I must admit that I had never heard of Innocn before an email landed in my inbox out of nowhere with a screen that frankly looked too good to be true. But here it is, a 40-inch ultra-wide IPS gaming monitor for $600 (now marked down to $480) (opens in new tab)) which looks really great in games. As an affordable big screen gaming panel that doesn’t have the same kind of GPU requirements as a 4K display, it ticks a lot of the boxes.
But it is inevitable that it is not perfect. There are still the classic IPS black level issues, and normally no amount of gamma correction or shadow boosting will solve that without messing up some other aspect of the monitor’s color reproduction. Although some tweaks can actually reduce a lot of those problems and give you some pretty bright colors.
HDR is clearly worthless, despite the peak luminance of 500 cd/m². But HDR on PC always sucks, so that’s not necessarily on the Innocn screen to sort out.
If you’re looking for a large, wide IPS monitor for gaming and just about any productivity task, this is an affordable way to go about it. If you’re happy with a VA panel, and let’s face it, they still make for great budget gaming monitors, there are smaller 34-inch screens from $300-$400, with 144Hz refresh rates that will serve you well. to see.
40C1R Specifications
Screen size: 40-inch
Native resolution: 3440 x 1440
Aspect Ratio: 21:9
Panel: ADS (IPS-like)
Refresh rate: 144Hz
Input: 2x HDMI 2.0, 1x DisplayPort 1.4, USB Type-C (90W)
Peak brightness: 500 cd/m²
Backlight: LCD with 16 zones
Price: $480 (opens in new tab)
But the Innocn 40C1R delivers the full IPS experience and a bigger view. The panel comes from BOE, meaning it’s not strictly an AUO or LG IPS, which is why it’s technically an ADS display, although it could be categorized as ‘IPS-like’.
It certainly feels big and colorful, but maybe not quite as vibrant as some of the more expensive displays we’ve seen recently, like the glorious Alienware OLED (opens in new tab) or the Eve/Dough glossy 4K (opens in new tab). But then I’m going to stick Red Dead Redemption on it – still a benchmark for fine games – and the expansive vistas are unrelentingly perfect for the cinematic 21:9 aspect ratio.
And when they inflate to 40-inches, it really dominates your eyeballs.
It’s a bigger panel, but it doesn’t have a higher resolution than your standard 34-inch ultrawide. So you still get a 3440 x 1440 res, not something like the 3840 x 1600 you’d get with the pricey 38-inch LG 38WN95C-W. That does mean that the number of pixels per inch is quite low at just 93 ppi, as opposed to the 110 ppi you get with a standard 34-inch ultrawide.
If you stick Red Dead Redemption on it, the expansive vistas are unrepentantly perfect for the 21:9 cinematic aspect ratio.
In real terms, that doesn’t mean much when it comes to gaming; the 3440 x 1440 resolution still looks great at this scale and means you don’t need a monstrously powerful GPU to handle the demands of all those damn pixels. It does mean it’s not the sharpest screen when looking at text in Windows, but in no way does it bother me.
There are 16 zones of local dimming when dealing with HDR shenanigans, which I would highly recommend not you. Honestly, HDR on PC is still a lottery, and if your screen either doesn’t have many thousands of local zones, or has a ridiculous peak brightness level, it’s not worth it.
The Innocn’s 500cd/m² brightness is welcome in standard mode, but doesn’t really help when it comes to HDR gaming.
Speaking of specs, I like the USB Type-C connection that offers both video-in and up to 90W of power. It means I can plug my work laptop into the screen, power it, and have a huge second screen to work on. There is also a DisplayPort 1.4 connection and a pair of HDMI 2.0 ports. It’s worth noting that the display runs at 144Hz on a DP cable, but is limited to 100Hz over HDMI.
The overall experience of gaming on the Innocn 40C1R is impressive. I love ultra-wide gaming monitors and the 40-inch screen real estate really works for me. The out-of-the-box experience isn’t great, though, as the panel defaults to 60% brightness when you change the monitor’s settings. As I mentioned before, it also shows that classic IPS weakness when it comes to black levels.
Interestingly, switching to the Adobe preset in the OSD and increasing the brightness to 80% actually helped reduce a lot of that weakness. And that’s also without blowing away the white saturation. The contrast is decent, especially at the bottom, but with these settings changed it does mean I lose a bit of definition when it comes to reds specifically.
You really notice that when you fine-tune images in Photoshop, but not when you run through the wild, wild west or take out tanks in Battlefield V. Yes, I still play Battlefield V.
While I’m definitely a fan of what the monitor does, it only feels like great value for the regularly discounted price. For the full asking price of $600 I would find it hard to say it is not worth spending that little bit more, hitting the $800 and going for a truly glorious image, like with the Dough Spectrum 4K glossy.
But the Innocn 40C1R is often listed on Amazon for $499 or even as low as $449, and at that price it becomes an incredibly affordable gaming monitor. There’s no other IPS-like ultrawide, which delivers 144Hz, and such a wide gaming view for that price, as the Innocn.
0 Comments