During the month of September, AOC presented its new line of gaming monitors characterized by a high refresh rate and extremely low response times, two very important factors especially if you want to play at competitive levels. The series includes 4 models with Full HD resolution: 27G2U and 27G2U5 of 27 "and 24G2U and 24G2U5 of 23.8". Today we are here to tell you about AOC 27G2U.
The monitor will arrive in a completely black package, where on both sides we will find an image of the model in question with its initials. The bundle that we will find inside it is quite complete and will allow us to make the most of the monitor right away: in addition to AOC 27G2U, we find the support base divided into two pieces, the power cable, a Display Port 1.2 cable, an HDMI 1.4 cable and a quick instruction manual.
Despite the size of the panel, the monitor is very compact. The front is very minimal and is characterized by extremely thin bezels, which make the AOC 27G2U ideal for multi monitor configurations: both right and left, the bezels are just 5 millimeters thick.
The lower part instead is characterized by a black plastic frame, thicker than the others, this is because below it we find the power button, the keys to navigate the OSD menu, to change source and to turn the volume up and down. This frame is also embellished with a red border and the AOC logo in gray in the center.
The back of the AOC 27G2U, unlike the front, is very beautiful to look at and perfectly embodies the player's DNA, because it is very flashy. Too bad that most of the time you place the monitor in front of the wall and seeing the back is extremely difficult. The body is completely made of plastic and the predominant color is black, like the rest of the monitor but on the sides we find two red stripes that make the design more aggressive. At the top we find a ventilation grille whose purpose is to expel the heat produced by the internal electronic components. Below we find the various IN & OUT ports, consisting of:
- 1 Display Port input;
- 2 HDMI inputs;
- 1 VGA input;
- 1 Audio IN jack;
- 1 Audio Out jack;
- 1 USB 3.0 type B;
- 4 USB 3.0 type A, one of which is dedicated for charging devices;
- 1 input for the power cable.
As is now customary in all types of monitors, all the various ports are facing downwards, but are easy to use. On the back of the monitor we also find two integrated medium quality speakers. They are able to reproduce voices crystal clear, but lack bass, which makes the sound generally flat, but we doubt anyone playing PC games using the monitor's built-in speakers.
The stand on which we are going to place the monitor is made entirely of plastic and, like the rest of the body, the predominant color is black, embellished with red details. At the bottom of the pedestal we find a hole whose function is to pass the AOC 27G2U cables and make our station more orderly. The support base is also made of plastic, but it turns out to be extremely solid without making everything wobbly. Once the panel is fixed on the stand, we can adjust it both in height and in inclination, in order to adapt it to our needs.
Although the AOC 27G2U is an affordable monitor, the panel quality is very high. On board we find a IPS type panel (In Plane Switching) characterized by excellent color coverage and extremely high viewing angles. The panel is of the 8-bit type, to be precise 6 + 2 FRC and is able to reproduce up to 16,7 million colors. The AOC 27G2U is able to cover up to 120% the sRGB color gamut and up to 103% the Adobe one. Static contrast is 1000: 1, while dynamic contrast is 80.000: 1 and is able to give even deeper images, while the maximum brightness is 250 cd / sqm. The viewing angles, being an IPS, are very wide and we can enjoy the monitor with an angle of up to 178 degrees both horizontally and vertically, without the image losing quality.
The resolution, as mentioned at the beginning of the review, is Full HD, therefore 1920 x 1080 pixels, ideal for those who want to play competitively and therefore enjoy a high number of frames per second. Since the diagonal of the AOC 27G2U is quite generous, if we pay attention we will be able to notice the pixels of the panel, which is not too serious while playing, but very annoying during desktop use. Like any self-respecting gaming monitor, the refresh rate is equal to 144 Hz, flanked by technology AMD FreeSync, capable of making images smooth even when you have a low FPS value. This technology will vary the monitor refresh rate depending on the number of FPS that our video card generates. AMD FreeSync works in a range between 44 and 144 Hz in order to completely eliminate the annoying screen tearing.
Having a monitor with a high refresh rate, as well as making the gaming experience more fluid, will also help us to strain our eyes less and therefore withstand much longer gaming sessions and interest. This is possible because on the monitor we will not see the usual 60 FPS that we are used to seeing with a 60 Hz panel, but rather 144. AOC for its 27G2U has also aimed to maintain an extremely low input lag: we will have just 1 ms of MPRT delay, while the overall one settles at only 4 ms, thus avoiding the ghosting effect, i.e. the creation of trails during gaming sessions.
We analyzed the AOC 27G2U panel using a colorimeter. The range covered by our sample reflects what was declared by the manufacturer, or about 120% of sRGB, in our case 119%. The maximum brightness that we managed to obtain during our tests was 256 cd / m221 in the center of the monitor, while if we post on the sides, especially in the lower part of the panel, we noticed a drastic drop, reaching peak brightness. equal to XNUMX cd / sqm.
Even in terms of colors, the AOC monitor has some discrepancies, recording a maximum color difference of 2,53% in the upper right corner. Nothing transcendental, these are differences that we will hardly perceive with the naked eyes. AOC 27G2U, as usual in IPS monitors with LED lighting, features Black Light Glow: the four vertices of the panel are much brighter than the rest of the monitor. This too is a defect - always if we want to call it - of little consequence, because during daily use or during the game phases it is almost difficult to notice it, while it will be clearly visible when we view very dark static images or enjoy a good movie .
AOC 27G2U has an OSD menu, well done and that allows us to control everything. However, navigation turns out to be quite uncomfortable, this is because the buttons are very small and difficult to press. Installed in the monitor there are several presets, which can be activated via the hotkey.
There is also a setting called sRGB which will load us a calibrated monitor profile, thus having very realistic colors. Through OSD, in addition to choosing the input source, we can change the brightness, contrast, gamma, position of the image. We also find a nice option that will allow us to emulate HDR, in order to make the images even more beautiful to see, even if remotely comparable to a native HDR signal.
AOC 27G2U is a monitor with excellent features. It manages to guarantee excellent color coverage, capable of giving detailed and colorful images, despite the panel being only 6-bit. The high refresh rate, combined with the low pixel response time, make the gaming experience truly unique and extremely smooth. If our video card fails to guarantee an adequate framerate, AMD FreeSync will take care of making the images fluid, adapting the refresh rate to the number of FPS generated. AOC 27G2U is extremely solid and features excellent materials. If we want to find a defect, it would surely be the Full HD resolution, extremely low for a monitor with a 27 "diagonal: during use, especially in white images, you will notice the pixels.
If you are looking for a gaming monitor with a high refresh rate, low response times, great colors and you don't want to spend a lot of money, the new AOC 27G2U could be for you. You can buy it for around 270 €.
