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| ![](/n.gif) | | PC World - 7 Jun (PC World)For years, Chromebooks have served as the loyal opposition to PCs. Google’s laptops offer many of the same Google services as you can find via the Web, but integrated into an inexpensive package for consumers and students. So what’s next?
I sat down with John Solomon, vice president of ChromeOS and education at Google, to ask about the new wave of AI PCs and how Google responds. We talk about how “generic” Chromebooks survive as Google pushes Chromebook Plus, how kids can be encouraged to game on Chromebooks as well as learn, and what Google is cooking up in response to Microsoft’s Recall for Copilot+ PCs.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Further reading: Best of Computex 2024: The most intriguing and innovative PC hardware
Mark Hachman, PCWorld: I saw your presentation at Computex as a way to remind people that there are more than just AI PCs. So, in light of those products, what is the value proposition of a Chromebook these days?
John Solomon, Google: As you know, we have Chromebook and Chromebook Plus. In Chromebook, it has always been about and continues to be about delivering really great value, the best place to experience access to Google services.
Whether it’s Google Workspace, or more broadly, Chrome, we work very hard to make sure that first-party products as well as the Play Store work well on Chromebook. We’ve put a lot of machine learning functionality into doing things like power management, memory management, and this allows us to put together a package that from a price point perspective is very accessible.
Michael Crider/Foundry
Michael Crider/Foundry
Michael Crider/Foundry
So what you see on a Chromebook is a lot of success at opening price points for a consumer across a lot of major markets — U.S., UK, I’m not sure which markets you cover –though obviously U.S. So that gives us a very strong position there.
We also obviously are very strong in education. Futuresource just came out with their latest data. And, you know, that’s largely on the back of a very affordable product, which is easy to manage on the education side, In enterprise we are increasingly a frontline worker value proposition.
So that’s Chromebook. Launched late last year, we introduced Chromebook Plus as a separate tier with significantly more memory storage and processing capability. And we did that with a view to that being our launchpad for AI. So with Chromebook Plus you have a set of cloud and on-device AI capabilities, that we’ve basically targeted and limited to be available on Chromebook Plus only.
Can you break down the proportions of all three?
Sure, sure. In terms of the installed base — so these are rough numbers, but it would be about 60 percent in the education space, 30 percent in consumer and 10 percent in enterprise, and that roughly matches shipments over a few years.
The Chromebook Plus will split the difference between education and the traditional consumer market.
The Chromebook Plus will split the difference between education and the traditional consumer market. IDG / Matthew Smith
The Chromebook Plus will split the difference between education and the traditional consumer market. IDG / Matthew Smith
IDG / Matthew Smith
But from a growth rate perspective, education tends to be somewhat lumpy — in sort of cycles, right? So it came through some really big years, 2020 and 2021, 2023 and 2024 have been down years for education. Consumer goes through his own ups and downs, but overall, we’ve been generally building a consumer footprint starting with an opening price point to kind of having the strongest value there, then building into the $300 to $600 range where we have much lower market share, but we think we have a very strong value proposition.
In places like Best Buy — I didn’t mention this in my talk this morning, but in January through April, 27 percent of their mix is Chromebook Plus. And that is up about — I want to say it’s up from high double digits last year, the same time. Chromebook Plus didn’t exist [then], but if you look at the equivalents on the specs, sure. What we see happening is Chromebook Plus is lifting the [average selling price] of products. And that data I shared with you is really before we did our big AI launch. So we think it’s going to obviously go even stronger.
I would assume that Chromebook Plus is pretty much limited to consumer, or does it have an education presence as well?
A very strong interest for, and possibility for, teacher devices. So that’s where we see it going into education — as teacher devices. Not many public schools can afford to spend more on devices. There are some private schools for sure, that I’ve looked at that are using it. And then enterprise, you’ll see it more in [small and medium businesses] as well as an executive kind of product.
With the bulk of shipments going toward education, does that influence the development of ChromeOS in that direction?
No. We don’t take education for granted, and we will continue to invest in education, but the education market is looking for a fairly stable product. And is not necessarily looking for the newest and greatest, like innovative new features. Whereas consumers are, you know, always looking for something new or more interesting in like, different form factors bigger displays, more premium.
So we look at consumer as a place that will really lean into innovation first, and then as the features, you know, mature and a lot of times they get cost-reduced. We’ll bring that to the education market, but really from a strategic perspective, consumer and enterprise are our strategic growth areas. Education is always going to be our anchor tenant.
It’s not necessarily on the hardware level –we shouldn’t necessarily be innovating as much. But it is a place where that we see a lot of AI possibilities, but probably not in the OS more than on [Google] Workspace. I also run Workspace.
One of the things I’m beginning to worry about is fragmentation. On the PC, we have a substantial portion of users on Windows 10, a chunk on Windows 11, but there’s also a dividing line Microsoft is drawing within that, with Copilot+ PCs and their TOPS requirement. With Chromebook Plus as Google’s vehicle for AI, where does that leave the “generic” Chromebook?
Okay, that’s a great question. We will continue to waterfall capabilities and features to Chromebook as long as the user experience is good there.
And then, you know, actually, even prior to AI, this was something we had to be aware of where there were certain experiences. You know, let’s say experiences that required a [virtual machine], high virtualization performance, where we would limit that to higher tier products. So we’ve always had to look at the reality of what is the capability of the device, and then make sure that the user experience is going to be good.
We talk to developers, which are obviously a key constituent for us because, as you know, users live and die by what apps they can get. So when we talk to an Adobe, for example, you know, and we first approached them about Chromebook Plus, they were actually super pleased because they had been frustrated before that it was very hard for them to develop for a Chromebook because they were like, well, I have to develop for a 2GB {RAM] device, all the way through to, you know, an 8GB and a 12GB device.
And so if a developer has to design for the lowest common denominator, they are not going to give their best. They’re going to be limited in what features they can do.
Michael Crider/Foundry
Michael Crider/Foundry
Michael Crider/Foundry
What we believe we’ve been able to do is create a tier that is based in product truth, versus some kind of arbitrary, you know, segmentation. And then you know, always make sure that we can deliver the best experience possible on Chromebook. Look, even with the growth I mentioned on Chromebook Plus, Chromebook is going to be our bread and butter for the next foreseeable future. So we will continue to make sure that that user experience is good and continues to evolve.
You know, everything else we do on the OS, whether it’s like innovation in desks, you know. This is where you can have multiple desks [virtual desktops] on your device. All those kinds of capabilities, or multimonitor, or 4k support, peripherals, when all that comes to Chromebook and all of the [machine learning] that I mentioned in the beginning is on Chromebook, the core product.
Then there are [Generative] AI features that are completely agnostic of your OS and those are obviously Google-wide: on Windows, Mac, and Chrome, and Chromebook core.
To rephrase my last question, what if any of the Gemini experiences are tied to the hardware? Because it seems like you’re doing a lot in the cloud.
No, we actually are doing a number of things on device as well.
Asus
Asus
Asus
I mean, a good example of what an on-device capability is our Recorder app. So Recorder, just to remind you, hasn’t launched yet, but we’ve been public with it. So what that does is allow you to, let’s say, we’re in this meeting here. We could record it and then we can have a transcription and summarization and translation. That capability is on device based. So that’s a clear example.
But using the CPU, not the NPU. Because there’s nothing there right now.
It would be using the current capabilities or what we have, which in this case would be CPU based. But as time progresses, we will be looking at NPU offloading and NPU processing as as those SOCs come into our lineup. We will have higher NPU capable devices in the future.
Generative AI on Chromebooks.
Generative AI on Chromebooks.Google
Generative AI on Chromebooks.Google
Google
Even if there’s processing on the cloud, we have deep integrations into the OS that requires performance at an on-device level. An example is the personalization of your background that we have in videoconferencing. We have a capability on Chromebook Plus which is across all applications: Zoom, Teams, obviously Google Meet. It is built into the OS even though it may use some cloud-based capability for processing.
It requires a lot of headroom in the on-device memory, for example, that would not be feasible to be doing that virtualized, personalized background if you had a lower power device.
People tend to think of it as like a hard line. But there’s shades of gray between where it might be generated in the cloud to be able to run it actively [on the device]. You’d become memory bound, locally.
It’s interesting that we’re talking about Windows on Arm at a time when Chrome OS on Arm has existed for years. Chromebook Plus uses modern Core processors and Ryzen processors. But none of these processors have NPUs. But you have relationships with the Qualcomms of the world, Mediatek, and so on. I’m assuming that you’ll have these options in the future?
I can’t go into details on it. But, absolutely. You know, today, we have Arm today quite a healthy amount of it, and we expect to have more Arm in my portfolio going forward. We also expect Intel to continue to be competitive of course but certainly direction of travel is as you know. There’s going to be more Arm you know, in a portfolio.
Editor’s Note: After the interview ends, Solomon added that Google continues to have strong relationships with Intel and AMD.
Whatever the chip — Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite, Intel’s Lunar Lake, AMD’s Ryzen AI 300 — you’ll have a number of TOPS to eventually play with. At that point, how do you start using it?
I think a capability around image generation, things which today maybe use a lot of CPU, would be just more efficient on an NPU. We can run Gemini Nano on Chromebook Plus and we can run it really well.
Will Chromebooks eventually run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite? It seems likely.
Will Chromebooks eventually run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite? It seems likely.Mark Hachman / IDG
Will Chromebooks eventually run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite? It seems likely.Mark Hachman / IDG
Mark Hachman / IDG
In a world where there was more NPU: you would have it there to run on NPU because you would be more power efficient. And you would free up the CPU for other things.
So maybe I’m not answering your question directly but to say that it’s not so much the particular workload — though I would say image generation is one — but it’s more around, being able to distribute through the scheduler and be able to make sure that you’re not impacting the number of tabs you have open. No one’s going to love GenAI if it bogs down the device.
Your market is broadening. You have an education market which really doesn’t want to spend anything on a Chromebook device, and then you have these more expensive versions of Plus devices. You’re going to have quite a spread in terms of price points and expected features. It doesn’t seem like you can maintain consistency.
If you think about it, our product strategy is evolving from Chromebooks being a really good utility device for families, for people with kids in the home who need another device to people who maybe just want a simple computer. But we’ve been on a journey over many years to increase the capabilities of what’s available.
If you look at the app catalog on Chromebooks, and you compare it to five years ago, to two years ago now. Look at gaming, look at Adobe, look at Canva or any of the capabilities of what’s possible from cloud-based software — it’s just leaps and bounds. So I think I inherent product catalog and therefore our product offering is going up and to the right from a capability perspective.
With Chromebook Plus and GenAI, it takes like a step function now, because we’re we’ve created this hardware floor and we’re saying we’re gonna bring these really enhanced capabilities.
But I think what’s really different between us and maybe what you’ve heard from others this week, and over the past few weeks, is the price point: the devices we launched at our New York event a few weeks ago. You know, we had like seven or eight Chromebooks starting at $349 going to $699, right?
What we think is going to happen is this general consumer interest in the whole space in general is definitely going to drive some degree of interest in a refresh and people saying, maybe it’s time I got something new. At the end of the day most people are, to some extent, budget-constrained and want to get good value. And so we think we are in a sweet spot in terms of people coming in to see what’s available.
We’re investing a lot in in store demos, training lots of folks in the store and as well as online. And we believe we’re going to pick up quite a lot of that when people realize, hey, wait, for $399, $349 I can get a really nice package with AI capabilities. I don’t need to go all the way to, you know, $1,000 or so.
Google’s challenge is to get kids gaming on Chromebooks. Chromebook Plus is the company’s answer, with high-res, high-refresh-rate screens and more.
Google’s challenge is to get kids gaming on Chromebooks. Chromebook Plus is the company’s answer, with high-res, high-refresh-rate screens and more.Michael Crider/Foundry
Google’s challenge is to get kids gaming on Chromebooks. Chromebook Plus is the company’s answer, with high-res, high-refresh-rate screens and more.Michael Crider/Foundry
Michael Crider/Foundry
My kids use Chromebooks. They use them all day in school, come home and do homework — and then set them aside for a Windows machine. How do you convince kids to use Chromebooks for both work and play?
Yeah, definitely something we’ve focused on. I think that one of the sort of downsides of our success at school is that a lot of kids have a Chromebook that is managed, which means it is limited to what they can access and the fact you know, there is a lot of gaming available. There’s Minecraft, there’s Roblox, but it’s a question of whether or not the school lets them go there.
That’s a different question?
Yes. So here’s what we’ve been working on, just to give you an example of this particular challenge.
We’re trying to work with schools to say, look, when someone takes a Chromebook home, they should be able to log in on their personal Google ID and operate under the family guidance or Family Link, where you as a parent then can decide what is it that you are comfortable with what your child is doing.
There’s a mix on whether schools are doing this — they should be doing this, because it’s out of their jurisdictions and becomes the parents’ responsibility. But the large schools are risk-averse and don’t want to go there.
So one thing we’re looking at is, how can we use Family Link more effectively to get Chromebooks out of that managed mode and into a regular mode, run by Family Link. The second thing we’re doing is just making sure games run really well on Chromebooks. We have a program going on for some years with developers, particularly gaming developers to improve the quality of gaming on Chromebooks because that is like obviously the the litmus test for most kids is, can I do Roblox on it, can I do Minecraft.
Minecraft was a big breakthrough for us. And it’s one of the highest revenue games. We are relevant to Minecraft, we are relevant to Roblox, if you talk to those developers on Chromebooks. So those are those are examples of where we believe we can start getting kids to see this as more of I do my homework on it; I can also have fun on it.
Mojang
Mojang
Mojang
And I think that the other piece is more desirable devices. So what we would like to do is have parents — and we saw this happen during COVID — is if parents buy the devices, they’re likely to buy a nicer device than the school. And a lot of times kids are then seeing wow, I can actually get something with a bigger higher resolution display, backlit keyboards, that’s more attractive to them than what they got.
The other interesting thing is even though I did say that schools are very budget-constrained, and they are, we are seeing even public schools looking to understand that they need to look at the quality of experience and not just buying the very cheapest. So we’ve seen some of the really big districts like L.A and New York [purchasing] higher-end products than the previous generation. So we think that’s helped, because it’s an overall better experience.
But what’s the typical refresh cycle in the school systems? Because as far as I know schools want to hold on to them for as long as they can.
Four years.
That’s typical?
Yes.
But the support lifespan of a Chromebook has been extended…
Yes, ten years.
The reality is that kids are pretty hard on devices. But we want to make sure that it’s not the software that’s the reason. We want to be like — there was this kind of meme going on around, you know, Google’s no longer updating devices. We were like, look, we made it safe and we’re not going to make software the limitation.
If the device has been banged up, if the school wants to get newer devices and capabilities, then let that be the driver, but not software updates. So that’s why we took this position where… I am not sure if you are aware of this, but we have the longest support lifecycle of any operating system.
You recently announced hands-free gesture control for Chromebooks. Was this an accessibility feature or a way to show off machine vision on Chromebooks?
Initially the genesis of it was accessibility. We have a very strong accessibility team at Google that works with people who have impairments. And that was the genesis of it. I think what we’ve recognized though, is that it has use cases beyond folks who may have, you know, accommodations, and so we really just want to put it out there and make it something that’s available, both from an accessibility and the general interaction model perspective.
Facial gesture controls on ChromeOS.
Facial gesture controls on ChromeOS.Google
Facial gesture controls on ChromeOS.Google
Google
And really look at you know, who gets the most use of it. I think you’ve probably picked this up, though. This has been an area that, you know, people demonstrated this potential for, like, seven, eight years, but it’s the intersection of AI and this capability that has suddenly accelerated this and made it really feasible. So that’s, that’s kind of the cool thing about it. And we built it natively into the OS as well, which I mentioned today, which was pretty cool.
I wanted to keep this discussion to Chromebooks, but I do want to ask you a question on productivity, and merging Gemini with the ChromeOS environment. How do you see that evolving?
I think one of the things that you probably saw in our presentation today was what we believe strongly in is bringing Gemini into the application flow versus having it being off on the side like in a side panel. So whether it’s in Workspace, or in Docs and Sheets, Gemini is actually is nicely integrated.
And the way we’re also going to do it on Chrome OS is if you’re in Messages, you’re in a PDF, it’s right there. So our thinking is that it needs to be needs to be integrated for users to adopt it. What we’ve seen from early studies is when it’s not integrated, it gets some initial use, and then it doesn’t become part of that the everyday use of the product. And so whereas we’ve seen much higher adoption when it’s in the flow — I think you’re correct to say though that we’re in early the stages, and we’re going to be learning from usage and making changes.
We’re looking at questions like, does it really drive the productivity improvement, for example? For teachers, where they can take hours out of their week by using it Workspace in classroom for lesson planning. So we have it in the lesson planning module lot of Classroom.
At the OS level, we want to we want to look at it a way to, for example, surface your tabs in a way that is really useful for you. If you’re working on an article on something that maybe is spanning a few weeks, and you put it aside for a bit, you’d like to have a way of grouping that work in a very kind of logical way without you having to build the file structure around that. So those are the kinds of areas that we’re looking at, and we’ll be looking at user adoption as a key indicator of what’s working.
You recently showed a demo of a woman using AI vision as she moves about her workplace. (Project Astra.) That seems like a phone experience, and not for a Chromebook. Can you bring that to Chromebooks?
Yes, actually. I think it is very suited. I mean, you’re partly right, as it’s not a computer experience.
However, I think there’s a piece of it which is very relevant, which is this notion of having some kind of context and memory of what’s been happening on the device. Think of something that’s like, maybe viewing your screen and then you walk away, you get distracted, you chat to someone at the watercooler and you come back. You could have some kind of rewind function, you could have some kind of recorder function that would kind of bring you back to that. So I think that there is a crossover there.
We’re actually talking to that team about where the use case could be. But I think there’s something there in terms of screen capture in a way that obviously doesn’t feel creepy and feels like the users in control. I see you smiling…
Yes, because it seems like you’re describing a Google version of Microsoft’s Recall.
I mean, I guess you could put it that way. But I think that it’s anything that to some extent is capturing and buffering, you know, which is clearly what Astra was doing because it could remember where the user set their eyeglasses? And they were next to the apple.
All these models have this capability to do this. And if they can do it multimodally and i they can do it with some kind of assistive capability, then I think the user is going to be interested.
I’m not going to talk about Recall, but I think the reason that some people feel it’s creepy is when it doesn’t feel useful, and it doesn’t feel like something they initiated or that they get a clear benefit from it. If the user says like — let’s say we’re having a meeting, and discussing complex topics. There’s a benefit of running a recorded function if at the end of it it can be useful for creating notes and the action items. But you as a user need to put that on and decide where you want to have that.
I think putting the user in control, and making sure there’s a clear benefit of why you are recording is the way we look at it.
Chromebooks Read...Newslink ©2024 to PC World | ![](/n.gif) |
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| ![](/n.gif) | | PC World - 6 Jun (PC World)Do you want a huge amount of usable display space, but without the hassle of a double-monitor setup? An ultrawide monitor is the ticket. Ultrawide monitors have a wider display panel that provides an immersive experience and far more screen real-estate than your average widescreen.
I’ve tested a bunch of ultrawide monitors in order to name the best picks in various categories ranging from those optimized for gaming to those suited for professional use. Below you’ll find a curated list of my favorites in each category. I describe my evaluation process for monitors at the bottom of this article, or for even more details, see the article on how we test monitors for PCWorld.
If you’re still on the fence about whether an ultrawide is the right choice for you, see PCWorld’s article on whether ultrawide monitors are worth it to have all your questions answered.
You can find even more monitor recommendations in our roundup of the best monitors.
Alienware AW3423DWF – Best ultrawide monitor
Pros
Excellent contrast ratio
Top-notch color gamut and accuracy
Great motion clarity
Respectable HDR performance
Extremely competitive price
Cons
Stand is a bit too large
No USB-C
Maximum HDR brightness is lackluster
Best Prices Today:
$1,099.99 at Amazon
The Alienware AW3423DWF is a legendary monitor. It packs the incredible contrast and realism of OLED in a 34-inch widescreen panel, yet it’s priced at just $1,099. That’s not inexpensive, but it’s better value than other OLED monitors available right now.
Image quality is where it stands out. It delivers a vivid, immersive, rich experience with deep black levels and bright highlights, which are enhanced by the display’s glossy finish. Movies and games seem nearly three-dimensional—as if you’re looking through a window, not staring at a monitor.
What’s the catch? The monitor is not bright, especially in SDR, so it’s a bad choice for a brightly lit room. We also noticed the OLED panel has trouble rendering small fonts smoothly. These are minor issues, though, and shouldn’t trouble most owners.
This monitor targets gamers, so it offers an enhanced refresh rate of up to 165Hz and supports AMD FreeSync Premium Pro for smooth frame pacing in games. However, its excellent image quality will be impressive in everyday use, as well.
It has good connectivity, with two DisplayPort inputs and one HDMI, as well as a USB-A hub with four ports. There’s even a healthy range of calibration options that help demanding owners dial in the image to their personal specifications.
Read our full
Alienware AW3423DWF review
Gigabyte GS34WQC – Best budget ultrawide monitor
Pros
Plenty of connectivity and menu options
Good contrast ratio
Solid color performance
Up to 144Hz refresh rate with good motion clarity
Cons
Stand setup uses screws instead of clip mechanism
Modest maximum brightness
HDR is supported but lackluster
Best Prices Today:
$299.99 at Best Buy
The Gigabyte GS34WQC is a great budget ultrawide monitor. It has a sharp 34-inch ultrawide display panel that provides 3440×1440 resolution. It also delivers strong scores across contrast and color accuracy that frequently rival more expensive displays. The result is image quality comparable to many monitors sold for twice as much.
Motion clarity is strong, as well. The monitor has a 120Hz refresh rate, which can be overclocked to 135Hz, and supports AMD FreeSync for smooth and consistent gameplay. Camera pans deliver good detail and fast objects are easy to track. There’s better monitors for motion clarity, of course (similarly priced widescreen monitors can hit a refresh rate of 240Hz), but the GS34WQC’s results are solid for the price.
Gigabyte’s GS34WQC relies on a functional, though basic, design. The monitor’s build quality is commendable and includes a robust stand. Assembling the stand is a hassle, as you must manually attach four screws. Most competitors have a clip-in stand that can be assembled without tools. Fortunately, the GS34WQC has an intuitive menu system with extensive customization options that help gamers customize the visuals to their preference.
But the GS34WQC’s best trait is undeniably its price. The monitor carries an MSRP of $330 and can be had for even less on sale. It’s not the least expensive ultrawide available but it easily beats the image quality of its less expensive ultrawide competitors.
Read our full
Gigabyte GS34WQC review
LG Ultragear 34GN850 – Best midrange ultrawide monitor for gamers
Pros
21:9 panel with a 34-inch screen
Curved monitor
Impressive gaming performance
Ergonomic adjustment options
Cons
Only average power consumption
Expensive
Best Prices Today:
$569.99 at Amazon$750 at LG
The LG Ultragear 34GN850-B, released in 2020, was once the king of ultrawide gaming. It was dethroned by Alienware’s AW3423DWF—and as a result LG has slashed the price. Originally $999.99, this monitor is now available for $699.99 (and sometimes less).
That’s great news. Although surpassed by the Alienware, LG’s Ultragear 34GN850-B is an attractive monitor with excellent color performance, good image clarity, and a bright, vivid picture. It has an enhanced refresh rate of up to 144Hz (with a 160Hz overclocked mode) and supports both AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync for smooth gameplay.
Its weakness? Contrast. The IPS panel scores lower in contrast than other monitors on this list, including the Asus ProArt PA348CV, which also has an IPS panel. The image can look hazy in darker scenes.
Connectivity is respectable with two HDMI ports, one DisplayPort, and two-port USB-A hub for connecting wired peripherals. The monitor also retains many of the features that would be expected of a high-end monitor including a sturdy ergonomic stand and attractive design.
Read our full
LG Ultragear 34GN850 review
Dell U4025QW – Best 5K ultrawide monitor
Pros
Sharp, vibrant, color-accurate 5K display
Incredible connectivity including Thunderbolt, Ethernet
Long list of menu options and features
120Hz refresh rate is impressive at this resolution
Cons
Stand is wobbly and hard to adjust
Contrast ratio remains far short of OLED competitors
HDR doesn’t look its best
Extremely expensive
Best Prices Today:
$1,814.92 at Amazon
The Dell Ultrasharp U4025QW is an excellent ultrawide monitor with a vast 40-inch display and 5K resolution that ensures every detail is sharp and defined. But it’s not just about its size and clarity; it’s packed with features, too.
Visually, the U4025QW is a treat, offering unparalleled sharpness and an expansive workspace that enhances productivity and elevates entertainment. The monitor’s impressive 120Hz refresh rate is a rare find at this resolution, ensuring smooth motion on the Windows desktop and in games. It even has an IPS Black display panel, which improves contrast and delivers a more realistic, immersive image.
The U4025QW’s connectivity is extensive. It has Thunderbolt, Ethernet, HDMI, and DisplayPort, as well as a USB hub that includes multiple downstream USB-A and USB-C ports. The monitor’s menu options and settings provide significant image quality control as well as useful features like picture-in-picture and picture-by-picture modes.
That’s not to say it’s perfect. The monitor’s stand isn’t as robust as it should be, and while the contrast ratio of IPS Black is commendable, it can’t rival OLED. But the most serious downside is the price, which soars close to $2,000. But if you want a big, sharp monitor to serve as the focal point for a desktop command center, the Dell Ultrasharp U4025QW is worth it.
Read our full
Dell U4025QW review
Asus ProArt PA348CGV – Best ultrawide monitor for professionals
Pros
Excellent SDR image quality
Sturdy, hefty design
Wide range of customization
120Hz refresh rate
Cons
USB-C hub lacks video-out or ethernet
HDR is merely passable
The Asus ProArt PA348CV surpassed our expectations. Priced at just $729.99, it’s towards the low end of pricing for a professional ultrawide display—yet its performance is near the top of the pack.
This monitor has a wide color gamut, excellent color accuracy, and a virtual buffet of image-quality calibration features that let users precisely tune the image. It’s also a bright and vivid monitor, making it easy to use in nearly any office. Admittedly, it doesn’t set any records in image quality tests—but it ties or comes close to alternatives that are hundreds of dollars more expensive.
Asus throws in a useful USB-C port that supports DisplayPort Alternate Mode and delivers 90 watts of USB Power Delivery. It also drives a USB-A hub with four downstream ports. Additional video connectivity includes two HDMI and one DisplayPort for a total of four input options.
Surprisingly, Asus throws in an enhanced refresh rate up to 120Hz. It’s not sold as a gaming monitor, but it can handle gaming well enough. That’s good news if you need one home office monitor for both work and play.
Read our full
Asus ProArt PA348CGV review
Corsair Xeneon Flex – Best big-screen ultrawide monitor
Pros
Incredibly immersive gaming experience
Huge 45-inch ultrawide OLED panel can be adjusted from flat to 800R curve to suit your setup
Exceptional image quality, contrast, color performance, and HDR
Elite motion clarity on a 240Hz panel
Abundant connectivity with USB-C hub and power delivery options
It made four people who walked into my office stop and say “WHOA” like Keanu Reeves
Cons
Poor text clarity and general sharpness for productivity work
Very expensive
No swivel or tilt options, stand can’t be replaced
Bending mechanism feels clunky and mildly terrifying at first
Enabling HDR mutes desktop contrast and vibrancy
Best Prices Today:
$1,801.42 at Amazon$1999.99 at Best Buy
Want a monitor that takes immersion to a new level and outshines your friend’s measly 34-inch ultrawide? The Corsair Xeneon Flex 45WQHD240 is for you.
The Xeneon Flex 45WQHD240 takes immersion to a new level, outshining pedestrian 34-inch ultrawides. It’s an incomparable way to enjoy visually stunning games.
The 45WQHD240 has an extremely high contrast ratio and a wide color gamut. Maximum brightness is high (for OLED) as well, which is a benefit if you want to play games with HDR turned on. The monitor’s 240Hz refresh rate and low pixel response times provide top-notch motion clarity. Even its modest 3440×1440 resolution may be seen as a benefit. While it does soften the image, it also reduces the strain on your GPU, making it possible to enjoy high-quality settings on midrange hardware.
But there is even more to the Xeneon Flex, which is hinted at in its name: The display features a unique flexible OLED panel that can be adjusted from a completely flat position to an impressive 800R curvature, one of the tightest curves available in a monitor. You adjust the curve manually, using the handles located on each side of the display. The flexibility is useful if you enjoy a wide variety of game genres (you may want it flat while playing Civilization IV but curved in Cyberpunk 2077).
The Corsair Xeneon Flex features a robust and stable stand with integrated ports including USB-C. The stand doesn’t, however, offer height adjustment. With a retail price of nearly $2,000, the Xeneon Flex is an investment, but its versatile OLED panel and superior image quality make it an obvious choice for gamers.
Read our full
Corsair Xeneon Flex review
What to look for in an ultrawide monitor
Ultrawide monitors are a favorite of PC enthusiasts, but remain a niche within the larger monitor market. This leaves shoppers with fewer options. Most ultrawide monitors have a 34-inch panel with a resolution of 3440×1440, and similar connectivity.
Still, these monitors can differ in several key areas. Here’s what to look for.
Panel type is a big deal
Ultrawide monitors offer less choice in some regards but that script is flipped when it comes to panel type. Ultrawide monitors come in a variety of panel types: IPS, VA, and OLED.
IPS panels are common in mid-range and premium ultrawide monitors. This panel type delivers great color performance, high maximum brightness, superb sharpness, and good motion performance. It’s weak in contrast, however, which can disappoint when viewing TV shows or movies.
VA panels are typically a budget option, though some are found in premium ultrawide monitors. They have better contrast than IPS panels and deliver similar color performance and brightness—however, budget VA panels tend to be merely okay in these areas. Most VA panels fall short in motion performance and may look blurry when playing fast-paced games.
OLED is king of the hill. It leads in color, contrast, and motion performance. Sharpness is often slightly reduced compared to IPS and VA, but most people will find it a minor downgrade. OLED also is the best choice for HDR.
In general, OLED is better than IPS, and IPS is better than VA. However, some people might prefer VA over IPS because it has a better contrast ratio and looks darker in dark content.
A height-adjustable stand is a must-have
All the monitors on this list provide an ergonomic stand that adjusts for height, tilt, and swivel. This is a must-have feature, but one that isn’t found on the least expensive ultrawide monitors.
As tempting as it may be to save money on a budget model without a height-adjustable stand, you would regret it.
Ultrawide monitors are bulky and tend to require a larger, heavier stand, which in turn makes them more difficult to place on an elevated platform. The old college trick of sticking a monitor on a shoe box won’t work.
Look for USB-C, but don’t expect it
USB-C compatibility is an excellent feature, and USB-C hub monitors can clear away tons of clutter on your desk. Unfortunately, many ultrawide monitors don’t support USB-C yet, or have limitations that detract from the USB-C port’s usefulness.
Asus’s ProArt PA348CV, our favorite ultrawide for professionals, is one exception. It has a USB-C port with up to 90 watts of Power Delivery, and the port drives a USB-A hub with four downstream ports.
Dell, HP, and BenQ also offer ultrawide monitors with USB-C. Most of these lack an enhanced refresh rate, however, and they’re typically more expensive than the Asus.
Pricing is important—and can swing wildly
Monitor pricing is always important, but it’s key for ultrawide monitors. Although very expensive at MSRP, ultrawide monitors routinely see huge price cuts during seasonal sales. They also receive major semi-permanent price cuts later in their life.
The LG Ultragear 34GN850-B is an example of this. Originally sold for $999.99, it’s now routinely available for $699.99, and went as low as $599.99 during Amazon’s Black Friday sale. That’s a 40 percent reduction in price! Waiting for a deal can save you hundreds.
Don’t buy an ultrawide for console gaming
A quick word of warning: You should not buy an ultrawide monitor if you plan to connect a game console frequently.
Game consoles don’t support ultrawide aspect ratios, so you’ll see black bars on either side of the image. That’s unattractive and wastes the monitor’s potential. It’s best to stick with a widescreen monitor if console gaming is a priority.
How we test monitors
PC World’s team of staff and freelance reviewers conduct in-depth testing to compare monitors across a wide range of categories and price points. We test dozens of monitors each year to find the best pick for every category and price point.
Our testing uses a Datacolor Spyder X2 Ultra color calibration tool. It delivers objective, unbiased measurements for a wide range of metrics including brightness, contrast, color gamut, color accuracy, color temperature, and gamma. Results are recorded and logged for future comparison. This allows our experts to easily compare many monitors at once and eliminates subjective bias from the results.
FAQ
1.
What size of ultrawide gaming monitor is best?
Most ultrawide monitors have a 34-inch panel with a 21:9 aspect ratio, which is the best option for most gamers.
Some ultrawide monitors are available in larger sizes, but these typically aren’t the best choice for gamers. Many do not support high refresh rates. Those that do are expensive and often use the same 3440×1440 resolution found on smaller ultrawide monitors, which means they appear less sharp than a 34-inch display.
2.
What is the best resolution for an ultrawide monitor?
Nearly all 34-inch ultrawide monitors have a display resolution of 3440×1440. This is an excellent choice for gamers.
It’s sharp enough to look impressive in modern games. However, this resolution remains significantly lower in total pixel count than 4K, which makes it less demanding on graphics hardware. That’s good news if you have a mid-range graphics card like an Nvidia RTX 3060 or AMD Radeon RX 6650XT.
Larger 38-inch models have a higher resolution of 3840×1660—however, nearly all these monitors lack support for high refresh rates, making them a bad choice for gamers. LG offers a line of 34-inch 5K2K ultrawide monitors with 5120×2160 resolution, but this line also lacks support for enhanced refresh rates.
A few new 45-inch ultrawide monitors are available with 3440×1440 resolution. This can be a problem, because stretching the same resolution across a much larger display reduces sharpness. We recommend 3440×1440 only for 34-inch ultrawide monitors.
3.
What’s the best refresh rate for an ultrawide gaming monitor?
A refresh rate of 144Hz to 165Hz is ideal for most ultrawide gaming monitors.
Very few ultrawide monitors exceed this refresh rate, and those that do are too expensive to make it a good value.
Also, gamers shopping for an ultrawide gaming monitor are likely to prefer immersive and graphically demanding games that make it difficult to see the full benefit of a refresh rate above 144Hz. You’ll need a high-end video card, like an RTX 3080 or AMD Radeon 6800, to drive most ultrawide gaming monitors at frame rates above 144 frames per second.
4.
Does an ultrawide gaming monitor need HDR?
HDR isn’t a must-have for an ultrawide gaming monitor, but it’s a nice addition.
Gaming is a great use case for HDR—arguably the best, in fact—and it can deliver improved image quality. We recommend buying an ultrawide gaming monitor with HDR support if your budget is $500 or more.
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| ![](/n.gif) | | PC World - 6 Jun (PC World)Intel’s latest Lunar Lake chips for laptops have made a big splash at Computex. The new CPUs use a radical new architecture and show impressive generational gains, which is something Intel needs as competition heats up from AMD and Qualcomm. To dive deep into the new designs, PCWorld’s Mark Hachman went straight to the source.
Mark interviews Intel’s Dan Rogers (Vice President and General Manager) and Robert Hallock (Vice President and General Manager, Client AI and Technical Marketing) on the big changes for these chips, designed specifically to maximize power and efficiency for thin-and-light laptops. The interview covers a lot of ground, so watch the full thing on YouTube if you have the time.
A lot of the big design changes in Lunar Lake, such as building on-package memory instead of using traditional SO-DIMM cards or getting rid of hyperthreading, are specifically for maximizing efficiency and battery power. “Our mission with Lunar Lake is we wanted to build the most power-efficient x86 architecture there is — period. And we’re feeling pretty confident,” said Rogers.
Hallock claimed that an 8-core Lunar Lake chip (four performance cores, four efficiency cores) can beat a 22-thread Meteor Lake configuration for most tasks, even when the latter has hyperthreading enabled. Another example of how Lunar Lake sips power compared to its predecessor is the new and more efficient E-cores. Intel claims that the new cores can use as little as one-third the power of E-cores on Meteor Lake while in efficiency mode, or spin up for 1.7 times the performance when needed.
Not that these moves necessarily indicate a company-wide or broad strategy for other designs. While the exciting new CAMM2 standard might make it easier to get memory into smaller laptops, it’s still costing too much in power for the Lunar Lake goals. Hyperthreading isn’t automatically dead on other platforms or chip series, either.
Intel was also notably mum on some details, which we’ll have to dig into when Lunar Lake starts making its way to consumers. We still don’t know the specs of individual Lunar Lake CPU models, and we don’t have hard numbers for battery life (though that’s always fairly subjective and dependent upon laptop configuration). If you want the latest on chips from Intel and other CPU makers, be sure to subscribe to PCWorld on YouTube.
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