[RD Reviews] Does A PRISM+ X240 Curved Monitor with Its Budget Price Tag Match Up to the Hype?

As I shifted to working from home last year, I quickly found out that my 13-inch 2017 MacBook Air was hard to work with. I had to strain my eyes to look at the Google Chrome window and Word Document side by side and found that my eyes quickly felt dry after a few hours of work.

To combat this issue, I started thinking about obtaining a monitor to hook up to my laptop and came across PRISM+, a Singaporean brand focusing on gaming monitors and TVs online. I also came across their eye-catching physical store in Sunway Pyramid and was dazzled by the displays in the store but was a bit sceptical about the numerous influencer reviews online.

I then reached out to their team to review their X240 Curved Gaming Monitor which retails for RM979 but seems to be perpetually on sale on their website for RM649 that you can even pay in instalments using Grab or Atome. Their website promises fast delivery and I was impressed as their team quickly sent over the monitor within days.

X240 Monitor Display

As it has a 144Hz / 165Hz refresh rate VA panel and a 1ms response time, we found that when watching fast-paced videos such as NCT 127’s Ay-Yo music video, the object moved clearly without any shadow.

With a 120% sRGB colour gamut, we found colour accuracy to be top-notch on the monitor, which looks great when I need to edit photos or just enjoy a Netflix series. For instance, when I placed a black and white coloured paper next to the monitor, the colours matched up pretty well with the one onscreen.

However, we found that the display was not as sharp as we’d hoped for watching movies and even animations on YouTube even with settings set at 1080p, especially for those with darker backgrounds.

When I compared the monitor side by side with my Apple MacBook Air 2017 laptop (1.8GHz), the display and colours on the Macbook were sharper, especially when I compared a website with the same text. On the X240, the text appeared slightly blurred around the edges.

This is where the first compromise has to be made. While it is colour accurate and has a gorgeous refresh rate, the colour quality does suffer when compared to higher end displays.

Designed for gamers

The design of the monitor is all-black and has a sleek and modern look with a very thin bezel. Its stand allows the user to tilt the screen up and down to find their perfect position –– however, it makes me uneasy that I will damage the monitor if I tilt it too hard.

You can also have the option of purchasing a monitor arm if you want to save space on your desk. It has a back design with blue oval backlight illumination for those who are into a gaming set-up aesthetic. If you’re not a gamer like me, you can turn it off or otherwise set it to flickering mode. A dim blue light also shines down from the power button to let you know your monitor is turned on.

Overall, the monitor looks quite sedate and its mileage will vary. The plastic material for the body is also another compromise in quality for performance. You may argue that the build doesn't matter much when you don't interact with it much, but there's no mistaking that it looks budget.

Size

As I also use the monitor to watch K-dramas in my room, I opted for a curved monitor, which allows you to take full advantage of peripheral vision for a more enjoyable and immersive viewing experience.

The X240 has a 1200R curved display while standard monitors have 1500R curved panels –– the lower the number means the more curved the panel is. Studies have also shown that eye strain and eye aches are 60% more common on flat monitors than on curved monitors.

However, you may want to try out a curved monitor in person before opting for it. This model is 24” which feels just right for a small workspace like mine, but if you want something bigger, their largest curved gaming monitor is at 39”. Also, note that a curved monitor will appear smaller than a flat monitor of the same size.

Connectivity

The monitor comes with two HDMI 1.4 ports and a DisplayPort 1.2 and I ordered a UGREEN Thunderbolt to HDMI cable as my MacBook annoyingly does not have a dedicated video output (only a Thunderbolt port for display).

On the first try of connecting my MacBook, I had to click on some system settings on my laptop which was easy to navigate and every time I want to use it now, I just plug in the cable into my laptop. There's no cumbersome external brick for power, but the power adapter is quite large.