AOC Agon Professional AG276QZD assessment: The most affordable OLED gaming monitor

OLED gaming displays have steadily been getting extra reasonably priced, with 2024 seeing an explosion in choices. Nevertheless, most of them nonetheless price nearer to $1,000 than, say, $500. The AOC Agon Professional AG276QZD, then, is a breath of recent air, as though its MSRP was a bit larger, it’s now recurrently out there for simply $599.

This extremely low worth for this caliber of show means this AOC display leaps onto our greatest gaming monitor information because the clear go-to choice for these looking for the gorgeous colours, distinction, and gaming velocity of an OLED panel with out the excessive price. Nevertheless, just like the LG 27GR95QE, its poor textual content readability means it’s not a fantastic all-rounder show for work in addition to play.

Specs

Options

The principle function of the AOC Agon Professional AG276QZD is, in fact, its OLED panel, which is technically a 26.5-inch display with a 2,560 x 1,440 decision, making for a pixel density of 110 pixels per inch (ppi). Ordinarily, that’s a really perfect pixel density for normal use, being sharp sufficient to not look blocky and pixelated, however not so tremendous that you simply basically waste display area by having to make use of Home windows Scale settings to stretch the picture, as is the case with 4K screens of this dimension.

Nevertheless, OLED panels have an Achilles heel, which is that they aren’t fairly as sharp for any given pixel density as LCDs. This impacts Samsung’s QD-OLED screens, such because the Samsung G95SC, nevertheless it’s even worse on the LG WOLED panel used on this show. We’ll discuss extra about how this impacts this monitor within the picture high quality part of this assessment.

The place this monitor’s panel isn’t missing in any respect is in its gaming specs, with it boasting a 240Hz refresh charge and a 0.03ms claimed response time (that’s roughly 100x sooner than most LCDs). There are technically sooner screens out there, such because the 360Hz MSI MPG 271QRX, however for the overwhelming majority of players, the efficiency you’ll get right here is a lot.

The display makes use of a matte end, which helps restrict the impression of reflections however can scale back the perceived distinction of a show when in comparison with shiny panels. Whether or not you like a matte or gloss end will largely come down to private desire, however we did discover the matte end had some downsides, as we’ll once more talk about within the picture high quality part.

Elsewhere, the AG276QZD is full of extras. In addition to providing peak, rotation, pivot, and tilt adjustment, the stand has a carry deal with on the highest, which is actually helpful for transferring a high-value display resembling this one.

It additionally homes a flip-down headphone stand on the again, which is a helpful addition, although relying in your setup and arm size, it’s not all the time in essentially the most handy spot to succeed in. Detach the stand and you can too affix an adapter that allows you to mount the show on 100 x 100mm VESA mount-compatible monitor arms and stands – AOC even features a little screwdriver to help set up.

Around the again, you’ll additionally discover the RGB lighting, which consists of roughly 50 RGB lights in a hoop. To the left of this (when dealing with the again of the panel) you’ll additionally discover the only mini D-pad/joystick used to manage the onscreen menus.

In the meantime, the connections sit alongside the again backside fringe of the panel. These encompass two DisplayPort 1.4 inputs and two HDMI 2.0 ports, together with a USB 3.2 (Gen 1, so mainly USB 3.0) hub with two downstream ports. There’s additionally a headphone jack, together with a pair of 5W audio system contained in the monitor.

The audio system are a helpful addition for individuals who haven’t but managed to purchase a pair of one of the best laptop audio system, and so they can get surprisingly loud. Nevertheless, they’re skinny and shrill sounding sufficient that we wouldn’t actually wish to use them for correctly listening to music or gaming.

Internally, there aren’t too many additional options, such because the sensible TV modes you get on the Samsung G95SC or the KVM options you discover on another shows. Nevertheless, you get a picture-in-picture mode, plus this show helps Freesync Premium Professional, and it’s additionally G-Sync appropriate, so it could synchronize its refresh charge with the body charge output out of your graphics card.

The standard little gaming extras can be found too, resembling an on-screen crosshair – helpful for basically dishonest a bit of in FPS video games the place there’s no on-screen reticle. Nevertheless, this crosshair doesn’t have a intelligent automated color-shifting function to make sure it’s all the time seen on any background, resembling on the MSI MPG 271QRX. There’s additionally a “Sniper Zoom” mode, which zooms in on the central portion of the display. We’ve by no means discovered a lot use for these modes, although.

Lastly, there’s in fact HDR help. The display is simply rated to the HDR10 commonplace, which ensures it could deal with and ship the 10-bit huge colour vary of HDR. Nevertheless, the display has no VESA DisplayHDR ranking, which is shocking for an OLED panel.

Design

It is a very smart-looking monitor, apart from one actually unusual addition. Can you notice it within the picture under? Sure, it’s that stand. It has a superbly fetching colour, and we applaud AOC for making it compact and low-profile – it’s utterly flat so you possibly can put desk adornments on high of it – however its lopsided form is simply odd.  In the event you have a tendency to finish up with a messy desk, you most likely gained’t thoughts, because it’ll quickly get lined up, however when you wish to maintain a clear area chances are you’ll discover it distracting.

In AOC’s protection, the thought right here is identical as on the finances esports stand monitor it launched not too long ago, the principle function of which was merely its small stand that leaves loads of room on your mouse and keyboard to be near the display. AOC highlights the identical function on this show, and we predict it’s a fantastic idea, however would favor a symmetrical model of the identical normal thought.

That apart, the AG276QZD actually is elegantly appointed and well-made. The stand options numerous sturdy steel parts, with a silver paint end that appears a bit of extra fascinating than plain black plastic with out being too peculiar.

Likewise, the again of the panel has a bit of little bit of aptitude to it, because of its angular form, with out being garish (assuming you flip off the rainbow LED results). The sides of the OLED panel are very slim, which has been a priority with dealing with some bigger OLED panels, however the stand’s deal with saves you from having to select up the show by these skinny edges.

The lighting right here is additionally well-integrated, so it’s principally an invisible function when it’s turned off utterly, and it doesn’t look too foolish when turned on. It’s additionally vibrant sufficient to supply a satisfying wash of lighting on the wall behind the panel, although it doesn’t have a mode that makes the lighting match the colours displayed on the display, as with a few of Philips’ new OLED displays. As such, we simply left it set to a heat white glow to supply a little bit of backfill lighting.

Onscreen show menus

AOC has a poor monitor report relating to its onscreen menus, a minimum of when you return fairly a while. The corporate has improved its menus extra not too long ago, however the usability of this one seems like a step again.

The issue is the best way the mini d-pad is used to navigate the menus. There’s an inconsistency with what every path does, relying on which a part of the menu you’re utilizing. Press on any path button with out the menu open, and also you activate the short features assigned to these instructions, and also you additionally open the principle menu by urgent the d-pad inwards. You possibly can then navigate the principle menu with the instructions, and enter a menu part with one other press of the d-pad, however from right here the features change.

When you’re in a sub-menu, urgent proper is now how you choose a perform, and urgent left is the way you exit a perform, besides typically you additionally need to press within the d-pad. This will result in complicated conditions, resembling when adjusting the quantity or brightness setting, the place it’s important to press proper to activate it, press left or proper to regulate the setting itself, then press in on the d-pad to exit the setting earlier than urgent left to exit the sub-menu. It’s a multitude.

Fortunately, the menus truly present entry to just about each setting you will have or must get the show setup how you want. This contains complete colour customization, with fast modes for switching to sRGB and DCI-P3 colour areas – with picture high quality that’s adequate to go proper out of the field.

There are additionally a number of OLED care choices, together with a pixel orbiting mode that simply barely shifts which pixels are illuminated to cut back the onset of display burn. There aren’t fairly as many choices as you discover on some displays, such because the relatively helpful AI-enhanced crosshair or different AI-enhanced static picture anti-burn-in choices on MSI’s newest screens, however there are ample choices to only get the display arrange and get going.

Picture high quality

Let’s lower proper to the chase. The LG WOLED panel on this monitor is just not nice relating to textual content readability. It suffers from coloured fringing showing across the edges of high-contrast parts like textual content, which may result in a fuzzy look that’s tough to learn.

You possibly can see examples of this situation within the two photos under, considered one of which exhibits a bigger textual content, as you would possibly discover used for headlines, and the second of which exhibits the smaller textual content you normally discover on commonplace information articles, emails, and so forth. On the left is the AG276QZD, whereas on the best is a 27-inch LCD panel of the identical dimension and determination.

In these photos, you’ll see that the left edges of the bigger textual content on the left facet of the picture have purple/inexperienced/blue coloured dots/fringing all alongside them. It is because the show is struggling to work out which of the panel’s white, purple, inexperienced, and blue sub-pixels to light up to attain the graceful gray edges of the textual content. On the LCD on the best, the purple, inexperienced, and blue sub-pixels are organized in a extra typical approach that copes higher with these high-contrast edges.

The coloured fringing can look a bit of distracting for bigger textual content and different high-contrast edges however is downright disruptive to your capacity to learn textual content when it’s smaller. Within the above picture, you possibly can see how the textual content takes on a extremely delicate, smudgy look on the left however seems to be a lot sharper on the best.

All that mentioned, the above photos additionally present that textual content continues to be completely readable, so it’s not like this show and others prefer it are utterly unusable. It’s extra that if, like me, you spend all day working at a display studying a number of textual content, the shortage of sharpness is a serious destructive. In the event you’re solely studying the odd webpage right here and there, or catching up on Discord and Twitch chat between gaming classes, although, it’s far much less of a difficulty.

What’s extra, whereas it’s not superb for textual content, this show is superb at most different duties. The inherent capacity of OLED shows to supply true inky blacks means you get superb distinction, particularly when viewing the display in a darker setting.

In lighter rooms, the matte coating of the display could make black tones look a bit of gray, however that is largely eradicated at the hours of darkness. In the meantime, the matte end does a fantastic job of decreasing the impression of vibrant reflections in comparison with shiny screens. On steadiness, I nonetheless want the shiny end of a lot of the QD-OLED panels I’ve reviewed not too long ago, however the matte end right here nonetheless seems to be nice.

Colours are additionally actually punchy and vibrant, enabling this show to present HDR content material with all of the vividness you’d hope for. That mentioned, the general brightness stage right here, and thus the impression of HDR, is just not all that prime. On common it could solely hit 280nits brightness when at its most, which compares to sometimes round 400nits for a primary LCD display. Most QD-OLED shows I’ve examined additionally go a bit of larger, although this display is notably brighter than the LG 27GR95QE, which makes use of an analogous LG WOILD panel. That mannequin topped out at simply 200nits in regular non-HDR modes.

In HDR, this panel’s brightness can enhance even larger however once more not as excessive as QD-OLEDs. What’s extra, non-white peak brightness is far decrease than on QD-OLEDs so very vibrant, vivid colours lack a bit of punch in comparison with this display’s rival OLED know-how from Samsung.

One other key issue to notice relating to general picture high quality is that, by default, the display comes with an OLED care mode that always varies the brightness of the display, relying on what it’s exhibiting on the time. All OLED screens do it to a level, however this panel – and that of the LG 27GR95QE – is especially aggressive. This may be fairly distracting however fortunately there’s a repair, which is to interact the Uniform Brightness mode. This might in principle scale back the lifetime of the panel barely, however we discovered the display was mainly unusable with out it.

Gaming efficiency

The place this display’s OLED panel actually shines is relating to gaming efficiency. The mix of its 240Hz refresh charge with a ridiculously quick 0.03ms response time makes for extremely crisp and fast-feeling movement in video games. In our exams, the response time truly averaged at simply over 1ms, however that’s nonetheless far sooner than any LCD panel in real-world exams.

With adaptive sync caring for display tearing and stuttering, you additionally get a extremely clean picture. The flexibility of a 1440p decision at this display dimension and general velocity can also be supreme. It means this show can flip its hand to delivering blistering body charges and response instances in CS2 or Apex Legends, then ship gorgeous visuals in additional cinematic titles, with which 1080p screens with sooner refresh charges battle to compete.

It’s not absolutely the final phrase in peak gaming efficiency, as screens that hit 360Hz and even 540Hz do inevitably sooner nonetheless – particularly these with backlight strobing blur discount modes – nevertheless it’s nonetheless sufficient efficiency for all however elite stage aggressive players.

Value

Though it launched at a barely larger worth, the AG276QZD is now offered at $599.99 in each store we may discover. That makes it both the most cost effective mainstream-brand OLED panel of its kind, or the joint least expensive with the LG 27GR95QE, relying on whether or not the LG display has been discounted. As such, regardless that there are some facets of its efficiency that aren’t best-in-class, it’s a fantastic worth choice when you simply wish to get in on the OLED enjoyable with out spending over the chances.

Options

MSI MPG 271QRX

In the event you’re seeking to get an OLED display however need barely higher textual content high quality, even punchier colours, and an excellent larger refresh charge, the MSI MPG 271QRX is a superb purchase. It’s costlier than the AOC, at round $800, and has fewer additional options nevertheless it’s a greater display general.

Asus TUF Gaming VG27AQML1A

For a fantastic all-rounder display that’s significantly extra reasonably priced than the AOC Agon Professional AG276QZD, the Asus TUF Gaming VG27AQML1A is a superb choice. It makes use of an IPS LCD panel, so it could’t attain fairly the identical ultra-fast response time and excessive distinction of an OLED, nevertheless it nonetheless has a 260Hz refresh charge, 1440p decision, and G-Sync compatibility, all for slightly below $400.

Verdict

The AOC Agon Professional AG276QZD doesn’t excel in each potential approach. Its largest Achilles heel is its textual content high quality, which seems to be a bit of tough in comparison with an LCD panel with the identical dimension and determination, in addition to QD-OLED shows. It’s additionally missing a bit of in peak brightness which, together with its matte coating, barely dulls the depth of its black ranges in brighter environments, and means it doesn’t have fairly the HDR punch of some QD-OLED screens or miniLED shows.

Nevertheless, in each different approach, the AG276QZD is a superb purchase. It’s full of options, together with audio system, a USB hub, and a headphone stand, and it provides improbable gaming efficiency. Its response time is blazing quick and its 240Hz refresh charge could be very nippy too.

As such, the AOC Agon Professional AG276QZD comes extremely advisable as a pure gaming show, balancing efficiency, picture high quality, and worth to perfection. For extra of an all-rounder show for work – or the rest the place a number of taking a look at textual content is required – although, there are higher decisions out there elsewhere.