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Best known for its motherboards, Taiwanese manufacturer ASRock is now also dabbling in gaming monitors. Among its first efforts in the field is the ASRock Phantom Gaming 34 (PG34WQ15R2B), an ultrawide 34-inch display with a 1,500mm curve. It packs a host of pleasantries, including a Wi-Fi antenna, which ASRock claims is a world’s first for a gaming monitor. While its color gamut and brightness ratings aren’t the most impressive, the ultrawide monitor packs in a lot for a surprisingly low $429.99, which is enough to help it stand out from the stiff competition in these inflationary times.
Go Wide, Not Deep Into Your Wallet
The 34-inch Phantom Gaming sports a familiar design, one that we’ve seen before on cheaper monitors. A sturdy, hard-plastic three-prong base elevates the monitor off of the table. The stand itself is hefty, though I did notice a considerable amount of shake when moving the monitor—a bobblehead’s worth, to be exact. It doesn’t quite feel unstable, but it comes close. Wobble aside, the monitor does have a good range of (intentional) motion: You can adjust the height, swivel, and tilt a reasonable amount. And yes, it is VESA-mountable.
(Credit: Kyle Cobian)
The monitor measures 22.6 by 31.8 by 11.14 inches (HWD) and weighs 19.4 pounds, lighter than recent 34-inch monitors we’ve seen like the BenQ Mobiuz EX3410R and Cooler Master GM34-CWQ ARGB. Its slight curve gives it a wider wingspan that will take up more space on your desk compared with some competitors that feature tighter curvatures. The panel’s 1500R curvature makes the screen look bigger, and reduces glare while delivering deeper perceived blacks. (The “R” stands for “radius”; if you placed enough Phantom Gaming 34 monitors edge to edge to form a circle, it would have a radius of 1,500mm, or 1.5 meters.) The tighter the curve, the more the screen envelops you, which makes curved monitors the favored choice for immersive simulation games. But for my money, 1500R works well for just about any game genre.
(Credit: Kyle Cobian)
Turning the monitor around, you’ll find three Adidas-like stripes that act as button shortcuts for display settings, as well as the power button. An OSD control stick sits right above them. I was skeptical of this avant-garde design choice at first, but it works okay; markings on the side of the panel tell you what each button does. A modest port hub is set up in the center, with two HDMI 2.0 ports, one DisplayPort input, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Probably for budgetary reasons, pass-through USB ports are absent on this model.
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(Credit: Kyle Cobian)
What it lacks in extra ports, the Phantom Gaming 34 makes up for with two other interesting features—a pair of 2-watt speakers and a Wi-Fi antenna housed in the monitor’s stand. You can tap into the display’s internet capabilities by running two antenna cables (which are included) between the monitor and your PC. It’s a convenient feature for those who have a wireless signal that could use a boost and are itching to free themselves from an Ethernet cable.
The included speakers do their job, but they falter once you crank up the volume, sounding a bit tinny and hollow, with no bass to speak of. Still, they will save cost-conscious gamers from the need to buy a separate set of speakers.
(Credit: Kyle Cobian)
The cabinet lacks any RGB lighting, and the OSD settings are limited, with a handful of preset modes and some color temperature settings.
Beneath the surface, you’ll note that ASRock has opted for a VA panel over an IPS one. VA panels are known for delivering deeper blacks and enhanced shadow highlights at some sacrifice of color accuracy, while IPS panels cover wider color gamuts and generally look better from wider viewing angles. That doesn’t mean VA panels aren’t capable of good color coverage; they just probably wouldn’t be the first pick for a content creator or professional video editor. They’re more than good enough for games, though, as we’ll see next.
Testing the Phantom Gaming 34: Good Enough for Sometimes Play
In the gaming-monitor rat race, anything can happen. We’ve seen high-end monitors come up short, and budget models punch well above their weight class. So how will the Phantom Gaming 34 fare against the competition? To see what it can do, we ran it through several benchmarks using a Datacolor SpyderX Elite monitor calibration sensor to compare it with displays of similar size and resolution.
To start, we test the monitor’s brightness right out of the box in its default picture mode with an SDR signal. The result, 269 nits, is respectable, though far below the peak 550-nit promise made by the manufacturer. HDR brightness fared better, measuring 459 nits, passing the VESA DisplayHDR 400 standard. Keep in mind these are default settings, so, theoretically, higher brightnesses could be attained, but doing so would require some fiddling with the settings.
As for contrast, we measured a black level of 0.28 and a contrast ratio of 1,080:1. Contrast ratio indicates the luminance of the brightest white and darkest black that a monitor can produce. It makes a difference in picture quality, especially during dark scenes in gameplay. Gaming monitors with IPS panels typically shoot for a contrast ratio of 1,000:1 or better, and that remains the case for VA panels as well. Comparatively, the ASRock monitor isn’t a star, but it’s more than up to the task as far as contrast is concerned.
Our color-gamut coverage results paint a brighter picture, or at least a more vibrant one. The ASRock spanned 100% of the sRGB color gamut, 82% of Adobe RGB, and 87% of DCI-P3. Those are respectable numbers, and comparable with the competition. Color accuracy was strong, as well, measuring a Delta E of 1.4, besting all of the competition in this lot except for the ViewSonic Elite XG341C-2K (which we’ll be reviewing shortly).
The higher the Delta E, the farther colors tend to stray from their intended hue. A value under 1 is ideal, but gamers usually don’t care as much about pin-precise color accuracy. Instead, they’re more interested in reducing lag and tearing, which leads into our next section.
Media and Gaming Performance
With solid color measurements for a monitor in its price range, the ASRock holds its own well enough—but we have to consider one final important stat: input lag. Using an HDFury Diva HDMI matrix, we measured input lag at 3.5 milliseconds. This lands squarely in the middle of the competition. Esports pros and the hardcore crowd will definitely want to seek even lower input lag, but it’s more than good enough for just about every other player.
(Credit: Kyle Cobian)
With a 165Hz refresh rate, you’ll be able to handle plenty of fast-paced shooters like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Overwatch 2. AMD FreeSync Premium prevents screen tearing and holds up well to scrutiny. And the feature works with Nvidia GPUs as well, so you shouldn’t run into any issues, regardless of which graphics card you’ve got. In our testing, we didn’t note much ghosting, and saw no screen tearing at all.
Verdict: A Budget Option for Casual Gamers
The 34-inch ASRock Phantom Gaming monitor certainly surprised us with just how well it performed. It may not have produced the best test results across the board, but its strength lies in its value. At just $429, it’s one the better deals you can find on a monitor of this size. And with included features like its built-in Wi-Fi antenna and speakers, it’s a fine choice for cutting costs in your next computer build. If you’re willing to make some sacrifices to gain a big widescreen, you’ll find that the Phantom Gaming 34 is a worthy specter.
3.5
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ASRock’s Phantom Gaming 34 could be sturdier and brighter, but it’s a reasonable value for a big ultrawide monitor for casual gamers.
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Source link : https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/asrock-phantom-gaming-34-pg34wq15r2b