We’ve got our hands on one very interesting monitor. We think it is some sort of an answer to the question; “I want one of those Samsung Ultra-Wide gaming monitors, but I do not have that kind of money. What do I do?” You get this one, the AOPEN 43XV1C P ultra-wide 32:9 aspect ratio gaming display.
It will set you back MYR 2,999 at full retail price. For that kind of money though, you are getting not one, but two Full HD monitors that is put together side by side. You also get 120Hz in refresh rate, meaning you get silky smooth gaming experience, with the right hardware. It even responds fast at 1ms response time. If you are into video editing, the IPS panel covers up to 93% of DCI-P3 colour gamut.
With all of that, it may sound like the AOPEN 43XV1C P is a good buy. It may sound like it is a sensible purchase if you want a wider than the regular ultra-wide experience. It makes a lot more sense than getting two Full HD gaming displays, that is for sure. It does not curve though, and it is an AOPEN, a sort of budget friendly badge. So, is it worth the premium asking price? If you are looking for an ultra-wide gaming experience, is this the display you should be looking for? Is it even a good display to work with? We find all those out and more in our video review of the AOPEN 43XV1C P.
HUAWEI has grown from a little-known smartphone maker from China to become one of the tech giants of the world. Of course, the fact that they make great smartphones helped their rise to become one of the most recognisable electronics brands in the world. In the recent years, HUAWEI has also expanded its product range to just more than mobile devices. This is including smartphone peripherals like headsets and wireless speakers. They branched out into home appliances. They also branched out into making Windows laptops, which worked great if you own a HUAWEI device already. They even made smart TVs in the past two years.
It only makes sense then, when HUAWEI started making PCs and even smart TVs, that they start making PC displays. They started with the brand new MateView and MateView GT. As per the title, it really is like Beauty and the Beast. We are not really referring to how the monitors look though; we are referring to what they are made for.
HUAWEI MateView – The Beauty … of 4K+ resolution
The HUAWEI MateView is made for creators in mind and it shows in the colour accuracy rating of the display. It boasts ΔE<2 with 98% coverage of the DCI-P3 colour gamut. On the sRGB scale, it covers 100% of the colour gamut. That also means unparalleled colour accuracy, very important when you are colour correcting photos or even videos. At HDR 400 also, contents shine when displayed on the HUAWEI MateView. We have not even gone to its resolution.
The HUAWEI MateView displays all these colours at an extremely high resolution 4K+. You get 3,840 x 2,560 pixels from the 28.2-inch IPS panel. While that means that you get a very odd 3:2 display ratio, it also means you get more display real estate to work with, important when you only have one monitor to rely on when you work with videos. At 1.07 billion colours as well, colour gradients look natural even when you push the brightness to the maximum 500 nits the HUAWEI MateView is capable of.
It even boasts two 5W speakers on its integrated stand. While it may not be the most powerful speakers you can find in the market, the speakers should produce an acceptable audio, if you do not have an external speaker to work with. At the same time, with wireless projection, you can hook your HUAWEI devices up wirelessly and play your favourite music through the MateView’s speakers instead. For video conferencing, the HUAWEI MateView even packs four built in mics. You can even fire up Cortana on Windows 10 with the mics.
The HUAWEI MateView is also your friendly USB Hub. While it packs HDMI 2.0 (capable of 3,840 x 2,560 @50Hz) and a MiniDP port, you can hook your PC to the display via USB Type-C cable too. If you hook your PC up to the Display via the HDMI or the MiniDP port, you have an extra USB Type-C port to go alongside two more UBS Type-A ports on the integrated stand. The USB Type-C port also charges at 65W too, which also means your thin and light PC might not need to be plugged into a power source of its own.
HUAWEI MateView GT – The Beast … For Your Gaming Fix
To be fair, we could never have imagined a world where HUAWEI champions PC gaming five years ago. 2021 is a vastly different time compared to the world of 2015/2016 though. The world is in massive lockdown, and everyone is forced to work from home most of their days. One of the ways people spend their remaining time after work then is to game with friends, or publicly in competitive esports titles. Gaming peripherals has a newfound popularity in 2021, through 2020.
The HUAWEI MateView GT is a product of inevitability, at least in our humble opinions. If you can make an excellent 4K display, why not make a gaming display? That is how the HUAWEI MateView GT came about, we think.
It boasts 1440p (3,440 x 1,440) in resolution and the ultra-wide 21:9 display ratio is preferred here. Of course, all that is an influence of the most popular set-up a gaming PC has today. It refreshes at 165Hz as well, which is on par with some of the most advanced gaming displays of the modern world. At 34-inch, the ultra-wide display will also pretty much take up your whole desk space. It is a curved display though, so you do not need to strain to see from edge to edge.
At a glance, you know it is made for gaming with a light strip along the base of the monitor. The slick and slim bars that holds the entire weight of the monitor is painted black too, just so you are not distracted from gaming. But there is more than meets the eyes with this monitor though.
Firstly, to make it fully immersive, HUAWEI ensures that it does not just pack a lot of pixels. The pixels has to display accurate colour information and must look great as well. The display covers 90% of DCI-P3 colour gamut. Its 1 billion colours is also displayed in HDR10 glory at 4000:1 contrast ratio for the best visual experience you can get in a display.
OIn top of all of that, the light bar that stretches the width of the base of the monitor is not just for show. It is a touch sensitive volume control bar for the sound bar that is the base of the monitor. It packs two 5W speakers, which may not sound like much, but it does provide with you with immersive stereo experience to go with your gaming. That also means that you do not need to get a separate headphone or speaker set-up to get going. There are even two built-in speakers on the MateView GT itself, for you to communicate with your team mates or rivals in heated gaming sessions.
If you have multiple gaming devices, you can hook up to four devices at the same time. You get two HDMI 2.0 ports, for you PlayStation, or Xbox, or Nintendo Switch. You have one DisplayPort for your gaming PC, and another USB Type-C port for your productivity machine. The USB port can also be used to charge your devices too.
Pricing and Availability
The HUAWEI MateView and MateView GT is now available for pre-order (7th – 21st July). You can pre-order yours now via HUAWEI’s Online Store. Of course, you can also head down to HUAWEI’s official store on Shopee and Lazada to pre order both the MateView and MateView GT. The HUAWEI MateView retails at MYR 2,988 while the MateView GT retails at 2,488 with MYR 100 rebate for each pre-order. Each pre-order also entitles you to a complementary HUAWEI WiFi AX3 Dual Core router capable of WiFi 6 networking.
Gaming is in Acer’s blood. The Predator brand that stems out from the Taiwanese based firm is now one of the most recognisable names in the PC gaming community. Of course, building on a solid branding block and competitively valued gaming PC builds help cement their legacy in the gaming and eSports community.
Predator Orion 3000
Before there was eSports though, there was something called a LAN Party. A LAN Party is basically a place for gamers to come together to game together in the same space; hence, LAN (Local Area Network). People used to come together to play multiplayer games like Counter Strike and such. In these LAN parties, you are expected to bring your own peripherals and even your own PC.
In such conditions, you need a gaming PC that is compact enough to take with you anywhere in the world. You still need powerful hardware as well though, for all the serious gaming you are going to get yourself into. You might want to go wireless as well, in this case.
That is why Predator built the Orion 3000, the baby Orion. The latest Orion series hardware features a compact mid-tower case that is ready to take on the latest AAA titles without breaking a sweat. You might break a sweat carrying the powerful package.
The Predator Orion 3000’s chassis is a custom-built chassis by Predator to look the part. The chassis even features a built-in headphone hook. But it is not form without function here. The chassis is designed with upgradability in mind. In that case, you can open the case and even upgrade the GPU or any other components yourself with little in your way.
You get to work with a 10th Generation Intel Core i7 (up to) paired with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (up to) SUPER for good measure. The combination of the CPU and GPU, on top of a healthy 8GB of RAM should be a recipe that works with most AAA titles today. If 8GB is not enough, you can fit up to 64GB of RAM into the baby Orion. All the peripherals get a healthy dose of air thanks to two in-house developed Acer FrostBlade fans with RGB ability. Of course, ther is WiFi 6 so that you can set up from anywhere and still get a decent network connection even without wires.
Predator XB273U GX Gaming Monitor
Of course, powerful hardware must be paired to a display worthy of all its power. You want a fast display, you want pretty colours, and you want 27-inch. We feel that 27-inch is the magic number for gaming monitors. It is big enough to fit a table and for you to see everything on your desk with enough details. It is not too big too for your desk so you can just sit at a comfortable distance and take advantage of the large display area.
The Predator XB273U GX gaming monitor fits that bill perfectly. 27-inch, check. Fast, it boasts 270Hz refresh rate and 0.5ms response time, overclocked; so, check. It boasts HDR 400 certification and Delta E<2; pretty colours, check. You can even power it with a USB Type-C 65W power delivery output.
On top of all of that you can swivel the monitor around, tilt it, and adjust its height for maximum comfort and most efficient layout on your desk. Thanks to 99% AdobeRGB colour gamut and Delta E<2 as well, the monitor can be used in creative cases such as photo and video editing when you need to. Did we forget to mention its WQHD (2560 x 1440) resolution?
Acer CB342CK C Monitor
At home though, you might want something a little more immersive. You might want an ultra-wide display to view everything on one display. You might want an Acer CB342CK C UltraWide monitor.
The Acer CB342CK C monitor features a 34-inch display that is stretched out wide. It boasts 3,440 by 1,440 (UWQHD) in resolution. It is still an acceptably speedy monitor too with 75Hz refresh rate and 1ms response time. Like the XB2783U GX, you can power the Ultra-Wide monitor with 65W power delivery too.
The ultra-wide IPS display is still a good-looking display with 99% sRGB colour gamut still. You get up to 400nits in brightness too if you need it. With AMD Radeon FreeSync, the monitor should still be reasonably good with games. The extra display real estate should allow for a more immersive gaming experience, especially with racing games.
Price and Availability
The Predator Orion 3000 comes in either a 10th Generation Intel Core i7 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER pairing (MYR 6,799) or a 10th Generation Intel Core i5 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER pairing (MYR 4,099). Both comes in the same great looking chassis. The baby Predator is now available from Acer’s authorised resellers across the nation and from Acer’s official online stores (including Lazada and Shopee).
The Predator XB273U GX monitor is now available from Acer authorised stores nationwide and Acer’s official online stores (including Lazada and Shopee). There are no colour options for the 27-incher. The Predator XB273U GX will set you back MYR 3,299.
The Acer CB432CK C Ultra-Wide monitor will be available at the end of December 2020. It will be available at all Acer’s authorised resellers across the nation and Acer’s official online stores (including Lazada and Shopee). You can get your hands on one when its available for MYR 1,799.
Customers who purchase any of these devices before 31 December 2020 will be entitled to redeem free gifts, including up to RM100 worth of Touch ‘n Go eWallet credit on their redemption website. In addition, every submission before 24 December 2020 will also entitle the customer to one entry to the Christmas rEunion Advent Calendar to stand a chance to bring back prizes from the total prize pool worth up to RM30,000. Starting from 1 December 2020 until 25 December 2020, Acer Malaysia will pick a lucky winner every day for the special prize. Winners will be announced on Acer Malaysia Facebook or their redemption website. For more information on Acer’s products, you can visit their website too.