AOC U27V4EA 27″ 4K IPS Monitor Review

How Much Does it Cost?

While you can get more affordable 4K panels, they’ll typically be VA panels. Actually, AOC themselves have a few cheaper models which use more affordable panel technologies. However, for a little over £300, you’re getting a really fantastic quality monitor here. I know it’s not the biggest or most expensive 4K monitor ever. However, it offers performance beyond what I expected for this price range and represents outstanding value for money overall. I’m sure some may want a USB hub, RGB and all that jazz, but it’s not like AOC hasn’t already got plenty of monitors like that, albeit they cost a bit more too.

Overview

This is a really nice monitor that doesn’t rely on gimmicks or bonus features to make it stand out. It’s got a pretty simple design, but that’s actually what I love about it. It doesn’t look so dull that it’s destined for a poorly lit office, and it doesn’t look so “gamer” that it’ll look silly on a living room desk. It has a small (but stable) stand, a slim bezel that looks neat and tidy, and a really nice panel coating that doesn’t give any strong reflections, even in a well-lit room.

Calibration

Right out of the box, the stock performance on this AOC monitor was really surprising. Would I be using it to colour grade a movie? No, but it’s not designed for that level of accuracy. However, for your average gaming content creator or streamer, the colour levels are pretty damn good and actually better than expected. My Spyder5Elite calibration tool rated it at 4.5/5 for colour reproduction. However, reset the monitor to stock settings, then ensure that you enable Warm2 in the colour settings, then pick which suits your room better on Gamma1 or Gamma2, and I doubt you’ll ever need to change another thing.

While I didn’t perform a full calibration on the display, I didn’t really see the need. First of all, it’s unlikely the target customers for this monitor would do such a thing. Secondly, Anything below Delta-E 5.0 is good enough, Below 3.0 is fantastic and hard for the human eye to distinguish. This monitor averaged 1.28! Only the black at 2.92 and Cyan at 3.2 was above 1.7-ish. However, the monitor didn’t exhibit a blue hue, it’s really well set up from the factory.

Performance

The backlight performance was really impressive, no bright spots, no clouding, no torching to be found, really. The black levels are really inky, and at 350cdn, it’s easy to read the screen even on a sunny day. There’s no HDR, but the SDR performance is solid, so you’ll get no complaints from me. It doesn’t have FreeSync, but you do get Adaptive sync, which is always welcome. Furthermore, I found the monitor handled 24hz modes really well, which is great if you want to watch a lot of movie content on the display.

Colours look warm and natural and have a matte cinematic tone thanks to that anti-reflective coating on the panel. Overall, I really like how it looks, and it gives a natural look to games, movies, and white levels feel spot on.

It may not be curved, packed with RGB or FreeSync, although it does have Adaptive Sync. The stand could perhaps turn or pivot, but that’s hardly a deal-breaker, and I do like how the stand looks, plus it is VESA compatible anyway.

Should I Buy One?

AOC can easily impress when it comes to their high-end and much more expensive models, as can most brands actually. However, they seem to have hit their stride with their more affordable models. The out-of-the-box performance of this monitors panel is remarkable. For work, movies, gaming, a bit of photoshop, anything really, you couldn’t ask for a better panel at this price range. Highly recommended.