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radosuafGosh, I jumped into the rabbit hole of AG276QZD2 hardware and firmware revisions :). Turns out everything SHOULD be resolved in September 2025 or later units. Newest firmware and 280 Hz. The thing is when I start to ask retailers, they would either say they’re sending random units or one of them replied with a serial number that Gemini decoded as January 2025. I’m not really willing to shell out 450 EUR for a monitor that will turn out to be sub par. And sending monitors back and forth doesn’t seem to be a great idea either…
Hence I’m kind of leaning to Lenovo, which turns out to be 415 EUR at the moment. Seems to be hassle free, at least when it comes to picking the right version (there’s just one). The tradeoff would be 1 DP port and the burn-in warranty… Still don’t know. Don’t like the white stand either, but that I can live with :).What are the experiences with Lenovo monitors in general?
PCM2I haven’t really received much user feedback about Lenovo models and haven’t experienced their customer services myself. But I will say those I have interacted with on the PR side (both via email and in person at trade shows) have left a positive impression. Very good communication, friendly and enthusiastic about their products. So if that’s any reflection of their wider business I think they’re a safe choice. I would say the same about AOC from the PR side, but both of those companies are above average there and I know the uncertainty about which AOC revision you’d get is an issue.
radosuafOne more thing – both displays are HDR True Black 400 certified, but AOC is CTS Version 1.1 and Lenovo is CTS Version 1.2 – does it have any practical meaning? I understand Lenovo is a newer model and had to go through 1.2, but AOC could re-certify, I assume? Also, 1.2 seems to be released in May 2024, so before AG276QZD2 launch.
PCM2The AG276QZD2 would’ve gone through certification a few months before release and there could also be a slight delay before that certification level was “the standard”. It doesn’t make a difference either way, both panels and their capabilities are exactly the same.
radosuafOK, Lenovo ordered. Will post something when it arrives :).
radosuafMonitor arrived…
1. Brightness is locked in sRGB. I thought these time are way over, but turns out you can still have a 2025 monitor with it locked. Luckily, it’s at 75%, which is usable with an OLED. A bit too bright, but what can you do.
2. The driver will not install. No idea why, it’s the first time ever I have an issue with a monitor driver. I’m choosing the “Have disk…” option and then it says the folder does not contain a driver suitable for the device. I tried both W10 and W11 drivers (I’m on 11).
3. I have a Lenovo T14s Gen 2 AMD laptop and the Lenovo 40AY dock. I thought these would work perfectly together, but over HDMI I have to set it to HDMI 2.0 to be able to change the resolution and even then it’s not always possible (the field is grayed out). Somehow I managed to switch to 1440p 144 Hz at some point, keeping it and hoping it won’t break. Cable I’m using is the one shipped with the monitor, the label says “Ultra certified”.
Image quality coming from a LCD is of course impressive, but feels kind of strange to get so many issues at the very beginning.PCM2I’m glad you like the image quality, but I can see why those issues could be frustrating. My take on them:
1) That’s still not unusual I’m afraid. Fully unlocked sRGB modes are still the exception. 🙁
2) The driver doesn’t need to be installed, it will just possibly bundle a generic ICC profile and change the monitor name in Windows (or may not even do either of these things). The core functionality of the monitor will be the same with and without as it has all the information needed on the EDID which is addressed in the ‘plug and play’ state.
3) I’m not sure about that one as I don’t have experience with that kind of setup and I may be misunderstanding your issue. But a quick Google suggests the dock is limited to HDMI 2.0 so that’s restricting things or could be causing intermittent issues.
radosuaf2) I did some googling and it turns out the INF is just “an extension INF file for enabling Dolby Vision software monitor.”. I installed the Dolby Access and Dolby Extensions app on my own and it seems I have Dolby Vision enabled. I’m using the standard Windows driver along with the ICC profile that was in the same folder.
3) Yes, dock is 2.0, but HDMI should be backwards compatible? Nevertheless, as long as it works, I’m okay, I guess. Don’t get the idea of 2x HDMI and 1x DP setup. It should be the other way round. DP just works.
radosuafHmmm… I’m closing on my return period and I somehow found out coil whine… Browsing through internet looks like a widespread issue. It’s barely audible but I hear it mainly when there’s lots of white in the screen and there’s no music playing (so during my office work, when I would like to be focused). When playing, this obviously gets masked by sounds etc.
One of the suggested resolutions was to drop frequency from 280 Hz to 144 Hz, but I don’t hear any differernce. Wondering if switching to AG276QZD2 would help… I can see it has a power brick, so maybe any possible coil whine would at least move to my feet instead of bombing me from the height of my desk… Any thoughts?PCM2Ah that’s annoying! But yes, the internal AC/DC converter of monitors can sometimes be the source of coil whine, so having a power brick you can place further away should help.
radosuafSo it’s a return, I guess…
radosuafLenovo is packed and ready to be sent, came back to my AG275QXN and man… While of course it’s no match for the OLED in terms of display quality, the peace of mind that there’s no burn-in risk and ease of screen cleaning are sooo soothing. Also, while it wasn’t especially annoying with the OLED, text clarity is better too.
I don’t have great experience with local dimming, because it’s the Sony KD-55XF9005 with 48 zones over 55″ and blooming gets quite annoying there, I *might* probably settle for a miniLED for now. The obvious choice (AOC Q27G3XMN/BK) has just 336 zones, not sure if I can accept that, the recently reviewed by TFTCentral MSI MAG 274QPF X30MV has 1,152, which is still far from per-pixel OLED and the price is deep into OLED territory anyway… Is there anything interesting coming soon to this space? Also, would the Q27G3XMN be a significant step-up from AG275QXN and shall I just wait for something better to come out?
PCM2I agree the MAG 274QPF X30MV looks interesting (and capable) based on the TFTCentral review. I’m not aware of any models that would really be substantially better than that one in the Mini LED space due out. But the Q27G3XMN/BK does indeed still shine for its price to performance ratio. I still think you’ll enjoy it, but it’s apples to oranges compared to your IPS model (or indeed OLED) really. It will give you a more engaging HDR experience and noticeably better contrast than your current monitor, no doubt. And perhaps will be a nice monitor to run for a while, until you’re comfortable to make the jump into OLED and are confident the text clarity and burn-in risk have been addressed to your liking.
radosuafAG275QXN has a VA panel (165 Hz) and it’s also from AOC, wondering if that’s the same one or the one used in Q27G3XMN is something better?
PCM2Ah yes, so it does. The AG275QX is the IPS version. I haven’t used the AG275QXN, but I’d expect overall image characteristics to be similar to the Q27G3XMN. Aside from it lacking the Mini LED functionality, of course.
radosuafAny chance you’ll grab MAG 274QPF X30MV for review?
PCM2Can’t promise anything, but it may be possible at some point.
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