Curved vs Flat TV – Which Should You Choose?

Curved TVs provide added but minor viewing immersion, but the viewer has to be at the right distance and angle to take full advantage of it.

Answer:

While curved TVs provide extra immersion, the viewer has to be at the right distance and angle to take full advantage of it.

Since the viewing experience is only slightly improved, many people find it as an unworthy trade-off for other shortcomings, such as the higher price tag and picture distortion when the TV is looked at from the sides.

Ever since the first curved TV was released, people have wondered whether it’s just another fad or a new and improved way of enjoying movies and games.

Nowadays, there are more and more curved TVs, but they are still rare, so the answer lies somewhere in between.

Apart from the obvious advantages of curved TVs, such as the cool design and a somewhat wider field of view, there are additional things you should take into consideration before purchasing such a TV.

Advantages Of Curved TVs

samsung curved tv

A curved screen brings the edges of the display closer to your peripheral vision – thus providing you with extra depth and a wider field of view.

Not only does this improve the viewing experience by making it more cinematic, but it’s also good for your eyes as you don’t have to move them as much.

However, to take full advantage of this, a TV would have to be huge, we’re talking over 85 inches in diagonal. Since most modern curved TVs are 55-inch or 65-inch, the added immersion is very subtle.

Disadvantages Of Curved TVs

Curved TVs have a sweet spot in terms of distance and angle you should be watching the screen.

If you were to align multiple curved TVs to form a circle, the center of that circle would make for the ideal viewing distance.

For instance, for a TV with a curvature radius of 4200R, the center would be 4.2 meters (~13.78 ft) away from the screen.

Sitting further away from that makes the screen curvature less apparent, whereas sitting too close can make the TV appear too big therefore defeating the purpose of the curved display.

Furthermore, since you should sit directly in front of a curved TV for the best viewing experience, a problem appears when there are multiple people in the room watching the same screen at different angles.

For those watching the screen at an angle, the extra immersion is gone – in fact, the picture quality would be worse than that of a flat-screen TV.

Lastly, while curved TVs generally look better than flat TVs, they look rather strange if mounted on the wall, but this comes down to personal preference.

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Joseph Moore

Joseph has probably spent thousands of hours learning about displays in his free time and prior work experience at HP. He now writes and manages DisplayNinja to ensure it stays as the people's favorite resource.