

AOC C3583FQ Review


The AOC C3583FQ ($799.99) is a humongous 35-inch curved gaming monitor designed to give you a more immersive experience than you get from a flat-screen display. It uses a Multi-Domain Vertical Alignment (MVA) panel to deliver rich, accurate colors, and a 160Hz refresh rate and AMD's FreeSync technology for fluid gameplay. You get a good selection of video inputs with this panel, but it can't match the overall performance and full feature set of our Editors' Choice for big-screen, ultra-wide gaming monitors, the Acer Predator X34 ($929.98 at Amazon) . But if you're looking to save some money, it's worth checking out.

Design and Features
You'll need a lot of desktop real estate to accommodate the C3583FQ, which measures 18.1 by 33.2 by 8.4 inches (HWD). Its 35-inch MVA panel has a non-reflective coating and is housed in a glossy-black cabinet with aluminum trim and half-inch glossy-black bezels. It is supported by a rectangular stand that provides tilt adjustability, but lacks height, swivel, and pivot adjustments, as well as VESA mounting holes. All of the monitor's controls and I/O ports are located in the base. It's equipped with a nice selection of video ports, including two HDMI/MHL inputs, two full-size DisplayPort inputs, a DVI input, and a VGA input. There's also a headphone jack and an audio line-in port, but you don't get any USB ports, a glaring omission for a gaming monitor. The front of the base has five touch-sensitive buttons used to turn the monitor on and off, and navigate the menu system.

The panel has a maximum resolution of 2,560 by 1,080, a peak brightness of 300 cd/m2, a 2,000:1 contrast ratio, a 21:9 aspect ratio, and a 4-millisecond (gray-to-gray) pixel response. It has a 160Hz refresh rate and supports AMD's FreeSync technology. As with the Acer Predator Z35 ($599.99 at Amazon) and the BenQ XR3501 ($1,099.00 at Amazon) , the C3583FQ's screen has a 2,000R curvature radius, which means that if you put several of these monitors edge to edge to create a complete circle, the circle's radius would be 2,000mm. This is much more pronounced than the curve of the Acer X34 and the Dell UltraSharp U3415W ($799.99 at Dell) , both of which have a 3,800R curvature radius. Two outward-facing 5-watt speakers at the back of the cabinet provide moderately loud audio, but not much bass.


The C3583FQ uses the same settings menus as the AOC U2879VF($410.34 at Amazon). In addition to Brightness, Contrast, Gamma, and Dynamic Contrast settings, you can also choose one of six picture presets, including Standard, Text, Movie, Game, Internet, and Sports modes. Color settings are limited to Color Temperature (Warm, Normal, Cool, and sRGB) and a User mode with a slider for adjusting Red, Green, and Blue intensity levels. The Dynamic Color Boost settings can be used to enhance all colors, and there are options to enhance just blues, greens, or skin tones. However, you don't get the advanced 6-Axis Color settings and the aiming reticles that come with the Acer Predator XB321HK ($718.98 at Amazon) .

AOC covers the C3583FQ with a three-year warranty on parts, labor, and backlight. Included in the box are HDMI and audio cables and a Quick Start guide.

The C3583FQ performed wonderfully in my Crysis 3 (PC) and Grand Theft Auto V (Sony PlayStation 4 ($436.04 at Amazon) ) gaming tests. Motion blur and ghosting were non-existent, and the minor screen-tearing artifacts I experienced while running my Crysis 3 tests were completely eliminated once I enabled FreeSync. Moreover, the action appeared noticeably smoother with FreeSync enabled. The monitor's input lag of 32 milliseconds (measured with a Leo Bodnar Video Signal Lag Tester) is a bit long for a gaming display, but not so long as to be a deal-breaker. The BenQ XL2430T ($269.00 at Amazon) provided the shortest lag time (9.5 milliseconds) I've seen.

Out-of-the-box color accuracy was good, but not ideal. As shown on the chromaticity chart below, red, green, and blue colors, which are represented by the colored dots, are all slightly out of alignment with their ideal CIE coordinates, which are represented by the boxes. Fortunately, the skewing is very minor and does not result in oversaturated colors or a tinted picture. Colors appeared uniform in my test images and vibrant while displaying scenes from Marvel's Deadpool on Blu-ray.


The MVA panel's ability to display every shade of gray in the DisplayMate 64-Step Grayscale test resulted in good shadow and highlight detail in my test images. Viewing-angle performance was good, but not as good as what you get from an In-Plane Switching (IPS) panel like the one used on the Acer XB321HK. I didn't observe any color shifting, but I did notice a slight loss of luminance when viewing the picture from an extreme angle.

The C3583FQ consumed 49 watts of power during testing while set to the Standard preset (it doesn't offer a power-saving mode). That's identical to the Acer X34 and almost identical to the BenQ XR3501 (50 watts), but the Acer X34 has a power-saving mode that reduces consumption to 36 watts (the BenQ XR3501 also lacks a power-saving mode).

The AOC C3583FQ will appeal to you if you're a gamer seeking a big-screen, ultra-wide monitor that can handle graphics-laden games without subjecting them to annoying motion artifacts. Its sharply curved 35-inch screen keeps you close to the action, and its speedy refresh rate, coupled with AMD's FreeSync technology, delivers smooth gameplay without any screen tearing or blurring. The MVA panel provides mostly accurate colors and good grayscale performance, and the monitor is packed with video inputs, but it lacks USB connectivity and an ergonomic stand, and its color settings are limited. If the C3583FQ's 2,560-by-1,080 resolution doesn't cut it, check out our Editors' Choice for big-screen, ultra-wide gaming monitors, the Nvidia-G-Sync-enabled Acer Predator X34. Granted, you'll spend around $500 more, but you'll also get a lot more, including a 3,440-by-1,440-resolution IPS panel, a five-port USB 3.0 hub, and wider viewing angles.

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John R. Delaney

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