AOC Agon Pro AG274QZM review: This monitor packs an HDR punch for less

Price When Reviewed

$1049.99

Best Prices Today: AOC Agon Pro AG274QZM

It’s taking place. Mini-LED backlights, as soon as reserved for displays priced at $3,000 or extra, have lastly come to displays with extra palatable value tags. AOC’s Agon Pro AG274QZM is an instance of this new breed. Though not cheap, it efficiently geese beneath $1,000 with out compromising on HDR efficiency.

Note: See our roundup of the best monitors to be taught extra about competing merchandise, what to search for in a monitor, and shopping for suggestions.

AOC Agon Pro AG274QZM: The specs

The AOC Agon Pro AG274QZM’s specs are sure to attraction to avid gamers. It’s a 27-inch monitor with a local decision of 2560×1440 and an IPS panel with Mini-LED backlight expertise. It additionally has a refresh fee of 240Hz and helps Nvidia G-Sync.

• Display measurement: 27-inch
• Native decision: 2560×1440
• Panel kind: IPS monitor with Mini-LED backlight
• Refresh fee: 240Hz
• Adaptive Sync: Yes, Nvidia G-Sync 
• HDR: Yes, VESA DisplayHDR 1000 licensed
• Ports: 2x HDMI 2.1, 1x DisplayPort 1.4, 1x USB-C 3.2 with DisplayPort Alternate Mode and 65 watts Power Delivery, 1x USB-B upstream, 4x USB-A downstream, 3.5mm audio-out
• Stand adjustment: Height, tilt, swivel, pivot
• VESA mount: Yes, 100mm x 100mm
• Speakers: Yes, 2x 5-watt audio system
• Price: $899.99

AOC packs within the newest connectivity. This contains two HDMI 2.1 ports and a USB-C 3.2 port with DisplayPort Alternate Mode and 65 watts Power Delivery. The USB-C port connects to 4 extra USB-A ports. That’s good to see on a gaming monitor—although, at $899.99, such extras may be anticipated.

AOC Agon Pro AG274QZM: Design 

Matt Smith

The AOC Agon Pro AG274QZM has an aggressive design with pink chrome accents and RGB lighting. It’s an in-your-face look that’s higher suited to a gamer’s desk than a house workplace. I love it, although, for doing just a few issues otherwise: The RGB mild bar alongside the chin is a pleasant contact, and the pink chrome badging provides an over-the-top, supercar really feel.

Build high quality shouldn’t be as good as displays from Alienware or the Asus Republic of Gamers line, because the design shouldn’t be as cohesive and doesn’t gel round a recognizable model identification. It’s shut, although, and AOC deserves credit score for delivering a good-looking piece of equipment for the worth. The AG274QZM is among the many least costly Mini-LED displays in the marketplace at the moment, but feels almost as premium as opponents bought for tons of extra. 

The monitor features a sturdy stand that gives ergonomic changes akin to peak, tilt, swivel, and pivot (rotate) to be used in panorama orientation. The stand is simply too huge, nevertheless, and likewise too deep, so it takes up extra desk house than it ought to. That might show annoying in case your desk is small or slim. A 100x100mm VESA mount is out there for third-party monitor stands and arms.

AOC Agon Pro AG274QZM: Features and menus 

The AOC Agon Pro AG274QZM gives glorious connectivity for a gaming monitor.

One USB-C port is out there, and contains each DisplayPort Alternate Mode and as much as 65 watts of USB Power Delivery. The USB-C port additionally serves as a USB-C hub driving 4 USB-A ports.This continues to be uncommon amongst gaming displays, although it’s beginning to grow to be extra frequent. Gamers are unlikely to make use of the USB-C port, even with gaming laptops, as a result of it doesn’t ship sufficient energy to cost a gaming laptop computer. Still, it’s a helpful inclusion for PC avid gamers who’ve a gaming desktop and a much less highly effective laptop computer with USB-C ports (akin to a MacBook Air or Dell XPS 13).

A USB-B upstream port can be accessible, making the USB hub accessible to units with out USB-C.

Video connectivity contains two HDMI 2.1 inputs and two DisplayPort inputs, one in every of which is dealt with over USB-C. All of the monitor’s ports can deal with the monitor’s native 1440p decision at its most refresh fee of 240Hz. 

A 3.5mm audio-out is out there for passing audio via to audio system or a headset. The monitor additionally has audio system built-in, however they’re weak and ship a lackluster expertise with any content material extra complicated than a podcast. 

Matt Smith

The monitor’s menu system is managed with a joystick on its proper rear flank. AOC’s menu system is engaging, however a bit extra complicated than these utilized by Dell, BenQ, and Viewsonic, amongst others. Most menu choices are nested, with no previews of what’s inside a menu, and a few menu labels aren’t supreme. The menus are speedy and responsive, although, so by chance opening the mistaken merchandise isn’t a lot trouble.

Image-quality choices are a bit restricted. The monitor has a number of gamma modes, however none promise a selected gamma curve. It’s the same story with colour temperature. Color customization is barely accessible within the customized colour temperature mode, and this gives solely three-way colour adjustment. There’s no sRGB or DCI-P3 mode, both (there’s an sRGB colour temperature mode, however appears to solely regulate colour, not brightness or gamma).

I’d choose to see a wider vary of image-quality choices, as these accessible on the AG274QZM will fall quick for many severe content material creators, and might also trigger issues for anybody seeking to exactly calibrate the monitor. Some cheaper displays, just like the Gigabyte M27Q X and NZXT Canvas 27Q, do higher.

AOC Agon Pro AG274QZM: SDR picture high quality

The AOC Agon Pro AG27QZM guarantees glorious HDR efficiency, however SDR efficiency stays vital. Most content material you’ll view when looking the net or writing in Word shall be in SDR. The AG274QZM is not any slouch right here, however doesn’t all the time impress.

Matt Smith

Brightness begins off robust with a most SDR brightness of 602 nits. That’s a superb end result for a monitor and, because the graph reveals, usually superior to the competitors. This degree of brightness is sufficient to be used in almost any state of affairs, together with a room lit by a number of giant, sunlit floor-to-ceiling home windows.

Matt Smith

The most distinction ratio got here in at 2,950:1. That’s a superb end result in comparison with an IPS monitor with no Mini-LED backlight system, but additionally behind top-tier opponents such because the Alienware AW3423DWF. Make no mistake: OLED nonetheless has a giant benefit on the subject of distinction.

Still, the AOC Agon Pro AG274QZM’s efficiency delivers an apparent increase over most displays in the marketplace. Images have a superb sense of depth and dimensionality, with many showing to leap out of the display. The monitor achieves a darkish, convincing black degree in darkish scenes, although it might nonetheless appear ever-so-slightly hazy when seen in a pitch-black room.

Matt Smith

Color gamut is a significant power, because the AOC Agon Pro AG274QZM delivers 100 % of sRGB, which is frequent, and 100 % of AdobeRGB, which is extraordinarily uncommon even amongst top-tier OLED and IPS displays with Quantum Dots panels. The monitor handles 95 % of DCI-P3. It has a 10-bit panel, as nicely, which suggests colour banding isn’t seen because of the excessive variety of colours accessible.

These outcomes add as much as one easy conclusion: The AG274QZM can ship a spectacular vary of colour. It’s an actual knockout when displaying brilliant, vivid content material like animated films or punchy, vibrant video games akin to Overwatch 2. 

Matt Smith

Color accuracy shouldn’t be as robust, however definitely greater than sufficient for almost all conditions. The monitor’s colour seems sensible and lifelike. As talked about, although, the monitor doesn’t have preset modes tailor-made to a selected colour gamut, so colours could seem oversaturated relying on the content material proven. 

The monitor’s default colour temperature got here in at 6600Okay, which is barely off the goal of 6500Okay. This means the picture is barely cooler and extra blue than the goal, nevertheless it’s shut sufficient that the distinction is hard to note. The default gamma curve got here in at gamma 2.3, off the goal of two.2, which suggests content material is a bit darker than anticipated. Once once more, that is shut sufficient that the distinction could be arduous to note.

Sharpness is an issue. The AG274QZM’s native decision of 1440p is fairly sharp for a 27-inch monitor, offering a pixel density of 109 pixels per inch. Despite this, I seen some colour fringing and pixelation round small fonts and textual content. It’s an surprising end result for a contemporary IPS monitor, and one which replicates the sub-pixel points discovered in lots of OLED displays together with the Alienware AW3423DWF.

The Mini-LED backlight additionally has distinctive downsides. This monitor has 576 dimming zones, which is lower than what’s present in costlier displays just like the Asus ROG Swift PG32UQX and Viewsonic Elite XG341C-2K. That’s a good quantity, however it will possibly trigger issues round high-contrast borders. When inserting a brilliant, white Word doc over a darkish desktop background, for instance, you might discover blooming (the sunshine leaking into the darkish areas of the picture) or vignetting (the sides of the doc not lighting as brightly as they need to).

In quick, SDR picture high quality could be glorious but in addition suffers some noticeable flaws. The AOC Agon Pro AG274QZM is a stellar performer in colour gamut, delivering an enormous vary of colours with minimal banding. It’s additionally extraordinarily brilliant and gives a superb distinction ratio. The monitor’s sharpness points are a disappointment, although, and a few could discover the Mini-LED backlight distracting, particularly when utilizing the monitor for fundamental desktop productiveness. 

AOC Agon Pro AG274QZM: HDR picture high quality

The AOC Agon Pro AG274QZM helps HDR and is VESA DisplayHDR 1000 licensed. It’s usually a superb HDR performer, and definitely much better than most displays that lack a Mini-LED backlight. But it’s not excellent. 

Let’s begin with brightness. I measured a most HDR brightness of 948 nits, which could be very near the promised most of 1,000 nits. The monitor delivered a barely decrease most brightness in a 10 % window, with a most brightness of 814 nits. 

This degree of brightness is great, and undoubtedly sufficient to ship an actual punch in HDR. I additionally seen the monitor’s distinction ratio elevated to 4,210:1 in HDR. This doesn’t occur on most IPS displays as a result of any improve in brightness additionally will increase the brightness of your entire show, together with darkish areas of the picture. But with a Mini-LED monitor, such because the AG274QZM, solely the brilliant areas should be lit, whereas others can stay darkish. It’s a significant improve.

You’ll discover the advantages when viewing any HDR content material, whether or not it’s video games, HDR films, and even HDR clips on YouTube. A sundown will seem brilliant, crisp, and detailed, whereas a flashlight in a foggy midnight forest will seem as a spot of brilliance in an in any other case foreboding scene. 

Yet I stated it wasn’t excellent—and that’s as a result of the monitor’s 576 dimming zones stay a problem. Notice, for instance, that my checks present the monitor is brighter when displaying a full, white display than when solely 10 % of the display is lit. Usually, the state of affairs is the alternative. In this case, it seems the monitor is barely reducing the brightness to restrict how severely a brightly lit zone will bleed into different, darker areas of the display. 

Still, the AOC Agon Pro AG274QZM is an effective HDR performer, and definitely stands out when in comparison with most displays in its value bracket. It’s a tantalizing compromise for many who need super-bright HDR on their desktop PC however don’t wish to go broke acquiring it. 

AOC Agon Pro AG274QZM: Motion efficiency

Matt Smith

The AOC Agon Pro AG274QZM is a 240Hz show that guarantees a gray-to-gray response time as little as one millisecond. It additionally helps Adaptive Sync, with official help for Nvidia G-Sync. AMD FreeSync shouldn’t be listed, however FreeSync functioned when the monitor was linked to an AMD Radeon RX 6600.

Motion efficiency is great. The AG274QZM delivers a particularly crisp picture that’s proper on par with different glorious 240Hz displays, such because the Gigabyte M27Q X and Sony InZone M3. Scrolling check pictures of DOTA 2 and League of Legends confirmed that the majority positive particulars, together with character names and enemy well being bars, have been seen, and that character outlines have been simple to make out. 

AOC contains three overdrive modes: Weak, Medium, and Strong. The function is turned off by default. When turned on, overdrive doesn’t trigger distracting picture high quality issues. This is true even on the highest preset. Competitive avid gamers shall be happy to see a minor enchancment in movement readability with overdrive on, and that utilizing this mode doesn’t scale back picture high quality to an unsightly mess. The monitor doesn’t have a backlight strobing function, although, so avid gamers who like that individual type of movement readability enhancement might want to look elsewhere.

Should you purchase the AOC Agon Pro AG274QZM?

The AOC Agon Pro AG274QZM is a strong selection if you would like a superb HDR expertise in your PC however don’t wish to pay greater than $1,000. OLED opponents have higher distinction, however fall behind in brightness, whereas IPS displays with no Mini-LED backlight are inferior in each. This makes the AG274QZM a sensible compromise. It’s hardly ever excellent, however typically ok. Throw in top-notch movement readability and also you’ve acquired a recipe for achievement.

Despite its strengths in HDR, the AG274QZM is a mediocre monitor for day-to-day productiveness or content material creation. It delivers on colour efficiency however the monitor’s sharpness is disappointing. The Mini-LED backlight’s restricted dimming zones are apparent in productiveness, the place high-contrast components are extraordinarily frequent.

These shortcomings restrict the monitor’s attraction—however if you would like strong HDR in video games and films, and wish to pay as little as potential, this AG274QZM is tough to beat.