AOC X24P1 review: An incredible 16:10 business monitor

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There are plenty of monitors on the market that are aimed at your everyday consumer, but not all are designed for businesses. AOC has a strong presence in the industry and is renowned for tailoring to that market. The company's latest iteration is the AOC X24P1, a monitor that runs at an aspect ratio of 16:10, which is a step-up from common 16:9 monitors.

If you're an office worker, particularly if you work with spreadsheets, you'll find that the more square-lined approach of a 16:10 monitor can result in better productivity.

AOC X24P1 review: Design, features and build quality

The X24P1 is beautifully designed, and there are many elements here that impress us. Starting from the front of the monitor, you'll find five front-facing physical buttons; the positioning and the choice of physical controls is fantastic. Often, you'll find monitors have downward-facing buttons or touch-sensitive ones, but here AOC has decided to go against popular trends - and we like it. If you're going to be switching inputs, entering the OSD or even switching off the monitor, you'll appreciate the gesture.

Moving onto the bezels, we found the three-sided borderless design ideal for a workplace environment. It might be a seemingly small point to make, but if you're looking to maximise desk space, every little helps.

The monitor's stand is sturdy and provides a 90-degree pivot. The hard plastic stand allows you to swivel (-175/+175), tilt (-5/+35), and offers 150mm height adjustment, too. Most monitors have around 120mm of wiggle room, and with that extra 30mm, taller individuals will have a better posture at the office - which makes a world of difference.

If you'd prefer to mount the monitor or have it as part of a multi-monitor stand, the X24P1 is also 100x100mm VESA-compatible.

As for connectivity, the AOC monitor has HDMI 1.4, VGA, DVI and DisplayPort 1.2, so you won't struggle to use it with legacy equipment. There are four backward compatible USB 3.1 ports on the right-hand edge of the monitor. One of these ports features fast-charging capabilities - useful for smartphone charging, though at around 1.5A it won't be quicker than most modern-day wall chargers.

The AOC monitor features two 2-Watt speakers; they're useful for Windows notifications, but we wouldn't advise using them for music playback. There's a 3.5mm headphone output jack, too.

On a more negative note, there's no webcam to be seen. We'd have liked an integrated webcam, as with more businesses supporting flexible and remote working, video conferencing is now more popular than ever before.

AOC X24P1 review: Image quality

The AOC X24P1 uses a 24in IPS panel, which runs at a resolution of 1,920 x 1,200 (Full HD) at 60Hz.

Through the monitor's OSD, you can set it to the pre-calibrated sRGB colour profile. Tested through the i1 DisplayPro calibrator, the X24P1 achieves a near-perfect 98.7% sRGB gamut coverage. Here, it also manages 73% of the Adobe RGB and 77.1% of the DCI P3 gamuts.

Colour accuracy on the whole is impressive, with an average Delta E of 1.69 and average of 4.9, meaning this monitor can be used for light photo editing and video grading. Here, a lower number is better, and under two is near-perfect. To the naked eye, we found the monitor a touch warm, and our calibrator seemed to pick up on it, too.

Moving onto the contrast ratio, at 1241:1 this monitor will be able to showcase dark scenes and the brightest whites. With a maximum brightness of 359cd/m2, the X24P1 can be easily seen under bright ambient light conditions.

Overall, this AOC monitor is a pleasure to look at, and with an IPS panel you won't have any problems with viewing angles. However, it does struggle with brightness uniformity. With up to -10.42% off the centre-weighed target, we found the monitor a tad disappointing in this department. So, if you are going to be doing fullscreen photo editing, you might notice a small variance at the bottom-edge of the monitor.

There's no inclusion of HDR or a 10-bit panel, although at this price point that's to be expected.

AOC X24P1 review: Verdict

The monitor isn't perfect; it lacks a webcam and brightness uniformity isn't quite flawless. However, these are the only two points we could pick out, which given the price, is rather impressive. In the UK, you'll find the X24P1 for around 192 exc VAT. For a fraction more, there's the near-identical Dell UltraSharp U2415 at around 200 exc VAT.

If we take away the 16:10 aspect ratio, there are many monitors to choose from, including the impressive Philips 241B7QPJKEB that costs just 171 exc VAT. This monitor runs at a 16:9 aspect ratio, and has a pop-up webcam. It features an accurate IPS panel and a fully adjustable stand, too.

If you're specifically in the market for a small-sized 16:10 monitor, however, the AOC X24P1 has all the right ingredients: it has an accurate IPS panel, an excellent build quality, and is designed to perfection.

Verdict

With its 16:10 aspect ratio, good colour reproduction and three-sided borderless design, the X24P1 is impressive.