What’s the deal with curved monitors? I’ve always been a flat monitor user and have never found anything wrong with them and never considered them inferior to curved ones. In fact, I’ve never even thought of buying one, mainly due to the relative cost of entry when compared to a similarly sized flat display. However, when given the opportunity to check out the BenQ MOBIUZ EX3210R curved gaming monitor, I couldn’t pass that up since I had just finished building a gaming PC capable of both high resolution and high frame rates. With the BenQ MOBIUZ EX3210R, we’re looking at a 2K display with a 165Hz refresh rate and 1000R curvature, geared towards gamers, though suitable too for everyday tasks.
DESIGN & SPECS
The BenQ MOBIUZ EX3210R is a large monitor. It’s the largest MOBIUZ curved monitor they make in a 16:9 ratio, and if you want larger, you’ll have to go with the 21:9 ratio ultrawide monitors. The display is 31.5″ in size with a resolution of 2560×1440 @165Hz. In terms of sizing, this thing is about the same width as my old ultrawide LG monitor, but much taller, so adjusting to the size wasn’t difficult. I’m still able to see the same amount of stuff on my desktop, but with the added height, so my desktop is actually larger now, which is a plus. There’s also an anti-glare coating on it which is very much appreciated.
Other notable specs include 300-400nit brightness, 1ms response time, 92ppi, and 16.7 million colors. What I find interesting is the inclusion of built-in speakers (2.1 channels) featuring 2Wx2 speakers and a 5W woofer. I’ve never had a monitor with speakers built-in before and this allowed me to free up some space on my table, cleaning up my setup quite a bit.
Anyways, moving on to the physical design of the BenQ MOBIUZ EX3210R, the display stretches out pretty near to the edges with a very small bezel. It’s nearly frameless and looks quite good. There is a large border at the bottom, but that’s mainly to house the built-in speakers and the IR receiver for the remote. The monitor is also a bit thick near the center, which I attribute to the built-in woofer and the ports which are on that back. Speaking of which, the EX3210R has 1xDisplayPort 1.4, 2xHDMI 2.0, 2xUSB 3.0, and 1xUSB Type B ports. There’s also an audio jack. The ports are neatly covered with a removable cover.
On the bottom of the display, you’ll find a control joystick nub, a power button, and a quick access button. You’ll probably never use these though if you keep the included remote close by.
Moving on to the stand, the stand on the BenQ MOBIUZ EX3210R is beefy. While the legs on them don’t really take up much space, the overall footprint is pretty big. I guess it needs to be in order to stabilize a 15lbs monitor. The base itself weighs about 6lbs by itself. The stand is really nice though and allows the monitor to be moved up and down for height, allows for tilt (-5? – 15?) and allows for the left to right swivel (15?/ 15?).
Lastly, the MOBIUZ EX3210R has LED lighting on the back which is kind of neat, though, in my current setup, I can’t even see them. It’s mainly for aesthetics and doesn’t really serve any real purpose other than to make the monitor look cool.
SETUP
Setup isn’t too difficult though you must take special care when opening the box and removing the monitor. For starters, you’ll need to take out pretty much everything except for the display first. Then with the stand in your hand, install it to the display before pulling it out. Only after it’s installed should you grab it by the neck of the stand and carefully lift it out of the box. Do not lift it from the display. Once you get it on your table, you can start the process of plugging in all the cables. What I like about the package here is that BenQ includes both an HDMI cable and a DisplayPort cable.
EXPERIENCE
Testing the BenQ MOBIUZ EX3210R was done with a custom-built gaming PC with an AMD Ryzen 5 5600G and an RTX 3070 FE. More than enough to handle 2K gaming at high framerate. So let’s get started.
Swapping from a 1080p ultrawide to a 2K wide wasn’t as jarring as I thought it would be. In actuality, like I stated up above somewhere, the resolution in width was the same while the height increased. Basically, I’m getting more viewing area now than my previous 1080p ultrawide. That’s great because when I’m not gaming, the MOBIUZ EX3210R is a great productivity monitor. It means I can do several things at once, side by side. I didn’t want to give that up from my ultrawide (21:9) and I’m glad that I don’t with this 2K (16:9) monitor.
Moving on, when it comes to gaming, the MOBIUZ EX3210R really excels at it. Being a 2K monitor means you’ll see more detail in your games while the 165Hz refresh rate does wonders to keep the action butter smooth. While not quite as high as another monitor I looked at that had 240Hz, 165Hz is still really good and you’ll honestly not notice anything higher than that. And with the RTX 3070, I can game at high frame rates to keep up with the refresh rate here. Although activating G-sync probably helps a bit too.
Anyways, in terms of picture quality, I’m totally in love. The MOBIUZ EX3210R produces an excellent array of colors that are both bright and vivid and can produce some very deep blacks when needed. Of course, you can adjust a wide gambit of color settings and brightness settings manually or use the presets that come built-in. Note however that when you have HDR enabled in Windows, it will disable some of the presets in the monitor. HDR then will be emulated by the monitor itself and not by Windows.
Another aspect of the MOBIUZ EX3210R may not be so obvious at first, but it’s the fact that ever since I started using it, I haven’t had the usual sort of eye fatigue or tiredness I usually feel when staring at my computer screen all day long. Also, the curve, while not that extreme, does take a bit to get used to. I’ve never used a curved display before this and I can You do get some weird light reflections off it sometimes though so you’re going to have to adjust the angle and your lights a bit to get the perfect view.
Aside from that, this is one amazing monitor. I never thought I’d like using a curved display, but I do. There’s much to like here with the BenQ MOBIUZ EX3210R and not much to dislike. Everything from the build to the display quality, to the built-in speakers, is all top-notch.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This is actually the second monitor I’ve been able to look at from BenQ, and while the first one was really good and built for eSports level gaming, the BenQ MOBIUZ EX3210R is more for those who still take gaming seriously, but want something with a higher resolution without the insane refresh rates. I prefer the higher resolution because I do use my computer for more than just gaming and having more desktop space is always a plus for productivity.
Despite the oddness of a curved display at first, I’ve gotten quite used to it and actually really like it now. The picture quality is so good and the refresh rate is perfect for the type of gaming I do. I also really enjoy the built-in speakers which allow me to basically get rid of the stand-alone speakers I had before and free up space on my table.
So with that said, I can understand now why you would want a curved display and the benefits of them. They might not be for everyone, but the BenQ MOBIUZ EX3210R has me sold on curved monitors. For those looking for an upgrade from their boring flat monitors, the BenQ MOBIUZ EX3210R is a solid choice.
The BenQ MOBIUZ EX3210R is available now on Amazon.
