Aorus lowers the entry bar to 49-inch QD-OLED gaming monitors.
Gamers are falling in love with ultra-widescreen monitors but the cash-sized barrier to entry has been huge. Aorus hopes to buck the trend with its 49-inch CD49DQ QD-OLED gaming monitor by focusing on performance while eschewing ‚unnecessary‘ glitzy RGB-like paraphernalia. So, has it succeeded?
Set-up is simple thanks to the clip-on stem and single-finger-screw stand system that should be mandatory on all monitors. Connecting the three parts in the box makes it relatively simple to extricate the mechanical albatross-like display, but have a good look at the downward-facing ports before you put it on your desk as you’ll struggle to see (or access) them again. If you need to plan your set-up before purchasing, know that the kettle-lead power connector (there’s no power brick) attaches to the right of the screen (as you face it) while all the A/V cables attach on the left.
Once set-up, you’re left looking a 49-inch, QD-OLED panel with a gentle, 1,800R curve, an ultra-wide 32:9 aspect ratio, a 5,120 x 1,440 image and a 144 Hz refresh rate. It’s a 2nd-Generation Samsung QD-OLED panel that looks identical to the one Asus used in its ROG Swift OLED PG49WCD. It’s also similar to the first-gen panel in the Samsung Odyssey OLED G9, although the specs say the CD49DQ has a 1.5M:1 contrast ratio (rather than 1M:1) and the Samsung has a faster 240Hz refresh rate.
The anti-glare, semi-gloss coating means there are impressively few distracting reflections in dark scenes. Also, it goes some way to keep small text looking neat and not spidery—although some fonts perform better than others in this area. We certainly had no issues working and writing using it and having several windows open at once seriously helped with productivity. Spreadsheets can also work well on this screen and music and video editors will like the ability to have a potentially life-sized, virtual mixing desk displayed all at once. Despite being a game-designated display, we found it easy to live with for day-to-day work, too.
The practicality of having such a wide, single-screen for gaming is preferable to using two or three screens linked together—anyone who has had to regularly re-sync such monitor layouts will know why.
The massive screen real-estate benefits different genres in different ways. Flight simmers receive a more-lifelike world view, FPS players get real-world-like peripheral vision and RTS players receive more on-ground intel than many opponents. For sim racers the CD49DQ is a similar size to some real racing cars‘ cockpits, meaning laps around famous tracks feel that much more immersive.
