Design and Ergonomics

There's no mistaking the ASRock Phantom Gaming PG34WQ15R3A for anything other than a gaming monitor, regardless of the side you observe it from. With its wide, V-shaped base and an elaborate stand equipped with the Polychrome RGB lighting system, the monitor looks almost aggressive, which should be exactly what the targeted audience – or at least a large part of it – is looking for. The 34-inch curved ultrawide panel is flanked by thin bezels on three sides, with only the "chin" being thicker, measuring a little under 2 centimeters. The bottom bezel has a centrally positioned Phantom Gaming logo – yet another mark of the gaming pedigree of the PG34WQ15R3A. ASRock branding is only mentioned on the back.


The V-shaped base is exceptionally wide, spanning 65 centimeters from left to right. It is also some 30 centimeters deep, so you better make sure you have enough room to host the PG34WQ15R3A on your table. Luckily, because of its raised design, you can use the space below the monitor for your phone, pens, post-it notes, and anything else you might have lying around. The base and the bottom bezel are covered with grainy black plastic, which makes them look like they're made of industrial metal. Perhaps smooth surfaces would be more aesthetically pleasing, but I didn't mind the direction ASRock decided to take, given the gaming nature of the monitor.


Of course, you can also detach the base and the stand and place the panel on any regular VESA 100x100 table or wall mount.


The central part of the base is equipped with the so-called Phantom Gaming Mini-OLED panel. It is essentially a tiny 1.3" OLED panel, which can, with the help of the Polychrome Sync software, show three different image files (JPG/PNG) or GIFs. The images are limited to 128x128 pixels, and they have to be smaller than 32 kB. The low resolution and dreadful refresh rate of the PG Mini-OLED panel make me seriously question its purpose; I can't think of a single reason why someone would want to use it. Not only it looks bad, it's also somewhat distracting, especially if you opt to use it to display GIFs. A feature like this strikes me as a complete waste of time and resources; a simple tray that could hold a smartphone or pencils would be infinitely more useful. Thankfully, you can turn it off in the visually archaic but functional Polychrome Sync software.


The large stand is completely covered in the same grainy black plastic as the base. It's there to support the panel, and make it adjustable, but also to improve wireless connectivity with its integrated 7 dBi Wi-Fi antenna.


The rear-facing Phantom Gaming logo is flanked by two LED strips. They all light up in whichever color or effect you pick in the Polychrome Sync software. The size or brightness of the LEDs isn't nearly enough to light up a wall behind the monitor, so the entire RGB lighting system is merely a gimmick, something that could potentially grab attention in a LAN environment but makes little to no sense at home.


The lower part of the stand has a cable routing hole. The sheer width of the stand works well to completely hide the cables exiting the monitor. The only situation where you'll see the cables is if you lift the panel all the way up; that leaves the aforementioned hole completely exposed. I don't see this being an issue in practice, though. If you're using a regular table, you definitely won't have to raise the monitor to a point where you'd see the cable routing hole.


The 34-inch ultrawide panel has a 1500R curvature. It's subtle enough not to be distracting while making using the monitor more pleasant.


The panel can be tilted from -5 to +23°.


Swiveling the panel by ±20° is also supported.


The total height adjustment range of the panel is 12 centimeters. When pushed all the way down, the distance from the table surface to the edge of the bottom bezel is 10 centimeters.