Innocn 40C1R ultrawide 144Hz monitor review: Lots of space and fast refresh rate

A few months ago, the Innocn 27C1U 4K PC monitor replaced my standard 24-inch Dell monitor, and the color, clarity, and performance continue to be impressive. Last month, Innocn 40C1R ultrawide monitor arrived for testing. It’s impressive for gaming, multi-input usage, and multi-app and multi-tab performance.

My primary ZDNet writing computer is an older Surface Book, while my everyday engineering computer is a Surface Pro 6. To connect these computers to the monitor, I simply switch the connection to my Microsoft Surface hub. With these Surface products, I enjoyed using two full-sized apps side-by-side to get work done.

With USB-C support and my focus on mobile devices, I paired the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra with Samsung DeX with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse for a full PC experience. I also tested my iPad Pro 12.9 running the iOS 16.0 public beta, which greatly improves external monitor support.

Hardware

The retail package is very long, so you may want two people present to unpack and set up. The retail box contains the monitor, power cord, USB-C to USB-C cable, DP cable, color calibration report for the specific monitor in the box, four hex mounting brackets, stand arm, base, and instruction manual. The two-piece stand consists of a vertical piece that screws securely into the base platform and then clips into the back of the monitor to provide a very sturdy platform to place the monitor on your desk. You can also mount the monitor on a wall and these specific instructions are provided in the box. Setup was quick and easy so I had everything ready in just a few minutes.

Connectivity ports are located at the bottom of the monitor’s back and include one full-size HDMI 2.0 port, a DP1.4 port, a USB-C PD 90W port, a 3.5mm audio jack and a DC power port. With this assortment of ports, I connected my Surface dock to the DP1.4 port, Samsung devices and iPad to the USB-C port, and my Nintendo Switch to the HDMI port. It was quick and easy to switch between ports and I had the cables I needed close to the base.

The monitor is height adjustable with a range of 120mm to match your preferred height. You can rotate the monitor left and right 30 degrees, tilt forward 5 degrees or tilt back 15 degrees.

Also: Samsung DeX 101: Turn a Galaxy phone or tablet into your primary computer

Monitor controls and settings

Press any button in the lower right corner of the display to access the on-screen controls. There are five buttons and working from left to right we find the menu button, down button, up button, exit/hotkey and the power button. The menu button is used for selection. The up and down buttons scroll through the menu options when in a menu and when no menu is displayed on the screen, they can be used to quickly increase or decrease brightness levels. The exit/hotkey returns to the menu system and also allows you to quickly toggle port settings without an on-screen menu.

On-Screen Display (OSD) menu options are plentiful on the Innocn 40C1R with Game, Professional, Picture, PIP/PBP, OSD settings and other settings. Game settings include RTS/RPB mode switching, arena FPS mode switching, adaptive timing, refresh rate and game crosspoint options. The monitor is clearly optimized for the gamer and this experience is better than the experience when working at the resolution provided.

Professional settings include standard mode, sRGB mode, Adobe mode, uniformity mode, gamma, CT settings, sharpness, shadow balance, low blue light, hue, saturation and dynamic brightness. Picture settings include brightness, contrast, DCR, context model, HDR and aspect ratio.

While you can use PIP with a secondary input device, I preferred to use PBP for Samsung DeX on half of the display. There are six PIP/PBP settings available, so explore them if you want to use this feature.

The OSD settings allow you to customize three of the hotkeys to your preference, so you can set them up for the most common functions that will allow you to control the monitor without diving into the full OSD menu. Hotkey options include brightness, contrast, volume, mute, shadow balance, game viewfinder, refresh rate, PIP/PBP mode, input signal, dynamic brightness, and HDR.

Other settings include input signal, volume, mute, auto power, glasses reminder, reset and information. As you can see, you can fully customize the monitor for your specific needs. The monitor is also smart and everything I plugged into it worked perfectly without having to dive into settings. I changed some settings to check that everything was optimized, but the automatic settings were almost perfect.

Also: Innocn PU15-Pre 4K OLED Review: A portable monitor to enhance your productivity

Daily use experience and conclusion

The Innocn 40C1R ultrawide monitor is optimized for gaming, and after first connecting my Surface PCs, I wasn’t impressed with the resolution, especially when using the Innocn 27C1U 4K as a secondary monitor. The speakers are also pretty terrible, so be sure to use another source for audio or plug the speakers into the 3.5mm audio port, as good sound is important to the gaming experience. Playing high refresh rate games with FreeSync support (requires AMD GPU or APU) is probably the better experience with this wide monitor.

After a week, my eyes adjusted to the monitor for engineering tasks, document creation, and more, as I ran almost everything in a split-screen setup with two apps splitting the display. Still, I prefer the smaller 27C1U for work. The monitor base is a reasonable size and mounting the wider monitor on my standing desk was perfectly acceptable. I actually moved the Innocn 40C1R to another standing desk that doubles as a gaming station where the monitor is best used.

Setup was quick and easy, the monitor is well built, works flawlessly, and is reasonably priced at $499.99. I also saw an $80 coupon pop up for the monitor, making it an even more affordable gaming rig.

Alternatives to consider

The Innocn 40C1R is a solid widescreen monitor, but you may be looking for something else, so here are some alternatives to consider.