INTRODUCTION:
I bought this monitor to replace an old TN panel that I'd been using forever. Its not without its issues but it does get quite a few things right. Hopefully this review will help you decide whether its worth your hard earned money.
PRICE:
I picked mine up during an Amazon sale when there was a discount offer and a lightning deal on the monitor. At that price, the feature set this monitor provides can't be beaten. The price seems to have gone up since then though.
BUILD QUALITY:
Build quality is solid. Stand is all metal, pretty sturdy and the monitor doesn't shake too easily. No swivel or height adjustment, but you can tilt the monitor from -5°~ 20°. No VESA mounts either. Bezels are not slim but not very thick either and have a slightly reflective finish. No stuck/dead pixels or any other visual defects to speak of.
CURVATURE:
The monitor has a curvature rating of 1800R. Curved monitors offer a larger perceived field of view. I had no problems going from a flat panel to a curved one, but it felt a little strange going back the other way once I got used to it.
UI:
UI is clean, easy to navigate and the exact same one found on the similarly priced Acer panel. Not surprising given AOpen is an Acer subsidiary. Fortunately, unlike the Acer panel which has normal buttons, this one uses a joystick which is much more convenient and intuitive but with one rather annoying design choice - turning off the screen requires you to keep it pressed for 5 seconds. Not ideal if you quickly want to turn off your screen before leaving the room.
IMAGE QUALITY:
Colors are ok out-of-the-box but you'll probably need to fiddle around with the settings a bit to get the picture you desire. I found the default presets a bit too warm for my liking so I had to tone it down a bit to get a more neutral image. You can switch the color temp between warm, cool, normal and lastly user mode which enables the RGB bias and gain sliders. The panel isn't very bright but a brightness level of 50-60 will be enough for most people. Blacks look pretty nice as they should be on a VA panel. All in all, with a bit of tweaking, you can get a pretty decent image out of the monitor.
VIEWING ANGLES:
There is gamma shift when looking at the screen at an angle. The image becomes washed out and less bright the further you move from the centre. But its not severe and its a non-issue if you sit right in front of the screen like most people do.
144HZ:
Now, onto the two biggest selling points of this monitor: 144Hz and FreeSync. You have to experience a 144Hz monitor to truly understand why so many people recommend one. Forget games for a second - your desktop experience is just so much better. Simple tasks like moving the mouse pointer, dragging a window around, scrolling up and down feel so much more fluid. And once you get used to 100+ fps in games especially FPS, going back down to 60 is something you'll want to avoid. Its not quite the horrible experience going from 60 to 30 but its still jarring.
FREESYNC:
As for FreeSync, the difference it makes is very evident. No more picking between screen tearing and input lag. And with the latest Nvidia drivers, you aren't restricted to AMD gpus anymore to use FreeSync. As long as you have a Pascal or later series card and a DPI cable, you're good to go. Just enable FreeSync in the monitor menu, then go to the Nvidia Control Panel, click on Set up GSync and tick Enable GSync, Gysnc compatible, Enable for windowed and full screen mode, and Enable settings for the selected display model. That's pretty much it. The FreeSync range is between 48-144Hz but you can extend it using CRU (Custom Resolution Utility). I have extended my range from 40-144Hz because FreeSync is even more beneficial at lower fps. 40fps on a FreeSync panel feels much smoother than 40fps on a non-FreeSync panel.
BACKLIGHT BLEEDING:
The biggest con, as others have mentioned, is that these monitors suffer from quite a bit of backlight bleeding. Its normal for IPS/VA panels to have a bit of backlight bleeding but its rather noticeable on these panels. I've had two of these, and on a completely black background or even when viewing a dark scene/image, you can see patches near the top and bottom that are brighter than the rest of the screen. Compared to my old TN panel, the black uniformity really isn't good. I mean if you stand far back enough from the screen, it kinda looks like there's a Batman logo on the screen. Of course, the severity of the issue ranges from unit to unit - the replacement I got was better than the original - but its still an issue albeit one that's only evident during dark scenes. If you get a decent unit, keep the brightness at sensible levels, and don't go looking at the edges of your screen every time the screen goes dark, its not something that will really bother you.
CABLES:
The DP cable that came with the first monitor was not only non-functional, it would stop my PC from even booting into Windows. I had to buy a separate DP cable to troubleshoot the issue. So if you're buying this monitor and plan on using FreeSync, keep a spare DP cable handy just in case. No issues with HDMI or DVI cables though.
SUMMARY:
Coming from an old 22" TN panel, this monitor has definitely been a good upgrade. The pros sufficiently outweigh the cons in my opinion. Would I pay the current asking price for it? Probably not. But during a lightning deal and/or when there are discount offers, it certainly represents good value for money.
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