To maximize a good gaming experience, this panel is also G-SYNC Compatibleas well as technology compatible Free Sync from AMD, so that the graphics card will be able to synchronize the refresh rate to the FPS output to avoid tearing and stuttering effects. In addition to this, and although the monitor lacks official certification, its maximum brightness of 350 nits makes it compatible with the standard HDR400.
On the other hand, and since the users who purchase this monitor will surely spend many hours in front of the screen, Newskill has integrated technologies to preserve visual health such as flicker-free Y Low Blue Light. As if this were not enough, the monitor has total ergonomics that allows it to be placed in almost any position, as it has height adjustment, swivel, tilt and rotation, all with a tripod-shaped base that, with great solidity, keeps the screen always in your place.
Finally, it should be noted that following the current market trend, the monitor has rear RGB lighting (it can be deactivated), and as video inputs it has HDMI2.0 Y DisplayPort 1.4a, as well as a USB-C input.
Newskill already has this Icarus IC24FI360 for sale in its online store for a price of €449.95So let’s see if it’s worth it or not.
Unboxing and external analysis
The Newskill Icarus IC24FI360 comes packed in a box of considerable dimensions and made of hard cardboard in a neutral color, of course with information about the monitor on both sides and an image of it on the main faces.
Let’s start by looking at the accessories: Newskill includes a brief instruction manual, as well as a black envelope with stickers and brand merchandising. We also have the usual energy efficiency sticker, the power adapter with cable, some adapter screws to be able to install the monitor on a VESA arm, and a DisplayPort cable (remember that this will be necessary to enjoy 360 Hz, because HDMI is not compatible).
The external power supply has a maximum power of 89.3 watts, more than enough power to service this monitor that has a typical consumption of 36 watts nothing more. It is made by AOYUAN, a Chinese brand.
The monitor base comes in two parts, one with the tripod and one with the anchor frame. Both are made of strong black painted metal. The legs of the tripod are rubberized, and as you can see the anchoring to the screen is done through a circular structure with a Dell-style quick release button, a quality detail that is much appreciated.
Joining these two pieces is very simple: we simply insert one into the other and finger-tighten the lower screw.
Once this is done, we already have the base ready to install the screen on it.
Now let’s see the screen: black, it has very thin edges on both sides and the top, being thicker on the bottom where we also have the brand’s logo. The monitor itself is quite thick for what is usual for an IPS screen.
Right in the center of the lower area we have the only button on the monitor, which in turn acts as a joystick and that will allow us to move comfortably through the OSD. In the right part of this lower area we have a status indicator LED.
We go to the back, where we can see three clearly differentiated areas (well, four): in the center we have the circle in which to anchor the base, and on both sides of this we have RGB LED strips. At the bottom, we have all the connections.
Let’s take a closer look at the connections that this Newskill Icarus IC24FI360 has: from left to right, we have two HDMI, one DisplayPort, one USB-C, audio output minijack, and the power connector.
To mount the base on the screen, we simply have to insert the upper part first and then press down on the lower part until the retention mechanism clicks. Once this is done, the monitor is already assembled and ready to use, and when we want to disassemble it, we will simply have to press the lever upwards and the mechanism will release the screen from the base.
Here you have the Newskill Icarus IC24FI360 already mounted on its base.
As we said when we saw its technical specifications, this monitor has total ergonomics that allows you to modify its height, tilt, rotation and rotation, and this includes the possibility of putting the screen vertically if you want.
In this side view we can see a little better some of the ergonomic options it offers us.
And here you can see, from behind, the height modification that it allows.
Having seen the monitor, the time has come to turn it on and connect it to a PC to see how it behaves.
Newskill Icarus IC24FI360 Testing and Performance
Let’s start by looking at the OSD (on screen display, or the screen’s own menu) that Newskill has arranged on this monitor. It is accessed through the central joystick that we saw before, but be careful because pressing this joystick down only serves to turn the monitor on and off, it is not valid to accept in the menus (and we say this because several times we wanted to modify some setting and instead of we accidentally turn off the monitor).
Directly, the monitor allows us, for example, to switch between its different video inputs.
It also has a direct option to be able to place a crosshair right in the center of the screen. This is a bit of a cheat, but for some FPS type games that don’t feature crosshairs, it’s sure to come in handy for more than one.
As for the menus, they are quite common but perhaps a bit overwhelming, because the OSD is quite large and has many menus and submenus. In addition, and although it is in Spanish, some translations such as “Close” are strange when they mean that something is deactivated.
By the way, an important issue is that the monitor’s Adaptive Sync feature is disabled at the factory, and will need to be enabled in the OSD before it can be configured later in the software. Be careful with this, because if it is not activated on the monitor itself, the option will not even appear later in the software that we use.
Seen the OSD, let’s go to the tests, and initially we will proceed to assess the panel and its reproduction of color, white, black and intensity. The panel is IPS and that means that it has (or should have) excellent color reproduction, but Fast-IPS panels tend to err a bit in terms of black and white balance, and especially tend to have light leaks in blacks .
The reproduction of both whites and blacks is more than correct, without any light leakage and without spots. Of course, the white is perhaps a bit grayish unless you activate the HDR mode in the OSD of the monitor itself, and if you do, the colors lose some intensity… it’s a bit strange, like it doesn’t work well at all.
On the other hand, the color reproduction is more than correct.
Let’s now see the operation of the monitor, and we can only start by showing you those rear RGB strips in operation. Aesthetically they look good, but if you have a well-lit room they almost go unnoticed and barely leave a slight color tone on the wall.
When connecting the monitor to a PC (in this case with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti), the first thing is to configure the screen to work properly.
Once we configure the Adaptive Sync mode in the monitor’s OSD, as you can see in the screenshot above, the operating system already detects 360 Hz operation well. We now turn to the NVIDIA control panel to enable G-Sync mode.
Ready, with this we already have the monitor configured to start enjoying it to the fullest. So, the first thing we are going to do is a stuttering test to see those 360 Hz in operation.
The refresh rate is so extremely high, that even with only the browser open to run the test, it detects some interference due to the browser itself, but the reality is that the monitor passes the test without stuttering, at 360 Hz and with a Actual 2.5 ms MPRT response. We now measure the actual refresh rate in the following test.
Everything perfectly correct, so we proceed to see how the monitor behaves in games.
We have been testing this Newskill Icarus IC24FI360 in different games, from competitive eSports titles such as League of Legends or Fortnite to games where other types of content prevail, such as Black Desert Online or Elden Ring. In all areas, the monitor has been sublime, giving us a quick response at all times and with a frame transition that we cannot fault at all.
Unfortunately, we cannot teach you how to play at 360 Hz as such because we would need a special camera and you would need a 360 Hz monitor to appreciate it, but what we can tell you is our experience in doing it: the movements and actions not only are rendered on screen instantly, but all transitions are much smoother with absolutely no jerk (compared to using a conventional 60Hz monitor), proving that the combination of 360Hz and adaptive refresh rate works sublimely on this monitor.
Conclusion and verdict
With this Icarus IC24FI360, Newskill joins the list of manufacturers that offer monitors specifically designed for competitive games in their catalog, and in this case they do so in a sublime way. The Newskill Icarus IC24FI360 is not only one of the fastest monitors on the market, but it also has enviable ergonomics and ease of installation and assembly that (until now) we only found in Dell’s Ultrasharp family… point in favor of the brand .
By integrating a Fast-IPS matrix, Newskill has managed to sidestep the main disadvantages that faster monitors tend to have, forced to use TN or VA panels. The IPS panel is fast, very fast, but it also has a faithful black and white balance, without light leaks, and excellent color reproduction worthy of its IPS matrix.
Really, the only drawback that we have found in this monitor has to do with its HDR mode, which must be activated from the OSD of the monitor itself. Doing so makes whites whiter and blacks blacker, but when you go to a rich color image, they are slightly washed out, left with a whitish or milky look that denotes a loss of color fidelity. Leaving this aside, by not activating HDR we will have a representation that, although it is logically worse than an OLED matrix, is perfectly acceptable in every way.
For all these reasons, we believe that this Newskill Icarus IC24FI360 monitor deserves our Gold award, as well as our recommendation for its excellent performance.
