Alienware is looking to lure gamers deeper into their computer game experience.
The company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dell, has been showing off a curved-gaming monitor this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Not scheduled to ship until the second half of this year, the monitor is the equivalent of a 24-in. model, except this one is no regular screen.
"It's the first time you're really able to play a game where you're looking at the center of the screen, but your peripheral vision is taken into account," said Bryan Dezayas, a spokesman for Alienware, which is branding and marketing the monitor for its developer and manufacturer, Ostendo Technologies "You see more of the content of the game than someone would with a regular screen. Sometimes, you see something out of the corner of your eye that draws your attention. It's a complete advantage for the gamer."
The monitor, which Dezayas said can also be used for video editing, bypasses LCD screens and uses Digital Light Processing rear-projection technology, which is often used in televisions. It also has a native resolution of 2880 by 900, and a response time of less than .02 milliseconds.
Dezayas noted that Alienware is showing a prototype of the monitor at CES. Pricing is not set, though the company is targeting US$4,000 to US$5,000, he said.
"The huge benefit is how immersed a gamer becomes in the experience," he said. "Some gamers try using two or three monitors. The thing with that is it's not a seamless experience, and you could be missing a lot that's happening in between the monitors. ... This [curved monitor] gives you a whole different experience."
