AOC AG271QX

A premium option.

Measuring in at 27 inches, the AOC AG271QX is understated and stylish. The simple looking stand actually has both height (130mm), tilt (-3.5/21.5 degrees) and swivel adjustments. The LCD uses a flat TN panel, with a 16:9 aspect ratio and an easy on the eyes 2,560 x 1,440 resolution. The refresh rate is a gamerfriendly 144Hz, it has a 1ms GTG response time, and 8-bit colour is supported.

The AOC features FreeSync, and a G-Sync version is reportedly coming soon. The panel itself is fairly evenly lit, with decent (but of course not IPS-level) colour. There is minimal light bleed, and we didn’t experience any ghosting or tearing. It also does a decent job for watching movies, but the lower TN 170/160-degree viewing angles are more noticeable if sitting off-centre.

The screen has a bunch of gamer-focused modes that can reduce input lag (at the expense of some image quality), or automatically lighten objects in dark areas of a game. The AG271QX also has a USB-powered desktop input switcher and OSD interface, which is pretty handy.

The screen has the usual HDMI (1.4), DVI, DisplayPort (1.2a) and VGA inputs, plus USB 3.0 and 3.5mm audio I/O jacks. One of the USB ports handles fast charging, which makes it a great place to juice up a smartphone when gaming. It also has inbuilt speakers, but they are the same old, same old 3W built-in models that are not much use day to day.