Contrast performance on Battlefield 3 was respectable overall. Visibility in dark areas was good with even some fairly minor details visible. Towards the corners of the screen, and to a lesser extent the central flanks, PS glow drowned out some this detail. The high end hand plenty of brightness and good distinctions of closely matched shades. Light and light textures had a bit of a grainy look to them from the screen surface, though.

I2369VM | AOC Monitors I2369VM | AOC Monitors

The matte screen surface gives a slightly grainy appearance to light colours – it’s lighter (lower haze value) than some older IPS models but not quite ‘semi glossy’ A very good static contrast performance putting it up there with some of the best IPS models out there Some overdrive artifacts (overshoot) even using the ‘Weak’ setting – relatively mild but still there We also tested our Blu-ray film titles. Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder is a particularly good test for colour reproduction as it features large areas of solid colour and a dazzling variety of shades. The AOC displayed these shades very well, displaying deep shades and bright neon shades with a good vivid look. Pastel shades looked appropriately muted by comparison and again showed strong variety. The consistency of shades was also excellent; individual shades appeared as they should regardless of their position on the screen.

Price comparison

The contrast performance very good by many measures and essentially up there with many of the stronger IPS panels we’ve seen. There was the usual IPS glow to contend with but this is just one of those trade-offs that applies to all IPS and PLS panels on the market today. The image was clearer and less grainy than some of the older IPS models (such as the Dell U2312HM), which is good to see. We do feel LG could have gone a bit further here, reducing the haze value a bit more and essentially making the matte surface even lighter. The image was not as ‘clean’ as that provided by some of the higher end AH-IPS panels such as the 27” WQHD models or indeed Samsung’s ‘semi glossy’ PLS surface. Still, that’s something for LG to consider and isn’t something AOC themselves are in control of. On Battlefield 3 a moderately low degree of trailing was observed whilst running about on foot. The trails were short and sharp rather than extended and smeary. It was clear that effective overdrive was being used. There were instances of fairly weak overdrive trailing, mostly manifesting itself as a sort of partially transparent glow around certain contrasting colours. A dark grey building set against a bright blue sky, for example. Ramping up the pace of action by zipping about in a vehicle increased apparent trailing, as you might expect. At this fast pace the degree of sharpness maintained was about as good as you would see on a 60Hz LCD. The refresh rate and perceived blur became overriding limitations rather than the pixel response times. Overall, then, a competent performance from the AOC on this title. On Dirt 3 low-end (dark) detail was again good in most cases with all important details visible. There was some loss in peripheral sections (particularly corners) due to IPS glow but nothing game breaking. The slightly grainy look at the high-end prevented lights looking ‘pure’ but there was plenty of brightness.

AOC 23 inch IPS Monitor, Display Port, 2 x HDMI, VGA, MHL AOC 23 inch IPS Monitor, Display Port, 2 x HDMI, VGA, MHL

The AOC i2369Vm is in many ways an impressive monitor, not least for the image quality on offer at such a low price. The monitor provided a rich and fairly well balanced image straight from the box with excellent gamma performance. There was a slight colour imbalance (green tint) on our unit but the flexible and well-laid out OSD allowed this to be easily rectified. The variety and consistency of colours made for a rich and rewarding gaming and movie experience. The matte screen surface didn’t provide quite the same vibrant punch as a glossy (or semi glossy) one, but the image was far from being bland or washed out.

With overdrive disabled (‘Off’) you can see a bold primary trail and faint secondary trail. The ‘Weak’ setting actually provides a good degree of acceleration to many pixel transitions. In this example the secondary trail becomes pretty much invisible whilst the primary trail is weakened. Looking at a broader range of pixel transitions, as we do shortly, you can actually see a significant improvement over the ‘Off’ setting. Despite its name the overdrive is quite strong and effective – there is a degree of overshoot (inverse trailing) in some instances, but this is reasonably light. The ‘Medium’ setting is the monitor default and provides even greater acceleration. In this snapshot you can see a sharpening and brightening of the trail – indications of moderate overshoot. Essentially the mild overshoot using the ‘Weak’ option now becomes somewhat stronger and more widespread. The ‘Strong’ setting gives significant overshoot and as demonstrated by PixPerAn is not a suitable setting to use really.