Dome-shaped screens might be the next big monitor trend

The big news in monitors for 2023 was a shift to OLED panels, bringing the long-awaited tech from high-end televisions into more and more offices and gaming setups. But what comes next? If you ask popular OEM display panel manufacturer TCL, they might answer with “domes.” As in, a screen that’s curved at both sides, the top, and the bottom. The company is showing off the new panel to potential manufacturing partners in China.

Initially spotted by VideoCardz, the 31-inch prototype monitor definitely stands out in a crowd. The concave curve of the display almost looks like an optical illusion, or maybe like you need to get your glasses prescription updated. The 31-inch panel has a 4K resolution and a respectable 120Hz refresh rate, and it’s an OLED panel, which may explain how it’s more easily bent into this unique shape.

What’s the advantage of a double-curved monitor? Honestly, I couldn’t guess. A machine translation of the promotional text says that it gives a “wide 3D space perspective.” While the immersive qualities of curved displays are still a bit contentious for a standard, two-dimensional curve, I can’t imagine any practical advantage for a curve on the shorter Y axis, aside from maybe looking like your FOV slider is out of whack in real life.

Still, monitor makers (especially for gaming brands) are always desperate for a point of differentiation. That might be doubly true for OLEDs, where it seems like the same handful of panels get re-used for dozens of different monitor models. If TCL finds any takers for this design, we might see it pop up in products starting in the second half of 2024.