Can’t decide between buying a flat or curved monitor? Corsair thinks it might have the solution to your (admittedly, niche) woes with the Xeneon Flex 45WQHD240: a flexible OLED gaming monitor that you can literally bend by hand to switch form factors.
The transforming display is possible thanks to a W-OLED panel from LG Display, which Corsair worked closely with to develop the Xeneon Flex. Interestingly, in contrast to a prototype LG Display showed off at CES last year which used motors to transform between flat and curved modes, Corsair has you manually bend its monitor into shape with a pair of handles that extend from the left and right sides of the display, as this video from YouTuber Bitwit explains. You can even adjust the curvature of the left and right sides of the monitor independently, which is fun, even it’s not entirely clear why you’d want to.
The monitor is an interesting concept, given curved and flat displays tend to be better at different things. Some people prefer flat displays for productivity, as they show a less distorted image and are less prone to magnifying reflections. (Seriously, some people really hate curved displays.) But others like the sense of immersion that a curved screen can offer, particularly for gaming, since, at the right size and distance, the screen tends to fill your entire peripheral vision.
In terms of other specs, Corsair’s monitor is a 45-inch 21:9 ultrawide panel with a refresh rate of 240Hz and a peak brightness of 1000 nits. The Xeneon Flex’s maximum curvature is 800R, but you can pick any curvature that suits you. It supports both Nvidia’s G-Sync and AMD’s FreeSync Premium variable refresh rate technologies, and there are a bevy of both front and back connectors including HDMI, DisplayPort, USB-C, USB-A, and a headphone jack.
Corsair’s Xeneon Flex isn’t quite a world’s first, as Chinese TV manufacturer Skyworth announced its own flexible transforming TV last year, but the new monitor has a decent chance of being one of the first such devices to see a global release. Unfortunately there’s no word yet on when that might be, or how much we can expect to pay for the privilege. Corsair says more information about launch, availability, and final specs will be announced later this year.