AOC I1601FWUX
IPS screen and USB-C; is this the perfect portable LCD panel?
PORTABILITY AND PLENTY of screen real estate don’t normally see eye to eye. However, a recent development is enabling those two ancient foes to become a little more pally. We speak, of course, of USB-C, in all its single-port, multi-function glory.
It’s an enabler thanks to three key properties. First is loads of bandwidth, which is essential for driving highresolution displays. Second is support for DisplayPort alternate mode, and thus the ability to function as a video port without the need for special drivers. Third is the ability to supply much higher power output. USB-C maxes out at 5A and 20V, and thus fully 100 watts. Not every USB-C port will necessarily deliver the full 100 watts, but broadly speaking, if your PC or laptop has a USB-C port, it will be able to supply significant power to any attached peripheral. Put that all together and you have the perfect combination for attaching and driving a compact external display via a single port.
Enter, therefore, the AOC I1601FWUX. It’s a 15.6-inch external display, with a FullHD 1080p pixel grid that connects via a single USB-C interface to supply both power and video. It’s an appealing idea. The unit itself is compact and light, and broadly comparable to carrying a tablet. It doesn’t require charging, although it will, obviously, represent a pretty significant drain on a laptop’s battery pack if used away from the grid. All told, it comes in at around two pounds. To put that into context, it’s only a little heavier than a 12.9-inch iPad Pro.
As for the primary speeds and feeds, the panel itself is IPS. AOC doesn’t get too specific, but it’s only claimed to support 262,000 colors, so we’re likely talking about a low-end 6-bit-perchannel panel, which is probably fine for this type of application. It’s hardly aimed at serious content creation specialists sitting in a studio all day. Elsewhere, AOC claims 5ms response times and maximum 220cd/m2 brightness; AOC doesn’t quote a contrast ratio. Other notable features include a magnetic screen cover that doubles as a stand, plus a single button that provides access to the on-screen menu. The latter makes for a rather laborious configuration process, because it involves pressing the button to cycle through options, and then waiting several seconds for your chosen option to activate. But it’s not something you’ll be wrestling with regularly, so the quest for simplicity in this regard is understandable.
GREEN SCREEN
The actual performance of the display, however, is a little less so. Given the brightness rating, and the fact that broad compatibility puts a practical limit on how bright this type of display can reasonably be, we weren’t expecting fireworks. But the overall impact of AOC’s portable panel remains rather underwhelming. Dingy colors with a slightly green-tinged overall balance probably sums it up. When you consider the high quality of LCD panels that are now standard in even the most mundane Android tablets, it’s a little difficult to stomach this quality of panel. That said, it’s not worse than you typically get in many middle-market laptop PCs.
That’s a pity, because the concept and execution is otherwise pretty appealing. 1080p makes for a welcome slice of extra screen real estate, and is plenty for web browsing, running a mail client, viewing documents, and all that stuff. You could also use it with a really small laptop as a screen to watch movies on the move. It’s a very handy little gadget to have with you on vacation or work trips.
The I1601FWUX will do all those things and objectively get the job done well enough. But you’d enjoy doing all that a lot more and we’d find it easier to recommend if the LCD panel had a tad more visual pop. Even taking into account the relatively modest $179 entry fee, most users will probably be expecting just a little bit more.