Controls and OSD

The Corsair Xeneon 34WQHD240-C uses a single 4-way button to navigate the OSD. Pressing the button opens the main OSD menu, while moving it in any direction provides quick access to four menus: brightness, factory picture profiles, input selection, and audio output volume.


The monitor is equipped with a proximity sensor that detects your hand approaching the buttons and activates a menu showing the positions of the 4-way button, as well as two other buttons located below the screen: a power button and an input source button. The sensor is well-calibrated; it never triggers accidentally, nor does it fail to display the menu when you reach for the buttons.

The OSD is organized into the following sections: Picture, PIP/PBP, OSD Setting, System Setting, Screen Life Management, Audio, Input Source, and Information.


The Picture menu is where you'll find factory picture presets (Standard, Movie, Text, sRGB, Creative, Game), as well as brightness, contrast, sharpness, color temperature, gamma, and saturation controls. Interestingly, the second part of the menu also includes a refresh rate overlay toggle and virtual crosshairs. Here, you can choose between three crosshair types - dot, cross, and angle - and display them in red or green. Because this is an OLED monitor, I'd advise against using virtual crosshairs or refresh rate overlays, as they're likely to cause burn-in if used regularly.


In the PIP/PBP menu, you can turn on Picture-in-Picture and Picture-by-Picture modes, select secondary window position and source when using PiP, quickly swap the sources, and choose the audio source.


The OSD Setting menu lets you change the OSD language, transparency, and duration.


In the System Setting menu, you can toggle adaptive synchronization and the proximity sensor, adjust source detection (manual or automatic), reset the monitor to factory settings, and choose whether the USB-C DisplayPort Alt Mode port will have 2 or 4 lanes available. When you use the primary USB-C port for video output and set the USB-C Alt Mode to 4 lanes, you'll be able to set the monitor to a 3440x1440 resolution and a 240 Hz refresh rate, but the USB Type-A ports will operate at USB 2.0 speeds. Conversely, when the USB-C Alt Mode is set to 2 lanes, the panel refresh rate at native resolution is locked to 60 Hz, and the USB Type-A ports function at full 5 Gbps bandwidth. The idea is to use one option for gaming and the other for productivity, but in reality, it's a bit annoying to switch between the two. If you use the USB Type-A ports to connect your keyboard, mouse, and Full HD webcam, simply set the USB-C Alt Mode to 4 lanes and utilize the monitor to its full potential.

The last option in the System Setting menu worth mentioning is called "Triple Monitor Enable." Corsair explains it as follows, without providing additional details: "For users needing to use triple monitors via two DisplayPort and one HDMI port, enabling this special mode is recommended. This mode should adjust settings for optimal performance and display quality for the three-monitor use case. If the triple monitor condition no longer exists, please switch back to OFF to ensure the best performance."


The Screen Life Management menu wasn't present on previous Corsair monitors I've tested; the containing options were scattered across other menus. It was a great idea to group it under a single menu because that makes it clearer to users which mechanisms the monitor uses to fight against burn-in. There are three options available in the Screen Life Management menu: Image Retention, Orbit, and Brightness Stabilizer.

Image Retention manually starts the pixel refresh process, which takes around six minutes. If the display is left on for eight hours, an overlay notification appears on the screen suggesting that Image Retention Refresh be performed. While the display is being refreshed, the monitor cannot be used. When the monitor is powered off, Image Retention Refresh will run automatically if it has been operated for more than eight hours. Pressing the power button during a refresh will cancel the process and allow the display to be used.

Orbit is a feature that automatically shifts the image by one pixel per minute in a circular pattern while you're using the monitor. This helps prevent static UI elements from causing burn-in. I usually find this feature distracting and undesirable, but I barely noticed it on the Corsair Xeneon 34WQHD240-C. Corsair found a good balance between how often the picture shifts and by how much. There are also no issues with some Windows UI elements shifting out of sight, which I encountered on several previous occasions – for example, while testing the absurd INNOCN 48Q1V.

As for the Brightness Stabilizer, it essentially deactivates the Auto Brightness Limiter (ABL) to prevent oscillations in picture brightness depending on the content being displayed, but at the expense of overall brightness. If you find ABL annoying, which many of us do, the Brightness Stabilizer is here to help with that.


The Audio, Input Source, and Information menus are self-explanatory, so there's not much to add here. All I can say is that you should keep an eye on the firmware version of the monitor (found at the bottom of the Information menu) because firmware updates bring various improvements to its picture quality, especially brightness. The firmware update process is simple and well documented; I had no issues flashing the firmware to V103, which was the newest version available during my time with the Xeneon 34WQHD240-C.