The Huawei MateView GT is only the third product to be released by Huawei’s monitor department. The others – the Huawei MateView and the Huawei Display 23.8 – are setting a standard that we associate with the Chinese company, especially with products that exist outside of their smartphone lineup. Put simply, it’s a standard that promises spectacular value for money.
The MateView GT is no exception. It’s one of the cheapest ultra-wide gaming monitors on the market, and yet it’s also packed with unusual extras, including a built-in soundbar and a USB-C port. It’s not the perfect monitor but, at this price point, I wouldn’t expect it to be. What you get instead is a great entry-level ultra-wide gaming monitor that somehow manages to avoid making the usual many sacrifices to keep the price down.
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Huawei MateView GT review: what do you get for the money?
At just £ 500, the Huawei MateView GT outperforms just about any competition. For context, competitors such as the BenQ EX3415R tend to cost closer to £ 800 / £ 900; at the price of the MateView GT, you’re looking at something like the AOC Agon AG273QXP (£ 430), or any other 27-inch 1440p 144Hz gaming monitor. This is how absurd the price is.
For the price you get a 34-inch 3440 x 1440 VA panel with a maximum refresh rate of 165 Hz and a smooth curve of 1500 R. The response time is estimated at 4ms G2G and the panel supports AMD FreeSync Premium adaptive sync technology to reduce screen tearing. The MateView GT is also rated for HDR10 decoding, although it doesn’t have an official DisplayHDR rating beyond that.
On the back, under a detachable port cover, you’ll find two HDMI 2.0 inputs and a DisplayPort 1.4 port, a 3.5mm audio jack, a versatile USB-C port (with video support, data transfer and charging fast 10W) and a USB-C port for power. There is no USB hub here.
The panel sits on a fairly basic stand with 110mm height adjustment and 20-degree tilt back – standard items for an ultra-wide monitor. The stand-mounted soundbar, which houses two 5W drivers and a horizontally-mounted LED light in the middle, is less standard. You can mount the MateView GT on VESA, but in doing so, you lose access to this unusual soundbar.
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Huawei MateView GT review: what do we like about it?
Aside from the undeniably attractive price for a second, there are a lot of other things to like about the MateView GT. It’s nice to look at, on the one hand: the bezels are slim, and the panel itself is remarkably thin for a 34in. The plastic construction doesn’t look cheap, and the matte black finish is serious enough.
The stand is also unobtrusive although the effect is spoiled by the huge soundbar attached to the bottom. The lack of swivel or swivel options may irritate some, but these are rare sights on ultra-wide monitors and I haven’t missed them – for your posture the height and tilt adjustment are anyway the most important features in my opinion.
Then there’s the inclusion of USB-C, something gaming monitors typically overlook. It’s confusing to think that the £ 1,849 Samsung Odyssey Neo G9, a 49-inch monster of an ultra-wide gaming monitor, doesn’t have a USB-C port where the £ 500 MateView GT does. a. It might not seem like much, but this single port opens the MateView GT to a new market of individuals who want a large, uncompromising monitor for work and play.
The aspect ratio obviously helps here: 21: 9 is large enough that two apps (in my case Chrome and Slack) work comfortably side by side, and while the curve is very smooth, just keep the ends in. your cone of sight. Of course, it also gets you slightly into the action when playing a shooter or racing simulation.
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Speaking of gaming: the MateView GT’s credentials aren’t allowed to be that good. Granted, my PC hasn’t always made the best use of the 165Hz, 3440 x 1440 panel, but it’s still a winning combination and overall my time spent playing on the MateView GT was very pleasant. The panel is responsive and smooth, especially with the maximum overdrive settings engaged. It’s not perfect, as I’ll see later, but it’s an amazing specification for the price.
Our testing revealed that the MateView GT is no slouch in the color accuracy department either. Out of the box (in “P3” mode by default), the panel produced 127% sRGB and 87% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. The latter is a bit low for a monitor with any type of HDR aspirations but with an average color variance (delta E) never exceeding 2, the color accuracy of the MateView GT is pretty good.
The color temperature was very close to 6500K in the default “P3” mode (at a default brightness of around 205cd / m²), which means whites do not have an obvious red or blue tint. The VA panel technology produced a phenomenal peak contrast of around 4,500: 1, while the peak luminance reached 400 cd / m² in Default Mode (SDR). The uniformity of the panel is also strong.
For all intents and purposes, these are indeed very good results. Games look great on the MateView GT: The spectacular views and abundant neon hues of Star Wars Battlefront II are well represented and even positively old titles like current sweetheart The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion benefit from the wide aspect ratio. width and vibrant colors.
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Huawei MateView GT review: what could be better?
Without local dimming to speak of, those impressive contrast and luminance numbers don’t quite match strong HDR performance. Indeed, the contrast is reduced to around 4000: 1 in HDR mode, while the black level rises to 0.08cd / m² (against 0.046 in SDR mode) and the luminance peaks at around 370cd / m². Pair that with the reproduction of the slightly uninspiring DCI-P3 lineup and ultimately you get a monitor that’s best left in SDR mode.
As for the performance of the panel, I have to mention that the MateView GT can exhibit a bit of ghosting in quick sequences, like when in a frantic firefight with multiple enemies. Engaging the maximum overdrive setting helps but that, in turn, produces a bit of reverse ghosting, so you’ll have to settle for one or the other.
I was also a little disappointed with the built-in sound bar. Yes, the audio is better than a pair of built-in speakers, with plenty of volume and a bit of bass weight. I think I was just expecting more from it or, rather, I think I expected it to feel like a proper replacement for a pair of cheap PC speakers. Unfortunately, it is not the case.
Also, the lack of a USB hub is a bit of a sticking point. The MateView GT was also so close to perfect in terms of connectivity: USB-C is great, but when those competitors I always laugh at tend to offer at least two USB-A ports for peripherals, it loses some of its luster.
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Huawei MateView GT review: should you buy it?
Count it and it’s clear the MateView GT is worth recommending. Despite the unimpressive (albeit unsurprisingly) HDR performance, this is arguably the best budget ultra-wide gaming monitor I’ve come across.
For a similar price, you could have one of the countless 27in 1440p, 144Hz gaming monitors that flood the market every year or you could have this versatile 34in 165Hz ultra-wide monitor with USB-C. Yes, its rivals may have slightly better panels, but the MateView GT’s is far from lackluster, and it makes up for it with a higher size, resolution, and refresh rate. Simply put, this is a great value monitor.