As epistemological endeavours go, the philosophical consideration of what, precisely, constitutes an actual PC monitor as opposed to a mere status screen is indeed a noble calling. Which presumably is why Corsair has cooked up this slightly silly new 14.5-inch display, the new Xeneon Edge—for the sheer intellectual giddiness of it all.
Anyway, clocking in at 2,560 by 720 pixels, the Xeneon Edge has full touchscreen support and hooks up via either USB-C Alt Mode or HDMI. It's designed to be fitted inside your case using a 360mm radiator mounting point for a "sleek" look, or mounted externally with the built-in magnets for easy access.
The Xeneon Edge can also be plopped directly on your desktop using the included stand. The display supports both vertical and horizontal orientations, the latter perhaps offering a natty new way to feed your social media addiction. It could be perfect for scrolling through tweets and other pointless online posts.
Corsair claims the Xeneon's five-point multi-touch capacitive touchscreen offers, "an intuitive and interactive experience when used externally, functioning as a standard Windows touchscreen display for added versatility."
The horizontal resolution is pretty high for a panel measuring just over 14 inches across and works out to a heady 188 PPI. That's better even than the latest 27-inch 4K OLEDs. So text will be super crispy and the image quality should be great, even if there's no word for now on the precise panel technology used here or any specs like refresh, brightness or response.
Moreover, while Corsair doesn't go into much detail, we assume it will operate as a secondary display in Windows, albeit one with a slightly odd resolution and aspect ratio. But does that make it a fully fledged monitor? Or can it only really be considered as some kind of status display?
On that note, Corsair shows the screen displaying a suite of neat-looking tools and apps, which may or may not come bundled with the Xeneon. Corsair isn't quoting a price, but we doubt it will be cheap. On the other hand, we also don't doubt it will make a tower PC look like a million bucks. Money no object, I'd slap one in the window of my rig just for the hell of it.
Corsair says the Xeneon Edge is out in Q2 this year, which means you should be able to bag one by no later than the end of June. Watch this space for a price and maybe, just maybe, a final and definitive dissertation on that monitor-versus-status-screen conundrum.
