Lenovo Legion R34-30 review – an ultrawide gaming monitor on a budget

With the gaming monitor world seeing all kinds of attention-grabbing developments in OLED expertise, ultra-high refresh charges, and extra, the Lenovo Legion R34-30 is one thing of a throwback to an easier time. It is a decently giant, 34-inch ultrawide LCD panel with a 3,440 x 1,440 decision and fairly speedy, however not ground-breaking, 180Hz refresh price. It has few additional options to talk of, however has an affordable worth, and its VA panel produces an impressively excessive distinction ratio.

It is a mixture that is sufficient to earn this show a spot on our greatest gaming monitor information as an entry-level 34-inch choice. Nonetheless, the attraction of this Lenovo show does very a lot depend upon getting it on the proper worth, and in your priorities for a gaming panel. I’ve put the monitor by its paces in video games, response time testing, and picture high quality to indicate you what it could do.

Specs

Options

The Lenovo Legion R34-30 is a comparatively easy show in the case of options. So, as an example, you aren’t getting a USB hub, there isn’t any pop-out headset stand, and it would not have any additional RGB lighting. It additionally would not have any extras throughout the panel, comparable to a multi-zone backlight to spice up distinction or black body insertion modes to scale back movement blur.

Nonetheless, what you do get is a curved VA LCD panel that delivers what I’ve lengthy thought-about the perfect steadiness of decision and measurement. The 34-inch measurement properly fills your typical gaming desk with out completely dominating it like a 49-inch superwide show, such because the MSI MPG 491CQP. This measurement additionally lets you comfortably show two desktop home windows side-by-side, plus it is ideally suited for watching films made with extra-wide 1.85:1 or 2.39:1 facet ratios. It is nice for video games too, particularly cinematic AAA titles comparable to Indiana Jones and the Nice Circle.

You may get 34-inch shows with a 2,560 x 1,080 decision, however the picture seems moderately blocky at this display measurement. The upper 3,440 x 1,440 decision right here is far sharper and ideally suited for operating the show at native decision always, with none want to make use of Home windows scaling. Most mid-range graphics playing cards may also deal with gaming at this native decision too, saving you having to resort to upscaling, which regularly is not the case with even greater decision screens, such in the very best 4K gaming displays.

With this show utilizing a VA-type LCD panel, it comes with some apparent execs and cons. Like several LCD panel, it makes use of a backlight that shines by the LCD layer to create its picture, moderately than every pixel emitting its personal gentle, as with OLED. Which means it could’t present true blackness, so you aren’t getting the successfully infinite distinction of OLED. Nonetheless, of the three predominant sorts of LCD panels, VA LCDs have the bottom black stage and highest distinction. To that finish, this show comes with a 3,000:1 distinction ratio – triple what most IPS and TN panels can present.

On the draw back, VA is infamous for having the slowest response time of LCD panel sorts – you possibly can learn my IPS vs VA vs TN information for a full explainer of the variations. Lenovo’s specs checklist the show as hitting as little as a 0.5ms response time in ideally suited situations, with 1ms in additional typical situations, and 5ms in “Regular Mode.” We put these claims to the take a look at within the gaming efficiency part of this evaluation.

Elsewhere, the show claims a reasonably modest most brightness of 350 cd/m²  and it makes use of simply an 8-bit panel that may show 16.7 million colours, moderately than the 1.07 billion colours of a higher-grade 10-bit panel. This additionally means it has no significant claims regards HDR. It does have a barely prolonged shade vary (90% DCI-P3) to spice up the vividness of vibrant colours, however you are not getting the elevated granularity of variations between colours that defines a real HDR picture.

AMD Freesync help can also be included, so you possibly can sport with out picture tearing or stutter, and we examined that this works with each AMD and Nvidia graphics playing cards as properly, with the monitor in a position to deal with you enabling Nvidia G-Sync.

By way of additional bodily options, the show features a stand with top, rotation, and tilt adjustment, plus it has one DisplayPort 1.4 port and two HDMI 2.1 video inputs, in addition to a 3.5mm audio output. It additionally contains two 3W audio system. The latter are as weak as you may anticipate, with even the $35 Artistic Pebble V3 audio system or $25 Redragon GS560 soundbar far outclassing them, however they’re helpful to have when you in any other case solely have a gaming headset.

Design

The Lenovo Legion R34-30 has a largely easy and utilitarian design, with an all-black end to the body and rear of the panel, in addition to the stand. There are a couple of sections on the stand the place the in any other case uniform matt texture has been given a shiny end, plus the cable gap has a blue lining and the bottom has a girder-like help construction operating by it, however that is about it for design aptitude.

The design of the stand is notable, although, for its sheer measurement. The toes unfold out to be 21.5 inches (55cm) vast on the entrance, and stretch 12.5 inches (32cm) from entrance to again. For comparability, the Dough Spectrum Black 32 that I am additionally testing has an oblong stand base that measures simply ~8 x 9 inches (20 x 22cm).

The panel additionally has a 1,500-inch radius curve (1500R) that helps wrap the vast display view round you a bit, and in addition helps in holding the viewing angle of the panel nearer to perpendicular whenever you’re sitting in entrance of the display.

Picture high quality

Proper out of the field, our pattern of the Lenovo Legion R34-30 seemed moderately underwhelming. There was a barely washed-out look that was not spectacular when simply navigating the Home windows desktop with its brightly lit rocky panorama wallpaper.

Nonetheless, firing up some video games and video confirmed that the R34-30 does exhibit the low black ranges and resultantly excessive distinction you’d anticipate of a VA panel. Wandering by the opening scenes of Indiana Jones and the Nice Circle, you possibly can actually admire the darker depths of the forest or the gloomy corners of the museum in comparison with typical IPS or TN LCD displays. In the meantime, enjoying a couple of rounds of CS2 proved the R34-30 can present punchy colours too.

Nonetheless, leaping into the onscreen menus to tweak the settings confirmed that this display positively advantages from rising its gamma. Gamma is the measure of the speed of change of colours from darkish to gentle, with a low gamma tending to offer shows a barely lighter look and a excessive gamma tending to darken the general look. Altering from the default setting to the +0.2 setting gave the picture a glance that appeared extra pure and fewer washed out.

Testing the show with our Calibrite Show Plus HL colorimeter confirmed that the show’s gamma setting wasn’t notably far off what it ought to be for ideally suited shade replica. In our assessments, it recorded a determine of two.13, with the perfect being 2.2. Rising the gamma by +0.2 within the menu noticed our recorded determine leap to 2.34, which, in concept, is significantly farther from ideally suited than the default setting, but it surely in the end seemed higher.

As for different measurements, the show proved it could nearly match its claimed distinction, with us measuring it at 2,967:1. Nonetheless, the show’s most brightness could not hit its claimed 350 cd/m², as an alternative topping out at 318 cd/m². That is nonetheless lots for many makes use of, however I did must set the show to full brightness to make use of it in my workplace throughout sunny climate.

One other slight concern is that textual content has only a slight graininess to it on this show. I believe there’s some shade dithering occurring right here, or that it is to do with the viewing angles of VA panels, however I wasn’t in a position to absolutely pin down the problem. I do generally discover VA shows aren’t as sharp for textual content as IPS panels, and it is one of many causes I like to recommend IPS for many makes use of, with VA’s strengths being its black ranges for video and AAA gaming.

Speaking of viewing angles, the slight curve of this show does assist preserve a fairly uniform look to this panel, however, once more, VA panels aren’t fairly as steady when seen barely off-axis as IPS screens, and consequently, you possibly can see some slight shade shift in the direction of the perimeters of the panel. That is most noticeable once more on the Home windows desktop and workplace apps, the place you’ve got loads of flat expanses of subtly totally different grey and white colours, so any lack of uniformity could be very apparent. Nonetheless, in video games and video, it is much less of a problem, so all of it depends upon your priorities.

One closing level about picture high quality is that the curve would not assist with reflections. With a vibrant window in entrance of this panel (behind my head), its curve truly pulls extra of the brightness into your view, so once more, it isn’t ideally suited for brighter workplace areas. That is demonstrated within the picture above, which reveals the display tilted as much as keep away from reflections (backside left), tilted to seize the complete reflection (backside proper), then directed so it could in any other case keep away from the reflection, had been it not for the curved edges of the display truly catching the reflection (prime). Relating to gaming and video, although, the tighter view does create a pleasant wraparound impact.

Gaming efficiency

Gaming on the Lenovo Legion R34-30 is impressively slick for a comparatively finances VA panel. VA panels have a well-earned repute for having the poorest response occasions of most LCD panels, and in my assessments, there was sturdy proof of this when you run the show with out overdrive. Nonetheless, by turning up the show’s overdrive, it tightens up its response with out too many visible downsides – that’s, shade overshoot.

With no overdrive, I recorded a median preliminary response time (the time taken for a pixel to initially change from one shade to a different) of 8.4ms with a median full response time (the time for any shade overshoot to cool down) of 12.4ms. These are sluggish figures, with sooner LCD panels simply delivering figures twice as fast, and OLED panels being 100x sooner.

Nonetheless, with overdrive set to stage two out of 4, these figures dropped to 6ms and eight.4ms respectively, with no seen shade overshoot (often known as inverse ghosting). Then, at stage three (above), these figures hit 3.7ms and eight.2ms, whereas at stage 4, this show hit only a 2ms preliminary response, however, because of loads of shade overshoot, my OSRTT software recorded a whole response time of 11.9ms.

What does that each one in the end imply? Primarily, when you run the show at its default overdrive stage of two, or crank it as much as stage three, you get a decently responsive panel. At stage 4, it is even faster, however there’s noticeable inverse ghosting or haloing round shifting elements of the picture. You’ll be able to see the distinction in no overdrive, overdrive stage two, and overdrive stage 4 (from left to proper) within the picture under utilizing the Blurbusters UFO take a look at.

This panel continues to be comfortably slower than the quickest TN displays that may hit below a 2ms common response time, but it surely nonetheless delivered a decently snappy really feel when enjoying the likes of CS2 or Apex Legends. Mixed with the 180Hz most refresh price and clean, tear and stutter-free frames because of Freesync and you have a strong monitor that is usable for a variety of gaming. It would not be our first choose for severe aggressive gaming, but it surely’s good for different titles.

Value

The Lenovo Legion R34-30 worth is $449 /£400 at MSRP, however we’ve already seen it discounted by $100 in some shops. On the latter worth, it is a strong if not excellent purchase. Nonetheless, at its full MSRP, it would not supply notably good worth. Loads of big-name manufacturers have comparable shows accessible for across the $350-$400 mark, whereas lesser-known manufacturers could be had for below $250.

Options

Alienware AW3425DWM

For a near-identical characteristic set to the Lenovo Legion R34-30 however with a sleeker design and the inclusion of a USB hub, the Alienware AW3425DWM is an apparent different. It additionally has a decrease MSRP, although we have not examined its picture high quality and gaming efficiency ourselves but.

Alienware AW3423DW

In the event you do not thoughts upping your finances significantly, the Alienware AW3423DW gives the identical display measurement and backbone because the Lenovo Legion R34-30 however with an OLED display. It delivers punchier colours, sooner sport response, and gorgeous distinction, but it surely’s much more costly. Learn our Alienware AW3423DW evaluation for more information.

Verdict

It would seem to be stating the apparent, however the Lenovo Legion R34-3o is a gaming monitor that lives and dies by its worth. It delivers an honest gaming expertise with a pleasant large, widescreen view, ample decision, excessive distinction, punchy colours, and fairly quick gaming response occasions. Nonetheless, it would not step as much as really spectacular ranges of picture high quality or gaming efficiency in any space.

As such, on the discounted costs accessible whereas I used to be penning this evaluation – round $350 / £280 – it is a affordable purchase for a big-name model. Nonetheless, at full worth, it faces heavy competitors from comparable big-brand alternate options that bodily look a bit slicker and generally price much less cash, whereas finances manufacturers are considerably cheaper.

For extra curved gaming monitor choices, try our greatest curved gaming monitor information, or if you would like a very new method to view your video games, why not have a learn of our greatest VR headset information.