AOC AGON Pro AG344UXM 21:9 MiniLED 170Hz Gaming Monitor Review

There's no shortage of really great gaming monitors at reasonable prices. You can get a 2560 x 1440 resolution panel, with a high refresh rate, and good colour reproduction for not a lot of money these days. High-quality PC gaming experiences are more accessible than ever in the monitor market! But, what if you wanted to go one better, or in the case of the AOC AGON PRO AG344UXM, a few more!? Firstly, it's wider, at a 21:9 (ultrawide) aspect ratio, it's wider than your typical 16:9 (widescreen) ratio monitors. It's still effectively a 1440 resolution monitor but expands to 3440 x 1440 to deal with the extra width. It also upgrades the refresh rate, with 170Hz being significantly more than the industry standard of 60Hz, or even 30Hz if you're playing many console games. There's a fast 1ms response time and flagship miniLED backlight technology, but unfortunately, I can't see how many zones the monitor uses on the official product page just this stylised image (see below). However, via OCUK I can see it has 1152 zones, which is a LOT. However, the IPS panel can deliver VESA-certified DisplayHDR 1000 so it must be pretty robust, and can deliver 99% of DCI-P3 and 93% of adobeRGB. There are all kinds of whacky and cool features though, with ARGB lighting, a logo projection system, DTS Speakers, a powerful OSD, What AOC Had to Say "Ultimate high-end gaming experience! The AG344UXM is the first MiniLED 21:9 monitor in the world. Built in USB-C, USB Hub and KVM make this monitor perfect for gaming, home office & streaming. Perform at the highest standards with 170HZ, anti-glare coated display and 1ms GtG response time. Certified VESA HDR1000 and unlimited desktop space guarantee full immersive gaming and productivity in home office. Customize your RGB experience through our AOC G-Menu software and adjust the monitor angle to your needs with the integrated tilt, swivel and height adjustment function." What We Use Processor: Intel Core i7 13700KF Graphics Card: Gainward RTX 4090 24GB Motherboard: Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Elite AX RAM: Kingston Fury Beast 5600Mhz 32GB Storage Seagate FireCuda 530 PCIe Gen 4 2TB M.2 Primary Drive Seagate FireCuda 530 PCIe Gen 4 2TB M.2 Secondary Drive Power Supply: be quiet 800W Platinum Case: Fractal Design North Cooling 6 x Noctua 140mm ULN Fans 1 x Noctua 120mm ULN Fan 1 x Noctua NH-D15S CPU Cooler Desk: ThunderX3 ED7 Adjustable Gaming Desk Chair: noblechair HERO Java Edition Keyboard: JamesDonkey RS2 Mouse: Glorious Model D Minus Wireless Headset: Audeze LCD-2 Cloased Back Controllers Steam Controller PlayStation 5 DualSense Xbox One Controller ThrustMaster TCA Sidestick X Airbus Edition Charging: UGREEN Nexode USB C 100W Charger With the Intel Core i7 13700KF, Gainward RTX 4090 24GB and Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Elite AX powering the heart of this gaming setup, there's virtually no compromise on performance, allowing me to the latest peripherals, games, software, and much more at their absolute best. The Fractal Design North is a lovely PC case, and I've taken its cooling to the next level with seven Noctua ULN fans (Ultra Low Noise), and the iconic king of cooling that is the NH-D15S, meaning I get big airflow throughout the build, but with barely a noise from the system that could compromise any other testing. Thanks to Kingston for some fast DDR5 memory, and the PCIe Gen 4.0 speeds of the Seagate FireCuda 530 PCIe Gen 4 2TB M.2 SSDs, ultra-fast response times and loading mean there are no compromises in our software testing. The ThunderX3 ED7 Adjustable Gaming Desk and noblechair HERO Java Edition make for great productivity, ergonomics and comfort for those long hours working, and longer nights gaming. I practically live at my desk, so the lumbar support and the standing desk option are real game-changers I couldn't live without these days. Thank you to my friends at Cooler Master, Seagate, Noctua, Thunder X3, noblechair, Kingston, Thrustmaster, and Audeze, for their support in putting this setup together. A Closer Look First impressions go a long way, and this is by far one of the nicest-looking monitors on the market right now. AOC and more specifically their AGON Pro range, stick to that classic PC gamer aesthetic of black with red highlights, giving it a bit of a retro vibe to my eyes, while still looking undeniably modern too. The panel is vast, with a 34" diagonal span, so it should make for some immersive gaming experiences. The panel has a matte coating, and given how bright it is today, it is doing a significantly better job than most at diffusing light and reflections in here! The bezels are nice and slim on the top left and right sides, so it's going to be well suited to a multiple monitor configuration. The bottom bezel is a bit thicker, but even then, it's kept well in check. I love the AGON logo in the middle too, it all looks very "gamer" but that's the whole point of AGON Pro! The stand is pretty hefty, and it needs to be, as this monitor is pretty damn heavy. With over 1000 backlights, there's a lot of hardware behind the panel, and that includes a lot of metal heatsinks to keep the panel cool while it's delivering HDR1000 levels of brightness. So with that in mind, the wider and heavier stand makes sense, and it holds this monitor solid as a rock. The downside of all those backlights isn't just weight though, as it really does take a lot of power delivery and cooling to maintain this technology. The result is a 90mm thick monitor not counting the stand, that has quite a lot of ventilation at the top too. If you're wall mounting this it's going stick out a bit, so keep that in mind if you're hoping for a flush-mounted slim monitor, this isn't it. The back of the monitor shows more of the stand, which has those vibrant red highlights on the back. I do like them, but with ARGB lighting on the sides of the monitor, some LED colours may clash with the red metalwork. The monitor has a single analogue stick to control the OSD too, which is by far my favourite way to operate an OSD (short of a wireless remote, but few monitors have those now for some reason). But while not wireless, this monitor does come with a wired desktop remote, which is pretty neat! Powering on the monitor, we can see one more party trick. It has a built-in logo projector that can shine down on your desk. For me, that's a bit much, but I won't deny the fact that it's both fun and cool. Plus there's all that lovely RGB on the back, which will look great if you have an open desk. My monitors go against a wall, so it would provide more of an ambient light effect. OSD The OSD looks fantastic, it's very vibrant and easy to read. Weirdly, it's a nightmare to navigate with the analogue stick, as it's so far up the back of the monitor, that you feel like you're giving the back of the monitor an awkward examination trying to reach it. It should be closer to the side or bottom for ease of use. But of course, there's the hockey puck remote thing too, which is a breeze to use. Everything you would expect is here, with full 6-point colour calibration, a plethora of profiles for SDR and HDR modes, overdrive, adaptive sync and gaming overlays. Honestly though, just setting the monitor to uniformity, or User and dropping the brightness for darker rooms, seems to be about all you need to do. Local Dimming can be left on though, otherwise, you lose the benefit of the mini-LED backlight technology. Display Analysis Right out of the box, the colour range on this monitor is god-like. This is the second-highest score we've seen to date, with only the Philips 27B1U7903 scoring 100/100/99% just last week (also made by Philips/AOC!) so clearly, they're top of their game right now for colour reproduction! And what's crazy is this is just using the factory settings. Gamma Grey Ramp Grey ramp showed the same sort of dip on each test that we see in other MiniLED monitors, this is due to local dimming trying to compensate in this test. However, real-world performance is more accurate and turning it off has the gamma bang on 2.2 every time too. Very little deviation in the grey ramp too, it's a little below the 6500K target, but again, that's the local dimming tripping it up, and honestly, leave it on, it's only a quirk seen in this test not really in real world usage. This can be seen here if you look at the edges of the very bright white box. They're every so slightly greyed where the backlight zones transition, but when watching a movie or gaming, you don't see this, this is an extreme example. Contrast ratios are spectacular, with near OLED-like black levels, even with a peak brightness of around 600 nits in SDR mode, and in HDR mode it'll do 1000 nits, but I suggest setting down the HDR mode from the HDR1000 mode to normal or basic if you're in a really dark room, you lose peak brightness, but the black levels are even better! Brightness Colours Out-of-the-box colour accuracy was superb, with an average only slightly above 1 Delta-E. I'd normally do a full calibration at this point, but there's really no need, as any improvements here would be imperceptible. Monitor Rating This is one of the strongest ratings I've seen to date, and it's further evidence that Mini-LED has some serious chops to compete with OLED. Tone Response is better than 3.5, it's just the backlight management doesn't know this was a benchmark and changes imperceptibly to us, but the sensor picks it up while taking readings. The same is true for luminance uniformity. I did calibrate and tried the Uniformity mode, and while colours were "better" that's subjective and the score remained at a very impressive 4.5 for colour accuracy (we've never had a 5, if you were wondering, 4.5 is as high as we've ever had). Performance Right out of the box, the colours and contrast ratio of the AGON Pro are simply stunning, obviously an SDR photo on a webpage does it little justice, but even still, I think the photo of it looks great too. Being ultrawide, you have a massive amount of workspace, with the 3440 x 1440 resolution providing plenty of real estate to open up multiple windows side by side, which is fantastic productivity. What I really loved it for, however, are the colours and that mini-LED backlight. Movies have cinema levels of colour reproduction and the black levels are astonishing. Given the 27" 4K monitor I tested has double the backlight zones, I find it pretty hard to see how this looks basically as good with "just" 1152 zones. Given that edge-lit monitors often have one zone, that's a mighty upgrade, and it can turn off or turn down the backlight in dark areas to retain those black levels. In games, which tend to use more unrealistic and vibrant colour pallets, it's even more stunning. It's also silky smooth, with a 1ms response time and a 170Hz refresh rate, you can get a truly sublime gaming experience, assuming you have a GPU that's capable of running it. Ultrawide 3440 x 1440 at 170Hz is a lot to ask for, but if you can game at 60-90 FPS at 4K, the performance requirements are fairly similar. Plus, with FreeSync and Adaptive Sync, you don't get screen tearing either, so if you can't hold 170FPS consistently, it's really not a problem. The motion handling is awesome, with no overdrive, Quake Remastered felt pretty tight, and while your mileage may vary, you can overdrive this monitor for a faster response, but the most extreme settings can cause a little ghosting, but largely, I felt no need to push it that far anyway, stock settings are very nicely tuned for gaming already. HDR modes are fantastic too, and the black levels are close to OLED levels of good for the most part, but the monitor is able to output a higher peak brightness too, and unlike the last OLED I reviewed, there's no constantly active fan trying to save the panel from burning out but the monitor is also thick with a huge radiator, so pros and cons I guess. For colour-sensitive editing work, there are few monitors out there that can surpass what this has to offer. It has exceptional colour reproduction and accuracy. I, on the other hand, am using it to edit images to print onto vinyl to stick on my car... don't judge me. How Much Does it Cost? Let's not beat around the bush, the AOC AGON Pro AG344UXM 21:9 MiniLED 170Hz Gaming Monitor is £999.99, and that's a lot. However, considering it's one of the best monitors I've reviewed, and that it's far from the most expensive I've reviewed, it's relatively good value for money. The MiniLED technology is amazing, but clearly, it adds a lot of hardware, complexity, additional power delivery, cooling hardware and more to the display, and this all impacts the price significantly. But when you can pay the same for an edge-lit ultrawide that doesn't have it, well, the price isn't really that bad at all. Overview I love this monitor, but I want to get something right out of the way first. I wouldn't buy one myself, despite it being one of the best I've ever tested. Firstly, I am so used to a curved monitor and this monitor is flat, it looks weird to me now, but I'm sure I'd adjust sooner or later to a flat display again. it's also really thick and heavy, and while I have my monitors mounted on a gas lift arm, I wouldn't be able to push it as close to the wall as my own slimmer ultrawide monitor. Small details I know, but certainly they're things to consider. There's obviously the price too, it's damn expensive, and you can get a shockingly decent ultrawide gaming monitor, such as the AOC Gaming CU34G2X for £340 these days, barely a third of the price. So why pay triple that price for the AOC AGON AG344UXM? Well, there are plenty of reasons, so let's get into it! Firstly, the backlight. It's not quite OLED per-pixel tech, but with over 1000 zones of backlight, it can get surprisingly close for movies and gaming. You can get a peak brightness of 1000 nits in HDR mode and 600 nits in SDR mode, which is more than enough to make you go "wow!" and this is backed up by some truly exceptional colour reproduction. The cheaperCU34G2X I reviewed had a Delta-E of 3.69 for colour accuracy, and a gamut of 99% sRGB, 82% AdobeRGB and 85% DCI-P3, while the newer AG344UXM does 100, 92, 99% respectively with a Delta-E of 1. That may not sound much, but it's a significant improvement in colour accuracy and reproduction. There are reds, greens and blues on this monitor you've likely never seen represented on a display outside of a decent modern cinema. The panel is stunning in other respects too, with IPS technology, a 3440 x 1440 resolution, 1ms response time. So when it comes to gaming, not only do the colours look good, but everything is sharp to look at, silky smooth when there's a lot of motion, and honest, it's just a joy to use. Should I Buy One? This is obviously only going to appeal to the enthusiasts with deep pockets, and you have to take your media, be that games, movies or whatever really, to invest this amount of money in a display to enjoy it. However, if you really care about colour accuracy and just like to be visually wowed, then hey, this is going to get the job done. Of course, it's tuned for gaming, and it doesn't disappoint there, but it's also heavily set up for creatives, with the wide panel offering added productivity, while the colour reproduction makes it well suited to content creation too. I just wish it was a bit slimmer and was curved too, but hey, for this level of tech under £1000, I'm extremely impressed with it!

OSD

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