Lenovo’s 49-inch ultrawide is absurdly wide — and pretty great

Sometimes a generic show conscionable won’t trim it. Even a large, high-resolution show moving astatine nan emblematic 16:9 facet ratio can’t grip capable windows to meet nan astir demanding multitasking. There are 2 ways to amended nan situation: aggregate monitors aliases a azygous ultrawide display. Lenovo has taken nan second attack to nan utmost pinch its ThinkVision P49w-30, an insanely wide 49-inch monitor.

Most ultrawide monitors tally astatine 21:9, making them noticeably wider and shorter than usual. The ThinkVision P49w-30, though, runs astatine 32:9, making it moreover wider and shorter – almost comically truthful erstwhile placed connected your desk. But it besides has very bully image value and a ton of ports and features. It’s expensive, but if you want an ultrawide monitor, it’s 1 of nan ultra-widest options around.

Specs

The ThinkVision P49w-30 retails for $2,000, but it’s connected backorder correct now astatine CDW and connected waste for $1,895. Lenovo’s pricing tin beryllium difficult to track, truthful this value whitethorn not beryllium astir for long. In immoderate case, it’s a very costly show that will request to supply awesome capacity to warrant nan investment, and it has stiff title astatine this value from nan Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 gaming monitor.

Wow, is that point wide

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When I received nan container via FedEx, I had to laugh. Monitor boxes tin beryllium rather large, specified arsenic nan 1 containing nan Dell UltraSharp 43 that I reviewed respective months ago. That was a ample show arsenic well, only its container was a batch taller and a batch shorter, and it didn’t return up an obnoxious magnitude of abstraction successful my location office. The ThinkVision P49w-30’s box, connected nan different hand, is truthful agelong that it’s been an existent hindrance. I’ve tripped complete it respective times and I’ve needed to move it astir to entree my record cabinets.

A batch of that was packaging, but moreover so, I had different chuckle during nan easy unboxing process. I assembled nan base, stand, and show quickly capable and without immoderate issues, but I had to find immoderate abstraction to spot it. Maybe I conscionable person a weird consciousness of humor, but arsenic I looked astatine it sprawled crossed my 2nd desk, it struck maine arsenic ridiculous. That’s not a sound connected nan ThinkVision P49w-30 itself, really, conscionable that specified a ample surface stretched retired truthful wide looks truthful crazily different than different displays.

Outside of its insane dimensions, nan ThinkVision is an charismatic monitor.

There aren’t galore monitors that lucifer it, but nan Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 49-inch 32:9 show comes close. That show has a overmuch sharper curvature than nan ThinkVision, which is amended for gaming than activity but it besides takes up little table space.

Once I connected it via Thunderbolt 4 and turned it on, though, I was faced pinch a very good-looking image and a batch of surface existent property to activity with. I positioned a mates of windows broadside by broadside and had tons of horizontal space, though nan windows seemed a spot cramped vertically. More connected image value below.

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The ThinkVision P49w-30 is constructed mostly of plastic, successful nan show chassis, nan base, and nan outer ammunition of nan stand. Metal is wrong to clasp everything together, and nan show felt for illustration a high-quality merchandise overall. It supports plentifulness of tilt, swivel, and tallness adjustments to find an optimal setup, and each was easy to maneuver. There are besides 2 5-watt speakers to supply basal sound if you’re not connecting to outer speakers.

Outside of its insane dimensions, nan ThinkVision is an charismatic monitor. Lenovo created an all-black artistic pinch a fewer reddish accents that matched nan old-school ThinkPad line. It’s amended looking than Dell’s ultrawide UltraSharp 38 Curved display, which is minimalistic to nan constituent of disappearing. Incidentally, that 38-inch curved ultrawide now seems mini by comparison.

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The guidelines has a convenient spread for cablegram management, and for illustration nan Dell monitors I’ve reviewed it’s excessively debased to really hide nan cables that tally done it. But it’s functional nonetheless.

Once you get past nan monitor’s prodigious width, you’ll find a nicely designed and built display. It has a high-enough value consciousness to warrant its price.

Lots of ports and tons of features

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Lenovo loaded nan ThinkVision P49w-30 pinch a ton of ports supporting a assortment of setups. It each starts pinch an upstream Thunderbolt 4 larboard that provides 100 watts of power, much than I’ve seen successful a monitor. That intends it will support each but nan astir powerful laptops charged up, arsenic agelong arsenic they person a Thunderbolt 4 larboard that will grip nan precocious wattage. The Dell XPS 15 I utilized for testing complained astir nan relationship being underpowered, but it uses a Dell-specific 130-watt USB charger.

From there, you person nan accustomed DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.1, and a assortment of different USB-A, USB-C, and Thunderbolt 4 connections. There’s an audio jack and moreover an RJ-45 Ethernet port. The ThinkVision P49w-30 doesn’t person “USB hub” successful its name, but it should. There’s moreover a built-in keyboard, mouse, and video (KVM) move to let sharing betwixt 2 PCs, and nan show supports Picture successful Picture (PIP) and Picture by Picture (PBP) for erstwhile aggregate PCs are connected.

Overall, it’s an awesome setup. If you can’t fig retired a measurement to link a fewer PCs to this monitor, past you’re not trying difficult enough. The Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 show mentioned supra doesn’t person nan aforesaid scope of connectivity options.

Straightforward controls and a nifty Windows app

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The on-screen show (OSD) is controlled by a joystick and fastener connected nan backmost of nan show connected nan correct side. It’s easy to entree and intuitive, and truthful overmuch amended than nan buttons alongside nan bottommost of nan MSI Modern MD271UL that were incredibly confusing to use.

The OSD itself is besides elemental to use, pinch intelligibly laid retired categories. It’s easy to quickly group basal options for illustration brightness, contrast, speaker volume, colour mode, and scenarios. Color modes see sRGB, DCI-P3, Neutral, Warm, and Cool, on pinch a civilization mounting letting users group their ain RGB values. Scenario modes see native, Image creation, Digital cinema, and Video creation. As pinch galore specified modes, I preferred nan monitor’s autochthonal configuration.

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Next up are larboard settings, wherever you tin prime circumstantial inputs, move USB charging connected and off, alteration Smart Power that intelligently routes powerfulness to connected devices, move connected nan KVM function, and different much obscure settings. Head to nan Advanced settings class to configure features for illustration HDR 10, a built-in model guidance characteristic called True split, and configure PIP and PBP.

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The wide configurability is impressive. I did miss nan expertise to group colour somesthesia specifically, but that’s nan only mounting I tin deliberation of that wasn’t available.

But champion of all, Lenovo offers a inferior for Windows 10 and 11, disposable successful nan Microsoft Store, that duplicates each of these settings connected nan PC. That’s a overmuch easier measurement to configure things and make speedy changes connected nan fly, and it’s overmuch appreciated.

A high-quality image, pinch 1 flaw

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The ThinkVision P49w-30 is simply a 49-inch IPS show successful nan (as mentioned) highly wide 32:9 facet ratio, moving astatine 5,120 x 1,440. That sounds for illustration a precocious resolution, but erstwhile dispersed retired complete a 49-inch diagonal sheet it comes retired to conscionable 109 PPI. That’s comparatively debased solution and intends text and different on-screen items aren’t terribly crisp. All ultrawide monitors suffer nan aforesaid problem, truthful it’s not unsocial to this one. But subjectively, its opposition and colors looked good, pinch heavy blacks and move images and video.

According to my colorimeter, this is simply a value display. Brightness was bully astatine 332 nits, adjacent to nan 350 nits advertised. Note that by default, nan show is group to limit brightness to prevention energy. You tin summation it by continuing to push nan brightness mounting “up” connected nan OSD (but not nan utility, arsenic acold arsenic I could tell) which past gives nan action to alteration nan maximum to 150%. I utilized that measurement erstwhile moving my tests, arsenic it’s nan fairest practice of really agleam nan show tin get. Users should make judge to cheque nan manual because unless they tally into nan mounting by accident, they could extremity up pinch a overmuch dimmer display.

In addition, colors were wide astatine 100% of sRGB, 89% of AdobeRGB, and 93% of DCI-P3, and accuracy was bully astatine 1.73. Professional creators would want wider and much meticulous colors, but for anyone else, these are bully results. The opposition was fantabulous astatine 1,770:1, beneath nan 2,000:1 advertised ratio but still awesome for an IPS display.

The show supports HDR10, but it’s not agleam capable to do HDR contented overmuch justice.

I ran a calibration and things remained astir nan same. The ThinkView P49w-30 is well-calibrated from nan factory, and successful fact, nan calibration process dropped nan colour widths a constituent and nan opposition ratio down to 1,600:1. There’s nary logic to touch nan show retired of nan box.

The show supports HDR10, but it’s not agleam capable to do precocious move scope (HDR) contented overmuch justice. It works, but you won’t really want aliases request to move it connected erstwhile streaming. You’ll want thing for illustration nan Alienware AW3423DW QD-OLED show pinch its 1,000-nit highest brightness if you attraction a batch astir HDR. In addition, nan display’s consequence complaint is accelerated (for IPS) astatine 4ms successful Extreme mode and 6ms typical. That’s not accelerated capable for utmost gaming but should debar superior ghosting successful casual gameplay. This isn’t a gaming show by immoderate means, though, moving astatine conscionable 60Hz.

Overall, nan image value is excellent. Only nan sharpness is simply a interest for maine personally, but past I tally 3 27-inch 4K monitors to get nan sharpest matter astatine a decent surface size. Not everyone will announcement immoderate issues, and astir users will emotion this display’s quality. The biggest situation to nan ThinkVision successful position of image value comes from nan Samsung Odyssey OLED G9, an OLED show that offers moreover amended image value on pinch a 240Hz refresh rate.

Extreme width and coagulated image value will activity for some, astatine a price

If you’re looking for an ultrawide monitor, past nan ThinkVision P49w-30 is an highly wide option. It’s built well, has awesome image quality, and offers a ton of connectivity options and features.

It’s expensive, though, and you tin get a batch of monitors for little money that are a spot smaller pinch perchance moreover amended image quality. As mentioned passim this display, nan Samsung Odyssey Neo G95NA is an absorbing competitor that should beryllium considered anterior to putting your money down connected nan ThinkVision P49w-30.

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