AOC Q2963PM Ultra Wide Monitor Review

1. Introduction2. AOC Q2963PM Ultra Wide Monitor3. AOC Q2963PM Ultra Wide Monitor (Super High Res Gallery)4. Testing The Screen5. Closing Thoughts6. View All Pages

With the growing rise in popularity of new high resolution Ultra Wide monitors we take a look at the AOC Q2963PM. This panel has support for both Dual Link DVI and DisplayPort connectors and can output at 2,560×1080 resolution. If you need a lot of deskspace is this a cost effective upgrade at the end of the year?

We have seen opinion split in regards to the new series of Ultra Wide monitors, some of our readers love them while others feel that the unusual 21:9 aspect ratio doesn't bring anything really practical to the table.

The WFHD 2,560×1080 resolution might not be for everyone, but The AOC Q2963PM incorporates a quality IPS LED panel.

Specifications:

Panel size	29*w
Brightness (Typical)	300 cd/m²
Contrast Ratio	1K:1 (Typical) 50000000:1 (DCR)
Response Time (Typical)	5ms
Viewing Angel (H/V)	178/178
Recommonded Resolution	2560×1080
Display Color	16.7M
Input Signal	Analog, DVI(Dual link),HDMI(MHL), & DP
Power Consumption	Operation Mode (W)<65W Stand by Mode (W)<0.5W
Plug & Play	VESA DDC2B™ & DDC2B/CI
User Control	Menu/II,VolumeN, Source/Auto/Enter/>, Aspec/<,Power/Ex.
OSD Languages	16 Languages
Speakers	Yes
Safety & Regulations	CCC,cTUVus,TUV-BAUART,ISO9241-307,TCO6.0,FCC,CE, VCCI,PSE, J-Moss, E-standby, MEPS, BSMI, C-Tick(N26268),CB,Eneregy Star,EuP,WEEE,EU RoHS Doc,REACH DoC,KC/KCC
Cabinet Color	Titanium
Special Features	WFHD AH-IPS Panel, MHL/HDMI/DP connectivty , PIP/PBP,Off timer, e-saver, i- Menu, screen+

The AOC Q2963PM Ultra Wide monitor arrives in a large, brightly coloured box featuring specifications and images of the panel.

Inside are all the accessories, including a power supply, regional specific plug, literature, and DVD and HDMI cables. The stand is supplied separately, however it is a tool less design, simply slotting ‘into' the other half of the stand, which is connected to the rear of the screen.

The screen is not the most attractive we have seen, but we like the industrial appearance and hefty stand, which is reassuringly supportive. Sadly it is not height adjustable, so it can look very low on the desk, depending on how you sit in association with the desk.

Viewing angles are fantastic however, thanks to the IPS panel. It took quite some distance from the center of the screen to notice any annoying contrast shift.

The top half of the stand also accommodates the connectivity, with DisplayPort, dual link DVI-D and VGA connectors available. There is also a secondary DisplayPort located in the base of the stand which is useful for connecting other monitors. There are also two 3.5 audio ports which offer input and output capabilities.

You will notice an HDMI port as well, although this is MHL compatible for mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones. MHL hasn't really taken off yet in the mainstream, but some people find it very useful. You can display the output of your smartphone for instance on the large 29 panel, while charging the unit.

There is obviously a lot of distortion and the images will look very aliased. The Q2963PM does allow you to adjust the aspect ratio to 16:9, 16:10, 1:1, 4:3, so there is the possibility to ‘tweak' the display to suit.

The Q2963PM also ships with built in speakers although there is very little bass at all, much as we would expect. Still if you have nothing else the built in speakers will be useful.

The monitor can be hung on a wall, using VESA mounting holes, you can remove the stand easily enough.

The Q2963PM uses an IPS panel and it is extremely impressive – we will take a closer look at the output quality shortly in the review. The Q2963PM ships with a handy utility called ‘Screen+' which splits the screen into different panels which can each feature different content.

The side view really does highlight the chunky, thick stand which really works well. The buttons to control the display are located along the side of the panel, on the right side. They work really well and we experienced no usability issues during the review although some people with bigger fingers might find them a little fiddly to access.

None of the buttons are labelled which is unusual, but if you press any of them an onscreen menu will appear that uses large icons to describe their functionality.

AOC also include the AOC e-Saver power management software and i-Menu which allows the user to adjust picture settings by using a keyboard and mouse, rather than buttons.

While the stand is chunky, the Q2963PM does offer a very thin bezel around the edges, which looks great when the display is on.
On this page we present some super high resolution images of the product taken with the 24.5MP Nikon D3X camera and 24-70mm ED lens. These will take much longer to open due to the dimensions, especially on slower connections. If you use these pictures on another site or publication, please credit Kitguru.net as the owner/source.







To test today, we are using a LaCie calibration gun along with specific software to accurately measure the readings. We analyse the 2D elements of the monitor via this test system featuring a reference Nvidia GTX780 Ti graphics card.

We measured Gamut out of the box and the AOC Q2963PM returned a reading of 2.19 which is very good. We manually adjusted the gamma to 1.8 and the panel returned a 1.78 result.

The Q2963PM incorporates an IPS panel which presents very rich colours and excellent grayscale performance. We used the DisplayMate 64 step Grayscale test and it was able to accurately reproduce them all.

The accuracy of the colours rated as excellent with no hue bias to the naked eye. Delving a little further we analysed the colours. Blues and Reds were almost perfect and there was only a little oversaturation with green output. In real world terms however this has little to no negative effect when viewing images.

Panel Linearity rated as excellent, with only slight deviation on the edges. Well above average in this class.

The SRGB colour gamut rated at 99 percent of the full range, after calibration we increased this to 99.1 percent. This is almost class leading for the price and an exceptional result.

Viewing angles of the panel were also impressive, thanks to the IPS technology. We did notice a minor drop in luminance when viewing from a top down angle. The Q2963PM is rated at 5 milliseconds (black to white) and in real world terms it was able to handle fast moving games without any artifacting or smearing.

Black Definition is well above average for this class, and viewing high definition blu ray discs was a pleasure with this panel. Even sci-fi films which feature a lot of dark space scenes looked great, which often is not the case on a screen at this price. Blacks are certainly very rich and deep and ideal for not only high definition media but for gaming. Our equipment returned a black reading of 0.31cd/m².

There was some pooling in the edges and far corners of the panel, but it is difficult to notice with the naked eye.

Contrast was however a little disappointing, we recorded a reading of around 690:1 after calibration which was quite a bit lower than AOC's claims of 1000:1. It didn't ruin the quality of the images when watching high definition movies, although the picture could look a little flat under specific circumstances.

White purity was good, if not excellent. The screen displayed pure white as a light grey but uniformity across the length of the panel was surprisingly good, especially considering the physical dimensions. Backlight bleeding was also minimised with only a little fluctuation in the corners, barely noticeable.

When gaming, the 2560×1080 resolution will obviously place additional demand on the graphics card, so it is important to factor this into the purchase, if you are primarily focusing on playing the latest Direct X 11 games. That said, many of the modern graphics cards from AMD and Nvidia (even sub £200 solutions) will be easily able to power this resolution in the latest games with high image quality settings.

It is worth pointing out that the AOC Q2963PM has a plethora of picture settings, including brightness, contrast, gamma and Eco mode. There are also Text, Internet, Game, Movie, Standard and Sports presets. There is also a Dynamic Colour Boost (DCB) which allows for blue, green and skin tone enhancements.

This is a very efficient screen, only demanding 33 watts under operation. In power saving mode, this dropped to 0.5 watts.
We have been exceptionally impressed with the AOC Q2963PM Ultra Wide Monitor and it is easily the best AOC monitor we have looked at, to date. I have analysed several ultra wide monitors in the past and in our opinion the Q2963PM is the market leader.

The WFHD IPS LED panel displays vivid, rich colours covering 99% of the full sRGB gamut. Surprisingly, the panel is also very accurate, with only a minor over saturation on green evident. To the naked eye this is extremely difficult to notice. Grayscale performance is also superb and it passed our DisplayMate 64 step Grayscale test with flying colours, accurately reproducing them all.

The Q2963PM may not be the the most attractively designed monitor, but it is built to a very high standard. We also admire the super thin bezel on the screen area.

The large wedge stand is very strong and doesn't require any tools for assembly, which is a bonus. Half of the stand can be removed for VESA wall mounting, which will be welcomed. The only downside is that the stand itself doesn't offer any height adjustment on a desk.

The Q2963PM offers a 5ms black to white refresh and it handled fast moving motion video without a hitch. We left the panel for a couple of days with a local clan we sponsor and they all thought it was fantastic. One of the clan members actually bought the screen after testing it for a day, so we can't give it higher praise than that.

Technically, the Q2963PM is an exceptionally capable monitor, delivering pure, deep blacks and bright vibrant colours. It is a great monitor for both gaming and high definition movies. In fact the only negative would be the slightly muted contrast level, which can occasionally give some images a ‘flat' appearance. We wouldn't say it was a critical game changing negative point, but it certainly is not delivering AOC's claimed 1000:1 contrast levels, closer to 700:1 in our testing.

You can pick up the AOC Q2963PM on offer from Amazon right now, with a price reduction for £399.99 to £316.88 inc vat. At this price it is difficult not to give it our MUST HAVE award.

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Pros:

• Excellent build quality.
• Technically very impressive.
• pure blacks.
• vibrant colours.
• efficient power consumption.
• 2560×1080 resolution.
• tool less.
• super thin bezel.
• wall mounting available.

Cons:

• Contrast level could be better.
• no stand height adjustment.
• the super wide resolution will not suit everyone.

Kitguru says: For the price this is one of the best screens money can buy.

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