Titan Army C49C1S review: 49 inches, 240 Hz, and 32:9 can feel almost unfair in FIFA

Once the monitor is properly calibrated (see our ICM profile below), the image quality—especially contrast—is impressive. Color deviations also become pleasantly low. And the extremely wide field of view makes a real difference in games, particularly racing and sports titles. In FIFA, for example, it can even translate into a gameplay advantage.

Of course, you shouldn’t expect OLED-level quality from an HVA panel, and viewing angle stability is rather weak. Still, anyone who mainly games or regularly works with lots of windows open at once may find plenty to like about this superwide display.

The monitor can be ordered via Aliexpress for $697.67. You can try the code “NOTEC49” to knock some credits off the total.

The C49C1S is essentially the equivalent of two full-sized 27-inch monitors placed side by side. At this size, Titan Army opts for a curved design, while the HVA panel is intended to reduce some of the response-time drawbacks typically associated with the technology.

Despite its gaming label, the curved black plastic chassis comes without any LEDs. The plastic bezels are very slim everywhere except along the bottom edge, and they’re complemented by a glass border.

We also liked the centrally positioned control buttons underneath the display. Instead of reaching blindly under the monitor, as with the BenQ Mobiuz (review), the buttons on the Titan Army are clearly labeled.

The 49-inch HVA panel in a 32:9 superwide aspect ratio offers a resolution of 5,120 × 1,440, a 1800R curve, a 240 Hz refresh rate, support for FreeSync and G-Sync, and a fast 1 ms response time for a VA-based panel.

This comparison may be a little unfair: right before this, we had the QD-OLED BenQ Mobiuz EX271UZ in front of us (our review), and in terms of subjective image quality in factory settings, the gap is enormous. That said, the Titan Army simply ships with poor calibration, as shown below.

In Standard mode and also in the Display P3 profile, brightness is reduced by 50 percent on the Titan Army. That leaves it in the 160 to 200 nit range, and the monitor’s massive surface isn’t illuminated all that evenly. Overall, the image looks too dark and washed out.

Black levels are too high out of the box, which in turn hurts contrast. In general, we recommend using our calibrated profile and increasing brightness as well—once you do, the image looks significantly better.

With brightness set to 100 percent, we measured an average of 340 nits, with 385 nits at the center. HDR is not something we’d recommend on this monitor.

Titan Army isn’t doing itself any favors with the factory setup. Despite the included P3 calibration certificate, the monitor is not well tuned out of the box. Our manual calibration significantly improves black levels, contrast, and DeltaE values.

Most notably, black levels drop to nearly zero, resulting in a substantial increase in contrast. We were also able to reduce DeltaE values to around 1.5.

Our ICM profile can be downloaded for free further up in the article.

Titan Army advertises the monitor with P3 color gamut support. According to our measurements, it covers around 84 percent of P3, while fully covering sRGB.

On a white screen, the oscilloscope shows recurring waveforms at around 60 Hz. At the same time, the device measures a frequency of 6.7 kHz. Most likely, this is high-frequency backlight modulation (~6.7 kHz), with its visible effect being overlaid by the panel drive at 60 Hz. That high frequency should not pose an issue even for sensitive users.

  Gaming is where the superwide format really comes into its own. In Forza Horizon 6 (our review), the driver’s perspective in particular reveals much more of the cockpit, which makes the racing experience feel even more immersive.

In FIFA, the difference is arguably even more dramatic and borders on cheating. Not only do the cutscenes let us take in the entire stadium for a fantastic sense of atmosphere, but during matches we can also see almost the entire pitch at once. That makes it much easier to spot when a player starts a run well ahead of the line and react more effectively to specific situations in play.

This is one of the more significant weaknesses of VA panels, as viewing angle stability is often less than ideal—and that’s true of Titan Army’s 49-inch display as well.

When switched off, the 49-inch giant draws just 0.25 W. Once powered on, consumption depends entirely on brightness. At full brightness, the monitor pulls around 70 W; at 50 percent brightness, it draws about 50 W from the wall.