Dear gamer, before you read any further, it’s worth noting that a piece of hardware like the MSI MPG 491CQP QD-OLED Monitor (try saying that five times fast) is built for hardcore gaming enthusiasts. It costs a lot of money, has an OLED panel, and its 32:9 144Hz 5120×1440 display requires a real beefy GPU to maintain. At the very least, you’ll need an Nvidia RTX 4080 or an AMD RX 7900XTX in your PC to run this bad boy at full capacity.

If this is you, or you’re a dreamer like me, then let’s explore why this is one of the coolest gaming monitors I’ve reviewed.

The spec sheet for the MSI MPG 491CQP QD-OLED is undoubtedly one to gawk at. It packs a next-gen QD-OLED 49-inch display with an 1800R curvature, a 144Hz refresh rate, and a claimed 0.03ms grey-to-grey response time. It supports AMD FreeSync and HDR True Black 400. On the back of the monitor, we have 1x DP 1.4a port, 2x HDMI 2.1 ports, a USB-C port that supports display and 90W Power Delivery, 2x USB 2.0 A ports, 1 USB 2.0 B port and a 3.5mm audio out jack.

There are many good-looking specs here, but what do they all mean? The OLED panel means you can expect bright, vibrant colours that pop right out of the screen. And this is precisely what you get when you turn the monitor on. In fact, you’re likely to turn the default brightness down a touch. Paired with the anti-glare coating, this OLED panel has viewing angles even an owl would be jealous of. However, the OLED panel also comes with some downsides. Generally speaking, text doesn’t do well on OLED screens, and even though the next-gen OLED pixels that MSI have in this panel do help, there is still a noticeable difference compared to my daily VA panel monitor.