AOC e2440Va review

AOC is a German brand whose monitors often appear in our PC Labs tests with budget systems. However, the Full HD e2440Va is a more upmarket model with an attractive design etched into the base and the back of the case. A halo of smoky grey translucent plastic surrounds the bezel, and the neck of the stand is offset in silver. It’s a busy design that may not appeal to all, but it’s a change from cheap black plastic.

With an LED backlight, the e2440Va draws only 22W of power when active, and we found it to be bright and even too. However contrast wasn’t as good as we’d have expected: dark areas weren’t as dark as they should have been, so while the bright backlight helped to add punch to colours and boosted bright areas, it also washed out the impact of shadows.

The e2440Va uses the same menu system as its budget stable-mates, but luckily has standard buttons – Menu, Select and two navigation buttons – for navigating it. There’s a wide selection of controls; as well as brightness and contrast, you can select a variety of preset “Eco” modes that adjust the brightness to preset levels, such as for Text or Movies, plus there’s a Gamma control.

Colour controls include three standard presets (Warm, Normal, Cool) plus an sRGB preset and a user-definable setting. The sRGB preset locks all the other controls, including brightness and contrast, but we found that we could imitate the same colour balance using the User preset.

There are a couple of image-enhancement controls as well. Colour Boost we found far too brash, making colours look overblown and unnatural. Image Boost is a new one for us – it lets you define an area on the screen, and then change the brightness and contrast of just that area. We can’t imagine how this would be useful.

Although the e2440Va’s image quality won’t win any awards, it’s not at all bad, and certainly better than most CCFL-backlit LCD screens. AOC has made an effort with its design too, but many will find this either not to their taste or simply irrelevant. While it’s better value than many of the smaller monitors here, the HannsG HF257H is the same price, but has a better picture and a larger screen.