HP’s 34f Monitor Assessment: A Premium Ultrawide Show for Much less
HP 34f ultrawide monitor evaluate: Premium for much less
“HP’s 34f comes with options you’d solely count on from a costlier monitor.”
Assist for extensive colour areas
Clear, fashionable design
Wonderful distinction with colour accuracy
Giant, ultrawide and curved display
Affordably priced
No built-in audio system
Restricted ergonomic changes
No USB-C port
Among the many sea of screens accessible in the present day, HP’s 34f doesn’t ship with any boundary-pushing options that assist it stand out. However don’t be so fast to dismiss it.
Priced modestly at $649 – you’ll be capable of discover the 34f at discounted costs – the HP 34f comes with correct, punchy colours, although avid gamers will discover its 60 Hz refresh fee a bit limiting. Nonetheless, with an ultra-wide 34-inch curved canvas and UWQHD decision, the 34f is flexible sufficient to adeptly deal with most house and workplace duties. Moreover, this panel can even deal with primary gaming with AMD FreeSync know-how, and it’s prepared for fast artistic edits with assist for extensive colour areas.
When in comparison with similarly-sized providing, the worth of HP’s 34f turns into clearer. Despite the fact that HP isn’t breaking any data with the 34f, this monitor is greater than the sum of its components, and it comes with options that almost all customers will recognize at an inexpensive value.
Minimal, however not primary
As a budget-friendly, mid-range monitor, HP saved the design of the 34f quite simple, which helps lend this panel its minimalist aesthetics.
The silver accents mixed with black on the rear provides the 34f a really elevated really feel — from a distance, it might probably nearly move for a machined steel monitor — and the panel’s alternative of hue makes it an incredible companion to aluminum-clad laptop computer designs, like HP’s Envy lineup or Apple’s MacBook Air.
A silver steel rectangular formed ring varieties the 34f’s base, and the ring design does a stable job of anchoring the complete setup to your desk, A brief silver plastic mounting arm attaches to the bottom with a thumb screw for tool-less meeting, whereas the display itself snaps into place.
Chuong Nguyen / Digital Tendencies
Initially, I used to be a bit of involved in regards to the plastic mounting mechanism not being as robust as a steel mount, however as soon as the entire setup was assembled, sturdiness was a non-issue, even when tilting the show.
The IPS display itself is flanked by very small bezels and comes with an antiglare coating, which helps scale back reflections when working below ambient workplace lighting.
The slim bezels gave the 34f a contemporary attraction on my desk. The display has tiny bezels alongside the highest and facet edges, and a barely bigger backside chin spherical out the entrance of the setup. And in contrast to the LG UltraFine 4K, the panel itself is slightly slim, with the ports, USB hubs, and electronics housed in a barely thicker cupboard behind the display, making it an incredible match for cramped quarters like dorm rooms.
Buttons that may press your buttons
In comparison with bottom-facing ports on displays just like the Alienware 34 Curved show, the rear-oriented ports are simpler to entry and extra handy. You’ll discover three USB-A three.zero ports, a USB-B port that connects to your PC’s USB-A port and turns the monitor right into a USB hub, together with an influence port, two HDMI connectors, and one DisplayPort.
Sadly, USB-C is notably lacking, so newer computer systems, like Apple’s MacBook Professional and even HP’s EliteBook laptops, will want a separate USB-C to HDMI adapter to attach. This slightly obtrusive omission signifies that you gained’t be capable of depend on a single cable setup to attach a laptop computer to this panel for show output, USB hub connectivity, and energy.
Chuong Nguyen / Digital Tendencies
The slim display on the HP 34f provides this monitor a supermodel-like profile not like the chunky show on LG’s 24-inch UltraFine 4K. Nonetheless, the place the 34f falls quick in comparison with costlier displays is that the facility provide isn’t in-built, leaving you with a dangling energy brick that you simply’ll want to hide if you would like a tidy desk setup that will get Marie Kondo’s nod. Surprisingly, on condition that it’s a monitor made for customers, the 34f doesn’t include any built-in audio system, so that you’ll want to offer your personal for multimedia playback.
A row of buttons line the underside proper fringe of the panel used to show the display on and off in addition to navigate the completely different menus. Although the buttons are responsive and simple to press, navigating between the completely different on-screen menu timber might be cumbersome and fewer intuitive than a single joystick, like on the rear of Dell’s new 2019 Alienware Curved 34 monitor or the AOPEN 32HC1.
The buttons assist you to make granular changes for the display brightness and distinction, swap between show sources, or enter one of many pre-set modes optimized for lowering blue gentle emissions or for particular content material like photographs, movies, and video games.
Going extensive
With a spacious 34-inch canvas and a decision of three,440 x 1,440 pixels, utilizing an ultrawide show just like the HP 34f is like having a dual-monitor setup, supplying you with ample display actual property to juggle between your browser home windows, Phrase paperwork, Excel spreadsheets, and PDF recordsdata comfortably.
The refined curvature of the 34f helps to maintain you immersed in your content material, and in case you’ve by no means used an ultra-wide panel earlier than, it’s a pleasure offered you’ve gotten sufficient desk depth to take full benefit of the display with out feeling like your face is just too near the monitor.
For those who worth the productiveness facet of the ultrawide facet ratio, having a single ultrawide panel delivers extra comfort than organising two FHD displays side-by-side — you’re getting the complete display actual property with out the cable muddle or the seam the place the shows would in any other case join.
Chuong Nguyen / Digital Tendencies
HP charges the show the 34f at 300 nits of brightness, which is on par with the brightness of most Ultrabooks in the marketplace in the present day. Although it doesn’t peak at a retina-blinding 1,600 nits like Apple’s Professional Show XDR or Asus’ current ProArt displays, I had no issues with the brightness ranges on the 34f with regular ambient lighting. Located in a house workplace on a desk adjoining to a window with a good quantity of pure gentle shining by way of, I discovered that the 34f’s show to be finest at round 60 p.c brightness.
And despite the fact that this panel can’t compete towards extra colour correct panels, the HP 34f nonetheless holds its personal floor for fast artistic edits if it’s essential to take tasks house.
Our Datacolor show evaluation taken with the SpyderX Elite calibration instrument revealed that the 34f is able to displaying 99 p.c of the sRGB colour area, 80 p.c of the Adobe RGB colour area, or 82 p.c of the extensive P3 colour area. The previous two scores putting this panel within the firm of gadgets, just like the MacBook Air, Dell Ultrasharp U3818, however the panel’s Adobe RGB rating places it roughly 10 factors behind extra skilled panels, like LG’s UltraFine 5K.
The show’s colour accuracy and uniformity are additionally rated properly, with a Delta E rating of slightly below 2 factors. This makes the 34f extra correct than Samsung’s CF791 and locations it on par with LG’s 34UC89G. For comparability, Apple’s 5K iMac’s show has a greater zero.98 Delta E rating. Uncalibrated out of the field, the 34f’s display appeared barely cooler with paler pores and skin tones. Put up-calibration, display tones appeared barely hotter, however total, colour replica in different areas remained constant. Given the panel’s good colour replica, this panel can serve in a pinch for video and photograph modifying for house customers with out entry to an expert display.
Chuong Nguyen / Digital Tendencies
Distinction was equally glorious on the 34f, with a ratio of 1020:1 at 100 p.c brightness. In use, my solely main criticism with this panel is with uniform display brightness, with the display being lit extra brightly together with backside left and proper edges. For many duties, you doubtless gained’t even discover this, however the problem turns into extra obvious when viewing content material towards a black background, like darker scenes in a film or online game.
On condition that the 34f tops out at 60Hz, critical avid gamers doubtless gained’t wish to think about the slower refresh fee on this panel. Nonetheless, with built-in AMD FreeSync assist, the panel continues to be an honest monitor for informal gaming.
The display on this panel can tilt upward or downward, nevertheless it can’t be raised or lowered.
Most fashionable video games performed with decrease sport settings carried out tremendous, although stuttering and display tearing grew to become noticeable on extra demanding titles performed at greater graphics settings. At 1080p or QHD decision and low to medium settings, the monitor does an honest job.
One other quibble is that as ergonomic changes on the 34f is slightly restricted, nevertheless it’s an issue that’s pretty frequent on shopper displays. Just like the budget-oriented AOPEN 32HC1, and even HP’s Envy 34 Curved All-in-One desktop, the display on this panel can tilt upward or downward, nevertheless it can’t be raised or lowered. One other limitation is which you can’t rotate the display from panorama to portrait.
Our take
Multitaskers who discover themselves working out of display area ought to think about both a multi-monitor setup or a single ultrawide show. Whereas connecting a number of displays collectively can create muddle and go away you with seams the place the panels be a part of collectively, the latter answer generally is a expensive different. Fortunately, in case your wants are restricted to primary workplace duties and easy artistic tasks, HP’s 34f delivers an immersive expertise due to its 34-inch curved ultra-wide QHD decision at a extra budget-friendly $649 value.
Is there a greater different?
Missing the bells and whistles of a lot of its opponents is what helps hold the HP 34f extra modestly priced. For comparability, HP’s EliteOne 1000 34-inch curved comes with the identical display measurement and determination in a curved kind issue, however the panel comes with an prolonged three-year business-class guarantee together with a pop-up webcam. Although the fundamental options are comparable with the 34f, the EliteOne 1000 prices practically $900 extra.
Dell’s UltraSharp 34 Curved U3415W priced at $749 is a more in-depth match to HP’s 34f. Just like the EliteOne, this monitor shares the 34f’s display measurement, curved expertise, and display decision. Nonetheless, the UltraSharp presently retails at a $100 premium, and the bottom-facing ports on this monitor makes it much less handy than on HP’s mannequin. And whereas each Dell’s and HP’s 34f are cheaper than Samsung’s extremely rated $799 ultrawide CF791, the latter covers 125 p.c of the sRGB colour area and ships with built-in audio system. Creatives who’ve the funds can step as much as BenQ’s $900 ex3501r, which comes with a barely 35-inch, colour correct HDR panel. This display’s 100 Hz refresh fee makes it ideally fitted to each artistic duties and gaming.
How lengthy will it final?
The HP 34f comes with HP’s commonplace one-year guarantee, making it on-par with different shopper shows in its class. That is shorter than the three-year commonplace guarantee accessible on some premium gaming displays or on skilled shows, like HP’s Elite line. Given the panel’s comparatively excessive UWQHD decision, it must be related for at the very least a number of years — or at the very least till greater UHD decision in wider codecs grow to be the norm. You’ll might wish to splurge and add an prolonged guarantee in case you intend on holding the 34f in your desk for some time.
Must you purchase it?
Sure, HP’s 34f is a monitor that comes with many options that may please most house person or workplace employee, and it delivers all this at a modest value.
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