This week NEC has announced its first curved ultrawide display, the EX341R. NEC is promoting the panel for offices, control rooms, trading rooms, and other applications that typically use multi-monitor configurations but also appreciate color accuracy. The screen has a number of differences when compared to displays for gamers, and the price of the new MultiSync EX341R will be reflected in this.

In the recent years, NEC concentrated on displays for commercial and professional use, whereas its consumer monitor lineup slowly stepped into the background. The majority of curved ultrawide displays nowadays are designed with gamers in mind, which is why manufacturers tend to incorporate very high refresh rates along with dynamic refresh rate technologies and gaming specific features or aesthetics. Nonetheless, ultrawide displays may make sense to replace those used to multi-monitor environments, and this is a reason why Dell introduced its business-oriented curved ultrawide screens last year. NEC now also sees demand for monitors with a 21:9 aspect ratio from its customers, which is why the company announced its new MultiSync EX341R-BK and EX341R-SV-BK products this week.

The NEC MultiSync EX341R-series displays are based on SVA panels (presumably made by Samsung) with a 3440×1440 resolution, a 1000:1 contrast ratio, 290 nits brightness, 178°/178° viewing angles, 5 ms response time and a 60 Hz refresh rate. It also targets customers that need various degrees of color accuracy (NEC markets the panels as supporting 99.5% sRGB) and therefore bundles the Spyder5 color calibration sensor and the SpectraView II software with the EX341R-SV-BK monitor.

As for connectivity, the NEC MultiSync EX341R has one DisplayPort 1.2 with MST support as well as two HDMI headers (one 1.4 and one 2.0). The monitor fully supports NEC’s control Sync technology that allows controlling the settings of up to 25 displays in a multi-monitor setup using controls of only one of them. Additionally, the display supports PBP and PiP features when connected to two computers. Finally, it has a quad-port USB 3.0 hub with two USB Type-B upstream ports (to connect to two different PCs).

NEC's MultiSync EX341R-Series Displays
  EX341R-BK EX341R-SV-BK
Panel 34" SVA
Native Resolution 3440 × 1440
Maximum Refresh Rate 60 Hz
Response Time 5 ms
Brightness 290 cd/m²
Contrast 3000:1
Viewing Angles 178°/178° horizontal/vertical
Curvature 1800R
Pixel Pitch 0.23 mm
Pixel Density 110 ppi
Color Gamut NTSC: 77.5%
sRGB: 99.5%
'16.7 million colors'
Inputs 1 × DisplayPort 1.2
1 × HDMI 2.0
1 × HDMI 1.4
Outputs DisplayPort 1.2 (SST/MST)
USB Hub 4-port USB 3.0 hub
2 × USB Type-B upstream ports
Audio 1 W × 2
audio in/out ports
Power Consumption (idle/active) Idle: 0.26 W
Active: 62 W
Product Bundle Setup sheet
User manual
Power cord
DisplayPort cable
USB cable
ControlSync cable
Setup sheet
User manual
Power cord
DisplayPort cable
USB cable
ControlSync cable
SpectraViewII Software USB
Spyder5 Color Calibration Sensor
Launch Price $999 $1150

The NEC MultiSync EX341R-BK and EX341R-SV-BK displays will be available in February at an MSRP of $999 and $1,149 respectively.

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Source: NEC

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  • mr_tawan - Friday, February 10, 2017 - link

    It was their branding. I think this existed even before GSync and FreeSync.

    And since G-Sync require a special module, it's probably up to Nvidia whether it will support FreeSync.
  • mr_tawan - Friday, February 10, 2017 - link

    corrections : it *is* (not was)
  • DanNeely - Friday, February 10, 2017 - link

    Yup, multisync branding long predates Free/G-Sync. I've got a pair of circa 2007 NEC Multisync 2090 (1200x1600) monitors flanking my 30" main screen (a MultiSync 3090).

    I wouldn't be surprised if the branding dates back far enough into the CRT era that being able to sync (refresh) at multiple rates (eg 60, 75, 90 hz) was a new feature.
  • seerak - Friday, February 10, 2017 - link

    Prepare to be unsurprised: you're exactly right. When PC displays began to move past the constraints of the old NTSC scan rates (since the earliest monitors were just repurposed TV's) in search of higher resolutions, the market became a mess of different standards. You had CGA, EGA, VGA and various third party cards with different scan rates - does anybody remember 1024x768 "interlaced" vs. "non-interlaced"?

    For the large part you had to buy a monitor to match your graphics card. Upgrading one meant upgrading the other. NEC saw opportunity in building "multi-sync" monitors that could adapt to the different scan rates. The rest of the industry eventually followed suit.

    I used to have a Tatung CRT equivalent that allowed me to run all the weird modes on my Amiga. Fun times.
  • JohnMD1022 - Thursday, November 29, 2018 - link

    That is correct. As I recall, NEC was the first to have this feature.
  • JohnMD1022 - Thursday, November 29, 2018 - link

    Indeed it is branding.

    My first NEC monitor was a MultiSynch purchased in 1986.
  • Topweasel - Monday, February 13, 2017 - link

    Just branding and roughly 20 year old one at that.
  • JohnMD1022 - Thursday, November 29, 2018 - link

    As I posted above, my first NEC monitor, a MultiSynch, was purchased 32+ years ago, in 1986.
  • Samus - Friday, February 10, 2017 - link

    NEC always kills it in the styling department. Those are downright good looking monitors. Too bad you have to pay $1000 for something that "lacks" style. LG had a few professional looking ultra wide displays but they have all been updated with models that have crappy looking bases or just ugly designs.
  • Gothmoth - Friday, February 10, 2017 - link

    LG also does not come close to NEC´s quality.

    i have two NEC PA272 and they are 95% as good as my eizo CG monitors who cost 80% more.

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