By John R. Delaney Not all desktop monitors offer built-in speakers, but the ones that do typically use underpowered versions that don't get very loud and sound tinny or hollow. The AOC i2473PWM ($249) bucks that trend; it features two 7-watt Onkyo stereo speakers that are very loud and full-sounding. It also uses In-Plane Switching (IPS) panel technology to deliver rich, accurate colors and good gray-scale reproduction, and it sports a sleek design. It snags our Editors' Choice for midsize, mainstream monitors.
Design and Features
The i2473PWM's slim 0.25-inch silver bezels and thin 0.65-inch cabinet give it a sleek, streamlined aesthetic that will complement any desktop. The 23.8-inch IPS panel has a maximum resolution of 1,920 by 1,080 and uses a non-reflective matte coating to ward off glare. The cabinet is attached to a rectangular base with rounded corners that measures 7 by 12 by 1.2 inches (HWD) and is covered with black fabric to hide the two upward-facing Onkyo 7-watt speakers. The stand provides 23 degrees of tilt, but does not have height, swivel, or pivot adjustability.
Nestled between the speakers is a glossy-black panel that holds five touch-sensitive buttons, including a power switch, and four function buttons that are used for accessing and navigating the On-Screen Display (OSD). In my testing, the buttons seemed to have a mind of their own. At times they worked flawlessly; at other times they took several swipes to respond to my touch. Fortunately, the i2473PWM comes with i-Menu software that lets you make adjustments using a keyboard and mouse, so I was able to adjust settings despite the occasional button glitch.
All I/O ports are mounted on the rear of the base, not on the cabinet. Here you'll find an audio input, a headphone jack, two HDMI ports, and a VGA port. This monitor doesn't have USB ports, but both of the HDMI ports support Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL) so you can view content from an MHL-compatible mobile device using the included HDMI-to-MHL cable. The MHL ports will charge your mobile device as well.
As with the AOC e2752Vh and every other AOC monitor, the Eco mode settings refer to picture presets, not power-saving modes. They include Standard, Sports, Text, Internet, Game, and Movie modes. In addition to brightness and contrast levels, you can adjust Gamma, Color Temperature, Dynamic Contrast, Clock, Phase, and Position. The i2473PWM offers AOC's BrightFrame and Dynamic Color Boost (DCB) features. BrightFrame lets you highlight a specific area of the screen, and DCB lets you enhance certain colors (Skin Tone, Blue, Green, or All Colors). I found that enabling any of the DCB choices results in oversaturated colors and would suggest leaving them disabled for the best overall color quality.
The i2473PWM comes with AOC's three-year warranty on parts, labor, and backlight. Inside the box are MHL, VGA, and audio cables, as well as a resource CD containing drivers, the iMenu utility, and an electronic user guide.
Performance
The speakers are one of the better-performing monitor audio systems I've heard since the HP Envy 27 with Beats Audio. They are very strong and can be cranked up without distorting. High-end and midrange are clean, and bass tones, while not booming, help round out the sound, making this monitor ideal for listening to movie and gaming soundtracks, and of course, music playback.
The i2473PWM delivered great all-around performance. Colors were rich in tone and accurate. The chromaticity chart below shows my color measurements (represented by the colored dots) in relation to the ideal CIE coordinates (represented by the boxes). As you can see, red and blue colors were very close to their CIE coordinates, while green was only slightly out of alignment. Skewed greens are common with monitors in this price range, and here, green color accuracy is on par with that of the Dell P2714T and slightly better than that of the Acer FT200HQL, both of which are Editors' Choice monitors.
The IPS panel had no trouble displaying every shade of gray on the DisplayMate 64-Step Gray-Scale test and showed no evidence of clipping at the light end of the scale. (Clipping is when it can't distinguish between the lightest shades of gray, and the lighter shades appear whitewashed or washed out.) Dark-gray shades were also impressive, and shadow detail in test images showed good definition. Scenes from the Planet Earth on Blu-ray disc were colorful, with sharp highlights, and as with most IPS panels, viewing-angle performance was excellent.
Thanks to the 5-millisecond (black-to-white) pixel response, the monitor did a relatively good job of handling fast motion while playing Aliens vs. Predator, but there were instances of minor motion blur. I also observed traces of ghosting when playing against a very dark background, but neither flaw was so flagrant that it detracted from my overall gaming experience.
The monitor consumed 22 watts of power during testing while operating in Standard mode and 12 watts while operating in Text mode. That's in line with the AOC E2460SD-TAA, which used 18 watts in Standard mode and 13 watts in Text mode, and the NEC MultiSync EA244WMi, which used 26 watts in Standard mode and 19 watts in ECO mode.
Conclusion
The AOC i2473PWM is a great choice for users who place as much value on audio performance and aesthetics as they do on video performance. Its Onkyo speakers offer three times the power of most monitor speakers, and its 24-inch IPS panel delivers a sharp HD picture with good color and gray-scale quality and wide off-axis viewing. Sure, it could use a few extra features, such as USB ports and a more adjustable stand, but you rarely find these features on a monitor in this price range. The funky touch buttons can be annoying, but they don't prevent the i2473PWM from becoming our latest Editors' Choice for midsized, mainstream monitors.
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