Computer Shopper - July 2017

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35in CURVED MONITOR AOC AGON AG352QCX ★★★★★ RECOMMENDED £605 • From www.ebuyer.com VERDICT With its 200Hz refresh rate and accurate colours, the AOC AG352QCX is a fantastic curved gaming monitor IN 2016, AOC released the C3583FQ (<strong>Shopper</strong> 342), a curved 165Hz monitor running at 2,560x1,080. It had a few issues, including washed-out colours and, with certain Nvidia graphics cards, frame skipping at 165Hz. Now, there’s the AGON AG352QCX, a similar 35in curved monitor that comes equipped with an MVA panel, 200Hz maximum refresh rate and built-in support for AMD’s FreeSync technology. Can this new model fi x its predecessor’s problems? The monitor is extremely well built and looks striking with its silver and black colour scheme. Underneath and around the back, you’ll fi nd six LED strips that can be used to bathe your desk in red, green or blue. They’re a bit silly and can be disabled if you fi nd them distracting, but can work as mood lighting, especially when the lights are dimmed. The stand allows -3° to 15° of tilt and 15cm of height adjustment, while a handle at the top of the metal stand allows you to carry it around – though with a monitor this big, we’re not sure why you’d want to. NOW HOOK HERE If you’re looking to wall-mount it, you can do so via the 100x100mm VESA mounts at the back. In the top left -hand corner, you’ll fi nd a retractable headphone arm, which conveniently lets you keep your headphones or headset close to hand without cluttering up your desk. There are DisplayPort, HDMI, DVI and VGA video inputs, two sets of 3.5mm input and output audio jacks and two USB3 ports, one of which supports quick charge. There’s also a surprisingly effective 5W speaker in the chassis, which provides a loud output with great sound quality by monitor speaker standards. Physical controls are great, especially the QuickSwitch Controller – a separate dongle equipped with a series of buttons – which allows you to fl ick between colour profi les and navigate around the OSD menu. Even if you don’t use that, though, you should fi nd the on-monitor joystick controller easy to use. It provides a far more effective way of accessing settings than the touch-sensitive buttons favoured by many other manufacturers. AMD FreeSync is another fi ne inclusion. If you have a recent AMD graphics card, the AG352QCX syncs its refresh rate with the GPU’s output to prevent screen tearing in games. REFRESH PRICE The monitor uses a 2,560x1,080 resolution MVA panel with a native refresh rate of 144Hz, but through your graphics card’s settings, this can be cranked up to an ‘overclocked’ 200Hz. Unlike the C3583FQ, the AG352QCX doesn’t suffer from any frame skipping at 200Hz, but we did notice a gamma shift at this refresh rate, resulting in washed-out colours. If you’re looking to use the monitor at 200Hz, you’ll have to put up with this, or calibrate it to compensate. We therefore conducted our image-quality tests at 144Hz, which in any case should be enough for most users. The AOC performs extremely well in sRGB mode. Colour accuracy is good, with an average delta-E of 0.59. Its 2,467:1 contrast ratio is also very impressive, providing excellent detail in even the darkest scenes. However, the monitor’s colour gamut coverage is rather disappointing in sRGB mode. Despite 95.4% sRGB coverage, which is good, it has below-par 67.4% Adobe RGB and 70% DCI P3 coverage. Maximum brightness reaches 260cd/m 2 , which is fi ne for use in most environments, although brightness uniformity is disappointing. We found a dramatic variation of 27.29% between the top corners of the panel and the bottom corners, which is where the monitor’s backlight is located. That means if you’re looking at a dark scene in a fi lm or game, you might fi nd it brighter in the top corners than the bottom. Backlight bleed isn’t a deal breaker but is noticeable in very dark scenes at the top corners. One benefi t of enabling the 200Hz refresh rate is that it’s buttery smooth in fast-paced gaming, even if the improvement over 144Hz isn’t very noticeable. Nevertheless, it’s ideal for competitive gaming, and with a low perceived response time and low input lag, the monitor fl ew through our tests. Better still, when adjusting its response time settings, ghosting overshoot (which typically takes the form of shadows around objects) was barely visible. BEND OF THE LINE The curvature of the screen isn’t as deep as the Samsung CF791, which takes away from the immersion a touch, but compared with a fl at-panel ultra-wide monitor, the AG352QCX still provides a better gaming experience. Our only real complaint is that the 2,560x1,080 resolution results in games not looking as crisp as they do on the admittedly more expensive 3,440x1,440 Samsung CF791. Despite both the resolution and brightness uniformity fl aws, there’s still plenty to like about the AOC AG352QCX. In fact, the high refresh rate, fast response times, low input lag, good colour accuracy and lovely overall design make it tough not to recommend. The price may look high, but there aren’t many ultra-wide monitors on the market that can provide as good all-round performance for much less. It comes warmly recommended. Christopher Minasians SPECIFICATIONS SCREEN SIZE 35in • RESOLUTION 2,560x1,080 • SCREEN TECHNOLOGY MVA • REFRESH RATE 144Hz native (200Hz maximum) • VIDEOINPUTS HDMI, DVI, DisplayPort, VGA • WARRANTY Three years repair and replace • DETAILS www.aoc-europe.com CONNECTION PORTS USB3 x2 DisplayPort HDMI VGA DVI 36 JULY <strong>2017</strong> | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 353
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Page 1: DIGITAL VERSION Betterthan AmazonAl
Page 4 and 5: CONTENTS Issue 353 July 2017 Conten
Page 6 and 7: LETTERS Letters The Windows 10 Crea
Page 8: MEL’S WORLD Tall storeys He helpe
Page 12: RANTS & RAVES The tech industry is
Page 15 and 16: Petcube Play £159 from petcube.com
Page 17 and 18: Loyal broadband customers ripped of
Page 19 and 20: State-sponsored espionage Mostly fr
Page 21 and 22: IBM 5150 The revolutionary PC that
Page 23 and 24: voice to pause and resume playback,
Page 25 and 26: Scan & Win a SoundblasterX Katana!
Page 27 and 28: e proved wrong - the Fusion Portal
Page 30 and 31: INKJET MFP CANON Pixma TS8050 ★
Page 32: Chillblast sales@chillblast.com 012
Page 38 and 39: HOME WI-FI SYSTEM GOOGLE Wifi ★
Page 40: TRI-STREAM WIRELESS ROUTER LINKSYS
Page 43 and 44: The Galaxy S8 looks unlike anything
Page 45 and 46: Quick Charge 3, which together with
Page 48: MEDIA STREAMER HUMAX H3 Espresso
Page 52 and 53: COMPACT SYSTEM CAMERA PANASONIC Lum
Page 54 and 55: 4G SMARTWATCH HUAWEI Watch 2 Sport
Page 56 and 57: Choosing a... PC system A basic PC
Page 58 and 59: Choosing a... Smartphone A smartpho
Page 60 and 61: Choosing a... Compact system camera
Page 62 and 63: Choosing a... TV A 32in Full HD TV
Page 64 and 65: Choosing a... Bluetooth speaker Blu
Page 66 and 67: Choosing an... Inkjet printer You s
Page 68 and 69: Choosing an... Internal hard disk A
Page 70: SOFTWARE DIGITALVOLCANO SOFTWARE Du
Page 73 and 74: PRODUCT INDEX Product Reviews Our g
Page 75 and 76: REQUIREMENTS Windows Vista, 7, 8, 1
Page 77 and 78: Resources Chat and Communication Ev
Page 79 and 80: Performance A range of affordable o
Page 81 and 82: CONTENT REVIEWS Page 84 APPLE iPhon
Page 83 and 84: SMARTPHONES As for resolution, 1,92
Page 85 and 86:
SMARTPHONES GOOGLE Nexus 5X ★★
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SMARTPHONES HTC One A9 ★★★★
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SMARTPHONES LENOVO P2 ★★★★
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SMARTPHONES MOTOROLA Moto G4 ★★
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SMARTPHONES MOTOROLA Moto Z Play
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SMARTPHONES SAMSUNG Galaxy A5 (2017
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SMARTPHONES SAMSUNG Galaxy S7 ★
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SMARTPHONES VODAFONE Smart Platinum
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SMARTPHONES BEST BUY RECOMMENDED BE
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SMARTPHONES RECOMMENDED BEST BUY SA
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SOUNDBARS & SPEAKERS capability, ho
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SOUNDBARS ORBITSOUND One P70 ★★
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SPEAKERS AUDIO PRO Addon T3 ★★
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SPEAKERS WHARFEDALE Diamond A1 ★
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SOUNDBARS & SPEAKERS SPEAKERS Award
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ushing polished pixels on to a disp
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UNTIL VERY RECENTLY, HITTING 60FPS
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LEFT: Nvidia’s next-gen GPU archi
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(HMD). We are likely to start seein
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SUBSCRIPTION OFFER Plus receive a F
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BUSINESS HELP Flush out the system
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HELPFILE A land down under I am tea
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ADVANCED PROJECTS A NEW LAPTOP migh
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ADVANCED PROJECTS Again, our upgrad
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MULTIMEDIA EXPERT ⬆ Keep the micr
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MULTIMEDIA EXPERT Once you put on s
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MULTIMEDIA EXPERT ⬆ Sampler Track
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ENTER ANEW DIMENSION IN GAMING SILV
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Computer Shopper - July 2017

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