AOC e2795Vh review

UPDATE: The review sample we were sent had an MVA panel, but AOC later updated the retail product with a TN panel. As such, this review is no longer valid, as our comments were based on what's effectively a different product. We are attempting to get the new model in for review, and will update this article accordingly.

At just over 60mm thick, AOC's new 27in e2795Vh is ideal for wall-mounting, although with VGA, DVI and HDMI ports plus a four-way USB hub, it's also great as the centrepiece of a PC system. It's designed for business use, which explains the boring plastic case and simple controls, but the multiple inputs and widescreen, Full HD resolution make it just as good for watching movies or playing games.

Although priced very competitively, the e2795Vh is in fact an MVA panel rather than the more common TN panel. Despite this, our initial impression was a poor one; colours looked washed out and contrast was terrible, as if the backlight had been turned up too high. We tried correcting for this using the e2795Vh's controls, but to no avail, but we knew something else was wrong when we noticed that the black on AOC's menu was darker than the black of our test page.

In desperation, we tried connecting via the analogue VGA connection instead of HDMI, and instantly saw a huge improvement. It seems that the e2795Vh doesn't work very well via HDMI - even connected to our PlayStation 3 we found colours muted. To get the best results, we used an HDMI-to-DVI adaptor to connect our laptop's HDMI port to the e2795Vh's DVI port, which resulted in a great image, with strong contrast and excellent viewing angles.

With a bright and even LED backlight, the e2795Vh's colours are strong but natural. The matt anti-glare finish on the screen worked well to reduce reflections, but didn't seem to add much of a grain to images, and colours were quite punchy. Viewing angles were much improved over those of the TN panels we usually see. The only concern was response times; they still weren't as good as those on TN panels, and in our game tests we noticed jerkiness when strafing past objects. However, in most tasks the increase in contrast and viewing angles more than makes up for this.