Corsair Xeneon Flex 45WQHD240 OLED Review – the BENDABLE OLED!

Rating: 8.5.

Corsair raised a number of eyebrows when the company announced the Xeneon Flex back at Gamescom. We were mighty impressed when we got hands-on at Corsair's UK HQ a couple of weeks later, and today we present our full review of this rather bonkers screen. Its spec would be eye-catching enough, with a 45in 3440×1440 OLED screen, operating at a 240Hz refresh rate, but this screen has a trick up its rather large sleeve – it physically bends…

Developed in partnership with LG, Corsair's Xeneon Flex 45WQHD240 OLED is easily the most unique gaming monitor I have ever used. We've already mentioned how it offers a cutting-edge OLED panel, operating at 240Hz which makes it the fastest OLED monitor on the market. And on top of that, Corsair has designed a flex mechanism, allowing you to manually adjust the curvature of the screen, from flat up to an 800R curvature.

Of course, such a screen was never going to come cheap, and UK pricing has been announced at £2099.99. It's clearly going to be a product for only the most cash-rich of enthusiasts – but how exactly does it work? Is there a benefit to a 240Hz OLED over something like a 4K 120Hz TV? All that and more will be covered in this review.

We do, however, need to make one thing clear. The sample we were sent is described by Corsair as a ‘late-stage prototype', so it is not fully representative of a final retail sample which are set to start mass production next week. Corsair confirmed the following changes to us:

• Blur Busters certification – Xeneon Flex is being certified as a Blur Busters Certified monitor and will be the very first OLED Gaming Monitor that they have certified
  • We are also working with Blur Busters and LG to create a brand-new OLED Gaming Monitor certification standard for Real Gameplay HDR.  The current VESA DisplayHDR standards are not a good method of measuring the quality of OLED Gaming Monitors since they exceed the current standards by such a huge margin.
  • The certification report is expected to be released this week

• Brightness, Color Accuracy (Delta E), HDR color space, EyeSafe Certification
  • Our final production firmware is being locked down this week as we are preparing for mass production to being next week
  • Current review units do not have final panel calibration due to these updates being finalized which lead to slightly underperforming results in some tests
    • Current brightness performance is ~800nit under most testing.  Windows HDR Calibration clearly shows the panel performs well over 1000nit and the production units shipping to customers will also achieve these levels
    • Color Accuracy (Delta E <2) as well as expected HDR color space will meet or exceed published specs
    • EyeSafe Certification requirements will be met
    • Each monitor will be factory color calibrated and will ship to end-users with an individual calibration report

• Desk Mount
  • We finally received our prototype of the Desk Mount for Xeneon Flex with great initial test results
  • We will be making a few tweaks to this design and then moving the product into the next stage of production
  • Targeted availability is in Q1 to align with Channel availability

This does mean we are unfortunately unable to ascertain the exact levels of performance that you could expect if you went out and bought a retail unit when they become available in Q1 of next year. We have still tested our unit thoroughly, but considering key metrics like out-of-the-box colour accuracy and peak brightness are set to change, the figures presented in this article are not fully representative. Still, if you want to know what this monitor can do, and what it's like to use day to day, be sure to check out the video above, or otherwise keep reading…

Specification:

• Panel Size: 44.75inch (1136.680mm) diagonal
• Aspect Ratio: 21:9
• Panel Type: OLED with Oxide TFT Drive
• Pixel Arrangement: RWBG Stripe
• Panel Curve: Flat to 800R
• Weight: 3.5Kg (Typ.)
• Resolution: 3440 x 1440 (UWQHD)
• Active Area: 1047.51(H) x 441.31(V) mm
• Pixels: 3,456 (x3) x 1,456
• Pixel Pitch: 303um per triad
• Brightness (Center): 150nit (Full window) / 450nit (Peak, 25% APL) / 800nit (10% APL HDR) / 1000nit (3% APL HDR)
• Luminance Uniformity: 80% Typical
• HDR Rating: NEW OLED STANDARD IN PROCESS
• Color Depth: Real 10bit
• Color Gamut: 100% sRGB / 98.5% DCI-P3 / 96.3% AdobeRGB
• Displayable Color: 1.07 billion Colors (10bit RGB)
• Contrast Ratio: 1,500,000:1
• Viewing Angle: 178°
• Color Viewing Angle: 120°
• Panel Anti-Glare Treatment: Anti-Glare 35% Low-Reflectivity
• Color temperature (White Balance Preset): 8500K Default / Standard 6500K / Warm 5000K / User adjustable
• Refresh Rate: Up to 240Hz
• Response Time: 0.03ms GtG / 0.01ms Pixel ON/OFF
• Video Timing: VRR 40Hz~240Hz
• Adaptive Sync: FreeSync Premium certified, G-Sync compatible certified
• HDMI: 2x HDMI 2.1
• Display Port: 1x Display Port 1.4
• USB Type-C: 30W Power Delivery USB-C Alt mode
• USB Type-A: 4x USB Type-A 3.1gen1 (2x Rear / 2x Front) (USB Hub)
• Output Jack: 3.5mm analog output jack, 80dB s/n ratio
• Direct Control Buttons: Power, 5-way Joystick
• Vertical Tilt: Tilt -7° / +15°

Become a Patron!