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Our review of the MSI MPG 272URX is now live. This is a 26.5″ 3840 x 2160 (‘4K’ UHD) QD-OLED monitor with glossy screen and support for a 240Hz refresh rate alongside DP 2.1, HDMI 2.1 and USB-C (98W PD). The monitor delivered a sharp experience, with minimal fringing issues, excellent detail levels and the usual vibrant high-contrast QD-OLED experience. The monitor was quite well calibrated overall, though my unit had mild ‘black crush’ issues due to gamma being too high for very dark shades ‘out of the box’. There was an effective sRGB emulation mode which instead used ‘sRGB gamma’, with elevated dark details. It was quite well-tuned and showed good accuracy, with alternative DCI-P3 and Adobe RGB modes also available. HDR was also tuned well for a neutral and accurate shade representation, good dark detail and some nice bright highlights. The usual dimmer than intended mid-tones were observed in bright scenes unless switching to the ‘DisplayHDR True Black 400’ mode. Responsiveness was excellent, as expected, with low input lag and no perceivable pixel response time weaknesses – there was the expected VRR flicker, though.

I can certainly recommend this monitor based on its performance, but what at ~$1100 USD (£1000) the monitor is priced $100 below the ASUS ROG SWIFT OLED PG27UCDM at time of review. The ASUS offers similar performance but has a few extra features such as a proximity sensor, support for the Dolby Vision HDR format and an ‘OLED Anti-Flicker’ feature. Which doesn’t eliminate VRR flicker, but can make it less noticeable in some situations.

There’s also the Dell Alienware AW2725Q. That isn’t available in the UK at the time of this review, but it’s supposed to come in ~$900 USD, which would undercut the MSI by ~$200. I’d again expect similar performance to the MSI, with this one also supporting Dolby Vision. This is a feature I consider ‘nice to have’ if you watch a lot of HDR movie content. But it’s really an absent HDR format in the gaming space, certainly on the PC side.

The larger MSI MPG 321URX is also available for ~$900 – $950 at time of this review. Like the AW2725Q it lacks DP 2.1 capability, but for most people that will make no difference to their experience. So I think with all this in mind there’s perhaps some scope for the MSI’s price to drop a bit. And based on previous MSI OLED releases I wouldn’t be surprised to see that. In fact it may already have done so by the time you watch this video, in which case it becomes easier to outright recommend.

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