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Customer Review
Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2022
I've been wanting a good productivity monitor in something like this Dual QHD format for a while. I bought this on Prime Day because the specs looked pretty good but I was a bit hesitant because there was only 1 review on Amazon at the time and that focused on the lack of FreeSync support which was not applicable to my mostly productivity use case. So, I took a chance. When it arrived, I spent a full day putting it thru various tests.
Pros:
* The monitor was well packaged.
* The screen arrived undamaged with no dead pixels.
* The 49" size and screen real estate are great for productivity. You can easily have an IDE in the middle, along with Teams or Slack to one side and a browser or email on the other.
* The curve is nice. I've never had a curved monitor and was a bit nervous this would distort images but I didn't have any issues with it. I actually wonder if I would like a more aggressive 1000R curve better which might mean even less head turning.
* 90 watt power delivery works. I tested it with a USB power tester.
* When putting my MacBook Pro to sleep, the display will soon go to sleep and it will wake back up when pressing a key either on the built-in keyboard or an attached external keyboard.
* All of the USB-A ports passed data to my MacBook Pro when connected via USB-C.
* Both HDMI ports worked.
* The built-in KVM support works and is nice to have but could be much better.
* The casing is sleek without being too gamer flashy. It fits in with my mostly black or gray accessories.
* The stand is hefty but I wouldn't want to use it because it takes up too much space on the desk.
Cons:
* There is some noticeable anti-aliasing on text. It's not horrible, but for the price, I was expecting better. But I have also been spoiled with the built-in Retina displays and OLEDs. My previous monitor was a 2011 Apple Thunderbolt Display. It's a different technology (IPS) but it still had less anti-aliasing and it is 9 years old.
* The dark levels are not dark. Again, I've been somewhat spoiled with OLED TVs and IPS panels but I found it too bright in dark mode. Turning down the brightness doesn't really help, it just looses clarity. There is also obvious backlighting along the edges when showing dark content.
* My 2016 MacBook Pro did not negotiate the maximum 5120x1440 resolution automatically. I had to manually set that in Display Preferences.
* I was only able to get a 60Hz refresh rate over USB-C. Apparently you can only get 120Hz over DisplayPort. This is very frustrating because it is advertised as a 120Hz display and tries to offer USB-C as a single connection dock. But you can't do both. I feel like this is misleading advertising.
* Like another reviewer, I was unable to get the USB-C (PC) port to work at all. It does not provide data or charging when you connect a laptop to the other USB-C port. Based on the specs I had assumed I was going to be able to use this to attach another hub but I can't. Apparently, there is a feature to assign this port to other PCs using the DisplayPort or HDMI ports but I could not get that to work.
* The ethernet port does work, however, it significantly downgraded the speed of my connection when connected via USB-C. Thru the display I got around 300Mbps. But when connected directly to the same cable, I got 980Mbps. This is not acceptable for a monitor / dock that advertises a gigabit connection.
* The power delivery charging works but will not charge when the monitor is on standby.
* While the screen size is great, I would really prefer a 2 x 16:10 rather than 16:9.
* The speakers are really bad but that's kind of too be expected.
* The on display menu jog knob is finicky and frustrating to use. I frequently picked the wrong selection by accident. It was just awkward.
* The display does not auto-wake when a device is connected. You have to manually turn the monitor on every time you connect. Seems minor but I was use to my Thunderbolt Display automatically waking up immediately upon connection which was very nice.
* The Mac volume and brightness controls have no effect. This is kind of to be expected on a non-Apple monitor but always a bummer. Especially when I have to use that awkward knob.
Conclusion:
On paper, this display seemed like what I wanted. It was advertised to be a 120Hz productivity form factor with single docking connection and sufficient PD charging. Unfortunately, the docking functionality is severely hampered by the lack of 120Hz refresh rates, lack of use of the other USB-C port, the severely downgraded ethernet speeds, and not always on PD charging. To fix these problems, I could invest in a nice Thunderbolt dock to take care of my charging and connectivity and then run DisplayPort to this monitor. But that eliminates a huge selling point of this monitor. If I was going to do that, I'd have picked a monitor with a better screen like the Odyssey Neo G9. So, unfortunately, this will probably be going back.
Pros:
* The monitor was well packaged.
* The screen arrived undamaged with no dead pixels.
* The 49" size and screen real estate are great for productivity. You can easily have an IDE in the middle, along with Teams or Slack to one side and a browser or email on the other.
* The curve is nice. I've never had a curved monitor and was a bit nervous this would distort images but I didn't have any issues with it. I actually wonder if I would like a more aggressive 1000R curve better which might mean even less head turning.
* 90 watt power delivery works. I tested it with a USB power tester.
* When putting my MacBook Pro to sleep, the display will soon go to sleep and it will wake back up when pressing a key either on the built-in keyboard or an attached external keyboard.
* All of the USB-A ports passed data to my MacBook Pro when connected via USB-C.
* Both HDMI ports worked.
* The built-in KVM support works and is nice to have but could be much better.
* The casing is sleek without being too gamer flashy. It fits in with my mostly black or gray accessories.
* The stand is hefty but I wouldn't want to use it because it takes up too much space on the desk.
Cons:
* There is some noticeable anti-aliasing on text. It's not horrible, but for the price, I was expecting better. But I have also been spoiled with the built-in Retina displays and OLEDs. My previous monitor was a 2011 Apple Thunderbolt Display. It's a different technology (IPS) but it still had less anti-aliasing and it is 9 years old.
* The dark levels are not dark. Again, I've been somewhat spoiled with OLED TVs and IPS panels but I found it too bright in dark mode. Turning down the brightness doesn't really help, it just looses clarity. There is also obvious backlighting along the edges when showing dark content.
* My 2016 MacBook Pro did not negotiate the maximum 5120x1440 resolution automatically. I had to manually set that in Display Preferences.
* I was only able to get a 60Hz refresh rate over USB-C. Apparently you can only get 120Hz over DisplayPort. This is very frustrating because it is advertised as a 120Hz display and tries to offer USB-C as a single connection dock. But you can't do both. I feel like this is misleading advertising.
* Like another reviewer, I was unable to get the USB-C (PC) port to work at all. It does not provide data or charging when you connect a laptop to the other USB-C port. Based on the specs I had assumed I was going to be able to use this to attach another hub but I can't. Apparently, there is a feature to assign this port to other PCs using the DisplayPort or HDMI ports but I could not get that to work.
* The ethernet port does work, however, it significantly downgraded the speed of my connection when connected via USB-C. Thru the display I got around 300Mbps. But when connected directly to the same cable, I got 980Mbps. This is not acceptable for a monitor / dock that advertises a gigabit connection.
* The power delivery charging works but will not charge when the monitor is on standby.
* While the screen size is great, I would really prefer a 2 x 16:10 rather than 16:9.
* The speakers are really bad but that's kind of too be expected.
* The on display menu jog knob is finicky and frustrating to use. I frequently picked the wrong selection by accident. It was just awkward.
* The display does not auto-wake when a device is connected. You have to manually turn the monitor on every time you connect. Seems minor but I was use to my Thunderbolt Display automatically waking up immediately upon connection which was very nice.
* The Mac volume and brightness controls have no effect. This is kind of to be expected on a non-Apple monitor but always a bummer. Especially when I have to use that awkward knob.
Conclusion:
On paper, this display seemed like what I wanted. It was advertised to be a 120Hz productivity form factor with single docking connection and sufficient PD charging. Unfortunately, the docking functionality is severely hampered by the lack of 120Hz refresh rates, lack of use of the other USB-C port, the severely downgraded ethernet speeds, and not always on PD charging. To fix these problems, I could invest in a nice Thunderbolt dock to take care of my charging and connectivity and then run DisplayPort to this monitor. But that eliminates a huge selling point of this monitor. If I was going to do that, I'd have picked a monitor with a better screen like the Odyssey Neo G9. So, unfortunately, this will probably be going back.
