AOC U34G3X
Ultrawide and ultra capable without ultra pricing
PRICE $649 ONLINE au.aoc.com
Do you need an ultrawide gaming monitor? It’s certainly the first question to answer for yourself before considering the AOC U34G3X – a 34-inch beast of a screen with some pretty impressive specs to match. Would your day-to-day use and gaming benefit from a 21:9 aspect ratio rather than 16:9? Do your games or consoles even support the format? If so, read on.
Aesthetically, this AOC monitor treads a comfortable line between understated elegance and lavish gaming flair. On the front, limited branding and text along with thin bezels make sure the display itself is very much the centre of attention. The monitor’s stand holds the product’s only real design flourish, with some red trim accenting a large cable management hole in the centre of the vertical support and some particularly long feet drawing some of the eye’s attention. This latter component is likely to accommodate for the impressive 23° of bidirectional swivel the ultrawide monitor is capable of – when you swing something nearing a metre in width, you want to make sure it’s supported.
Also of note in the adjustability department: the display can move a full 13cm up or down, with this and all other tweaks being made effortlessly but not feeling flimsy or unsecured.
One area where the flimsiness is notable, however, is in the front panel buttons. To be fair, we’ve rarely encountered a monitor that does this well, but operating the intricate menu systems on board the AOC U34G3X is tedious enough already without having to also interact with wobbly buttons that don’t always register a press.
Where the U34G3X truly shines is when you’re playing games that not only support the ultrawide format, but truly benefit from it. While in FPS titles you’ll receive some extra peripheral vision (if variable field of view is supported by the game), in strategy titles like Civilization V, it means being able to see a much larger area of the map at once, handily increasing your ability to strategise while also reducing the need to scroll around. This panel also features a 1ms response time for almost zero-lag gaming, while FreeSync and a 144Hz refresh rate combine to deliver buttery-smooth frame rates.
The display’s 300 nits of brightness is relatively low compared to others in the market
– but for better you’ll be paying more. It’s still plenty enough to still show a clear image with some ambient room lighting, and the HDR10 support offers better contrast (with three variable settings for picture, movie or game). This AOC display’s colour accuracy makes it more than good enough for gaming and watching movies, and unless you’re editing a major cinematic release, you’ll find it good for most other creative work as well.
When looking at the full package – with the massive size, resolution, refresh rate and more – there’s little that competes with this AOC monitor at its $649 price point. So if your answer to this review’s opening questions are ‘yes’, then the AOC U34G3X is your friend. HARRY DOMANSKI