AOC 27B3CA2 27″ 100Hz IPS Monitor Review

How Much Does it Cost?

The AOC 27B3CA2 27 Inch FHD Monitor is available now from Amazon with a price of just £149.99, making it very competitive in the current market. There are a lot of similar monitor for around this price, however having a 100Hz refresh rate with adaptive sync, built-in speakers, and the USB Type-C connectivity certainly gives it an edge and makes it well worth your consideration.

Overview

AOC has hit a bit of a sweet spot with the 27B3CA2, and while the B3 series is designed to be relatively simple and affordable, it does have some nice features that help it stand out from the crowd, but also some missing features that you should be aware of.

It’s very limited in terms of connectivity, with a single HDMI and a Type-C DisplayPort, so hooking up your PC or your laptop is easy enough, but I would have liked to see a standard DisplayPort connector too, just to keep it versatile.

The stand is nice and compact, it doesn’t take up much room on your desk, but it has no height adjustment or rotation, but it does allow for a good range of tilt forwards or backwards. However, since the monitor is so lightweight, simply turning the monitor, and it’s stand, really isn’t that difficult anyway. Furthermore, it does have VESA, so mounting it on a monitor arm would be easy enough, and you can get one for under £20 these days.

The panel is nice enough though, offering a good brightness of 250 nits at 100%, and it still retains good overall black levels and with 95% of sRGB the colours are decent too. Pro photo editing levels of colour it is not, but since most games, movies and online content (outside of HDR content) is mastered in sRGB, it’s more than up to the task for most work and gaming needs.

Should I Buy One?

If you’re looking for a good quality monitor to work from home, or something affordable to deploy in your office space, the AOC 27B3CA2 has a lot to offer, and while it’s not a “gaming” monitor, with a 100Hz refresh rate, 1ms response time and adaptive sync, it holds up pretty great for gamers on a tighter budget too. Good colour reproduction, reasonably bright, and a pleasantly affordable price tag make this a budget monitor winner.