AOC I1601FWUX

amazon AOC I1601FWUX reviews

Before, if you were in a hotel room trying to work out a deal and presenting to a small group, the laptop’s small screen was the limitation! Now, truly, in the modern age of mobile screens, you can augment your screen real estate with an ultramobile display such as the AOC I1601FWUX USB-C Portable Monitor, which is a 15.6-inch 1080p monitor that weighs less than 1 kilo and rests on a sturdy yet foldable stand. Just know that the I1601FWUX is a bit of a short term at entertainment, as its colors do look a touch faded. On the other hand, it only connects via USB-C, so your laptop’s USB-C port needs to support the DisplayPort-over-USB protocol. But, if your laptop does support that, then this is the very sleek second screen that just needs a single cable for both signal and power.

A magnetic foldable stand

From the design perspective, I1601FWUX is a sleek device, having aluminum back and sides, with the corners rounded off and glossy black bezels surrounding the 15.6-inch IPS panel. It measures a 9.2 x 14.9 x 0.3-inch screen and weighs 1.8 lbs. Like almost all portable monitors we’ve reviewed in the past year — including the 15.6-inch USB-C Lepow Portable Monitor and the two 14-inch displays HP EliteDisplay S14 and Lenovo ThinkVision M14.

The cover of the I1601FWUX folds into a stand with magnetized edges that mount to the console. By repositioning where the magnetized strip affixes to the display’s backside, one may set the tilt from 5 degrees-back from vertical (away from you) to 20 degrees-front towards you.

There is no rotation adjustment (you can easily do that manually); however, it is adjustable in height. It merely lifts off its stand, with landscape-to-portrait (or back) rotation taking only a stand removal, KO.

Whereas the stand is not interchangeable with the kind you get with a non-portable desktop monitor, it is one of the very few good fits that I have found among similar portable monitor stands. The best thing about it: it’s really sturdy; it never once gave in to my weight, unlike a couple of those other portable display stands I have tried.

Connect and Control

The I1601FWUX follows a minimalist approach for its connection and control scheme. Near the bottom, along the screen’s left edge, sits the power button, which doubles as an OSD (On-screen display) control, and the USB-C port.

Pressing the power/OSD button once when the display is on takes you to a six-item menu: Brightness, Contrast, Acceleration, Low Blue Light, Language, and Exit. The Overdrive option is a nice touch; here one can speed up pixel response times, although it seems a bit unnecessary for screens of this type. You can go through the menu by repeatedly pressing and releasing the button, releasing it only when you want to select a particular item. So after pressing enter, you press the button to change the setting under its name. It is not the preferred method to go through the menu, but it does the job.

Maybe also give i-Menu a try: it’s just one of many on-disc options, with one for saving power and one to split the screen between windows, which might not have much use though on a 15-inch monitor. With i-Menu, you can vomit brightness, contrast, and maybe others, and spin the image on your screen in software by 90 or 180 degrees from your computer instead of messing around with the power/OSD button.

USB-C and only USB-C!

The AOC console doesn’t accommodate more than one video input: it admits only a USB Type-C connector. While in this case, the USB-C interface carries the DisplayPort over USB signal so that the computer can power – and send video signals to – the monitor over that USB-C connection.

Having gained great popularity because it reduces cable clutter and provides many alternative modes such as DisplayPort over USB and Thunderbolt 3; some of the benefits of USB-C connectivity are extruded here. (Thunderbolt 3 considers DisplayPort over USB as a domain of its own yet to further shout her glory by giving much faster speeds in data transfer). We do have USB-C in a lot of the newer laptops; for example, my Dell XPS 13 is equipped with three USB-C ports, the only USB port on the laptop is USB-C. New machines that support USB-C should remember to at least support DisplayPort over USB on one of the ports; this may or may not be the case for systems more than a year old. Be sure to investigate; just because a laptop has a USB-C port doesn’t mean it’s DisplayPort-enabled. Some of those USB ports are only for data transfer.

Case in point: Let’s go for a color and brightness test of the I1601-FWUX; somehow, after plugging the cable between the console and our testing PC, the latter refuses to see it. It became apparent after troubleshooting, plugging in all kinds of hubs to link the monitor, laptop, and signal generator, that the USB-C port on the laptop only supports data transfer and does not provide a DisplayPort overlay for USB (DP-over-USBC). Therefore, the test software had to be installed on another laptop to run the screen test. So, it’s advised that you check whether the computer you will be using alongside this monitor supports DBI pad over USB-C before carrying out any purchase.

Good resolution, light colors

I performed our brightness and color tests in standard mode using a Klein K10-A colorimeter, a Murideo SIX-G signal generator, an X-Rite i1Basic Pro 2 color profiler, and software. Portrait Displays CalMAN 5. AOC rated the maximum brightness of the I1601FWUX as 220 nits (candelas per meter squared); in our testing, it fell a bit short of that, reaching 182 nits, which is still a decent brightness setting for a portable display.

In our color testing, the I1601FWUX covered only 61.4% of the sRGB color space. The triangles represent colors, including sRGB — essentially, all colors can be created by mixing different percentages of red, green, and blue. The white boxes show the locations of the data points for a full sRGB display.

Some of our test scores — the black circles — are within the triangle, which shows that the panel can display less than two-thirds of the sRGB colors, especially for the spectrum’s red/purple/blue section.

The overall pattern of the histogram is very similar to that of Lepow’s 15.6-inch USB-C Portable Monitor, which is also a 15.6-inch 1080p IPS panel, which has the same blue point outside of the sRGB space, and The color gamut is cut towards purple. Lepow did slightly better than the AOC, covering 65.4% sRGB, but we rarely see desktop monitors covering less than 90% of sRGB. These types of portable panels are usually intended for production use, not Photoshop goodies.

We’ve reviewed two other 1080p portable IPS panels. The HP EliteDisplay S14 shows the same general color pattern in its color chart as the I1601FWUX and Lepow. (At the time of our review, we couldn’t measure its percentage of color coverage.) In contrast, the Lenovo ThinkVision M14 displays a much wider color gamut (97 percent of the sRGB color space), and it does vivid colors in viewing photos, videos, and web pages.

Live test

I did most of my testing with the I1601FWUX using my late Dell XPS 13. I use the monitor to view office documents, surf the web, and view selected photos and video clips. Test results from the previous section are shown when viewing color images. Color often lacks breakthrough; this is most noticeable in red (looks orange) and purple. That will not be a good choice for photo editing. There are similar color issues in the video. In one clip, the screen amplified an artifact — a sky interwoven by a series of regular, faint curves — that was clear from the original video but barely visible on the laptop screen.

Overall, I rate this monitor as good for business documents and web surfing and decent (though not ideal) for casual photo viewing and light video viewing.

AOC offers a three-year warranty on the I1601FWUX, a typical display warranty.

A mobile screen for backpackers

Mobile screens need to be lightweight, and this AOC model fits. The i1601FWUX has a good mix of screen size (15.6 inches) and native resolution (1080p) while downsizing at less than two pounds. Provided your laptop has a USB-C port that supports DisplayPort over USB, you’ll appreciate this console’s one-cable convenience. (If not, look for a model with an HDMI input.)

However, AOC’s limited color gamut and often slightly muted colors are best suited for business use. It can fill up for recreational use quickly if you’re not too picky. In contrast, the Lenovo ThinkVision M14 covers almost the full sRGB color gamut and is our current top pick as a portable monitor for business or personal use.

However, the I1601FWUX does give you some extra screen space, and it might just drop down to the screen size of the laptop you plan to pair with your portable console. A 15.6-inch laptop screen might look better than another 15.6-inch screen for similarity, with two 14 inch plates. For basic productivity use, that can be a bigger determining factor than the subtlety of color reproduction.

where can you get a AOC I1601FWUX online

AOC I1601FWUX 15.6″ USB-C powered portable monitor, extremely slim, Full HD 1920×1080 IPS, SmartCover, AutoPivot (for devices w/ USB-C DP Alt Mode only): Buy it now

AOC i1601fwux 16-Inch IPS Extremely Slim USB-C Powered Portable Monitor, 1920×1080 Res, 5ms, Smart Cover/Stand (Renewed): Buy it now