AOC i2473PWY review

The AOC i2473PWY is a 24-inch IPS monitor that packs an awful lot of technology into a £200 monitor. Particularly notable is the inclusion of MHL and Miracast screen mirroring technology, as well as the presence of a pair of Onkyo 7W speakers built into the base.

The speakers make i2473PWY’s base very bulky, but AOC has taken advantage of this extra base space and built a power connector and display inputs into it. The i2473PWY’s touch-sensitive buttons are also located on the base, and these let you control the onscreen settings menus. The stand feels fairly sturdy and has a generous amount of tilt adjustment, although you can’t adjust height or swivel the monitor.

HIGH CONTRAST

Screen quality is reasonable, although slightly less accurate than we’d have liked. Our calibrator showed that the IPS panel was able to display 90 per cent of the colour gamut in our calibration tests. Some similarly priced IPS monitors have greater coverage, such as the BenQ BL2410PT with its 99.9 per cent coverage of the sRGB colour gamut. However, none of these monitors have a large speaker system built-in, so it’s a little unfair to expect the same panel quality from the AOC i2473PWY.

We did measure a high contrast ratio of 1157:1, though, and we could pick out plenty of detail in our high-resolution test photos, but blacks remained as inky and dark as we’d like. Colour coverage for light blues and greens was a little lacking, but most other areas of the colour gamut were covered pretty well by the i2473PWY. Our solid colour test images appeared vibrant, and whites were exceedingly bright with no hint of grey.

Sadly, though, we were disappointed with the i2473PWY’s choice of display inputs, with only VGA and HDMI display inputs available. There is, of course, a 3.5mm line-in input to help you make the most of the built-in speakers. This monitor is clearly suited to a multi-device environment where you may want to attach multiple devices such as a PC, games console and set-top box, which makes the i2473PWY’s lack of HDMI inputs all the more disappointing. If you plan on having multiple HDMI-compatible devices connected, you could invest in an HDMI switch, but we’d much rather pay a little more for the i2473PWY with a few extra HDMI ports.

Happily, the i2473PWY’s HDMI port is MHL-compatible, which means you can connect a compatible handheld device to it so that the device’s display is mirrored on the i2473PWY. The i2473PWY will also charge the device at the same time.

The AOC i2473PWY has Miracast built in too, which lets you mirror a compatible phone or tablet’s display on the i2473PWY wirelessly. You don’t have to use special software either. Miracast can be fiddly to use, though, especially in environments with a lot of Wi-Fi networks.

Indeed, it took a couple of attempts to connect our Google Nexus 7 tablet to the i2473PWY successfully, but once the two were paired we could view video and audio content from apps such as Netflix and YouTube on the i2473PWY’s larger screen. We did, however, have a few issues with audio and video quality, with images looking slightly fuzzy and audio dropping out from time to time.

LOUD AND CLEAR

The speakers built into the i2473PWY’s base are surprisingly loud and clear. We’d prefer more bass, but the speakers’ mid-range and top-end performance is strong. Speech is clear and music is reasonably well-balanced. The speakers are perfect for action-packed, explosive-laden games, too, and this will be important for those planning on using a games console with the AOC i2473PWY. In fact, you could get away without using a set of desktop speakers, as the quality and loudness of those supplied with the screen should be good enough for many users.

The AOC i2473PWY could perfect for bedroom gamers. It’s therefore a shame that there aren’t more HDMI inputs, and even one more HDMI would have sufficed. Users could then have a games console or set-top box attached as well as their PC.

Despite this, we think the AOC i2473PWY is well worth buying if you like the eye-catching design and don’t have or want to buy extra speakers. If, however, you already own a half-decent set of desktop speakers you’d be better off spending a little less money on the Iiyama Prolite XB2483HSU-B1, which has an adjustable stand and slightly better colour coverage.