Innocn 40C1R ultrawide 144Hz monitor review: Plenty of room and fast refresh rate

Innocn 40C1R ultrawide gaming monitor

execs and cons

Execs

• Huge canvas to work with
• Excessive 144Hz refresh fee
• Ample ports for connectivity
• USB-C fees moveable gadgets
• Cheap value
• Stable {hardware} design and high quality construct

Cons

• Poor audio system
• Menu buttons require observe

A number of months in the past the Innocn 27C1U 4K laptop monitor changed my customary Dell 24-inch monitor and the colours, readability, and efficiency has continued to be spectacular. Final month, the Innocn 40C1R ultrawide monitor arrived for testing. It’s spectacular for gaming, multi-input use, and productiveness with a number of apps and tabs.

My main ZDNet writing laptop is an older Floor Guide whereas my every day engineering laptop is a Floor Professional 6. To attach these computer systems to the monitor, I merely swap the connection to my Microsoft Floor hub. With these Floor merchandise, I loved utilizing two full dimension apps side-by-side to get work finished.

With the assist for USB-C and my give attention to cellular gadgets, I linked the Samsung Galaxy S22 Extremely with Samsung DeX with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse for a full PC expertise. I additionally examined out my iPad Professional 12.9 operating the general public beta of iOS 16.0 that considerably improves the exterior monitor assist.

{Hardware}

The retail package deal may be very lengthy so you might need to have two folks current for unboxing and setup. The retail field comprises the monitor, an influence cable, USB-C to USB-C cable, DP cable, coloration calibration report for the precise monitor within the field, 4 mount hexagon irons, stand arm, base, and an instruction information. The 2-part stand consists of a vertical piece that screws securely into the bottom platform after which snaps into the again of the monitor so {that a} very sturdy platform for setting the monitor in your desk is offered. You can even mount the monitor on a wall and people particular directions are offered within the field. Setup was fast and simple so I had all the things able to go in only a few minutes.

Connection ports are discovered on the decrease again of the monitor and embody one full-size HDMI 2.0 port, DP1.4 port, USB-C PD 90W port, 3.5mm audio jack, and DC energy port. With this assortment of ports, I linked my Floor dock to the DP1.4 port, Samsung gadgets and the iPad to the USB-C port, and my Nintendo Change to the HDMI port. It was fast and simple to modify between the ports and have the cables I wanted accessible close to the bottom.

The monitor is peak adjustable with a variety of 120mm to match your most well-liked peak. You may pivot the monitor left and proper 30 levels, tilt ahead 5 levels, or tilt backward 15 levels.

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Monitor controls and settings

Press any button on the decrease proper nook of the show to entry the on-screen show controls. 5 buttons are current and dealing from left to proper we discover the menu button, down button, up button, exit/sizzling key, and energy button. The menu button is used to make choices. The up and down buttons transfer by means of menu choices when in a menu and when no on-screen menu is proven they can be utilized to rapidly flip up or down the brightness ranges. The exit/sizzling key goes again into the menu system and in addition enables you to rapidly change port settings with no menu on the show.

The on-screen show (OSD) menu choices are plentiful on the Innocn 40C1R with settings for recreation, skilled, image, PIP/PBP, OSD settings, and different settings. Sport settings embody RTS/RPB mode toggle, FPS area mode toggle, adaptive sync, refresh fee, and recreation crosshair choices. The monitor is clearly optimized for the gamer and that have is best than the work expertise with the decision offered.

Skilled settings embody customary mode, sRGB mode, Adobe mode, uniformity mode, gamma, CT settings, sharpness, shadow steadiness, low blue gentle, hue, saturation, and dynamic brightness. Image settings embody brightness, distinction, DCR, contextual mannequin, HDR, and side ratio.

Whereas you need to use PIP with a secondary enter gadget, I most well-liked utilizing PBP for Samsung DeX on half of the show. There are six accessible settings for PIP/PBP so discover these when you like utilizing this functionality.

The OSD settings allow you to customise three of the new keys to your preferences so you may set these up for the commonest capabilities that can permit you to management the monitor with out diving into the complete OSD menu. Scorching key choices embody brightness, distinction, quantity, mute, shadow steadiness, recreation crosshair, refresh fee, PIP/PBP mode, enter sign, dynamic brightness, and HDR.

Different settings embody enter sign, quantity, mute, auto energy, eyeshield reminder, reset, and data. As you may see, you may absolutely customise the monitor on your particular wants. The monitor can be clever and all the things I plugged into it labored completely with out requiring me to dive into the settings. I did alter some settings to test to see if all the things was optimized, however the auto settings have been close to good.

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Every day utilization experiences and conclusion

The Innocn 40C1R ultrawide monitor is optimized for gaming and after first connecting my Floor computer systems I used to be not impressed by the decision, particularly when having the Innocn 27C1U 4K serving because the secondary monitor. The audio system are additionally fairly horrible so be certain that to make use of one other supply for audio or plug audio system into the three.5mm audio port since good sound is essential to the gaming expertise. Taking part in video games at a excessive refresh fee with FreeSync assist (requires an AMD GPU or APU) is probably going the higher expertise with this huge monitor.

After per week, my eyes adjusted to the monitor for engineering duties, doc creation, and extra as I ran nearly all the things in a break up display screen setup with two apps splitting the show. I nonetheless desire the smaller 27C1U for work although. The monitor base is fairly sized and becoming the broader monitor on my standing desk was completely acceptable. I’ve truly moved the Innocn 40C1R to a different standing desk that’s serving as a gaming station the place the monitor is finest used.

Setup was fast and simple, the monitor is nicely constructed, it has carried out flawlessly, and it’s fairly priced at $499.99. I’ve additionally seen an $80 coupon seem for the monitor, making it an much more inexpensive gaming platform.

Alternate options to think about

The Innocn 40C1R is a stable widescreen monitor, however you might be on the lookout for one thing else so listed below are some various to think about.