AOC AGON AG352UCG WQHD G-Sync Monitor Review

End User Testing

OSD

The on-screen display is easily accessible using the d-pad on the bottom of the monitor, simply give it a nudge to the right to bring up the menu using up down and right to navigate and select items. You can then adjust things like contrast and brightness with ease. There’s not an extensive amount of options on offer, surprisingly for such a high and display. However, there doesn’t really need to be too many, and you can still get all the essential calibration features taken care of. There is also an LED colour selector, allowing you to change the built-in LED lighting. Don’t worry though, you can always turn it off if you find it distracting full stop

Installation and Productivity

Installing this monitor was pretty straightforward. It mounted on its stand quite easily. It’s certainly one of the biggest and one of the widest monitors available to consumers right now, so do make sure that you have room to fit it on your desk regarding width and depth. As you can see, it is spanning the full width of the desk I’m using in the office. It certainly looks impressive though, and for gaming and work it’s going to give me a lot of screen real estate to play around with.

Uncalibrated, the monitor did look very vivid and a little over-bright, but had a rather fantastic picture. Once calibrated, our testing software didn’t actually give the monitor a better rating. It seems from anything we have gained in one area we were losing a little in another, and the end result was there about the same. However, it was apparent switching between the two profiles that the new calibrated one was a vast improvement in terms of how realistic the image looked, things looked a lot less over brightened and more detail. Overall though, it’s still one of the best out-of-the-box profiles I’ve seen in a while.

Viewing angles on the monitor are superb as well. Obviously, it’s designed for the person sitting in front, but even with a big curve, it’s very much viewable from off centre and from above and below optimal angles.

R, G, or B?

The LED lighting is a nice added touch too; it gives it a little bit of flair that I’m sure many will love.

The main selling point of this display is just how freaking wide it is. I can comfortably fit three pages on screen at full size. That’s a huge boost for productivity and for writing my reviews. I can have what I’m working on in the middle, and relevant information on either side. I can get four windows on here too, but I like having one full size window dead centre.

Movies

Now, watching movies on any display is an important test, but with this one, things are pretty different. We’re all used to 16:9 displays, they’ve been common place for a very long time. At 21:9 you can really enjoy the full screen for movies that were shot in wider formats, and there are plenty of them. Many cinema screens are wider than 16:9, and movie makers love to use that width. It’s why many movies still have borders at the top and bottom even on 16:9 displays. Watch something like Tom Hanks’ movie Sully, and you can fill this full 21:9 display with glorious cinematography.

The downside? 16:9 movies have vertical black bars. This doesn’t bother me, I’m a child of the 80’s, and many of my favourite shows are 4:3, so I’m used to seeing black bars there. Of course, this also applies to games that don’t support Ultrawide, not just movies.

Gaming

As a gaming monitor, it’s one of the finest I’ve ever used. The ultrawide format has growing support from most major titles these days, and the way it envelops you is something to behold. It’s not easy to get that sense in an image, and I’m trying to fit the display in shot and stood back. However, sitting in front, it dominates your vision, wrapping around to give you a great sense of scale. From racing games, to fighting games, that extra width is amazing. Of course, it’s also a damn sight easier than running three displays to get a similar effect. The inclusion of a G-Sync 100Hz panel also means you get silky smooth gameplay. For FPS gameplay, that higher frame rate results in tear-free, lag-free gaming. Of course, it also increases the overall clarity of the motion on screen, which makes the display feel like it has an even higher resolution.