Author: Adam Simmons

Date published: December 18th 2014



Introduction

Many of us still remember when widescreen standards such as 16:10 and 16:9 really took off, replacing the rather square-looking monitors with something a bit wider. So-called ‘UltraWide’ (or super wide) monitors with a 21:9 aspect ratio took that one step further, starting with 29” models that gave a very panoramic look to the image. With the increased Field of View (FOV) that most games offer in 21:9 and the absolute screen filling (without black borders) of many movie titles this gave a nice experience. The UltraWide 21:9 experience is now available on models with 34” screen sizes, significantly boosting both the physical height and width of the monitor. The AOC u3477Pqu features such a screen, coupling it with a 3440 x 1440 resolution and an adjustable stand. We take a look at how this monitor performs in a range of games, movies and other applications. And of course what the 34” screen size and 21:9 aspect ratio brings to the table as well.





Specifications

This model features a 60Hz 34” AH-IPS (Advanced High Performance In-Plane Switching) panel which boasts 10-bit colour reproduction (8-bits per subpixel plus FRC dithering). A 5ms grey to grey response time is specified, which is fairly standard as a specified value for an IPS monitor and doesn’t really give a good indication of real-world performance. Key ‘talking points’ of the specification have been highlighted in blue below. Note that the prices are based on estimated street prices given by AOC as the monitor wasn’t from UK or US retailers at the time of review.





Screen size: 34 inches

Panel type: LG Display LM340UW1-SSA1 AH-IPS (In-Plane Switching) LCD

Native resolution: 3440 x 1440

Typical maximum brightness: 300 cd/m²

Colour support: 1.07 billion (8-bits per subpixel plus dithering)

Response time (G2G): 5ms

Refresh rate:60Hz

Weight: 10.0kg

Contrast ratio: 1,000:1 (80m:1 Dynamic Contrast)

Viewing angle: 178º horizontal, 178º vertical

Power consumption: 70W typical

Backlight: WLED (White Light Emitting Diode)

Typical price as reviewed: £549 ($899)





Features and aesthetics

The monitor is dominated by the large (34”) ‘UltraWide’ screen at the front. This has a very light matte anti-glare screen surface, which is described in more detail a little later. There is a dark grey panel border around the screen itself, which is not clearly visible when the monitor is switched off. This is around 15mm (0.59 inches) at the top and sides. There is also a thin silver outer bezel. The total thickness of the area around the screen (including panel border and hard bezel) is around 18mm (0.71mm) at the top and sides. The bottom bezel has a black semi-matte plastic finish and is around 2.5mm (0.98 inches) thick if you include the silver of the outer bezel and the sliver of panel border here.









If you’re sitting a bit too close to the monitor (<45cm) or are sitting far off the central line (i.e. to the left or right rather than in the middle) then a slight 3D shadow can be seen running down the far left and right edge of the screen once the screen is switched on. This seems to go into the screen as shown below. This wasn’t visible from a normal viewing position and not something we found distracting, but just thought we’d point it out in case somebody sees it on their monitor and thinks it is some sort of defect.







The stand base is quite attractive in our opinion, featuring a quite fetching shiny brushed metal foil coated in scratch-resistant transparent plastic. This is shown below, although we feel it looks more lustrous in real life.







The stand itself is highly adjustable, allowing; tilt (5° forwards, 24° backwards), height adjustment (130mm or 5.12 inches) and rotation clockwise (90° pivot into portrait). The bottom of the screen sits around 78mm (3.07 inches) clear of the desk surface at lowest height in landscape orientation. The top sits around 450mm (17.71 inches) above the desk. As you can see below, when rotated into portrait the screen has quite an overwhelming height to it.







In its normal landscape orientation, the controls of the monitor are found on the underside of the bottom bezel around ¾ of the way along from the left side. These are pressible buttons as shown below. There are no on-screen button labels or other illumination to indicate the function of each button. This can make navigating the menu system in the dark a little tricky at first.







The buttons are, from left to right; ‘Source Select / Back’, ‘Clear Vision / Right’, ‘Volume / Left’, ‘Menu / Enter’ and ‘Power’. We found the menu system fairly straightforward to navigate through. The functionality is shown in the video below.











At the side you can see the fairly robust monitor stand, with glossy black plastic at the side of its ‘neck. This attaches to the ‘central bulk’ of the monitor. Facing to the right (if viewing from the front) are some USB ports. From top to bottom these are; 2 USB 2.0 downstream ports, 2 USB 3.0 downstream ports (yellow one = fast-charging capable) and USB 3.0 upstream.









At the rear of the monitor there is quite a combination of materials used – glossy black plastic at the top and bottom, brushed black plastic for the ‘central bulk’ and matte silver plastic for the back of the stand neck. Towards the bottom of the stand neck is a simple cable tidy. The stand itself attaches to the screen by 100 x 100mm VESA. It is screwed on rather than using a quick release mechanism – an alternative 100 x 100mm VESA stand or mount can be used instead. The remaining ports of the monitor face downwards. To the left of the stand is an AC power input (internal power converter) and ‘zero power’ switch. To the right of the stand there are several ports; RS232, Dual-Link DVI, HDMI 1.4 (with MHL), DP 1.2, VGA, 3.5mm headphone jack and 3.5mm line-in. The monitor includes a VGA cable, Dual-Link DVI cable, DisplayPort cable, 3.5mm audio cable and USB cable in the box.









Note that only DP 1.2 natively supports 60Hz at 3440 x 1440 on this monitor. DP 1.1, Dual-Link DVI and HDMI are limited to 30Hz maximum at 3440 x 1440 by default. There are 7W up-firing stereo speakers built into the monitor. These delivered quite a powerful and dynamic sound. Better than most integrated speaker systems but not really a substitute for a good standalone pair. We also found the minimum volume level a bit loud, although the sound can of course be dimmed further using software volume control. These speakers went surprisingly loud as well – in fact we didn’t dare go past 60% volume in case it upset the neighbours.





Calibration

Subpixel layout and screen surface

The monitor uses a very light matte anti-glare screen surface, which some users might even refer to as ‘semi-glossy’. This handles glare effectively without creating the ‘dulling’ or ‘grainy’ appearance offered by ‘stronger’ matte screen surfaces. In terms of smoothness of the image (i.e. lack of grain or sparkle) this is one of the best matte surfaces we’ve come across.







This monitor employs an RGB (Red, Green and Blue) stripe subpixel layout, which is the most common type. This is the default type ‘expected’ by operating systems such as Windows and MacOS so no special configuration is required there. This is good news for Mac owners in particular as alternative subpixel layouts (for example BGR) give fringed text with poor sharpness and can’t be corrected for on the OS. Windows has a ‘ClearType’ option which can compensate, but using this will only be necessary if you have already customised the settings for another monitor or don’t feel text is rendered to your liking.





Testing the presets