AOC CU34G2X in my setup.

Half the panel is dead

One full side of the display no longer lights up. The surviving half still runs at full resolution and refresh rate, so it is usable, but the panel is not. Everything above is written around what the monitor still does rather than what it was bought to do.

3440×1440 at 34 inches gives roughly the vertical resolution of a 27-inch 16:9 panel with the width of two 16:9 monitors, which is the actual reason to own an ultrawide: two full applications side by side with no bezels and one cable. The 1500R curve is gentle enough to be comfortable over a long session while still placing the edges closer than a flat panel. VA gives a 3000:1 native contrast, which is the best contrast figure of anything in this setup, and the 1ms response is a marketing number on a VA panel but FreeSync plus 144Hz keeps motion clean. None of that matters as much as it once did, because the panel has since failed and taken half the display with it.

It is on the desk, but it is no longer the wide workspace it was bought for. What survives is one full-height half of an ultrawide, which is narrower than the 27-inch panel next to it and no use for two side-by-side applications. It stays because a dead half is still a usable monitor and because the alternative is binning a panel that cost real money.

The panel has failed on one side, so this is now a half monitor. Half an ultrawide is a strange object to own: it is narrower than the 27-inch display it sits beside, and anything that relied on the extra width no longer works. The remaining faults are the ones the panel type already had — 1440p vertical means it was never the place for dense text, and VA panels smear on dark transitions — but they are now the least of its problems. Whether it is worth repairing depends entirely on whether the failure is the panel itself or the board driving it, and at this age nobody will say. It stays on the list because it is still physically here, not because it is still a good display.