Amazing solutions and outstanding image quality, this is what we get from the AOC monitor.

Introductory

We have a good relationship with MMD, the manufacturer of AOC and Philips monitors, which you may have noticed, as we have received quite a few displays for testing in the last year, and I am now working on an excellent Philips monitor, of which I also wrote a presentation.

Every month we get a list of testable displays from which we can freely choose so we can then work on a super display for a few weeks. We’ve already chosen gamer monitors, curved display monitors, entry-level monitors and office monitors, and now we’ve slammed down on a real specialty. This display won’t dazzle anyone if we just look at the technical specifications, we don’t throw ourselves back from the resolution or contrast ratio either, yet, so after a few weeks of use, I dare risk it, it was one of the best hardware I could work on.

So let’s see what to expect from anyone who wants not just a simple display, but a real specialty on their desk, one that praises the work of Porsche engineers!

Packaging, accessories

In the case of the AOC PDS241, it can already be seen on the box that we are not dealing with an average piece. On the dark-colored cardboard, we can’t see the display as well as the display that rolls back and forth, which is one of the features of the monitor.

If we want to read the core hardware capabilities from the packaging, we will be disappointed. We don’t find much of these, although the type of connector (HDMI) or panel technology (IPS) is already listed and we also see that the resolution is full HD, i.e. 1920 x 1080 pixels. In addition, only the asymmetrical stand and the extremely thin display are what draw our attention to it.

Unpacking the box doesn’t fall into our lap with a plethora of accessories and cables, but we do come across some interesting things right away. One is the external power supply, which has been given a nice, matte metal finish. The other interesting thing is that in addition to the power cord (our name is razor cord) we get two HDMi strings. One is the usual kind, but the other is a mini HDMI, the role of which I will write about later. We even get a CD, frankly I didn’t even look at what was on it, I also feel a little redundant in the plastic media in today’s world when we have access to everything on the internet, be it the setup description or the driver.

The monitor rests in a thick styrofoam (nickel?) Cover, which protects it from being damaged during transport. The base and stand do not need to be screwed in this case, we get it nicely assembled, on which you will not be surprised if you look at the pictures.

Exterior and design

It is quite obvious that I chose this monitor because of the images on the net. The name Porsche design sounds good, for many years we have been getting a variety of hardware that is made with a design that comes out of the company’s design workshop. What they have in common is endless elegance and simplicity, which together make them truly wonderful products.

Although, based on the pictures, the son of man expects to take something quite unique out of the box, the feeling is still bust-cutting. I’ve written many times that I need a certain whoaa feeling for a technical product when I first take it. It’s important when I get something to test, but more importantly, I spend my own money on something. This feeling underpins whether I’m going to love the hardware or the gadget, or from the first moment I’ll have the feeling that I’ve thrown too much money at it.

Well, with the AOC PDS241, that whoaa feeling came exponentially. The monitor is lightweight and quite amazingly beautiful. Don’t be mad at me for this many tokens, but I’m unable to describe in any other way the feeling I felt when I first grabbed the AOC product.

The stand is quite special, as we can read on the box asymmetrical. As it attaches to the back of the display, the hinge solution is wonderful, due to the all-metal cover, at first glance, one doesn’t even understand what and how it rotates when we adjust the tilt angle. Of course, there is no trick in this, the cylindrical part rotates with the monitor, but on a cylinder made entirely of one material, it does not seem to be reversed.

The first thing about the display is how thin it is. At the top, the thickness, including the plastic cover, is only 5 millimeters, and at the bottom, the thicker part is less than two centimeters. the whole thing is incredibly graceful and light, the thin legs feel like they are floating above the table.

There are no connectors on the back of the display. There is only an AOC logo on the top matte part and nothing on the thicker, glossy part at the bottom. The only visible connector on the bottom edge of the display is a standard jack to which you can connect headphones. Yes, you can ask, but then where does the picture get into the box. Let it remain a little secret, in a few sentences I will introduce you to the secret.

We haven’t looked at the display from the front yet. Well, from that point of view, the product is also very good. Apart from the thicker one and a half centimeter strip at the bottom, we only see a frame of about two millimeters around the panel, plus this thin frame is the same color, or at least very similar to the panel. In other words, we can safely say that this is a monitor without a frame on three sides.

The whole display, the sole, the stand, the cover are in perfect harmony, and live a thousand more beautiful than in the pictures, even though it is not a dog. The images do not give back the feeling, at most they guess what you can feel, whoever buys this monitor, takes it home and puts it on your desk.

Operation, experience

As you can see from the above, the AOC monitor is not an average piece, and thankfully it’s not just because of the exterior. The manufacturer, or perhaps the Porsche design team, said that although the cables are needed for the monitor, we are trying to solve this so that they do not appear. They pretty much succeeded too!

As you can see from the accessories, we are getting external power to the display. This is important not only because the monitor is not too thick, but also because the AOC has invented to connect the HDMI cable that transmits the image and the shaving cable that carries the power to this power, and then a Mini HDMI on the other side. both the power supply and the image are output via a cable. This is a rather strange solution. Not because HDMI would not be capable of transmitting the power needed to operate, but because the USB Type-C connector was designed for exactly the same tasks. We can also transfer image, sound and power through this, so maybe it would have been a little more modern. I’m not saying it’s definitely better or more suitable, and of course I don’t even know what other, possibly financial, reasons may have been for using Mini HDMI.

However, the point is not what cable the data and power are on, but on a cable that is plugged into the back of the base. The connector is even hidden. So if we plug in this single cable, hang the power on the back of the table, we get a really wireless (seemingly) monitor.

Because of this solution, the back cover is completely blank, with no connectors on it. The jack mentioned above is on the lower edge of the monitor's coffee, and next to it you will find the tiny joystick already familiar from the Philips-AOC line, which you can use to press the menu by tilting it back and forth and left and right. This menu is different anyway, there is no separate shortcut menu and traditional, only this one. The use also differs from the usual one in that after selecting the appropriate menu item, you do not have to press the button again, the options appear automatically after a short time.

I was able to use the monitor live for a few weeks, so then I had time to try it out, adjust it to my liking, and get enough time to form a I think grounded opinion about quality.

The first thing I always looked at was how even the intensity of the backlight was. Almost all monitors have brighter areas that are predominantly stronger toward corners and edges. Well, the AOC PDS241 was one of the best performing monitors in that regard, though I’ve seen a few varieties up close. It would be an exaggeration to say that it was perfect, but at normal brightness, with a completely black background, at night, i.e., in complete darkness, there was hardly any noticeable difference in the backlight. Another issue is that there were already spectacular differences at higher or rather too high brightness, but this is such a track, there is nothing to be surprised about.

Speaking of brightness, I have to note that the company writes 250 cd / m2 of brightness in the specification, but what this monitor knows is certainly not that much, but much more. A little unnecessary brightness. This is not a tragedy, of course, it can be reduced below the maximum, but not increased above the maximum, so it should be more than less.

Let's stay with the brightness. Since I also use my current monitor for graphics work, the colors had to be shot exactly. I tried to adjust the colors of the AOC PDS241 to Philips and noticed that as the brightness changed, the color fidelity changed drastically. By default, the sRGB color space coverage is 100 percent, while AdobeRGB is 87. These are not good or bad values, for IPS panels, at least for the cheaper varieties, we get this value. Because the AOC PDS241 is clearly not designed for graphics work, we get quite a few options for fine-tuning. When I first turned on, I wasn’t even happy with the colors, for me there were significant differences between the two monitors. However, with increasing brightness, the colors became warmer and the color fidelity, i.e., in this case, the color difference between the reference monitor and the test monitor, was drastically reduced.

This means that it is worth using the monitor at a brightness of around 90 percent, in which case the unevenness of the backlight will not be disturbing, but the color fidelity will make the display suitable for even hobby-level graphic work.

Of course, I also tried the monitor with toys, and then I definitely say we can find a better one for this purpose. Of course, nowadays, gaming displays almost without exception use the old “good” TN + Film technology, which is lousy in almost every way except one, the response time. Of course, technologies such as Freesync are built into these gaming monitors, which of course was left out of the AOC PDS241. Higher image refresh settings are not supported either, the response time is too high, so during games, of course, you can observe a drag after the movements.

Conclusion

The AOC PDS241 is an interesting monitor. Its many shortcomings are forgotten by the surprisingly good quality image and the unforgettable beautiful exterior.

Who do we recommend this display to? First of all, we can imagine office work, such as the desk of a company manager. The exterior is so well done, so unique and special that it makes it an ornament of the office from both the front and the back.

The AOC PDS241 is definitely not designed for gamers, but the IPS panel and almost perfect color fidelity that can be lured with settings allow for general-purpose home use. This can mean multimedia use, so we can watch movies on it, but I dare to recommend it for non-professional level graphic work or even website building.

It takes the hurdle of basic tasks with ease, of course, so it’s perfectly suited to daily average tasks like word processing, web browsing, and the like.

What I didn’t like was that the various inputs were sacrificed on the altar of quasi-wireless display, we could only use HDMI. Managing the menu wasn’t easy either, I almost guarantee that one day everyone will set it up for themselves, and then try to forget where the button with which the menu came up.

What I really liked was the exterior, I was almost completely satisfied with the color accuracy and color balance, but the smoothness of the backlight was also above average. So we can say that despite the not-so-busting specification, the display produces outstanding quality, so for those who can live with just finding an HDMI port who doesn’t want to play on it, the AOC PDS241 will be a good choice.