At the tip of final yr, you’ll have seen I took fairly a shine to the big Samsung CRG9 monitor. With its 49in display and 5120×1440 decision, it was a completely fantastic way to play Red Dead Redemption 2, in addition to lots of the different best ultrawide PC games out there proper now. Well, now AOC have one to rival it. Just just like the CRG9, the Agon AG493UCX can have a 49in display with a 5120×1440 decision, in addition to a 120Hz refresh price and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro help (or FreeSync 2 HDR, for these of you that missed final week’s name change), but it surely gained’t value practically as a lot as its Samsung rival.
The excellent news is that AOC’s 49in-er goes to be out there for lots lower than Samsung’s CRG9, with present US pricing standing at $1000. The CRG9, then again, at present units you again $1200 (though that in itself remains to be $100 lower than after I reviewed it final November).
Is it best gaming monitor materials although? Sadly, the dangerous information is that the AG493UCX’s HDR help isn’t practically as superior as its Samsung rival, therefore its cheaper price. Whereas the CRG9 meets VESA’s DisplayHDR 1000 specification, the AG493UCX is simply a DisplayHDR 400 show. This means its peak brightness isn’t practically as excessive because the CRG9, and it’s not prone to have such an correct VA panel, both, because the DisplayHDR 400 specification doesn’t really require a display to cowl a sure proportion of the HDR-grade DCI-P3 color gamut.
For what it’s price, AOC declare the AG493UCX has a peak brightness of 550cd/m2, which might technically be sufficient to fulfill VESA’s DisplayHDR 500 specification, however that commonplace additionally requires 90% protection of the DCI-P3 gamut like DisplayHDR 1000, which makes me suspect that the AG493UCX’s total picture high quality is the principle factor holding it again.
Still, whereas I’ll do my finest to safe a evaluation pattern over the approaching weeks so I can check the AG493UCX’s color accuracy, there’s no less than some comfort to be present in AOC’s new (though sadly US and Canada-only) “Re-Spawned” guarantee, which covers 4 years common guarantee for any form of defect for Agon displays (and three years for G-Series displays), in addition to a yr of one-time unintended harm. Find a single useless pixel on the AG493UCX? AOC will ship you a brand new one without having to obtain your previous one first, which appears fairly all proper to me. This new guarantee covers all AGON and G Series displays purchased since January 1st 2019, too, together with the Agon AG322QC4 (which you’ll learn extra about in my AOC Agon AG322QC4 review).
I’ll be crossing my fingers that the identical guarantee ultimately makes its strategy to the UK, however in the intervening time, let’s get pleasure from AOC’s official comedian that explains what counts as “accidental damage”:
For extra information from this yr’s CES, take a look at our CES 2020 tag.
