AOC 24G2SPU UPDATE – MAJOR CHANGES AND RESPONSE
In my recent review of AOC’s 24G2SPU – this monitor here – I talked about an issue I found with their claims about the monitor’s response times. The biggest problem I found was that the main landing page for the monitor listed not only the already somewhat misleading “1ms MPRT” rating, but specifically that they were claiming this had a 1ms pixel response time – despite the spec page listing it as having a 4ms grey-to-grey response time. The reason I made a point to talk about it is that this is a problem that is somewhat endemic to the industry – every brand is now labelling their monitors as “1ms”, often without even mentioning that they are talking about the practically useless MPRT measurement, so I feel it’s worth making a point about.
Now as you are likely well aware, I’ve brought up issues like this before and the companies have reacted… Badly. While the issues do generally get worked out, sometimes it can take some time and effort to resolve – but in this case I’m very happy to say that AOC have been incredibly proactive in not only addressing the specific problem I found, but are also making a large and considerable effort to be clear and transparent across their entire range – and into the future. Specifically, AOC are in the process of updating their product page for the 24G2SPU to update any references to the “1ms response time” to now make it clear that it’s a “1ms MPRT” time. But that’s not all – they have assured me they will be combing through their ENTIRE PRODUCT RANGE to ensure that every page is as clear about this as it can be. They’ll be checking for any of the same mistakes like the pixel response time/MPRT mix-up they had here, and on top of that they’ve said they are going to be updating their entire catalogue of product imagery to make all those “1ms” claims clearer.
While I don’t think they’ll be updating their product packaging – that “1ms response time” claim is on all four sides of the box for this 24G2SPU by the way – the push to not only resolve the specific issue I found, but to push for a complete analysis of their marketing materials and claims is a fantastic act. They have also assured me that they are implementing procedures to make sure that this kind of mistake – and I do believe it was an honest mistake borne out of a miscommunication or misunderstanding of the terminology by less technical staff – won’t happen again. It’s worth noting that the staff that actually put together a landing page like the one for this monitor aren’t always technical staff, they may not know all that much about the technicalities of monitors, and while it’s no excuse because the end result was still a completely incorrect claim made publically, it is important to remember that we are all humans and everyone makes mistakes.
The thing is, companies like to claim an awful lot. They claim about how open and honest they are, how “green” they are, how ethical they are, but without actions to back up those claims, they are nothing more than empty words. Here though I’m inclined to believe AOC’s claims that, and I quote, “our ambition is to be transparent and communicate MPRT and GtG times.”, because they have shown not only that they are reactive to criticism from reviewers like me, but also proactive in resolving the issue and taking the initiative to resolve any other similar issues too. I didn’t have to chase them and offer any solutions, we didn’t need a massive uproar from the community to press for change, they just went and did it. While that seems like the obvious and sensible thing to do, it’s sadly rare to see and when it does happen I like to commend those actions.
While I still have plenty of issues with the industry’s push to claim “1ms MPRT” time as a valid response time measurement, AOC’s work here needs to be commended. My conclusion for the review was still that, once stock of the older 24G2U sells out, you should buy this monitor, and that obviously hasn’t changed. What has is my scepticism around their claims, and my hesitation to recommend it. So, if you are after a 1080p high refresh rate monitor, especially a rather nice one at that, go check out AOC’s 24G2 series – both the original 24G2U and their revised 165Hz 24G2SPU model I have here.
