AOC 27″ Q27G4X IPS 180Hz FreeSync Gaming Monitor Review

How Much Does it Cost?

The AOC 27″ Q27G4X IPS 180Hz FreeSync Gaming Monitor is available now from many major retailers. I found it on Amazon for just £229.99, and it comes with a 33% off Xbox Game Pass PC deal and is available with Prime delivery. Not a bad deal, especially considering that while there are a fair few similarly equipped monitors for around the same price from other brands, AOC has a solid reputation and great customer service that simply cannot be ignored.

Overview

AOC has a very impressive monitor here, and while it’s not without its quirks and cost-cutting measures, it holds up extremely well against the competition. The price is low, but it’s clear that AOC has trimmed a few things to keep the cost down, such as no portrait mode on the included stand I’ve since been corrected that it did, I’m just an idiot and tried turning it the wrong way. The design is pleasing to the eye, but the plastics are pretty standard, and the stand is a little on the boring side, but is there anything wrong with any of it? Not really, it’s all decent quality, if somewhat basic. On the plus size, the extremely small bezels are certainly a welcome addition.

My point is, that the bulk of your investment is going into the quality of the panel, which is a deal I can certainly live with. For around the same monitor, you’ll be looking at brands like KOORUI, CRUA, Z-EDGE and XGaming, all of which I wouldn’t even consider myself, I’d choose AOC without a second thought in that list. However, you can get a similarly equipped monitor from the likes of ASUS, MSI and ViewSonic, and I bet they’re all as good as the AOC, but the models I see all have more USB ports, more input, fancy stands or RGB lighting, and as such cost £30-100 more, for little or no additional b benefits in their respective panel technologies.

AOC’s latest gaming monitor performed exceptionally well right out of the box. While the Gamma setting was a bit off, all but those with intimate knowledge of display calibration would ever notice anything wrong with it, as the picture looks great, and it is great. However, I think setting it to Gamma 2.4, setting the colour temperature to Warm, and adjusting the brightness to your taste is all that’s needed to get the absolute best this panel has to offer.

It scored strongly in colour accuracy and hit over 90% of the DCI-P3 colour space, and 100% of the sRGB, so whatever you throw at it should look fantastic. This may be a gaming monitor, but it’s going to hold up reasonably well for some colour-sensitive photo editing and video too if working with SDR content, which is a nice bonus.

Should I Buy One?

When it comes to gaming, it ticks all the boxes for a great gaming monitor. 27-inch is a good size for gaming, I prefer 32″ and above, but that’s solved by sitting slightly closer to the panel. The resolution is good at 2560×1440, giving you a good pixel density and image clarity. The contrast, brightness and colours are all fantastic, and with a 180Hz refresh rate, FreeSync and G-Sync compatibility, and the 1ms FastIPS panel, gaming is silky smooth and extremely responsive.