AOC C3583FQ 35-inch Curved Ultra-Wide FreeSync Monitor Review

Reviews
By Christian Eberle
published

Is price still preventing you from picking up a curved ultra-wide monitor? You might want to check out AOC’s 35-inch C3583FQ selling for only $600. We’re checking out this 160Hz FreeSync screen in our lab today.

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Conclusion

So is the C3583FQ the perfect gaming monitor? If you’ve read our other display reviews then you already know our thoughts on using that particular adjective. No product is perfect. But for the price, this new AOC might just be the thing that puts curved screens on more desktops. Gamers will certainly want to take a serious look.

There’s no doubt that a curved monitor takes a bit of getting used to. Staring at 16:9 flat screens for years means users have come to expect a certain look and feel from their displays. The 21:9 aspect ratio coupled with a 2000R curve means perceiving the desktop and games in a whole new way. After working with many such products, we think it’s pretty cool. Will we be chucking all our 16:9 flat panels in favor of these new-fangled screens? Probably not. In our environment where we look at a new monitor every other day, it’s not as practical for us to simply switch back and forth. We think curved ultra-wide belongs firmly in the entertainment spectrum.

Gaming on this new AOC is an absolute hoot. Our normal play tests might take a couple of hours at most, but when we used the C3583FQ, we found ourselves frittering away entire afternoons. Monitors like this really draw the player into the environment. And thanks to its manageable resolution, motion quality is extremely smooth and clean. While we did see a little softness in certain instances, that wasn’t enough to disqualify it from consideration by any stretch.

Our benchmark tests revealed a couple of things worth noting. Of course contrast is the king here and that extra image depth really enhances everything you do on this display, gaming or otherwise. Color accuracy is excellent when using the sRGB preset in the Color Temp menu. Our measurements showed quality befitting a professional product. The only caveat there is the fixed 300cd/m2 output level.

Calibration produces a very good picture and one that has just a little extra saturation which is fine with us. We recommend at minimum selecting the Gamma 2 preset and using our recommend RGB values if you want to optimize your C3583FQ’s image quality. If you’re OK with a fixed brightness level, go for sRGB to enjoy color, grayscale and gamma that’s right on spec.

After looking at many curved monitors, we’d have to say this one is a standout product. It delivers everything a gamer could ask for at an attractive price. At the very least, it might be the impetus for other manufacturers to reduce their price of admission to the curved genre. For its excellent performance and great value, we’re giving the AOC C3583FQ our Tom’s Hardware Editor Recommended Award.

MORE: Best Computer Monitors
MORE: How To Choose A Monitor
MORE: Display Calibration 101
MORE: The Science Behind Tuning Your MonitorMORE: All Monitor Content

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Christian Eberle
Christian Eberle
Contributing Editor

Christian Eberle is a Contributing Editor for Tom's Hardware US. He's a veteran reviewer of A/V equipment, specializing in monitors. Christian began his obsession with tech when he built his first PC in 1991, a 286 running DOS 3.0 at a blazing 12MHz. In 2006, he undertook training from the Imaging Science Foundation in video calibration and testing and thus started a passion for precise imaging that persists to this day. He is also a professional musician with a degree from the New England Conservatory as a classical bassoonist which he used to good effect as a performer with the West Point Army Band from 1987 to 2013. He enjoys watching movies and listening to high-end audio in his custom-built home theater and can be seen riding trails near his home on a race-ready ICE VTX recumbent trike. Christian enjoys the endless summer in Florida where he lives with his wife and Chihuahua and plays with orchestras around the state.

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33 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Bibbit
    Is this worth getting if you own an nVidia card?
    Reply
  • Xajel
    1080p on 35" ....... really !!
    Reply
  • SinisterMessiah
    Enough with the 1080p monitors...what year is it?
    Reply
  • psycher1
    Lost me at 1080. I don't care about the size at that point, 1080 anything shouldn't be above $300 today.

    And at 35''? With this, you're going to get $600 of near CRT size pixels. I have a 27'' ($250) and, with it on my desk in front of me, pixels are already easily defined. In game as well, it's the one element holding back my otherwise stunning experience in W3 right now.
    Add another 8'' to that, without enhancing the resolution, it'd be too much.

    The only benefit I can see is if you sit far away from the screen (e.g. couch on the other side of the room) and watch movies with people (using something like VLC to zoom already 21:9 movies to fill the screen).
    Reply
  • rgd1101
    it a wide 2560x1080, not the 1920x1080
    Reply
  • realibrad
    You guys realize this is not a 1920x1080 monitor right? This monitor has 33% more pixles than a 1080 monitor. If you dont think 33% is a big enough jump, then realize that a 1440 (2560x1440) is only 33% above this monitory.

    So, those who say things like 1080 whaaaaa, just know that you do not know what you are talking about. If the height matters so much to you, I would gladly sell you my 1920 monitor...*rotates monitor 90 degrees.
    Reply
  • ohim
    @BIBBIT You can use it without issues on an Nvidia card, you just won`t benefit from the FreeSync specs.

    the monitor is a failure due to resolution, 35" and 2560*1080 is very poor.
    My 21:9 34" LG monitor has 3440x1440 ~ 110 ppi
    a typical 24" 1080 screen has ~91 ppi
    this monitor has 79 ppi

    The resolution is crap, you`ll be able to see the individual pixels on the monitor while working on it ... i wouldn`t recommend this monitor to anybody.
    Reply
  • tegiri nenashi
    Yet another ultrashort waste of pixels on the sides.
    Reply
  • ahnilated
    All I had to see was "curved" and they lost me.
    Reply
  • Sam Hain
    Concerns with 1080p can be negated with DSR settings (2k & 4k sim-rez) when gaming and it's FREE... It's a relatively SIMPLE setup-process that produces pretty decent results and for $600, you can't complain about that.

    If a 1080p monitor were placed in DSR x1.78 and the markings were removed from the monitor and a game were running on it, with appropriate graphics settings applied to the corresponding GPU, you'd have a hard time distinguishing it from an actual 1440p monitor or a 4k one for that matter when DSR'd.

    Pixel density... Unless you're sitting within 18 inches or have your mug right up on the monitor, you're not going to notice this when it's in 1080p on the desktop, web, word-processing, programs, etc.

    My .02 cents... Spend your $1K on a monitor that WILL have glow issues while this monitor will allow $400 to be applied elsewhere in a system/upgrades or a GPU upgrade down the road and still have performance to match that the naked eye may or may not be able to discern.
    Reply