Innocn 49Q1R 49-inch OLED monitor review: A display of strange decisions

The Innocn 49-inch OLED ultrawide monitor is an eye-catching monitor, and I’m a big fan. But some concerns may mean that Mac owners should choose something else.

I know that might not make a lot of sense, especially when I explain all of the things I like about this monitor. It’s surprisingly affordable with some impressive specs, and it’s changed the way I work.

It’s also been a revelation when gaming, albeit with some limitations that aren’t the monitor’s fault. There’s something to be said for playing an immersive game on a monitor that fills your vision.

But as the low price of around $800 might suggest, Innocn has had to cut some corners. Some of them are relatively inconsequential, but others could be a dealbreaker.

Where you stand on the corners that Innocn chose to cut will depend on your needs. And in one case, your level of risk aversion in the face of a potential bargain.

Confused? You’ve every right to be, because this is a confusing monitor. But read on, and I think it’ll all make sense by the time we get to the end of this Innocn 49Q1R 49-inch OLED 32:9 monitor review.

Innocn 49-inch OLED ultrawide monitor review: Design

The first thing that I noticed when I unboxed the 49Q1R was its sheer size. At 49 inches across a 32:9 ultrawide display, this monitor will fill most desks.

With that in mind, it’s a good job that it’s a nice-looking bit of kit. It has nice and thin bezels and a 1800R curvature that wraps around your field of view.

There’s a lot of plastic going on here, to be sure. But the included stand is made from metal and feels solid in the hand.

Unfortunately, the size and weight of the monitor mean there is still some wobble. I type a lot, and I often notice the monitor bobbling around more than I’d like.

A joystick can be found beneath the front lip for all of your setup needs, and there are some speakers down there as well. They might as well not be, but more on that later.

Moving around the back, we find a raft of ports and two vertical LED lights that, again, might as well not be there. They’re angled in such a way that I don’t see the lights bounce off a white wall directly behind the monitor.

As far as huge monitors go, I do think that the 49Q1R is a good-looking device. And it needs to be because it dominates my desk.

Innocn 49-inch OLED ultrawide monitor review: Connectivity

A monitor, big or small, is no good if you don’t have a way to connect your stuff to it. Thankfully, the Innocn 49Q1R doesn’t disappoint here.

Getting an image onto this monitor is easy thanks to a choice of two HDMI 2.1 ports and a single DisplayPort 1.4 port. There’s also a USB-C port with 90W power delivery support for powering my 16-inch MacBook Pro.

The ports keep on coming, including a pair of USB-A ports and a single USB-B port with the monitor acting as a hub. The final three ports are for power, a 100 Mbps Ethernet port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

This is all to say, this huge monitor’s rear is full to the brim with places to plug things in. Some are more useful than others — who’s buying this monitor and using a 100Mbps Ethernet port, exactly?

Wrapping up the connectivity, I do want to give Innocn a big shout-out for the cables it ships with this thing. You’ll get a DisplayPort cable, an HDMI cable, a USB-C cable, and a USB-A to USB-B cable, all included in the box.

That means that you’ll have everything you need to get started, no matter what you’re plugging in. You can’t always say that about monitors from bigger, more expensive outfits than Innocn.

Innocn 49-inch OLED ultrawide monitor review: Specs

There’s only one place to start when looking at this monitor’s specs, and that’s the display itself. At 49 inches, it’s absolutely massive.

Sure, there are bigger monitors around, but I’m not sure I can envisage using one. This thing borders on being too big and too wide.

Those 49 inches are made up of 7,372,800 pixels across a 5120 x 1440 resolution. That’s a lot of pixels, although not quite as many as the 8,294,400 pixels you get with a standard 4K 16:9 monitor.

For Mac users, there will always be a question around whether a third-party monitor is up to our “Retina” expectations. Is the pixel density high enough to effectively make the pixels invisible at a normal viewing distance?

Whether or not a display is “Retina” or not is hard to discern because it’s a fuzzy term with fuzzy specs. With that in mind, comparing this monitor to those from Apple seems the best way to go.

The Innocn 49Q1R’s resolution and display size give it a pixel density of 109 pixels-per-inch, or PPI. For comparison, Apple’s 27-inch Studio Display has a 5120 x 2880 resolution for a PPI of 218.

Moving up the range, the Pro Display XDR has a 32-inch display with a resolution of 6016 x 3384 pixels. Again, that works out to be a pixel density of 218 PPI.

You don’t need to be a mathematician to see that the 49Q1R’s 109ppi can’t compete and, as a result, it isn’t “Retina.” Whether that really matters to you, only you can decide.

All I can say is that I’ve spent weeks writing hundreds of thousands of words on this thing, and not once has it been an issue. I can’t see the pixels, but if you need “Retina”, you won’t find it here.

The monitor’s pixels are spread across a curved QD-OLED panel, a relatively new technology. The QD stands for Quantum Dot, and it has a key difference compared to traditional OLED displays.

I’m not going to get into the technicalities because it gets complicated fast. But the gist is that QD-OLED displays use a blue self-luminescent layer with a film of quantum dots on top.

The result, in theory, is that QD-OLED panels are brighter than their OLED counterparts. This monitor is rated for HDR400, so a peak brightness of 400 nits.

That isn’t Earth-shattering, and in reality, there are monitors with brighter displays out there. But it is HDR-rated, even if it might not blow your socks off.

Other key specs include a maximum refresh rate of 144Hz, which is more than enough for macOS, and plenty for most gamers. The display also supports a variable refresh rate, much like Apple’s ProMotion technology.

Another feature aimed squarely at gamers is a 0.03ms response time, something of a staple for OLED displays. It also offers 99% P3 color gamut, too.

Finally, the stand supports swiveling and rotating, while a height adjustment is also offered. There’s even somewhere to hang your headphones around the back — although reaching them can be difficult.

Innocn 49-inch OLED ultrawide monitor review: Longevity concerns

If you’ve ever thought about buying an OLED monitor, you’ll already be aware of the potential for screen burn-in and/or image retention. It’s an issue that OLED display makers are aware of, and they build technology that helps prevent it.

That technology usually involves the monitor subtly moving the image a few pixels every so often. That helps ensure that static images aren’t always being displayed on the same pixels.

They often also offer a pixel refresh system, another layer of protection to help give pixels time off. These systems run automatically, but can also be run manually if required.

In the case of this Innocn monitor, things are a little complicated.

First, there is no mention anywhere in the manual or the monitor’s on-screen display of any kind of protection. That struck me as odd, so I asked the folks at Innocn what was going on.

The response I got was less than ideal.

When I asked what the monitor does, I was told that it performs “Regular automatic screen maintenance; periodic shifting of pixels corresponding to the display screen to avoid long-term display of the same image and signal; automatic identification and displacement of icons and other images with long-term fixed positions to avoid residual images”.

Ultimately, there is no way to manually run any of this yourself. And I’ve never seen anything on-screen to suggest that any of this is happening, though I’ve no particular reason to doubt Innocn’s response.

But what I do know is that Innocn offers a relatively short single-year panel warranty on this monitor. That means that if it does suffer from issues after 13 months, you’re out of luck.

Thankfully, the monitor is competitively priced. But if the potential for display issues is a deal-breaker for you, these are all things to ponder before buying it.

Innocn 49-inch OLED ultrawide monitor review: My time spent with the display

As I said, I’ve been using this monitor with a 16-inch MacBook Pro in clamshell mode. And its huge size means that I don’t need another monitor, or the Mac’s built-in display.

Part of that size is the 32:9 screen ratio, something that might be an issue for some. This monitor is extremely wide, but not particularly high.

I, personally, like this ratio because it opens the door to side-by-side window management that works for me. But if you do a lot of vertical scrolling, a more traditional ratio might be for you.

The monitor Innocn sent for review has spent the vast majority of its time being used for work, and it’s been great. I came from a 28-inch 4K monitor, and I’m not sure how I’ll ever go back — the size has ruined me.

The same goes for the OLED experience of incredible contrast and blacker-than-black dark areas of the image. Playing games like Doom and Half Life 2 highlights that, as does watching content like movies.

But watching TV shows and movies does highlight one issue that is well worth noting. It all comes back to that 32:9 aspect ratio.

This isn’t the monitor for watching content. You can do it, but it shouldn’t be your main use case.

Even widescreen content looks lost in the middle of this 49-inch display with huge black areas on either side. Some content even has black borders at the top and bottom, depending on how it was made — YouTube is a real sinner here.

Would it put me off a 32:9 monitor? No, because it’s a relatively small portion of my use, and even then, I watch content in windows while doing other things.

But it’s a real issue that even stretches to cut scenes in most games. Some games don’t support 32:9 at all, even in-game. Again, something to consider.

Oh, and then there are those speakers. They work, as in they make noise, but that’s as good as they get.

The volume is so low you’ll wonder if they’re really working, and even if they are, they sound terrible. Just pretend they aren’t there, because you’ll never want to use them.

Innocn 49-inch OLED ultrawide monitor review: Once you go this big, it’s hard to go back

Don’t get me wrong here, though. I really like this monitor and I’ve enjoyed using it. But if you’re looking to buy a monitor, these gripes are all things to consider, and they aren’t specific to this Innocn monitor.

Ultimately, I think that this monitor is a great all-rounder that, despite being marketed as a gaming monitor, may not be. It’s good for gaming, yeah, but it’s good at a lot of things without being exceptional.

If you’re a gamer, you might not want to go this wide, for example. And at 144Hz, the refresh rate is fast but not as fast as some monitors on the market.

But if you want a monitor that looks great when playing games, has tons of space for windows, and looks great? I don’t think you can go far wrong with this monitor, especially if you can get a deal.

I just wonder how this panel will hold up after another 12 months of use.

Innocn 49-inch OLED ultrawide monitor review: Pros

• It’s the biggest monitor I’ve ever used
• There’s no beating OLED for contrast
• No shortage of adjustability
• Relatively cheap

Innocn 49-inch OLED ultrawide monitor review: Cons

• Lackluster HDR
• Doubts over OLED burn-in protection
• Speakers that might as well not be there
• Some people might need more vertical space

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Where to buy the Innocn 49Q1R OLED ultrawide monitor

You can buy the Innocn 49Q1R direct from the manufacturer for $999.99, although it’s regularly on sale for a couple of hundred dollars less. You can also buy it from Amazon for $999.99, but it’s often on sale for considerably less.