AOC have just launched a brand new range of ultrawide monitors that are falling in-line with their G2 range. We’ve already seen the standard G2 widescreen, and have absolutely praised it. Now it’s time to discect the AOC CU34G2 gaming monitor.
The panel uses VA technology, and has a pretty sleek 1500R curveture. The panel sits at 34-inches with a resolution of 3440 x 1440p and a 21:9 display ratio, and there is a picture in picture mode if you so desire for multiple media sources. It works great if you’ve got your PS4 plugged into a HDMI, and your PC plugged into the Display Port so you can watch some Netflix while playing games. It also has a 100Hz refresh rate with a 1ms response time. Not sure why AOC didn’t push for the gaming standard of 144Hz**, but I saw nothing really wrong with ghosting in games, especially when I kicked in the Overdrive setting to ‘Weak’.
Its bezels fall flush with the panel, and are very minimalistic, being branded as “frameless”. It’s not. The bezels are noticable, but they are skinny. I usually sit in a darkened room while gaming, and wasn’t distracted. In usual AOC fashion, the bottom bezel is slightly fatter, and is tastfully branded with the AOC logo right in the centre. Unfortunately though, there are still multiple buttons to make your way through the menus on the bottom right hand side.
The montior feels incredibly well built. It’s got a plastic housing, but feels very robust. It’s heavier than a traditional monitor, and takes up a decent amount of space on my desk, but it’s not going anywhere. The stand and mounting arm is very sturdy. The monitor has height adjustment up to 130mm as well as a tilt of 3.5° – 21.5° and a 30° swivel movement too. There’s VESA capability on the back too for wall mounting capability.
AOC have kept their many ports from the traditional 16:9 version of their G” monitors. You can find two HDMI 2.0 inputs, a DisplayPort 1.2 and even four USB 3.0 inputs that need a passthrough cable to work. It acts as a USB hub.
The AOC CU324G2 is also compatible with Freesync technology and falls between a range of 30 – 144Hz. It also comes with a whole host of options that improve the quality of your games, something that we’ve come to expect from AOC’s gaming range. The Game Colour Mode improves the saturation for better grey levels and detail in your image. There’s also the trusty Overdrive setting, which if you’ve seen any of our AOC monitor reviews before, you’ll know we set it to Low, just to knock the edge off the ghosting, which was apparent when we ran the monitor through the UFO Test.
There’s also a low input lag option as well that you can turn on if you haven’t got access to Freesync. Turn that on though and the low input lag option is greyed out. Same for other image quality controls. If you set your screen to sRGB for example, you get locked out of any manual configurations including brightness. Safe to say we used the SpyderX from Datacolor to calibrate the monitor, and for the most part, I managed to get some wonderful colour accuracy. Below are some stats from our color calibration process including showing the monitor hitting 99% sRGB 84% AdobeRGB and 89% DCI-P3 colour gamuts. We were also given a contrast ratio of 1840:1 which is above the usual average.
But in real terms, having an ultrawide monitor when playing games like Doom, or even slower paced games like Star Wars Battlefront II, that we’ve been getting back into a bit lately since they released the new update, feels very immersive indeed. I thoroughly enjoyed zipping around space in an X-Wing and Tie Fighter. Having the extra screen in your peripheral vision definitely helps with noticing enemies appear from the side of your centre frame. And Red Dead Redemption 2? Breathtaking. Having that extra viewing angle of the 21:9 ultrawide aspect ratio makes the the game look glorious, and when it was night time riding through Saint Denis looked amazing on this monitor. The black levels are nice and deep, and the contrast ratio ensures that detail is still kept in bright areas. It made the stret lamp glow look amazing. Games also look super smooth too thanks to the 1ms response time.
AOC have definitely built another winner with the AOC CU34G2. We said it before with the 24G2U that we tested not too long ago, and nothing has changed here. The image quality is absolutely stunning for such a budget ultrawide monitor, and would suit gamers down to a tee, as long as you got the real estate for it on your desk. The only issue I found is with the buttons for the menus. Move onto a joystick AOC, it’s definitely in your best interest. For more information, head over to the AOC website.
** UPDATE **
There is a 144Hz ultrawide monitor available. It’s called the AOC CU34G2X.
