Mark reviews an interestingly featured monitor from AOC
In the past couple of years the monitor market has become very tough indeed, with lots of manufacturers chasing scarce customers. Prices are probably as low as they can realistically be, so the makers are always looking for new markets. The AOC I2473PWY is a product aimed at the teenage bedroom buyer, if I’m not mistaken, in that it provides better than average audio and a HDMI port for connecting a games console.
Technically, this is a repackaging of a 23.8” IPS LED panel that provides excellent viewing angles and vibrant colours. Along with HDMI, AOC has included VGA for PC use – forgetting that most machines come with DVI, HDMI or even DisplayPort these days. I’m not sure why they restricted themselves to two inputs, though, as there is lot of space at the back of the thick supporting base.
That base design choice is critical. Because the dual 7 watt Onkyo speakers aren’t in the panel structure they’ve been able to make the screen very thin indeed, and it also has a bezel that’s less than 1cm on all sides. That’s nice, but the down sides are that you can’t remove the monitor from its base, there's no practical way to VESA mount it, and it offers no swivel or height adjustment. Also, given the scale of the base, I was slightly disappointed that AOC couldn't find a way to get the PSU inside, thus leaving the I2473PWY with one of those annoying power bricks.
If this was the whole story, I’d seriously be wondering why AOC was asking this sort of money for this display, but thankfully it also has a potentially useful extra feature; Miracast. For those who haven’t played with this, it’s a wireless display technology that allows you to replicate what is being shown on a tablet, smartphone or PC without a physical connection. Or, that’s the theory.
My experience of using Miracast generally has been unfavourable, however, as it seems an exceptionally flaky technology. The I2473PWY implementation didn’t contradict those negative opinions, because testing with various devices yielded decidedly mixed results.
For example; to make this work smoothly on YouTube video required dropping the resolution to 480p. But it also tended to either crop or border displays, and forced my laptop PC into 1280 x 800 resolution, when natively it’s the same as the screen: 1080p.
I don’t entirely blame AOC for Miracast’s foibles, but they did choose to make it a big feature in this hardware and it doesn’t work well enough for that profile. It also has a long boot cycle to the Miracast mode, greater than the time to find a spare HDMI cable and plug in directly. This is something of a shame, because the screen offers excellent contrast, the 25 watt power consumption is miserly, and viewing angles are good. The sound doesn’t offer substantial bass, but it is louder than monitor audio is normally.
If you’re buying this for the Miracast feature, I’d pass, but as a general purpose screen for PC and console use it’s very acceptable, if a little bit on the expensive side. Mark Pickavance
A monitor with better speakers than most.
Specifications:
• Monitor Size: 23.8"
• Visible Screen Size: 60.5 cm
• Screen Format: 16:9
• Brightness: 250 cd/m² (typ)
• Contrast Ratio Dynamic: 50.000.000:1
• Contrast Ratio Typical: 1.000:1 (CR)
• Pixel / Dot / Pitch: 0.2745 (H) x 0.2745 (V) mm
• Display Area: 527.04 (H) x 296.46 (V)
• Viewing Angle: 178 (H) / 178 (V) (CR>10)
• Response Time: 5 ms GTG
• Power Consumption On: 25W, Standby: <0.5W, Off: <0.5W
• Dimensions (WxHxD): 547.1 x 408.6 x 182.6 mm
• Weight: 4.12 kg wo/packaging, 6.46 kg w/packaging
• Warranty: Three years