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The first button from the right is the power button, so we are going to start at the other end with the quick menu options.
The first button from the left lets you choose between the three inputs manually.
Next along is the Clear Vision option. This is a sharpening function to improve the perceived detail of low resolution and blurry images. It has Weak, Medium and Strong settings as well as Off.
The third button along lets you adjust the volume for the built-in 2W speakers or headphones if you have those plugged in instead.
Finally, the fourth button calls up the main menu. The first choice that appears is Luminance, which includes Contrast, Brightness, and Eco Modes. The latter are actually the main presets, and consist of Standard (the default), Text, Internet, Game, Movie, Sports, Reading and Uniformity. There are three Gamma options, and you can enable DCR (dynamic contrast ratio). There are also three HDR modes – Picture, Movie, and Game.
The next main menu option is Colour Setup. Colour Temp options include Warm (the default), Normal, Cool, sRGB, and User, with the latter enabling fine adjustment of Red, Green and Blue individually. The DCB modes are picture enhancements, and include Full, Nature Skin, Green Field, Sky-blue, AutoDetect, and the default Off position. You can also preview these modes with the DCB Demo option.
Next along is AOC's weird Picture Boost option, which includes Bright Frame, where you can choose a rectangular section of your screen and give it independent brightness and contrast settings. After many years reviewing AOC monitors, we remain in the dark as to what this is for.
Under OSD Setup you can alter the language of the OSD and other characteristics of how it is displayed. There is also a break reminder to help you remember to get away from your screen occasionally, and strangely this is also where you can downgrade your DisplayPort to 1.1 from 1.2, in case you are experiencing compatibility issues. This is potentially useful, but we don't know why it is in this section of the menu.
This not a gaming monitor, but you do still get a Game Setting section, which includes Game Modes ranging from FPS to RTS and Racing, plus three user-saveable slots. Shadow Control is a function for improving detail in dark or light areas. Overdrive artificially improves the pixel response, with Weak, Medium and Strong options as well as off. LowBlue Modes also offer presets, including Reading, Office, Internet and Multimedia. This is an area we frequently criticise in AOC monitors – there are essentially three different types of preset. It would be easier if they were all in one place.
For gamers, there is even a “Dial Point” option that puts a crosshair in the centre of the screen. You can turn adaptive sync off and on, and superimpose a frame counter in one of the four corners of the screen.
Finally, the Extra section houses everything that didn't find a home elsewhere. DisplayPort mode might have sat better here. The functions available include manually selecting a video input, setting a screen off timer, disabling DDC/CI support, and resetting the monitor to defaults. Note that you can't change what the quick buttons do.
Overall, this is a bog standard AOC menu system. It's great that you still get the gaming options even though this monitor is not aimed at this function, because you might be sharing a work screen with people who do want to play games on it, or even (perish the thought) play games yourself. As always, though, we do wish AOC would put all the presets in one place rather than three.
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