AOC's i2367fh: Thin, "Virtually Borderless", and IPS
by Jarred Walton on November 20, 2012 11:05 AM ESTWe've been waiting for affordable LCDs to start showing some clear improvements in performance, quality, features, and design for a while. AOC has potentially done exactly that with their new i2367fh monitor, delivering an IPS-based panel with virtually no left/right or top borders. The bezel measures 2mm thick, making it a potentially great option for multi-monitor users. It's currently available online starting at $189 (though it's also currently backordered).
Besides the thin bezel, the 23-inch i2367fh has WLED backlighting for the IPS panel, built-in speakers, VGA and two HDMI inputs to drive the 1080p display, and audio in/out ports. The stand doesn't appear to support any adjustments other than tilt, and there's no VESA mount, so this is definitely a niche product. However, it's a niche product that looks quite nice and should at least match what we've seen from TN panels for years at only a slight premium.
The display is so new AOC doesn't even list the i2367fh on their US/English sites yet, so the best information we can provide is via this ~7MB PDF, or if you prefer here's their Taiwan page. All we need now is for B&H to get more in stock (and for other resellers to show up). I don't know how others feel, but I'd love to see more displays ditch the 1" bezels—including on the bottom, please. There's nothing a thick bezel adds other than size, though obviously making a thin bezel does cost more.
Update: Some are questioning whether the content of the display goes to the edge (or 2mm from the edge), or if AOC is simply using glass over the main LCD to give a borderless appearance. I asked AOC for an answer, but all I had to go on initially is the press release stating it has a 2mm bezel. To me, the bezel means the area between the edge and the display content, so 2mm would be great. Unfortunately, this unboxing page indicates that AOC is mincing words and using the term bezel to mean the distance between the edge and the glass cover. I apologize for the confusion, though an 8-bit IPS panel for under $200 is still a nice change of pace.
Source: AOC PR
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A5 - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
My two work monitors have a combined bezel of a little over an inch - it's obviously not hard to get used to, but thinner bezels are always welcome in this use case.DanNeely - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
The only advantage i see for fat bezels is that overlapping them can hide the fact that your desktop is warped, or different segments of it aren't co-planar with each other, and/or that the portrait/landscape detents on rotating stands aren't perfectly square and prevent 1 or 2 degree offsets from them. Warping is probably less an issue with cheap desks now with multiple LCDs weighing less than a single CRT and distributing the load more widely. Non-coplanar work surfaces are a major issue with cubical type desks cantilevered from the walls; although corner style desks can bring the same headache to home setups as well. The detent issue has prevented me from getting perfectly aligned multipanel layouts using Dell, HP, and NEC monitors.Mr Perfect - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
This could be nice for a triple monitor gaming setup, but that would require Display Port with most video cards.sheltem - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
Not necessarily. You could use an active displayport adapter.kwrzesien - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
You probably want two video cards to drive that anyway.DanNeely - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
nVidia's higher end Kepler GPUs will run 3 VGA/DVI/HDMI displays off of a single card. The 2 legacy output limitation/card limitation is only an ATI limitation now.Flunk - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
Actually ATi cards supported this first, even some last-gen cards support 3 monitors.martyrant - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
Eyefinity was introduced in the Radeon HD 5000 series, I believe. It might have been on their flagship 4xxx, but I don't remember--I know my 4850 did not support it.dananski - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
Yes Eyefinity was introduced in the 5000 series. The trouble is you can only use up to two non-DP monitors with ATI Radeon cards. They only have two clock signals for the displays blah blah google it.Having tried out Crossfire recently I don't think it will help as you need to disable it in order to get output direct from the 2nd card.
It kinda seems like AOC are missing a large opportunity by failing to give these monitors DP - no one in the ATI camp are going to be able to use more than two without active (read expensive) converters, yet the screens are obviously designed to be tightly packed and used with Eyefinity :S
I think lack of DP and the landscape-only stand has put me off this one, but I'll be very interested in any variations on this theme as it clearly has a lot of good points too.
martyrant - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
go back and re-read the article...this was a bunch of hoo-haw because of misinformation...the title shouldn't even read "virtually"...it is "borderless appearance" when the monitor has no signal to it (OFF).So...this whole little blip about this monitor was pointless besides getting revenue for anandtech (not that I mind, I love this site).
It has NO VESA MOUNTS, only legacy/HDMI inputs (no DVI or DP is a huge, huge kick in the face--I can see leaving DP out on a monitor this cheap, but DVI should be mandatory (as it has been for YEARS))....useless for multi-monitor setups compared to other options.