X

New 1440p support helps Xbox One play nice with QHD monitors

The new Spring Update will be welcomed by gamers who hook their consoles up to PC displays.

Dan Ackerman Editorial Director / Computers and Gaming
Dan Ackerman leads CNET's coverage of computers and gaming hardware. A New York native and former radio DJ, he's also a regular TV talking head and the author of "The Tetris Effect" (Hachette/PublicAffairs), a non-fiction gaming and business history book that has earned rave reviews from the New York Times, Fortune, LA Review of Books, and many other publications. "Upends the standard Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg technology-creation myth... the story shines." -- The New York Times
Expertise I've been testing and reviewing computer and gaming hardware for over 20 years, covering every console launch since the Dreamcast and every MacBook...ever. Credentials
  • Author of the award-winning, NY Times-reviewed nonfiction book The Tetris Effect; Longtime consumer technology expert for CBS Mornings
See full bio
Dan Ackerman

Not everyone hooks their game consoles up to big-screen TVs. Especially if you're gaming in a den, dorm room or office (if you can get away with that sort of thing), your console may end up connected to a PC monitor. Microsoft's new Spring Update to its Xbox dashboard, initially rolling out to testers in the Xbox Insider Alpha Ring, includes a new output option that supports the native resolution of QHD displays.

xbox-one-x-3039-006

The Xbox One X is adding support for QHD resolution output. 

 Josh Miller/CNET

The Xbox One X and Xbox One S already both support 1,920x1,080 (called FHD) and 3,840x2,160 (4K) resolutions. But many PC monitors use an in-between resolution of 2,560x1,440, also called QHD. The new Spring Update adds native QHD support, so those displays can now get pixel-for-pixel output, which could result in sharper images.

Also new in the Spring Update are some updates to the live streaming video service Mixer, including the ability for game streamers to let an audience member take over control of a game, and for streams to not automatically cut off when you switch games.

More details on what's in the Spring Update for Xbox One can be found here. It's coming to Insider testers first, and should roll out to all Xbox One owners sometime in the next couple of months.