Monoprice 35-inch Zero-G Curved Gaming Monitor review: Immersive gaming and great value

The 35-inch Zero-G Curved Gaming Monitor is Monoprice's latest entry for the gaming market. While it may not pack all of the bells and whistles of the most expensive monitors out there, it offers great value for its $410 price on paper. I've spent three weeks putting the Zero-G through its paces to see whether that translates to a solid gaming experience and, ultimately, if it's worth picking up.

What you'll like about the Monoprice 35-inch Zero-G Curved Gaming Monitor

Out of the box, the Zero-G is rather unassuming at first glance. The monitor features a relatively understated stand and only sports a small, Monoprice logo that blends into the bezel below that display. You won't have to worry about any distracting, bright colors here.

Once you take a look at the rear of the monitor, however, things take a bit of a turn. There's some aggressive styling around back, with two sporty vents flanking each side towards the bottom. Once turned on, you'll get a look at two angled red backlights that sit towards the top of the rear panel. This is a gaming display, after all, so there has to be some sort of flashy lighting involved (even if you'll never see it).

The real draw of this monitor is its ultrawide aspect ratio. You'll get a 35-inch panel at a resolution of 3440x1440, which combines with the 1800R curve to make for an immersive gaming experience. The 100Hz refresh rate (120Hz overclocked) isn't the highest you'll find in a gaming monitor, but it's solid for the price.

The panel looks fairly sharp, and the width and curve work together to encompass your entire field of vision whether you're gaming or getting work done. Colors generally looked good in games as well, particularly after calibrating the monitor.

When done well, ultrawide monitors are a revelation for gaming, and Monoprice's 35-inch Zero-G is no exception in this respect. Jumping into World of Warcraft or Battlefield V with the Zero-G filling your vision is like being transported into the world of each game without distraction. When paired with an AMD graphics card, you'll also be able to take advantage of AMD FreeSync, which should eliminate screen tearing and stuttering that could otherwise interrupt your flow.

Finally, while Monoprice didn't go overboard on ports, you get the basics here. You'll have access to one DisplayPort 2.1, one HDMI 2.0 port, and one HDMI 1.4 port. If you're not a fan of the stand, the Zero-G can also be easily attached to a VESA mount.

What you'll dislike about the Monoprice 35-inch Zero-G Curved Gaming Monitor

Despite generally good performance, there are some small snags with the Monoprice Zero-G. The most obvious is its lack of expansive color gamut coverage. In short, you won't want to use this monitor with a photo editing setup. Its 97 percent sRGB coverage is generally okay, but the 77 percent AdobeRBG coverage will make photo and video editing workflows a pain.

For the monitor's main gaming audience, there's one big omission here as well. There's no support for NVIDIA's G-Sync standard, meaning you're stuck with AMD FreeSync only. It's an understandable move given Monoprice was likely trying to cut costs here, but if you have an NVIDIA graphics card and G-Sync is important to you, you'll want to look elsewhere.

The display itself is a VA panel, which isn't the most responsive panel type you can get in a monitor. While it has generally great viewing angles, the refresh rate doesn't approach what you can get with a TN panel. I'm not particularly sensitive to differences of a few milliseconds in refresh rates, it's an important consideration for those who are.

One final quibble I have is with the stand. Simply put, it's rather basic, only allowing a relatively limited range of vertical tilt adjustment. I would have loved to see some form of height adjustment as well, at the very least.

The stand issues extend to cable management as well. Or the lack thereof, rather. There's no dedicated cable channel like you would see on more expensive monitors, so the power and display cables just kind of hang out in the open behind the display.

So should you buy the Monoprice 35-inch Zero-G Curved Gaming Monitor?

Monoprice has long been a haven for discerning techies looking for electronics that can compete with some of the bigger brands out there, but without breaking the bank. While the company got its start mostly working with cables, it has expanded to producing some pretty solid monitors and other electronics as well. If your main concern is price, and you want to hop on the ultrawide bandwagon without sacrificing too much, then the 35-inch Monoprice Zero-G Curved Gaming Monitor is an excellent choice.

The market for gaming monitors has no shortage of great options, but you'll often pay north of $600 to pick up a sizeable ultrawide with gaming features packed in. At $410, the Zero-G stikes a good balance between price and features.