AOC 27G15 monitor review: Vivid color at a shockingly low price

Price When Reviewed

$139.99

Best Prices Today: AOC 27G15

Budget monitor makers have pushed exhausting to enhance picture high quality over the previous few years, and few have pushed more durable than AOC. The firm has a repute for delivering robust picture high quality at low costs, a aim it obtains by restraining the options it gives (within the firm’s price range screens, no less than). The AOC 27G15 sticks to this playbook, although with solely partial success.

Further studying: See our roundup of the best monitors to study competing merchandise.

What are the AOC 27G15’s specs and options?

The AOC 27G15’s specs are typical for a price range gaming monitor. It’s a 27-inch show with a 180Hz refresh charge, and it depends on a Vertical Alignment (VA) panel, a sort of panel common in price range screens.

• Display dimension: 27-inch widescreen
• Native decision: 1920×1080 (1080p)
• Panel kind: Vertical Alignment (VA)
• Refresh charge: 180Hz
• Adaptive sync: Yes
• HDR: Yes, HDR10
• Ports: HDMI, DisplayPort
• VESA mount: 100x100mm
• Speakers: None
• Price: $139.99 MSRP

Just a few specs stand out, nevertheless. The monitor doesn’t have an AMD FreeSync or Nvidia G-Sync badge however as an alternative sticks to Adaptive Sync (and is none the more severe for it). It additionally helps HDR, though that function struggles to ship.

How is the AOC 27G15’s design?

Matt Smith

Design is among the many corners AOC cuts to cut back the 27G15’s value. The monitor isn’t a part of the corporate’s AGON gaming sub-brand, which tends to supply extra aptitude, and as an alternative sticks to a easy, workmanlike chassis of matte charcoal plastic. It doesn’t stand out, however there’s additionally little to critique: The bezels are small, the supplies are high quality for the value, and the look is inoffensive.

What AOC lacks in appears to be like it greater than makes up for in operate. The monitor has a wonderful ergonomic stand that adjusts for peak, tilt, pivot, and even rotates 90 levels to be used in portrait mode. Some screens bought under $150 stick with a tilt-only stand, so the AOC’s ergonomic changes give it an edge. A 100x100mm VESA mount is on the market, too, to be used with third-party monitor arms and stands.

The stand additionally advantages from a sturdy construct and compact footprint. It’s heavy sufficient to maintain the monitor planted on a desk however properly chooses a small, flat base that doesn’t take up a lot house. That makes the AOC 27G15 a good selection in case you have a slender desk.

How are the AOC 27G15’s connectivity and menus?

AOC’s resolution to stay with the fundamentals pays off with the monitor’s design, but it surely’s much less tolerable when looking the monitor’s menus.

Navigation is the issue. AOC makes use of old-school button controls as an alternative of the joystick discovered on most trendy screens. This creates an issue as a result of the buttons are specified by a horizontal row on the underside lip, however many menu choices require vertical navigation. You’ll typically be urgent left or proper to maneuver up or down, which is rarely intuitive. It’s additionally straightforward to hit the fallacious button and unintentionally activate or deactivate an possibility.

It’s not all dangerous information. The menu system gives a good vary of picture high quality choices. It contains a number of coloration temperature and gamma modes alongside RGB coloration adjustment. There’s additionally a shadow enhance function that may enhance the brightness of darkish content material, a function aggressive avid gamers typically use to make foes simpler to identify. There’s additionally an possibility to cut back the colour gamut to sRGB as an alternative of the native gamut.

Matt Smith

Connectivity is easy, as nicely. The monitor has simply two video inputs (one HDMI, one DisplayPort). It additionally has an exterior energy brick, which is a bit uncommon for a monitor of this dimension. The brick is small, however it might nonetheless devour two retailers on some energy strips.

How is the AOC 27G15’s SDR picture high quality?

Budget screens aren’t recognized for his or her excellent picture high quality, however the AOC 27G15 delivers surprisingly good outcomes. It has a wealthy, vibrant, and reasonable picture, although its brightness and sharpness can show to be a limitation.

Matt Smith

The monitor’s brightness is a bit low with a most SDR brightness of simply 240 nits. That continues to be high quality for many conditions and, as traditional, I lowered the brightness of the monitor to nicely under its most in regular use. Still, 240 nits is low sufficient that glare is likely to be distracting when the monitor is utilized in a brightly lit room or sits reverse giant sunlit home windows. I’d advocate utilizing it in a room with shades for gentle management.

Matt Smith

Contrast, however, is great, because the monitor delivers a distinction ratio past 5000:1 at 50 % of its most brightness. That’s an excellent consequence which, because the graph exhibits, is nicely past most price range screens, although I’ve skilled others with the identical kind of Vertical Alignment panel.

A distinction ratio this excessive pays off in video video games and flicks, each of which provide an incredible sense of depth and immersion. It’s an actual breath of recent air to see a $140 monitor ship such glorious efficiency in darkish scenes. There’s not one of the hazy, grey “IPS glow” present in price range screens with an IPS panel.

Matt Smith

The 27G15’s coloration gamut can also be robust, because it reaches above 90 % of each the AdobeRGB and DCI-P3 coloration gamut.

This continues to be simply on the cusp of what I’d contemplate a “wide gamut” show, and costlier screens can simply obtain 95 to 99 % of each coloration gamuts. However, because the graph above exhibits, the 27G15’s efficiency is powerful for a price range monitor and defeats many lately examined rivals.

More importantly, the huge coloration gamut helps the monitor stand out in real-world viewing. It appears to be like vivid and saturated with dazzling colours in video games and flicks that provide a colourful presentation. Avatar: The Way of Water, as an example, appeared implausible with shiny aqua oceans and vivid inexperienced forests.

Matt Smith

Color accuracy is strong, too, with a low coloration error throughout the board. Results this good aren’t exceptional amongst price range screens however nonetheless point out content material will look near what its creator supposed.

However, the monitor doesn’t carry out as nicely in some exams that don’t translate to graphs.

The monitor’s gamma and coloration temperature outcomes had been simply okay. I measured a gamma curve of two.3, off the goal of two.2, and a coloration temperature of 6900Okay, off the goal of 6500Okay. These numbers imply the picture is a tad darker and cooler than preferable. It’s additionally price mentioning that the colour temperature consequence was achieved within the default “Warm” coloration temperature mode, so shifting the colour temperature with out software program calibration may show troublesome. Readers preferring a heat, rosy picture ought to proceed with warning.

Sharpness is one other challenge. Stretching 1080p decision throughout a 27-inch panel ends in a pixel density of simply 82 pixels per inch. That’s close to the underside of contemporary screens: solely 32-inch 1080p screens have a decrease pixel density. By comparability, a 27-inch 1440p monitor has roughly 109 pixels per inch.

The lack of pixel density results in apparent pixelation and aliasing in small fonts, high quality interface particulars, and sharp edges in 3D video games. It’s dangerous sufficient that viewing textual content is usually disagreeable, as even giant fonts are likely to show pixelation alongside their edges. The monitor additionally struggles with any 3D sport that lacks a high-quality anti-aliasing function.

That’s a disgrace, as a result of the AOC 27G15’s picture high quality is in any other case glorious for the value. It has a excessive distinction ratio and very good coloration efficiency for the value, and in some conditions it performs nicely past its value bracket. Movies and different video content material are likely to look finest, since they seem comfortable reasonably than pixelated. 3D video games, however, are on the mercy of anti-aliasing. Games with good anti-aliasing look nice, whereas these with dangerous anti-aliasing are disagreeable.

How is the AOC 27G15’s HDR picture high quality?

The AOC 27G15 helps HDR10 however, like every price range monitor, it’s not an incredible HDR show.

Brightness and distinction are a difficulty. The monitor’s brightness in HDR isn’t a lot above its most in SDR. And whereas the monitor’s distinction efficiency is nice for the value, it lacks a dynamic backlight, which suggests it could’t grow to be shiny with out additionally elevating the brightness of darkish parts of the show.

The finish result’s an incapability to show the big selection of luminance HDR is supposed to help. Viewing an HDR clip of Interstellar’s black gap escape maneuver, for instance, revealed little or no element within the sizzling gasoline swirling across the protagonist’s ship. HDR show will reveal many gradations of luminance and coloration, however on the 27G15 they clip right into a white-hot nothingness.

How is the AOC 27G15’s movement efficiency?

Matt Smith

The AOC 27G15 has a most refresh charge of 180Hz, which is nice for a reasonable gaming monitor. A refresh charge this excessive gives good movement fluidity in fast-paced video games. The monitor doesn’t formally help AMD FreeSync or Nvidia G-Sync, but it surely does help Adaptive Sync, which each of these are based mostly on (except Nvidia screens which have a G-Sync module). The monitor’s adaptive sync labored nicely with AMD and Nvidia video playing cards in my testing.

Motion readability is nice, although maybe not so good as anticipated given the refresh charge. Monitors with a Vertical Alignment panel are likely to have a difficulty with “smear” when darkish objects seem on a brighter background. It’s current right here and may scale back movement readability, although I’ve definitely witnessed worse. 3D video games look moderately clear in movement however finer particulars is likely to be misplaced, particularly round high-contrast edges.

AOC gives a number of modes that enhance the monitor’s pixel response instances, which might in flip scale back movement blur. But these introduce one other drawback often called “overshoot,” which creates seen halos and artifacts round high-contrast objects. It’s not too dangerous within the Weak mode, however reasonably apparent at Medium and ugly at Strong.

I don’t need to be too down on the 27G15’s movement efficiency as a result of, given its value, it’s completely high quality. However, avid gamers who need the easiest movement readability for the value will probably be higher served by a price range monitor with an IPS panel.

Is the AOC 27G15 price it?

The AOC 27G15 is a price range monitor that performs extraordinarily nicely in most areas, however poorly in a number of. It leans closely on its coloration efficiency and distinction, each of which far exceed what’s typical for a price range monitor. AOC additionally delivers an incredible ergonomic stand regardless of the monitor’s aggressive value. However, the monitor’s sharpness and movement readability aren’t the perfect, which might slender its enchantment. It’s an incredible price range possibility for films and newer 3D video games however I wouldn’t advocate it for workplace productiveness or older 3D video games which have lackluster anti-aliasing.