Want the most immersive monitor ever? TCL reckons its new curved 31-inch OLED screen will turn heads

TCL just revealed a clutch of new PC monitors at the DTC 2023 (Display Tech Conference) event, one of which is a world first – at least for a consumer screen – in that it’s a dome-shaped display.

A what-now? This 31-inch OLED monitor has a screen that is not only curved towards the edges horizontally but also vertically, so the end result is a kind of concave dome (as you can see in the pic above).

The monitor aims to provide a sort of faux-3D experience, and boasts a 120Hz refresh rate and 4K resolution. We aren’t told any other specs or details about the product, unfortunately.

At DTC 2023, TCL also revealed further display innovations including a 57-inch dual 4K Mini LED monitor – a vast ultra-wide display which has a 32:9 aspect ratio and R1000 curvature (with a 240Hz refresh rate). As the ‘dual’ name indicates it’s basically two screens stuck together, side-by-side, as it were (so you’ll need a lengthy desk).

Also of interest is a 27-inch monitor with an 8K resolution which sports a “2D/3D switchable light field display,” meaning it can be switched from a normal (2D) display into a glasses-free 3D experience. All of these revelations were spotted by IT Home (a Chinese tech site – via VideoCardz).

Analysis: Concave concept might just fall flat?

Details are thin on the ground with these monitor innovations, it has to be said, but they’re certainly interesting developments.

Is the concave or dome-shaped, curved both horizontally and vertically, monitor a good idea? We guess the theory is that it’s more immersive in terms of creating a better 3D effect than a standard horizontally curved screen, but for us, the latter is immersive enough really (on a good ultra-wide monitor).

Seeing as it’s a relatively small screen, too, at 31-inches, it feels like there’s a danger this won’t give the display enough room to breathe, as it were, and not seem like you’re looking into a fishbowl (as detractors have pointed out).

There’s also a reason why such concave screens haven’t been made (in the consumer space anyway), and that’s the expense and difficulty of getting it right – curving the screen in two planes is much trickier than one in terms of the panel’s fragility. And that may be one of the reasons why the 31-inch size was plumped for, perhaps.

We remain skeptical about this one, then, but to be fair, we won’t know how it looks until, well, we actually get to clap eyes on the 31-inch monitor – which admittedly we’re keen to do.

It’s also worth mulling that 27-inch 8K display, as this could be a tempting monitor given the pixel density that you’ll get there. Is 8K overkill at that size? Arguably, yes, but we’re betting the pin-sharp nature of the display may well sway buyers who see it in real life, for those who need the ultimate in detail with their monitor. Which kind of comes back to the same point – namely that it’ll be great to get these monitors in for review and evaluate them.

Until then, we can’t draw any real conclusions, especially not about that concave monitor which certainly deserves marks for inventiveness if nothing else.