This monitor is designed for those who insist on dual display work in all conditions.

Introductory

When the monitor arrived my partner just said to him: it’s finally not a monitor the size that occupies half the apartment. He was right, it really wasn’t that big, in fact, we could say it was quite tiny. Small box, nowhere with a curved display or a huge base and stand, just the monitor itself, which you might think is a giant digital photo frame because that’s what it really looks like.

Exterior and interior

The AOC i1601FWUX comes in a simple box, it already says there is nothing to see here, you can go on people! When unpacked, we get an 8,5 millimeter thick sheet weighing 800 grams, which is in front of the display, and at the back is a large metal sheet with the AOC type designation. It has a connector on it, a USB Type-C, and only one button for control. Puritanism wherever we look. But it is not such a ruthless puritanism, it is more like when a rich man buys a simple dress, but something that still shows money and elegance. Because the AOC i1601FWUX is elegant in addition to its simplicity, and it is its simplicity that makes it elegant. The no-nonsense principle, why illuminate the back of the logo principle, why put on a thousand buttons principle, turn matte the back cover so as not to collect the fingerprint principle, and add a quality material backing principle.

So from the many principles, a person will have the feeling that he has bought something that will make his fellow human beings look at him. that na, it also knows what to spend the money on and I need one soon.

Going back to the base, the monitor really doesn’t have a base in the true sense, but we get a folded sheet next to the display. At first, it was obvious that when opened, it was exactly the size of the display, so it protected the panel when placed on it. Plus, it’s magnetic on both edges so you don’t fall off it. It is a bit like the fold-down lid of the tablets. Moreover, this analogy is better than I thought at first, because the foldable lid of the tablets folded back into the tablet stand, the base will also be. This is also the case with the AOC i1601FWUX, with the cover facing backwards, the monitor stops on the table, and even because the contact point is magnetic and not fixed, the tilt angle can be adjusted.

If you look into the onitor, you will find an IPS panel with a 15,6-inch aspect ratio, 16: 9 aspect ratio, and a full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. According to the factory data, we have a brightness of 220 cd, a contrast ratio of 700: 1 and a response time of 5 ms (gray-gray). We can’t say that they are outstandingly good values, but I would rather talk about quality in the next chapter.

More importantly, the monitor supports low blue light mode and also has a rotatable, i.e. PIVOT mode. In other words, when you rotate it automatically switches to image orientation.

Use and experience

 The monitor is based on an IPS panel, so there is really no problem with image quality. With a brightness of 220 cd, the image will not be bright, but it is enough for both indoor and outdoor use, the matte display is not disturbed. The colors are a bit dull, washed out, which is due to the fact that the panel only displays 262 colors. The viewing angles are also a little worse than what we are used to from an IPS display. This isn’t particularly annoying with a portable monitor, but it’s part of completeness nonetheless.

What was good, however, was the lighting. There are no big differences between the different areas of the display, or of course it may be that simply because of the low brightness it is not conspicuous.

As you can read, there is only one USB Type-C port on the monitor. The advantage of this is that both the naphtha and the signal go on one cable, so we don’t have to provide another cable or external power. However, be aware that any Type-C port will not work, it needs one that supports DisplayPort Alt Mode. I was lucky because one of the Type-C connectors on the Xiaomi Notebook Pro I use is like this, though in a particular way it’s the one that can be charged, so I either charged or the monitor went from it. As I read on the net, many people ran into this problem, and although some testers thought of Windows as the source of the error, this problem is more due to a hardware flaw. I mean, not the monitor hardware, but the drive machine hardware.

For my part, I would also be a little critical of the back cover, more precisely of the magnetic fixation that failed to be too strong. If you want to adjust the angle of the monitor, do not do this with one hand, grasp the monitor and the stand as well, because if you simply push back or tilt the display forward, the magnet will come off and the display will puff on the table.

You may also have read that the monitor has a single control button. This makes the menu a bit cumbersome to use. You can access the OSD menu by pressing the button, you can move further by pressing, but always only forward. When we have found the one we need, we stop and automatically enter the menu in three seconds. This is how things go on within the menu. For example, you step on the brightness, and if you do not move on, you enter the menu and you can start to increase the brightness by pressing the button. However, if it happens to be too strong, we can’t weaken it, we have to go up to 100 percent, then jump to the minimum and start up again. So I can't get a better word for it, it's cumbersome.

Summary, opinion

Let's start with the good part, the monitor is very usable, and it also matches the design of the notebook. It was very thin and very light, so the notebook could go in one pocket of the briefcase, with the extra display next to the other. It is extremely easy to use, just a USB Type-C cable and it already works. As you may have read, the brightness did not become too steep, but in my daily work it was neither conspicuous nor disturbing at all.

Which was confusing for the menu, but I wouldn’t highlight this in particular, because once you set the monitor to play at maximum brightness, and the cumbersome nature of it still fit into my life, I didn’t feel annoyed or impatient about it.

One thing, however, I have to deal with is a serious critique, and that is the prop, which released the display several times due to the weak magnet, so it leaned back with a dull thud. It doesn’t make me happy, nor does it keep me watching me worry about when to throw myself backwards. There was still room for improvement.

Overall, I dare recommend the monitor to those who go anywhere they need a dual display for their work. Showy, elegant, light and thin, a really pleasant travel companion!