Gigabyte CO49DQ Review: 5120×1440 144Hz Curved OLED Gaming Monitor

The Gigabyte Aorus CO49DQ is a 49″ 5120×1440 144Hz super-ultrawide curved gaming monitor based on Samsung’s QD-OLED panel, ensuring both an immersive and responsive gaming experience.

Image Quality

This gigantic 49″ 5120×1440 display is basically equivalent to two 27″ 2560×1440 monitors put side by side – just without the bezels in between them!

As a result, you get an incredibly immersive viewing experience with an extended field of view in compatible games. Most newer games support the 32:9 format without issues, while in some older titles, you may need to use mods for proper ultrawide support.

Keep in mind that the 5120×1440 is quite taxing on the GPU (almost as demanding as 4K UHD), so you’ll need a high-end graphics card for high frame rates.

Sadly, some games don’t support ultrawide resolutions at all (such as Valorant and StarCraft II), so you’ll have to play with black bars at the sides of the screen. Further, most video content has either a 16:9 or 21:9 aspect ratio, so those will be played with black bars as well.

Thanks to the extra horizontal screen space, the Gigabyte CO49DQ is also excellent for productivity work and audio/video editing! You get a high pixel density of 108.54 PPI (pixels per inch), resulting in sharp details and text without any scaling necessary.

Moving on, the monitor uses Samsung’s QD-OLED panel, so the image quality is pretty much identical to that of other displays that use the same panel when it comes to colors, brightness and contrast.

You get a wide 99.3% DCI-P3 color space coverage for vibrant colors and true 10-bit color depth support for smooth gradients without banding. To avoid over-saturation when viewing SDR content, there’s an sRGB emulation mode available as well.

The monitor is factory calibrated and has 178° wide viewing angles, which ensure that the image remains flawless regardless of the angle you’re looking at the screen.

Next, you get a peak brightness of 1000-nits for small < 3% APL (Average Picture Level, white window size) HDR highlights and 500-nits for 10% APL, while 100% APL in HDR and SDR is limited to 250-nits.

The 100% APL brightness is more than enough under normal lighting conditions.

However, if you plan on using the monitor in a particularly bright room (studio lighting, facing the window without blinds, etc.), some users might find it too dim. In this case, you should consider a brighter mini LED monitor for HDR content consumption, but keep in mind that these displays have their own drawbacks.

Under regular room lighting, the Gigabyte CO49DQ gets bright enough for an immersive HDR viewing experience with vivid highlights, vibrant colors and true blacks thanks to the infinite contrast ratio.

You may also notice that some W-OLED panels have a higher brightness specified (275-nits 100% APL, 1300-nits < 3% APL), however, this refers to white luminance.

The colors are actually brighter on QD-OLED panels, which in addition to their wider color gamut results in an overall higher perceived brightness and a more vibrant image quality.

Lastly, the Gigabyte CO49DQ uses Samsung’s second-generation QD-OLED panel with an improved sub-pixel layout, so there’s no prominent fringing on small text and fine details.

Performance

The monitor has a high 144Hz refresh rate, which gives you a big boost in motion clarity as opposed to regular 60-75Hz displays. However, keep in mind that there are also 49″ 5120×1440 OLED models with a higher 240Hz refresh rate available in this price range, which we’ll get into later in the article.

Thanks to its OLED panel, the Gigabyte Aorus CO49DQ has instantaneous pixel response time speed, resulting in zero ghosting and overshoot artifacts behind fast-moving objects.

Additionally, VRR (variable refresh rate) is supported for tear-free gameplay up to 144FPS. While the monitor has AMD’s FreeSync Premium Pro certification and HDMI 2.1 VRR support, the G-SYNC Compatible mode is not officially supported, but VRR works without issues with compatible (10-series or newer) GeForce cards.

Input lag is very low at around 4ms of delay, which is imperceptible.

Further, the Gigabyte CO49DQ monitor is completely flicker-free and there’s a low-blue light filter mode available in the OSD (On-Screen Display) menu.

The main downside of OLED monitors is the risk of burn-in when displaying an image with bright static elements for too long.

However, the Gigabyte CO49DQ has OLED Care features that will help prevent burn-in and image retention by dimming the brightness of static elements (logos, taskbar, etc.), occasionally moving the image by a few pixels, automatic pixel cleaning, etc.

On top of that, Gigabyte offers a 3-year warranty that covers burn-in.

Features

Beneath the screen’s bottom bezel, there’s a directional joystick for quick and easy navigation through the OSD menu. Alternatively, you can use Gigabyte’s OSD Sidekick desktop application, which allows you to change monitor settings using your mouse and keyboard instead.

Apart from the basic adjustment tools (brightness, contrast, color temperature, etc.), the Gigabyte Aorus CO49DQ also offers several advanced settings, including gamma, sharpness, 6-axis saturation and automatic input detection.

Other useful features include Picture in Picture / Picture by Picture, Black Equalizer (improves visibility in dark scenes), Color Vibrance, Dashboard (displays system settings on the screen, such as CPU/GPU color temperature, utilization, etc.), crosshair overlays, on-screen timers and a refresh rate tracker.

It also has an integrated KVM functionality, allowing you to connect two PCs to the monitor and use one set of keyboard and mouse to control both devices.

Design & Connectivity

The monitor’s stand is robust and offers a good range of ergonomics, including up to 130mm height adjustment, -5°/20° tilt, +/- 30° swivel and 100x100mm VESA mount compatibility.

The screen has a moderate 1800R curvature for added immersion and a semi-glossy finish, which provides you with a more vivid image quality than that of matte anti-glare coatings, but the image is more reflective and blacks are raised under direct lighting.

Connectivity options are abundant and include two HDMI 2.1 ports, DisplayPort 1.4 with DSC, USB-C (DP Alt Mode and 18W Power Delivery), a dual-USB 3.0 hub (two downstream type A ports and one upstream type B with firmware update support), a headphone jack and two 5W integrated speakers.

The monitor also supports the 120Hz 1440p mode for consoles, along with ALLM, HDMI 2.1 VRR and HDMI-CEC.

Price & Similar Monitors

The Gigabyte Aorus CO49DQ price ranges from $1,000 to $1,100.

If you don’t need KVM / USB-C, we recommend the Samsung OLED G9 instead. It has a higher 240Hz refresh rate and can be found on sale for $1,100.

In case you want a USB-C port with higher power delivery, check out the MSI MPG 491CQP. It offers built-in KVM, USB-C with 90W PD and a 144Hz refresh rate for $1,100.

For more information and options, check out our best HDR monitors buyer’s guide.

Conclusion

All in all, the Gigabyte CO49DQ is an excellent gaming monitor thanks to its 49″ 5120×1440 144Hz QD-OLED panel that ensures an immersive viewing experience and responsive gameplay.

Specifications

Screen Size	49-inch
Screen Curvature	1800R
Resolution	5120×1440 (DQHD)
Panel Type	OLED
Aspect Ratio	32:9 (Super-UltraWide)
Refresh Rate	144Hz
Response Time	0.03ms (GtG)
Speakers	2x5W
Adaptive-Sync	FreeSync Premium Pro (48-144Hz) HDMI 2.1 VRR
Ports	DisplayPort 1.4, 2x HDMI 2.1, USB-C (DP Alt Mode, 18W PD)
Other Ports	Headphone Jack, 2x USB 3.0
Brightness (1 – 3% White Window)	1000 cd/m²
Brightness (10% White Window)	500 cd/m²
Brightness (100% White Window)	250 cd/m²
Contrast Ratio	Infinite
Colors	1.07 billion (true 10-bit) 99.3% DCI-P3
HDR	VESA DisplayHDR 400 True Black
VESA	Yes (100x100mm)