AOC U3477PQU review

IMAGE QUALITY

Image quality out of the box is superb. Without even placing a finger on our colour calibrator to see the quantitative results, the bright backlight, crisp whites and vibrant colours of the AH-IPS panel are gorgeous. 

The numbers add up, too. On default (called “Warm”) settings, the panel covers 97% of the sRGB colour gamut at a colour temperature of 6602K, a little above the 6500K target but still perfectly acceptable. Default brightness on this setting is 275.2cd/m2; you may want to turn down the brightness to avoid eyestrain if you’ll be using this screen for long periods.

Contrast in this mode was 930:1, which is high enough for most tastes and reveals plenty of finer details in images.

The best colour coverage we could muster was by using the “Normal” colour preset. This gave us coverage of 97.4% on the sRGB gamut, but colour temperature was significantly increased to 7385K. Unless you have a colour calibrator handy, we’d recommend sticking to the Warm colour mode, which is a good all-rounder.

The average Delta E figure – the difference between the “perfect” colour and the colour displayed by the monitor – was a little high at 2.32, with some reds, greens and dark yellows differing slightly from the ideal colours and bringing the average up as a result. Even so, a Delta E of 2.32 is substantially better than what you’d see on cheaper panels and most users will have a hard time spotting where these discrepancies occur.

Backlight uniformity was pretty impressive, with most areas lit evenly. The top left corner was the darkest part of the screen, emitting 14% less light than the centre. In most standard desktop applications this won’t be noticeable, but if you’re working on colour-sensitive projects it would be advisable to use the centre of the screen for reference, not the far reaches. 

Input lag, measured with our Leo Bodnar tester, was typically around 31ms. This isn’t lightning fast and won’t be suited to very twitchy gamers, but will be largely undetectable, even in FPS games, by most users.

CONCLUSION

The AOC U3477PQU takes all of the best elements of the LG 34UM95 and cuts the price by around £100. This comes at the expense of a pair of Thunderbolt ports and some beautiful design, but with the worthy addition of a  much more versatile stand. Its onscreen menus aren’t the best and the placement of its USB ports verges on back-breaking, but right now it’s the best ultra-wide screen you can buy.