AOC 7GLR. A best buy.
Written: Apr 18 '01
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Pros: Great Display. Low Price. Simple controls.
Cons: Not a major brand. A bit bulky.
The Bottom Line: 16" viewable and .25dp for $150! If you need a new monitor or want to ditch the 15", this is the one you want.
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| rheaton's Full Review: AOC 7 GLr CRT Monitor |
As part of my job I am constantly reviewing products for use in our company. Monitors are an especially important part of any users life and even more the IT managers'. When you're looking at a modest budget, a need for a decent monitor, and sharp text and great image display for sixty people to look at all day, AOC comes through in a big way.
Firs,this thing isn't a backwater no-name that people mistake it for. AOC builds many components that end up in much more expensive "name" brand monitors. Viewsonic comes to mind as a purchaser of AOC tubes. Also, several of the major computer vendors have "re-branding" agreements with AOC and sell this monitor under their own brand names.
But, let's get to the nitty gritty.
This is a no-frills monitor. The front panel controls consist of a single large button/dial and two smaller buttons arranged in a row with the large dial in the middle. The lefthand button controls the OSD ( on Screen Display ) pressing it will call up a small box on the screen with a scattering of ICONS arrayed along its outside edge. You select these by rotating the large central dial and then pushing on the dial to "Click" on the ICON. Some adjustable options are screen width and height, centering, trapizod, and color temperatures. "clicking" on the EXIT icon closes the OSD. The right hand button is a Stanby/Power button. AOC has choosen to place the actual power button at the rear of the monitor as cost saving move. The switch is actually placed on the power supply, and there is no costly and potential easy to break extension to the front of the panel. Instead a second switch located here acts like the Power switches on some audio equipment. Pressing it with the main power turned on, turns on the monitor, pressing it a second time makes the monitor Sleep, or enter standby mode.
The 7GLR can support screen resolutions of upto 1600x1200, but realizsticly 1024x768 is about as far as you would want to go with a 17" monitor. Above that resolution need need eyes like a hawk to see normal text and icon captions. Also, the AOC seems to have trouble making sharp text outlines at the 1600 x 1200 resolution. I've never noticed any serious flicker at any screen resolution and even on those occasion that I've fired up QUAKE I've never seen any artifacting or jump. It's a solid display with no surprises and great Text reproduction at reasonable levels. Graphics could be a bit sharper, and colors tend darken noticably as resolution increases. Neither of these are serious problems as minor adustments in the OSD can clear them up, but it would be nice if they were automatic. There is of course an excellent reason why they aren't. Cost.
The 7GLR is a very inexpensive monitor for what you get. I've seen them advertised as low as $149.99 NEW not refurbished, when most other 17" monitors with it's capabilities are still at the $199 price point. This of course explains why some features never made it into this monitor. Auto Moire adjustment and color correction seem like givens on a monitor with the display quanlity seen here, but they would have added considerably to the price, which would have defeated the purpose and made the outstand 7GLR into a much higher priced unit.
Overall, It's hard to complain about the 7GLR. With over 60 pairs of eyeballs looking at one all day here, I've yet to hear anyone complain. In fact most have comment on how much sharper this monitor is over their old CTX monitors with .28 dot pitch. If you think the differnece can't be seen, spend a day with a monitor that has a .28 DP and then check out the 7GLR with its .25dp. It's a different world.
The only real gripe is that this isn't one of those little "shortneck" monitors. It needs room on your desk, no doubt about it. Also, it's screen isn't flat, there is a noticable curve. But these are features that make the price of a monitor jump quite a bit. AOC does offer higher priced monitors with these options, but for the money, there's not much to complain about. PC magazine has rated the 7GLR in it's top ten monitor buys several times in the past few months.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 153.00
Operating System: Windows
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Epinions.com ID:
rheaton
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Location: Tobyhanna, PA
Reviews written: 82
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