I wonder if such noticeable colour shifting (see attached picture) is to be expected in monitors with VA panels? I have this monitor (BenQ PD3200Q) like 3 years and i know that it has some color shifting at certain angles, but i never noticed it to be such extreme, it almost looks like the monitor is broken. I don’t care much about colour accuracy, i don’t calibrate my monitors anyway, but i really would like it to show more consistent colours than that. It’s quite upsetting :[
I’m not entirely sure what I’m looking at on that image 
A pretty standard test for the VA color shift is to draw a big red (or whatever) rectangle and then you look at the screen by for example standing up (look at it more top down rather than from the front) or by moving your head horizontally to the other side of the screen.
Basically it all comes down to off axis viewing.
If you do that you’ll typically see the gamma on the rectangle change rather than stay the same as it is when you’re viewing it center on. It’ll look washed out.
Rtings have a cool example of the effect in action - Samsung Odyssey Neo G9/G95NC S57CG95 Review - RTINGS.com.
Just scroll down to where they test horizontal / vertical viewing angles.
I’ve owned a couple of VA screens, all of them being Samsung super ultrawides with a rather nice curve. The color shift was noticeable (but not game breaking) when viewing things that weren’t directly in front of me.
Typically I had my Photoshop / Affinity / Resolve / 3ds Max / C4D / Blender app in front of me resembling a ~32" screen and then off to the sides I had other apps. The 32" area seemed to be fine to me for the most part but the color shift was starting to get noticeable towards the edges of it. The screens however were curved so I’d expect the shift would be a bit more apparent on your screen. Plus, if I’m not mistaken, Samsung VAs tend to do “better” than other VAs for when it comes to color shifting. Generally speaking. Unless I’m mistaken
So the color shift wasn’t super bad imho although it was noticeable. Especially the up and down off axis viewing one. It kind of works like a gradient, the more things aren’t directly in front of you the more the colors start shifting. Definitely worse than on an IPS display but the IPS display that I do still also own does have that backlight bleed which also affects your image if you view it off axis - the colors stay consistent but there’s a blue light type effect at the edges of the screen that starts seeping in.
Color shifting wise the IPS definitely fares better though.
TLDR, yes there is color shift but I personally didn’t find it to be super bad. Most of the time I wasn’t viewing things full screen anyway so something like the Corona IR was mostly directly in front of me. Even if it wasn’t though, I didn’t think the shift was that bad. Noticeable yes but I wouldn’t call it bad.
I’m currently on a 45" OLED and this thing looks rock solid from all the angles. Sometimes I think the colors stay the same even if I view it from the back It does come with other challenges though - like making sure it doesn’t get burn in so no more taskbar for me lol.
Hi Nejc,
Thanks for your answer. I kinda new that, i just wasn’t expecting the shifting to be so noticeable in this case. To be honest, it’s just a singular event, in day to day usage i doesn’t notice any colour discrepancies at all. I think i can live with that.
I thought that the yellow-ish vs orange-ish object were the issue and that they should appear the same. That would be crazy. But the difference is visible at the top and the bottom of both objects, right? It’s like a horizontal gradient.
Ah yes, i’m talking about the colour shifting from top to bottom, not from side to side. Sorry for unclear example, looking at it i think i should’ve take a picture of big solid square like Nejc suggested.
Haha yeah that is what tripped me up as well
On all my VA screens I’d say the vertical color shift was more noticeable than the horizontal ones. Don’t get me wrong, horizontal was apparent too but the vertical was more so.
And yeah the way you described it romullus is how I’d describe it as well. It creeps up like a gradient of sorts.
At 32" I definitely think you’d want a rather curved VA screen otherwise I’d imagine the edges would be quite color shifted.
That said for anything starting or above 32", VA or OLED or IPS, I think the curve is rather mandatory - at least to me. Otherwise the edges of the screen seem weirdly far away And that’s where we can all disagree lol.
I didn’t even know that there are 32" curved monitors. Probably makes sense, cause the edges indeed feels too far away as you said. As for the horizontal colour shifting, i’m not sure i ever noticed it. I’m sure it’s there and it probably would be quite noticeable if i’d have a solid colour block on the screen, but in normal usage it’s completely non issue for me.
Yeah thats the thing for me too - I rarely if ever have something set up full screen. Even when editing in Resolve or PS / Affinity the image is rarely encompassing the entire screen. So the VA color shifting never bothered me that much. Even on a super ultrawide, if Slack, that is on the far right, is color shifting noticeable I’m like - ok, whatevs
That said it wasn’t perfect by any means, especially the vertical color shift was kind of annoying. On one particular project I had a lot of purple color but if I lowered my standing desk a bit more and sat up straight, the purple became blue purple.
It wasn’t as bad with other colors IIRC but that was heavily uncool. Definitely something to keep in mind but I do still think its manageable.
As for curves, yes Besides the fact it is technically rather helpful on a VA screen (color shifting), the curve seems to be mainly a personal preference type choice.
I was always bothered by the fact that the modifier stack in 3ds Max (as an example) always seemed weirdly far away from me because I was looking at the thing off axis because at 32" unless you sit far away things on the sides are off axis. Once I went with a curve (only used curved ultra wides) I never really felt comfortable going back. Unless it is a 27" display.
Thanks again for your insights Nejc, that’s quite a lot of really valuable info! Next time when i will be looking for a new monitor, i’ll probably include curved monitors into list as well. Just to confirm, when you’re working with 2D/3D apps does the curvature manifests in some ways, or is just something that’s automatically adjusted by the brain and isn’t noticeable consciously?
I’d say you don’t even notice. Note that in my case I am using two 31.5 inch monitors each running at 4K, each one is curved. They are not VA so I can’t speak to the color shifting, but in terms of “distortion” I don’t notice any.
EDIT, they are 1500R curvature for interest.
Really happy to hear these bits come in handy!
Honestly, I think the curve is something you have to experience and only then you’ll know whether you’re a fan or not. Based on what people say online you either become an instant fan or you can’t get used to it.
For me it was an instant “click”. It just makes so much sense to me and so unless its a 27" or smaller, I’m in for the curve.
The most common question is whether straight lines appear straight. And its the most difficult thing to explain For me, they absolutely do and even more so than on a non-curved screen - because on a non-curved if the line moves towards the edges its kind of already curved as I’m viewing it from the side basically
Best bit to explain it that I’ve found so far is this Youtube video:
https://youtu.be/oNQbljAcZuQ?t=769
I did try out the various curves (all on ultra wides), from the more subtle 1800R to the 800R I’m using right now (the OLED in the video). I will admit I was skeptical about 800R on a 45" as being too aggressive but yet again, I think it is the perfect curve.
So yeah, I’d recommend trying out a curved one (at least 32" size is the minimum I’d say) and if you don’t like it, return it. It is not something I typically advocate doing but I have no idea how else one is supposed to figure out if this is for them.
Oh and also I do think the curve makes more sense if you’re sitting a bit closer to the screen. If you’re 2 arm lengths away or something then I’d assume the curve really isn’t going to help you much because the edges will always be “in sight” and off axis won’t be as big of a problem.
can’t chime in on the color shift, but on the curved monitor part: I got a 34" dell ultra vide (the 3419). I didn’t even thing about if lines would appear straight or not. I do archviz and haven’t noticed anything. Only that it seems like with this type of work, you can always use more screen area hehe. Going from 24" to 27" I was thinking I’d never need or want a bigger screen. Then the 34" I was almost laughing at how big the screen was. Now I just got a small 15" portable display that would fit underneath it for client emails/web etc. Very nice (apart from desk being more cluttered and colors being way off compared to the dell, but for emails/web searches/youtube its great). I actually wouldn’t mind a second of the small monitors underneath, but I’ve run out of desk space
Max I don’t run full screen, maybe 2/3 on the left, then layers, forestpack, material editor etc on the right 1/3 side. Works great.