AOC AG275QZ 27″ QHD 270Hz Gaming Monitor Review

How Much Does it Cost?

The AOC AG275QZ 27″ QHD 270Hz Gaming Monitor is available now on Amazon for just £617.93, by no means cheap, but damn it’s a 270Hz 2K monitor, that was never going to come cheap! That being said, its nearest rivals are typically 240Hz and this is still £50 cheaper than the new Acer Predator XB273UGX, so while it’s a lot of money, the AOC AG275QZ is excellent value for money in its respective class. However, the “old” model is the AG273QZ and which can deliver 240Hz and is only £582.01 right now, but the price is so close, I’d still be tempted to get the new one, as I’ve tested it, and I know the panel is excellent.

Overview

AOC got just about everything right with this monitor. Firstly, it looks stunning, and while it lacks RGB, I see that as a bonus, not a downside. Instead, it’s just a fun black and red aesthetic, with some nicely finished and textured surfaces that give it an aggressive look and gamer-like appeal. I also love that the same theme is applied to the OSD, it’s very nicely designed and a pleasure to use too.

The overall build quality is very good, as you might expect at this price range. The stand is nice and stable, and offers a pretty extensive range of movement in all directions, with a significant amount of height adjustment, as well as a portrait mode too. It’s VESA compatible too, should you wish to add your own stand or wall mount it.

Of course, the real star is the panel, and while high refresh rate gaming is pretty common on PC these days, a 270Hz panel at 2560 x 1440 is certainly not common. Sure, there are even more extreme examples on the market, but they’re almost entirely more expensive and almost laser-focused on the eSports scene. The AOC AG275QZ 27″ certainly has the chops to be in the competitive world, but I feel it has a price and feature set that makes it very comfortable to use at home too.

Its colours are excellent, as are the black levels, contrast and brightness. I’ve been writing and editing with it for a couple of days, and I am loving what I’m seeing. From playing some Apex to watching a movie, it hasn’t thrown me any issues with backlighting, ghosting, or even so much as a noticeable screen tear. Albeit, the refresh rate is so high that any perceived glitches are over in 3.7 milliseconds, that’s not that surprising.

What I like about this monitor is the response time though, 1ms stock or 0.5ms MPRT. Plus at 270Hz, if you can get your FPS that high, you can cut your game response times, that is from input to action on screen to sub 5ms. I got Apex down to about 3ms, which is awesomely fast, and I was only getting closer to 200 FPS on average, so I’m sure I could improve that with a new GPU.

Should I Buy One?

If you’re looking for a serious edge in competition, this monitors certainly fits the bill. Even most enthusiasts would be just as happy around 120-165Hz though, so I do feel you have to take gaming, and your hardware choices pretty seriously to invest in this. However, while it is expensive, you get a great quality monitor that delivers on its promises, and gives you great colour, accuracy and speed overall.