Thursday, December 10th 2020
AOC Announces the AGON AG493UCX Monitor: 49" VA, 5120 x 1440, 120 Hz, 1ms, 32:9, FreeSync and DisplayHDR 400
AOC has announced a new addition to their AGON line of gaming monitors in the form of the AGON AG493UCX. This is a beastly monitor with a 49" diagonal and 5K resolution with a Super Ultra-Wide aspect ratio of 32:9 (with a resolution of 5120 x 1440 pixels). The panel type is VA, which promises increased contrast ratios against those typically found in IPS panels (3000:1, in this case). AOC is promising 120 Hz refresh rates with a 1 ms (MPRT) response times with MBR backlight. There is also support for VRR technologies such as FreeSync and G-Sync (compatible).
Display brightness is quoted at 550 cd/m², which is just shy of a DisplayHDR 600 certification, but comfortably achieves the VESA DisplayHDR 400 certification. The monitor isn't a slouch in terms of color display either, being better than your average VA panel: the display is factory-calibrated and ships with a guaranteed dE <2, and coverage for 16.7 millions colors across a 93% DCI-P3 gamut coverage (and 121% sRGB coverage). I/O is handled by 2x DisplayPort 1.4, 2x HDMI 2.0, 1x USB type-C, 3x USB ports and 1x an audio output. 2x 5 W speakers are built in to the screen and the stand offers tilt, height and swivel adjustments. No word on pricing as of yet.
Update December 10th 2020: AOC has just made the AGON AG493UCX available for purchase. Initial availability is pegged for Europe with a price tag set at £899 / €899.
Source:
TFT Central
Display brightness is quoted at 550 cd/m², which is just shy of a DisplayHDR 600 certification, but comfortably achieves the VESA DisplayHDR 400 certification. The monitor isn't a slouch in terms of color display either, being better than your average VA panel: the display is factory-calibrated and ships with a guaranteed dE <2, and coverage for 16.7 millions colors across a 93% DCI-P3 gamut coverage (and 121% sRGB coverage). I/O is handled by 2x DisplayPort 1.4, 2x HDMI 2.0, 1x USB type-C, 3x USB ports and 1x an audio output. 2x 5 W speakers are built in to the screen and the stand offers tilt, height and swivel adjustments. No word on pricing as of yet.
Update December 10th 2020: AOC has just made the AGON AG493UCX available for purchase. Initial availability is pegged for Europe with a price tag set at £899 / €899.
39 Comments on AOC Announces the AGON AG493UCX Monitor: 49" VA, 5120 x 1440, 120 Hz, 1ms, 32:9, FreeSync and DisplayHDR 400
There's hope for inorganic LED but that's probably five years out.
Like I said, probably 5 years out, but if they can get gallium nitride microleds bulk produced, roll-to-roll then we're looking at a tech better than OLED and similar price.
Certainly right now, OLED is flawed and the best hope we have currently is monocolour OLED using quantum dots to produce colours, specifically the blues that still die/dim early.
OLED is definitely flawed, but I think we'll have to live with the choice between IPS, VA or OLED with their respective pros and cons for a while yet.
(Of course blue subpixel dimming is much less of a problem given that most current OLEDs (at least LG's ones) are WOLED, with only white subpixels and a color filter in front.)
Five years is a complete guess based on roughly how long it has taken other display technologies to go from this PoC phase to commercial roll-out. It could be ready in under 3 years, it could be more than 10 or not at all! Educated guesses are still only guesses so the word "probably" cannot be omitted.
There's still the manufacturing issue though, and I don't think it's purely down to cost - aligning subpixel grids on a micrometer scale is bound to be extremely challenging. Growing them monolithically in monitor or TV sizes would likely massively increase the defect/error rate simply because of the increase in area (if you're making a narrow strip you're not wasting much material per defect, and can reasonably cut them out), and aligning multiple panels on a scale like this is inevitably going to look off for close-up viewing - aligning the panels perfectly enough to make them seem entirely uniform at ~75cm viewing distance is likely next to impossible. And seams stand out a lot more visually than the inherent inconsistencies of LCDs or OLEDs, of course. And of course placing the LEDs isn't the only challenge, as you also need power and control circuitry to align just as perfectly. They'll probably figure it out at some point, but I'm not holding my breath for that to happen at even remotely accessible prices in the next decade.