AOC Q27G3XMN 27" 2K QHD Gaming Monitor, 2560x1440, Mini LED, 180Hz, HDMI 2.0 x 1, DisplayPort 1.4 x1, Adaptive Sync, Xbox/PS5/Switch Ready, 3-Year Zero-Bright-dot

Summary: Easily a 9.5/10 monitor for media consumption and gaming. After some time calibrating the colors through AMD's Adrenalin and in Windows' Color Management, I am wholly satisfied with the image quality, color accuracy, and sharpness... At least in the middle of the screen.I am likely going to return it because it just doesn't suit me well for content creation due to the frankly abysmal viewing angles. While I was aware that VA monitor panels had viewing angle issues, I hadn't expected it to be noticeable even from a straight-on view from 2 feet away. Still, I'll give it another week to decide and will edit this review accordingly. Edit: After an odyssey of shopping around and getting broken monitors and monitors with dead pixels out the box, I have decided to stick with this one.I will still give this five stars, however, because it really has been a vast improvement over my previous Asus PA278QV ProArt monitor in clarity and colors, and the bump up from 75hz to 180hz gaming has been quite the joy. My problems feel largely like a "me" problem rather than a fault of the monitor itself. I will be trying my luck with a Dell G2724D (assuming it's in still in stock in a few days) despite its significantly worse contrast ratios and lack of Mini LED backlighting.Detailed Review:From unboxing to using, this has been a fantastic monitor when disregarding the one caveat from earlier. The packaging is absolutely solid and there's almost zero chance to receive a damaged unit with how well it's been bundled up in styrofoam. The unit itself is a bit thicker than I'd like, making it impossible to mount my monitor light to the top, but overall that's a non-issue. The plastic shell of the monitor and stand feels sturdy, while the bezel is good enough.The base is a tad too large for my desk setup, so I mounted it on a VESA arm, a tremendously easy and pain-free process with its standard 100x100mm layout. From what I did see when I first tested that the monitor would turn on, the base/stand is a fantastic ergonomic setup, with good height adjustment, swivel, tilt, and rotation, and installation is made easy with a simple push button latch and thumb screw.The monitor's On Screen Display is an almost too simple affair, adjusting RGB and switching between various picture modes is easy enough. However, I sincerely wish image sharpness was adjustable, as the sharpness in the monitor's HDR mode is noticeably better than in its normal mode, but switching into HDR locks you out of any color or gamma adjustment. And, speaking of gamma adjustment, the monitor only has three presets, without a finer control. Notably also missing is the ability to adjust color temperature, which is fine since both nVidia and AMD graphics cards allow this to be easily adjusted. The OSD control buttons are on the bottom right of the screen and aren't anything to write home about as a positive or negative.Taking it for a spin in a few games, I earnestly have no complaints and nothing but praise here. The EXTREMELY good contrast ratios of the monitor prove to be quite a boon in the likes of R.E.P.O. and even on darker planets in Helldivers 2 or fighting in dark space in Elite: Dangerous, while the 180hz display, tremendously sharp image, and overdrive settings make motion buttery smooth in the likes of, Monster Hunter Wilds (Frame Gen to 144 fps), Elden Ring (played at an unlocked 120 fps), Strinova (180 fps), and Valorant (180 fps).Movies and TV shows are a similar joy. Great contrast ratios, very sharp images thanks to the mini LED backlighting, and excellent post-calibration color accuracy make the viewing experience fantastic.However... On to the part where I have difficulty sticking with this monitor.In my week and some days of using it I've found that I have to either physically move my head, tilt my neck, or even lean side to side, every now and then because I can't trust the color accuracy toward the edges. If it were a matter of me sitting too close to the monitor I'd chalk it up to user error, but even sitting about 60cm/2 feet away from the monitor, I find the color shifts red/yellow toward the corners.In gaming content and watching movies it's completely unnoticeable, but for static images it's frankly unacceptable for my use case. In office content or web browsing, or even looking at a Discord window sitting at the corner, it ends up color shifting. You can see the colors shift red in my included photos.I'm an artist, image editor, and 3D environment modeler, and while one could say to just move everything to the center of the screen, I find myself asking if having that excellent 4000+:1 contrast ratio and sharp mini-LED image are worth not always being able to trust if my eyes are seeing the right colors, double checking, then repeating that question every time I work with anything involving color. Frankly, it's even annoying at times when the contrast washes out at the edges of my screen just reading webpages.So, that's the bit. Excellent gaming monitor and generally great movie watching monitor, but a bit irksome for me.

For starters, I come from only using IPS display gaming monitors. I’m used to solid native color accuracy, and fast frame rates with little to no ghosting, smearing, and all that other bad stuff you hear about. I saw reviews from a lot of gaming spaces about this AOC Q27G3XMN being one of the best VA monitors at this tier offering exceptional HDR and near-OLED color and blacks.However, I was weary because of it being a VA panel, which has long been technology that is frowned upon in the gaming community for not being as responsive and fast as other versions of monitors. I’m here to tell you, take the plunge and try this one out. You won’t be disappointed.Admittedly, my first experience with this monitor was sub par but only because I received a unit with a dead pixel. I processed a return and replace and got a new unit that works excellently. For my IPS gamers, when you turn this on out of the box, the display will look washed out and lacking in color. Do not be alarmed. You have to tweak with the settings to achieve the color palette you want. For regular usage (browsing, casual videos, productivity etc) I suggest setting the color gamut to DCI-P3 or switching the Gamma to Gamma 3. This will render a display portrait reminiscent of your average IPS. Saturated, but not too punchy. Truth be told, this setting will suffice even for gaming and movie watching. However, for gaming, I highly suggest utilizing its HDR mode. To do this you want to set the color gamut back to Panel Native. This will allow you to turn on HDR. Personally, I like the HDR Movie setting as it makes colors vivid and lush but not overly so like the HDR Game setting. I found the HDR Game filter to look a little too artificial and unrealistic due to it being presented far too saturated. Different strokes for different folks though, and either of these options may suit your preference better.Now for the big question, does it smear? Does it ghost? Does it have unnecessary amounts of input lag and a bogged down feel? Well…in my experience, and off my eyes, no. Yeah, I’m surprised too, considering the horror stories you hear about VA panels. But during a lot of fast paced gaming, I did not notice a single moment where this monitor didn’t look snappy and crisp. I didn’t even notice any issues reading high contrast text on webpages (that infamous IPS vs VA gif you’re thinking of? Yeah that’s not happening here.). I have the overdrive setting set to Strong, and I feel like that’s contributing to smearing and ghosting being minimized. Experts that have rated this monitor are clocking its response time at similar rates as competing IPS displays in this price range. Trust me, you won’t miss out. I’ve played some FPS games on it and didn’t have an issue at all. But I do think it truly shines in games that are about scenes and immersion.Despite my enjoyment and strong suggestion of this monitor, there are some things I feel may be concerns for people. First, the stand. While great, sturdy, and fully adjustable it’s …big. If you have low surface space, this monitor may prove tricky to place as the footprint of the base is large and can be problematic depending on your setup. Second, it’s heavy. I list this lightly, because this also just means the display is well made with good durable material. But be careful when lifting and make sure your desk is sturdy enough for this. Third, the OSD buttons are pretty bad. Navigating the OSD with these things is challenging. I love AOC monitors, they have great panels and build quality, but my my MYYY do they need to hurry up and get on the Joystick wave for OSD navigation.That’s all. Overall I highly recommend this, it’s one of the fastest VA displays on the gaming market, for a decent price and shockingly performs on par with IPS monitors in terms of speed, while providing better contrast, and a gorgeous HDR picture. It even gives some interesting and nice features thanks to its Mini-LED display tech that allows it to do more than your average VA. AOC is also a trustworthy company with a solid warranty.