s talk about 1.499 €.
Not a few but certainly adequate for what this product offers.
The question at this point is: What do I get home for €1,499?
MSI MEG 342C QD-OLED review: how is it made?
There are three elements that struck us about this newly installed monitor: the golden details, the RGB LED strip and the amount of ports at our disposal.
Let’s start with them, the golden details.
MSI MEG 342C QD-OLED is evidently the result of a compromise: on the one hand the need to offer a product suitable for the average gamer, on the other the need to study an aesthetic that is not too aggressiveso as to make it satisfactory also for those who want to use this monitor in slightly more professional contexts.
That’s why we have black as the basic colour, however embellished with golden elements of the base – extremely massive -, of the MSI logo set on the back and of the controls, composed of a small joystick and two buttons of the same size.
The position of the latter is perfect: not too external and not too internal, so you can easily get there at any time. By using them you also have everything you need at your disposal: from HDR to blue light filterfrom controls to iautomatic lightingfrom language to KVM, which allows you to connect peripherals to the monitor for use on the PC connected to it, not to mention thel Picture in Picture e il Picture by Picture per gli amanti del multitasking.
The right amount of tamarrage, however, is provided by the SpectrumBarthe RGB LED strip that you can synchronize with the contents on the screen using the option MSI Glow Sync. A touch of color that pleasantly livens up your desk.
Finally, let’s not forget the entrances: and DisplayPort to fully exploit the VRR, due HDMI 2.1 which also make it perfect with the consoles and the 120 Hz of the new generation, a USB type B, un USB-C con power delivery a 65 watt so you can also charge your PC and the headphone jack. But that’s not all: they’re here quattro USB-A e two more jacks, one for headphones and one for microphone. And, speaking of microphone, we also have decent active noise cancellation technology which allows you to communicate more easily with your classmates.
We also point out the possibility of adjusting it a little according to your needs: you have 100 mm of freedom in height, an inclination that goes from -5° to 20° and the possibility of mounting it on the wall using the VESA 100×100 attachment mm.
One last note on the design front: we have an opening in the base to facilitate cable management and keep the desk a little tidy. Help is always very welcome.
How does it look?
As anticipated, we have in front of us a 34-inch OLED display that uses Quantum Dot technology. In daily use this translates into very high image quality, with deep blacks and very vivid colours.
For numbers lovers we have 100% coverage of the sRGB and DCI-P3 space while we stop at around 76% of the Adobe RGB space.
What does it mean? We found it excellent for watching multimedia content and gaming, but not completely satisfactory for photo and video editing with the Adobe suite. On the other hand, it wasn’t born for that: gaming is his great vocation, also thanks to a response time of 1 ms and a refresh rate of up to 175 Hz.
Three technologies with which you can exploit it: the AMD FreeSync Premium, the NVIDIA G-Sync and the VRR. In essence, all three are responsible for doing the same thing: synchronizing the frame rate of the video card with the refresh rate of the screen, so as to avoid tearing and stuttering.
Then there are other functions that come to your aid: the viewfinders, the Optix Scope – which zooms the area around the viewfinder -, the Night Vision, which instead helps you see better in darker areas, e i preset dedicated to different types of games.
Let’s not forget the curvature of the panel.
Let’s talk about 1800R which are not many. To clarify, the lower this value, the more curved the monitor is and curved means that it follows the normal curvature of the eye to make viewing more comfortable.
So why not make it more curved than this? Because in reality 1800R is sufficient: you can see well even if you are not perfectly in front of the display but the user experience is better than a flat screen.
Know that you can also manage all the settings with il software Gaming Intelligence which however requires the use of the USB-B cable included in the package.
Yes but burn-in?
Let’s address the elephant in the room: burn-in.
What is that? In essence, it is a slight discoloration of OLED displays that takes on the shape of elements that have been displayed for a long time. We could say that it is as if an image remained printed on the screen.
MSI, however, has thought of a solution to avoid the phenomenon, a solution called MSI OLED Care and includes 3 different activities:
- Pixel Shiftwith the image being moved by just a few pixels so as not to keep the elements on the screen still for too long;
- Panel Protectwith pixels updating after a definitive time;
- Static Screen Detectionwith the monitor dimming the static light elements independently.
All of this should prevent burn-in.
“It should” because MSI MEG 342C QD-OLED has been keeping us company for a couple of weeks, to be sure it works we should test it over much longer periods of time.
MSI MEG 342C QD-OLED review: conclusions
MSI MEG 342C QD-OLED is a great gaming monitor who kept us company during our sessions with Starfield, Baldur’s Gate 3 and Forza Motorsport.
It offers excellent colors, an excellent experience with both PCs and consoles and a series of options that also make it excellent for productivity, not to mention that 34 inches allows you to place multiple windows side by side without giving up good visibility.
If you want to aim for OLED, it is undoubtedly a monitor to consider.