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INNOCN 27-inch QHD & G-Sync Supported Computer Monitor Review: Amazingly versatile

Kareem Anderson — Wed, 17 May 2023 19:53:01 +0000

Starting at $469

As of today, INNOCN is relatively unknown brand to many. Perhaps, for gamers and artists in the “known” the INNCON brand resonates but for most, it’s seemingly another random monitor manufacturer who just might be able to pull an Insignia or Vizio level of brand cache with products such as the INNOCN 27G1S.

OnMSFT got a review sample of the INNOCN 27GS1 which boasts both HDR and G-SYNC out of the box at QHD 1440P resolution and a 240Hz refresh rate panel for around $469.

Size	27″
Resolution	2560 x 1440p
Refresh Rate	240Hz
Panel Type	VA
Aspect Ratio	16:9
Contrast Ratio	2500:1 (Typ)
Color Gamut	99% sRGB
Colors	16.7M

HDR	HDR10
Response Time	1ms
Connectivity	HDMI 2.1 (2) + DisplayPort 1.4 (2)
GamePlus	Yes
Stand	Height / Titl / Swivel / Pivot Adjustable
VESA Support	Yes (75*75mm)
PIP/PBP	Yes
Weight	9.35lb without stand, 12.87lbs with stand

Look and Feel

The INNOCN 27G1S is instantly recognizable among a sea of black gaming monitors with its distinct dual LED back panel adorned with right RGB lighting accents as well as two lit notches that sit at the base of the screen. Predictably, the lights come on when the monitor is in use and power off when it is not, so each gaming or production set gets a little bit of mood lighting out of the box.

The screen of the 27G1S sits in the middle of the standing desk mount and is about 10-inches from the base bottom. The included stand, when attached, allows for a 90-degree pivot for a longer viewing experience, a 5-degree forward tilt and 20-degree backward tilt, as well as a 30-degree swivel to either side.

Aside from enabling a bit of motion for the monitor the stand does triple duty of also servicing as a headset holder with a kickout flap on the back and as cable organizer near the bottom of the device.

Everything except for the RGB accents is plastered in a matte black finish.

Unfortunately, the port design for the 27G1S is frustratingly similar to the rest of the industry where they are tucked up and underneath the base of the monitor, and present a familiar struggle to identify exact selections when the view of the back of the monitor is obstructed.

There is also a tactile power on and power off menu selection toggle on the back of the monitor to help adjust some of the out of the box settings that tend to mute the colors and flatten the range of HDR for the 27G1S. The menu toggle is a bit frustrating due to its sensitivity as well as the it helps navigate the unintuitive settings menu.

Any slight brushes against the toggle will shut down the monitor and the click to select an item is practically identical to the action taken to shut the monitor off.

The bezels surrounding 27G1S are nice and thin, making way for a gorgeous 2560 x 1440 resolute pane with 240Hz refresh rate and 1ms FreeSync and G-Sync support.

Performance

The 27G1S performed as well as other monitors in this class that include Dell’s Alienware AW2723DF Gaming monitor, AOC C27G2Z Curved Frameless, ASUS ROG Swift 360Hz monitor and others. The monitor seamlessly switches between 60, 144, and 240Hz refresh rates depending on the content being displayed with is a nice addition that helps content creators save a bit of time calibrating the monitor for each specific use case.

The Blue Light reduction feature is pretty handy when working or gaming in dimly lit rooms as well as Flicker Free assistance which helps from exhausting a user’s retina over time.

In the box, the 27G1S comes with support for HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 1.4 interfacing which helps reduce motion blur as well supporting various versions of Anti-Aliasing in games.

As a moderate gamer, I spent much of my time with productivity and content creation tasks such as podcast recording, video, audio and graphics editing and general Office 365 usage. The 27G1S handled all of the tasks easily and efficiently. The 99-percent sRGB color gamut combined with the high resolution and VA panel for wide viewing angles meant not having to swivel the monitor as much when replicating images during Photoshop or Premiere sessions.

The 27-inch screen and high DPI also meant being able to take advantage of Windows 3 paneled window snapping arrangement and having enough room to read the content of those windows without squinting. As someone who utilizes a single monitor and laptop screen for a dual windowed setup, it’s nice to be able to rely on the 27G1S to match the performance of my laptop’s high end spec display.

Summary

As I mentioned up top, the INNOCN greatest weakness is its branding. When it comes to monitors and other high-end purchases, people tend to support the brands they know will support them if anything goes wrong or they’re looking to upgrade. Right now, INNOCN is relative unknown and someone might need customer support for rare issue, they might find going with a Samsung, Vizio, LG or Sony monitor is just more convenient, despite the 27G1S delivering a feature packed monitor for a competitive price.

Functionally speaking, the 27G1S is sound, I didn’t run into any artifacting while playing visually demanding games, the speakers were good, VESA mounting was pretty straightforward and the design of the monitor was sleek and modern with a few playful accents. Most people couldn’t ask for more from a display package like the 27G1S.

Between the color accuracy, fast refresh panel that automatically switches, almost 2K resolution and HDMI 2.1 support, the 27G1S is a recommend for moderate gamers, content creators and tasks processors alike.

Dell’s latest Alienware PCs include NVIDIA 4080 GPUs, 500Hz panels, user replaceable RAM, and more

Kareem Anderson — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 16:16:55 +0000

Dell is kicking off its 2023 gaming lineup with some beastly offerings that include upgrades to its Alienware m16, m18, x16, Command Center, and gaming monitors.

Alienware m18

Starting at $2,099

First up is the massive 18-inch gaming behemoth, the Alienware m18 which will now boast a 13th Gen Intel Core processor, or the latest AMD Ryzen chip released in Q2 of 2023.

In addition to a new screen size and beefed-up CPU, the m18 will also come with Alienware’s advanced Cryo-Tech thermal design to keep everything cool enough for longer gaming sessions. Alienware updated its Cryo-Tech this year with Element 31 thermal interface materials applied to both CPU and GPU to help dissipate heat more efficiently. There are also expanded vapor chambers covers applied to both the CPU and GPU this time around.

The most notable feature of the m18 is user-replaceable dual channel DDR5 memory and up to four M.2 SSDs with a cap of 9TBs of storage for the device.

Available in the US February 9, 2023, with NVIDIA 4080 configuration, AMD options TBD.

Alienware m16

The tradionally sized Alienware m16 is receiving much of the same upgrade treatment as the m18 but coming in with a 16-inch panel that’s sporting a 16:10 aspect ratio which should offer gamers an 11% increase in screen real estate. The slightly larger panel will be available in QHD at (2560 x 1600) with a 165Hz or 240Hz refresh rate panel. There will also be an FHD+ screen with a 480Hz panel, and all configurations will come equipped with NVIDIA G-Syn or AMD FreeSync and hardware-based low blue light technology.

Available in the US on February 9, 2023, with NVIDIA 4080 config, and AMD options TBD.

Alienware x16

Starting at $1,899

Alienware’s flagship for 2023 is the x16 which leverages the company’s Legend 3 industrial design language coupled with a new Lunar Silver colorway and nano bead blasted anodized aluminum.

The updated design helps to highlight a new elevated perimeter foot and V-rail surface edge aimed at increasing ventilation on the x16.

Similar to the m18 and m16, the x16 will also offer configurations with both Intel’s 13th gen core processors and AMD, next gen NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs, as well as 16-inch, 16:10 240Hz panel with QHD support.

Another standout feature of the x16 is the inclusion of a six-speaker set up that includes two up firing tweeters and dual sub-woofer with support for Dolby Atmos’ 3D positional audio.

Available in the US on February 14, 2023, with NVIDIA 4080 configuration, AMD options available in Q2 2023.

Alienware 500Hz Gaming Monitor

Starting at $2,199

Alienware is introducing the “world’s fastest refresh rate” stand alone monitor this year with the Alienware 500Hz Gaming Monitor AW2524H.

As mentioned, Alienware’s latest monitor can push up to 500Hz with a native 480Hz. The monitor also supports up to 99% sRGB color accuracy, 0.5ms min Grey-to-grey (GtG) response times which should all but eliminate any sort of ghosting effects during gaming.

The 500Hz Gaming Monitor is also VESA DisplayHDR 400 certified which should work in tandem with NVIDIA G-Sync.

Alienware also tossed in AlienFX RGB lighting, because, why not?

Available in China on February 9, 2023, with a later date TBD for North America.

Alienware Command Center

For those of you who utilize Alienware’s custom software to squeeze even more juice out of your device, the company has updated its version 6.0 Command Center platform to include improved control over system performance such as overclocking CPUs and GPUs, calibration, and key binding, AlienVision overlays, improved controls over Dolby apps adjustments and more.

Available in 2023. Specific date TDB.

Alienware will also be hosting a live event on Twitch to go over the new lineup as well as talk about additional peripherals and other announcements on March 2, 2023.

Our guide to 4K, HDR, and getting the most from your Xbox One X

Dave W. Shanahan — Wed, 08 Nov 2017 17:02:15 +0000

Now that the Xbox One X is finally here, you may need to look into whether or not you really need to buy a shiny, brand-new 4K TV. There have been a lot of terms thrown out there; 4K, High Dynamic Range (HDR), supersampling, and Xbox One X Enhanced. All those terms can make “just buying a TV” really confusing.

If you are interested in getting the most bang for your buck, you should make sure you are getting the best deal on a new TV that will suit your needs. You need to think about what you use your new TV for; gaming, streaming content, and more. In order for you to get the Xbox One X experience you really want, let’s go over what all the terms mean.

4K

Simply put, 4K means that you are viewing the highest resolution currently available. If you have a 1080p TV, you are viewing a 1920×1080 resolution. By comparison, a 4K TV displays a 3840×2160 (2160p) resolution. Basically, that means you will get an even sharper display to play Xbox One games or stream 4K content (where available).

Usually when you hear someone refer to 4K, you will also hear terms like UHD, 4K Ultra UHD, and others. These terms still refer to 4K. It’s more just buzz words to get you to buy a particular brand 4K TV than anything else. You are still getting a 4K resolution TV.

HDR

While 4K provides the higher resolution, High Dynamic Range (HDR) provides a richer media experience by providing contrast with what we are playing or watching. HDR provides us with deeper color contrasts with blacks and whites, as well as the to be able to differentiate distance and view changes in light (object shading, shadows, etc.). HDR helps to make Xbox game environments and TV media content look more realistic and provides more details.

Supersampling

Supersampling is another term that has been used a bunch of times with the Xbox One X. While the Xbox One X was meant to play 4K games on a 4K TV, you can still use the console on a 1080p TV. Supersampling takes a high resolution image and scales it down to your TV’s native resolution (720p or 1080p TVs). Xbox One X supersampling provides lower resolution TVs with an extra boost in graphics and special effects.

Last month, Major Nelson sat down with Albert Penello from the Xbox Team to discuss what Xbox One X Enhanced games are and how these Xbox games will look on your 4K or 1080p TV.

Xbox One X Enhanced games are games that the game developer has updated to use the full power of the Xbox One X. You’ll still be able to play the same games you played on the original Xbox One or Xbox One S, but with Xbox One X Enhanced games you’ll have faster loading times, higher resolution textures, and higher framerates than were in the originally released Xbox One game. It’s up to the game developer in what they think should be included. Yesterday, OnMSFT posted a list of Xbox One X Enhanced titles that would be available at Xbox One X launch. Microsoft has their full list of Xbox One X Enhanced games available here.

Xbox One X Enhanced will help optimize a lot of games released on Xbox One. Games like Quantum Break really pushed the Xbox One to its processing limit. Xbox gamers will enjoy the power provided by the Xbox One X, regardless of resolution. Now that the Xbox One X has arrived, we will just have to look forward to the first Xbox game built specifically to be played on the Xbox One X.

Here’s a list of Xbox One X Enhanced titles to be available on November 7

Arif Bacchus — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 19:47:31 +0000

The launch of the Xbox One X is just a few short days away and to prepare you for the moment, we’d like to remind you of some special features of the console. Here is a look at some of the 70 Xbox One X Enhanced games you should check out when the console launches on November 7th.

What does Xbox One X Enhanced means:

Please keep in mind that the Xbox One X Enhanced logo means the developer has done extra work to optimize for Xbox One X. Features vary by game, and these optimizations may include higher resolutions, faster framerates and/or improved textures.

For now, the majority of Xbox One X enhanced titles will just have this only one label (and that isn’t a sign of laziness from the developer). Here is a small selection of such titles that will be ready for the Xbox One X on November 7, including select backward compatible Xbox 360 games :

HDR:

Xbox One X enhanced titles that also have the HDR logo support High Dynamic Range for deeper colors and richer contrast. Just like the S, the Xbox One X only supports the HDR 10 open standard. See the list below for a couple of HDR games ready on November 7:

4K Ultra HD Icon:

Finally, games with the 4K Ultra HD icon means the game outputs at 2160p. Have a look at some of these games below:

Last but not least, be aware that some Xbox One X Enhanced support both HDR and 4K graphics: this small list includes Assassin’s Creed Origins, Forza Motorsport 7, Disneyland Adventures, FIFA 18, Madden NFL 18, Middle-Earth: Shadow of War, Gears of War 4, Rise of the Tomb Raider and World of Tanks. Some of these, especially Forza 7 and Rise of the Tomb Raider may probably be the most visually impressive games on the new console at launch.

While we’ve only included a small selection, the list of 70 games to be enhanced for the Xbox One X on day one is still a great selection of titles to enjoy. Many more Xbox One X enhanced titles are in development, and you can check the full list on the Xbox website. Last but not least, be sure to keep tuned to OnMSFT as we’ll soon publish our own review of the 4K gaming beast.

Samsung and its QLED 4K HDR TVs to be official Xbox One X partner

Laurent Giret — Fri, 01 Sep 2017 13:53:25 +0000

As we’re getting closer to the release of the Xbox One X, we guess that many enthusiasts are planning to upgrade their TV to enjoy true 4K HDR gaming on the new console. The Xbox team obviously knows it as it just announced a new partnership with Samsung, which will make the company’s QLED 4K HDR TVs the official Xbox One X partner in the US.

“For gamers, the QLED TV provides an unparalleled 4K HDR gaming experience,” explained the Xbox team. “It leverages quantum dot technology to bring even the smallest graphical details to life in perfect color.” Samsung’s top-of-the-line QLED TVs also provide a very low input lag of less than 20 milliseconds, rich picture quality with 100 percent color volume, and Samsung also includes a lifetime guarantee against burn-in.

In addition, the company’s QLED TV sets will also deliver a great set up experience to Xbox One X owners thanks to Samsung’s Smart Hub:

By simply connecting the Xbox One X, the TV automatically recognizes the console and sets up the Samsung One Remote that now supports more devices and offers voice control capabilities across more Smart TV features. Just by saying “Game Mode” into the One Remote, users will have immediately optimized their audio and video settings for gaming. Paired with the latest Smart View app, available on Android or iOS mobile devices, users will enjoy their very own personalized Smart Hub.

The Xbox team added that gamers in the US can now experience the Xbox One X on Samsung’s QLED 4K TVs at various Xbox and Samsung marketing and retail locations in the US through the rest of the year. Samsung’s 2017 QLED TV lineup starts at $2.799.99, and you can learn more about the different models on the company’s website.

New video offers peek at several Xbox One X enhanced games

Michael Cottuli — Thu, 24 Aug 2017 20:20:40 +0000

DigitalFoundry is one of best websites out there for gamers who are snobs about graphics, and they have a video out talking about each of the games that are enhanced by Xbox One X. It’s a great watch for people who are looking to be sold on the new console, or people who just want to hear some jargon about nice looking games.

Rich and John from DigitalFoundry both had some interesting things to say about the Xbox One X, and several of the games that are getting improved by it. They talk a bit about native 4K games like Gears of War 4 and Killer Instinct, as well as Quantum Break, which is the only game not being moved up to native 4K. If you don’t think much about the details behind a good looking game but would like to learn more, hearing these two go on can really be enlightening.

The big thing to take away here is that the Xbox One X is actually living up to its marketing – namely about its ability to play these games at native 4K. We knew that these games would be running on 4K, but this video tells us a bit more about pure performance while that resolution is held. It seems like there are seriously stable framerates to look forward to as well as some nice eye candy.

Only Xbox One X will download 4K assets, confirms Microsoft

Kit McDonald — Mon, 26 Jun 2017 17:54:58 +0000

Since its announcement, Xbox fans have been rather curious to learn more about what makes the next console from Microsoft unique enough for the $499 price tag. Today, the tech giant confirmed that while its predecessors will be able to play 4K enabled games, only the Xbox One X will utilize the feature.

What this means is that the Xbox One and Xbox One S will only download the 1080p assets. The two prior consoles use upscaling to fit the games to larger 4K resolution televisions. But even if the game has the assets for the big screens, Xbox One X will be the only means to meeting the full potential of that coveted 4K gaming experience.

“Assets are tied to your console and not the TV its connected to,” Stevivor reports after an exclusive discussion with a Microsoft representative.

“This means, regardless of the TV you are playing on, 4K assets will be downloaded to Xbox One X (if available) and the standard 1080p assets will be downloaded to an Xbox One S.”

Furthermore, developers will be getting better tools to make downloading more efficient, including 4K and language specific assets that will make the install footprint smaller. “This ability to intelligently install the best assets for each console and language are available on all Xbox One devices, and it will be up to the developer of the game to determine the specific implementation,” Microsoft clarified.

Nothing has been said as of yet concerning Windows 10 PC games that have 4K assets available.

Xbox Scorpio revealed: here are the highlights

Kareem Anderson — Thu, 06 Apr 2017 15:56:08 +0000

For eager fans of Project Scorpio, Eurogamer just dropped a treasure trove of information that had, until this point, been a well-guarded secret by Microsoft.

Here are some of the highlights of from the laundry list of exclusives we have seen surface today about Project Scorpio:

Is Project Scorpio better than the PS4 Pro?

“Well, almost certainly yes.”

In a tongue and cheek YouTube video, Ian Higton interviews Richard Leadbetter from Digital Foundery’s layer who happened to get some hands-on time with the Project Scorpio and they tackle a fan favorite debate between the prowess of the two Next-next Gen consoles.

What’s technologies are powering Project Scorpio and how do they compare?

Eight CPU cores, 4MB L2 Cache, custom designed GPUs, 128 of GDDR5 RAM and more

Project Scorpio will have 12GB of GDDR5 RAM, at 6.8GHz with 326 GB/s bandwidth, as we previous reported, now confirmed by DF.

As previously known, Scorpio will rock eight CPU cores, but now we have a little more detail. It’s a custom design sporting 2.3GHz, with a 4MB L2 cache.

Project Scorpio will sport an internal PSU (245W) and a compact design, owing to advanced cooling techniques pioneered by Microsoft’s leading industrial design team.

Project Scorpio will achieve SIX TERAFLOPS of GPU power using a customized design, with 1,172 GHz, 40 compute units, while leveraging features from AMD’s Polaris architecture.

As expected, Scorpio will retain the Xbox One S’s 4K UHD Blu-ray drive.

DF tested a version with a 1TB HDD, but it’s not yet known if it will come in other configurations.

Scorpio will have both HDMI-in and out, 3x USB 3.0, a SPDIF digital audio port, an IR receiver/blaster, and will support Kinect with a USB adapter.

For visual comparison

How is it all put together?

“We suspect you will be pleasantly surprised.”

While we still aren’t privy to what the actual box will look like, we’re getting a detailed make up of what’s being put inside, how the engineering magic is being conjured up and port layouts that harken back to the Xbox One S.

Now that the faucet has been tapped, we’re bound to get a few more leaks regarding the game developers lined for the console as well as benchmarks from some lucky test outlets leading up to E3. Until then, we can only hope that Microsoft speaks about Project Scorpio again at its developers conference and how the console ties into Windows 10.

Microsoft employees aren’t holding back with the PlayStation 4 sass

Laurent Giret — Thu, 08 Sep 2016 14:07:14 +0000

Nearly two months after Microsoft announced its new Xbox One S at E3 2016, Sony introduced a new Playstation 4 Pro along with a slimmer Playstation 4 model at an event in New York yesterday. Sony’s new $399 PS4 Pro will support both HDR and 4K TV sets, but the new console also features more powerful hardware to deliver better performance in games. In a press release published yesterday, the Japanese company shared that the new console will deliver 4.2 teraflops of computing power, which is more than twice the power than the 1,84 teraflops of the original PS4.

Just like the Xbox One S, the PS4 Pro will be able to upscale current Playstation 4 games to 4K and also support 4K video streaming:

By boosting the performance and capability of the system architecture including the CPU and GPU, PS4 Pro allows games to deliver graphics with far more detail and unprecedented visual precision. Users with 4K TVs will be able to enjoy all PS4 titles in higher quality, such as 4K quality*1 resolution and faster or more stable frame rates. In addition, PS4 Pro supports 4K video playback to deliver 4K streaming video services such as Netflix and YouTube.

Additionally, Sony claims that the new console will enable High Dynamic Range for “supported games and other entertainment content with visuals that are more realistic, strikingly vivid and truer to the way the human eye sees the real world.” However, while the $399 PS4 Pro will be more powerful than Microsoft’s $299 Xbox One S, Sony’s new console is also bigger than the previous model and it also lacks a 4K Blu-ray player. As noted by the Xbox team on Twitter yesterday, the Xbox One S remains highly competitive:

4K streaming & Blu-Ray
HDR gaming
Greatest games
40% smaller
Xbox One S from $299: https://t.co/GzguOUfMeV pic.twitter.com/vWb6r1x9PD

— Xbox (@Xbox) September 7, 2016

Albert Penello, Senior Director of Product management and planning at Xbox marketing echoed this sentiment in an interview with Polygon yesterday:

I feel good about what we’ve done with the Xbox One S. Both we and Sony are investing in 4K as the future of the console space, and we have a history of adding features to our hardware.

Sony’s PS4 Pro will be available on November 10, 2016, in Japan, North America and Europe, and Microsoft won’t release its more powerful Project Scorpio until late 2017. However, the Xbox team is still confident that the upcoming console which will deliver 6 teraflops of computing power (roughly 43 more than Sony’s PS4 Pro) and enable true 4K gaming will provide a much better gaming experience. Penello added:

We know it’s important to deliver an experience that demonstrates the power gap between [the PS4 Pro and Scorpio] at a price that makes sense to console gamers. The performance delta will be obvious.”

We’ll have to wait for the first reviews to see if Sony’s PS4 Pro is a valuable upgrade over the original Playstation 4. While we don’t know all the details about Project Scorpio, Microsoft’s strategy seems slightly more clear today: the Xbox One S brings many improvements over the first Xbox One (it’s 40% slimmer and it supports modern TV sets features such as 4K and HDR) while Project Scorpio is expected to push console games to the next level with true 4K support.

As of today, the message around the Playstation 4 Pro may be a bit confusing: just like Microsoft’s Xbox One S, the new console can upscale games to 4K and support HDR, though it’s still not clear if the more powerful hardware will be that much appreciable in both current and upcoming games.

Do you think Sony is right to introduce an incremental update to its gaming console right now, or do you think the company should have waited to introduce a more future-proof console that can compete with Microsoft’s Project Scorpio? Let us know what you think by dropping us a comment below.

Xbox boss Mike Ybarra: Xbox One S will upscale all games to 4K

Jack Wilkinson — Sat, 02 Jul 2016 00:04:58 +0000

While we already know that 4K gaming is coming in ‘Project Scorpio’, what we didn’t know was that the Xbox One S will also support 4K gaming, kind-of.

On Twitter, Curtis Bradshaw enquired about whether the Xbox One S will upscale games to 4K, in response Mike Ybarra, the Partner Director of Program Management at Microsoft, simply responded with “Yes,”.

https://twitter.com/Nugggzy/status/748997115804868608

https://twitter.com/XboxQwik/status/748997356578680832

Currently, if you have a 4K monitor, your monitor will handle the upscaling to 4K, where possible. According to this tweet, however, the console will instead do the upscaling. The advantages of this are, as yet, unknown – however, this will likely seem pleasing to those who either didn’t know that their monitor upscales for them or those who like the idea of their console doing the processing instead. Of course, to make use of this upscaling, you will need a 4K monitor.

If you’re still holding out for true 4K gaming, then Project Scorpio will be next on the agenda. Project Scorpio is the codename for Microsoft’s next-generation console, releasing in 2017, which brings True 4K gaming, along with huge performance boosts, packed full of powerful hardware.