Incredibly quick response times
1440p and zippy 240Hz refresh
Punchy SDR performance
Color temperature is too warm
HDR local dimming calibration needs work
Very expensive for a 1440p panel
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The mini-LED 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:gaming monitor revolution is truly upon us, and the latest protagonist of this cutting-edge 𓆉display tech is the new AOC Agon Pro AG274QZM. On paper, it's a gamer's delig🦩ht with a 27-inch IPS panel, 1440p resolution, 240Hz, and plenty more.
The mini-LED element involves full-array local dimming with 576 zones. The AOC Agon Pro AG274QZM ꦜis also DisplayHDR 1000 certified and achieves a claimed peak brightness of 1,200 nits. That is ridiculously, outrageously punchy.
It also boasts 1ms response times to go along with the 240Hz refresh so could make for a new entry into our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:high refresh rate monitor guide as well. So this promises to be an extremely speedy panel, not just a preposterously bright one. The overall feature set is impressive too. There's a full complement of connectivity including DisplayPort, HDMI 2.1, and even USB-C with power delivery. So whether you're a PC gamer or a console fancier - or indeed want to tag team this panel with both gaming platforms - your bases are covered. Add 📖in a few additional gamer-friendly frills, like RGB mood lighting complete with a logo projector, a built-in KVM switch, and a handy little hook on which to hang your headphones and you have a thoroughly comprehensive tool for getting some serious gaming done.
And "serious" is very much the word given the hefty $1,049 / £999 price tag. In this part of the market,🅷 we're used to seeing 4K panels. So,🌟 the AG274QZM will have to be one heck of a 1440p machine to justify the cost.
The AOC Agon Pro AG274QZM very much conforms to the premium gaming panel norm when it comes to design and styling. The sharp lines, RGB lighting, and even the logo projector are straight out of the Asus RoG school of monitor aesthetics. AOC's Agon🌜 brand has moved upmarket, that's♒ for sure.
It's prettꦯy well built, too, and ofꦗfers a full range of adjustments including height, tilt, swivel, and rotate into portrait. And if It's debatable whether the plastic chassis really feels like $1,000 / £1,000's worth of monitor, the feature set certainly ticks all the boxes.
The basics involve♛ that 27-inch IPS panel with a zippy 240Hz refresh and 1ms response. But the showbiz bit is the 576-zone mini-LED backlight. AOC has had this monitor certified to DisplayHDR 1000 standard, which means a minimum of 1,000 nits of brightness. A fully 1,200 nits peak HDR brightness is claimed, while the SDR peak is rated at 750 nits, which is getting on some, too.
There's precision to go with the power, too. AOC rates the panel at 97%💞 coverage of the DCI-P3 digital cinema color space. Connectivity is another strong point. For PC, you have DisplayPort 2.1 and USB-C, the🦋 latter supporting up to 65 watts of power delivery.
Granted, 65W is not enough to power a gaming laptop. But there's also a KVM switch and USB hub, so you could connect both a gaming desktop and a laptop at the same time. The dual HDMI 2.1 ports also make it ideal as a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:PS5 monitor or 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Series X monitor contender, both of which 💦now supporꦦt the AG274QZM's 2,560 by 1,440 pixel native resolution.
Additional frills include a slide-out hook for hanging up headphones and a pro-style hood that clips around the display to block out ambient light. Th🦩e latter is a slightly odd feature on a gaming monitor, especially one this bright. But ♛you needn't fit it in any case.
If there's a single word that captures the character of the AOC Agon Pro AG274QZM, and unfortunately not in a good way, i💝t's calibration. This monitor could do with a lot more work on calibration. Immediate impressions are of an excessively warm color balance. By default, the color temperature is set to "warm", but even selecting "normal" white tones still have a slightly pinkish tint.ℱ The next thing you'll notice is how incredibly quick the AG274QZM is. By default, pixel overdrive is disabled and this is one of the very few gaming panels that scarcely needs it. There's so little blurring or streaking.
Toggle overdrive on and at its fastestꦉ setting some visible overshoot and inverse ghosting creeps in. But the two less aggressive modes result in seriously speedy responses. This is about as quick as current LCD tech gets, it's very impressive. Factor in the 240Hz refresh and speed and response are absolutely top-notch.
If you're into online shooters like CS: Go or Fortnite, therefore, the AG274QZM won't disappoint. It's incredi🀅bly punchy in SDR mo📖de, as the 750 nit rating implies, oh so fast, and the 1440p resolution allows for a really super compromise between visual detail and frame rates.
Indeed, at this panel size, the benefits in terms of in-game detail and sharpness of 4K are fairly marginal, but you'll certainly feel the downsides in terms of much lower frame rates. The one catch with 1440p is that it doesn't work quite as well as 4K when it comes to using upscaling technologies like Nvidia's DLSS and AMD's FSR. ♎You'll want to run the AG274QZM at native to get the best results. But then that's a lot more viable with 1440p than 4K.
If that's so far so mostly good, enabling HDR brings a whole plethora of problems. For starters, the usual oddities inherent with any local dimming solution are visible on the Windows𒅌 desktop. The AOC Agon Pro AG274QZM isn't nearly as bad as some mini-LED monitors. But you can still see the various zones reacting as you move application windows around the screen.
Like every other mini-LED monitor, it looks rather clunky, so you'd be better off running in SDR mode or turning off local dimming for general computing. In-game and watching video, the issues around the algorithms controlling the individual zones are a lot less obvious. But what is apparent 🎉🌠is that the HDR calibration does not allow the panel to hit those claimed 1,200 nit highs.
Whether it's HDR-capable games like Cyberp🌱unk 2077 or streaming HDR video content, the AG274QZM's HDR performance disappoints in terms of outright brightness. That's true regardless of which of the numerous HDR modes you use, including DisplayHDR, Gaming, and Movie.
At the same time, the backlight algorithm is also too aggressive when it comes to rendering darker tones. The dimming zones in those areas are set so low that shadow detail is lost and you get an overly contrasty image. Again, it's a problem that a fair few mini-LED monitors suffer from. Ultimately, calibrating a mini-LED backlight is a very diff🦹icult job. 576 zones may sound like a lot. But on a 1440p panel, that means one zone for every 6,400 pixels. Inevitably, compromises have to be made.
💎When it comes to precise HDR performance, a panel tech with per-pixel lighting control like OLღED is always going to be superior. But even taking that into account, this monitor feels like a first-gen attempt at mini-LED backlighting. AOC definitely needs to do some work on the backlight calibration.
The basic panel calibration could do with some work, too. The factory color temperature is overly warm and slightly out of whack. It's a bit of a pity because the AOC Agon Pro AG274QZM certainly has plenty to offer gamers, most notably some 🍸of the best pixel response we've seen ꧒in any LCD monitor.
It also has a very strong feature set when it comes to connectivity. The 1440p resolution and 27-inch panel size likewise serve up a fantastic overall compromise for gaming. There's plenty of detail and you don't need a $1,500 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:graphics card to achieve good frame rates. But at this very loft price point, the AG274QZM is still awfully hard to recommend. At the very least, it needs some seꦚrious work on its all-round calibration.
In this age of mini-LED monitors, display testing just got a bit more complex. We run these HDR monitors through an array of content, including test videos designed to reveal how accurately the panel hits both visual highs and lows. We then fire up our favourite games for a real-world feel of how the monitor looks and responds, including latency and pixel speed. Finally, the full feature set is assessed for value and suitab💙ility for b🔥oth PC and console gaming.
You can read more about 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:how we test gaming monitors at GamesR💙adar+ or read more about our whole approach to gaming tech in our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Hardware Policy.
If you're looking for something that's TV-shaped and got a gaming focus then check out our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best 120Hz 4K TVs, and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best TV for PS5 and Xbox Series X guides.
A serious dissertation on the finer points of input lag and overshoot followed by a forensic examination of AI-accelerated temporal upscaling. Such is a routine day in the working life of long-time tech wordsmith, Jeremy Laird. Along with GamesRadar, Jeremy’s 15-year back catalogue includes a host of tech and gaming outlets, including TechRadar and PC Gamer, not to mention contributions to mainstream media from the Independent to the Evening Standard. Complimenting Jeremy’s debilitating addiction to all kinds of digital hardware, he is𒐪 also afflicted by an obsessionღ with and a significant occupational sideline in cars and automotive technology.
