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JustAPasserByGreetings! As my trusty Samsung C24FG73 started dying, albeit slowly, by displaying random horizontal lines, I’ve decied to replace it with a 27″ 1440p monitor. I’ve had a few – more or less – simple demands: a sub 300€ price tag, with a 144+ refresh rate and a decent to great response time. (By default, this basically excluded all VA models, as I’m aware that my old Samsung was somewhat of a postive exception when it comes to response time, and the new G5/G7 line is grossly overpriced.)
After months of deliberations I’ve settled on the AOC Q27G4X as it is the only monitor in my country that isn’t overpriced (excluding low refresh rate models, that is). My only other option was DELL G2724D, which I had removed from consideration after reading numerous reports of possible panel differences. (And I don’t really have that much time to bother with switching units.) Weirdly enough, the AOC has been reviewed by only a small number of reviewers (I’m aware that is not available in the USA, so that is definitely a factor in this.) and that worried me somewhat.
Overall, I’m satisified with the monitor. The stand is quite sturdy and non-obtrusive (a big plus for me, as I dislike those V-shaped “gamer-y” stands), with great ergonomics. When it comes to the display itself I can’t find any particular faults – it feels responsive, it has vibrant colors and contrast is decent enough. But I am truly amazed with the backlight bleed on my unit or the lack thereof. I can’t stress it enough. To be fair, it isn’t non-existent, but in the worst possible conditions (black screen in a dark room with fairly high brightness) I have to be actively looking for it and even then it’s almost imperceptible. Sure, IPS glow is more noticebale than VA glow, but it doesn’t bother me. Colors are oversaturated, considering this is a wide gamut monitor, but in a different way than on my old QD screen. The latter has “neon” colors, while the colors on the AOC are simply more “intense”. (As I have no experience with the QD displays apart from the aforementioned one, I can’t help but wonder if every QD screen has such “neon” colors.) I somewhat prefer the Samsung in this regard, but it’s certainly not a practical drawback for the AOC. The calibration, suprisingly enough, seems perfectly acceptable. On the default “Warm” mode its white point is very close to the C24FG73 (at least according to my eyes, as I don’t have a colorimeter), which I’ve used on the default settings (with reduced brightness). However, the gamma is off (again, I’m basing this purely on my eyesight), and it seems to be closest to what I would deem acceptable if I set it to 2.4 in the OSD. (Which is corroborated by two reviews I’ve found online. However, I’m not sure of their trustworthiness: https://totalgamingaddicts.com/aoc-q27g4x-review-affordably-awesome/ and https://www.eteknix.com/aoc-27-q27g4x-ips-180hz-freesync-gaming-monitor-review/4/. All in all, there isn’t a single thing I’m displeased with.
Well, apart from this, and it is more of an annoyance than a “displeasure”: I would like to clamp the gamut to sRGB while watching media content (as I’ve done on the Samsung which has a terrific sRGB mode), but the OSD setting is too restrictive in this respect and it destroys gamma for me (confirmed by the Lagom test). Driver-side clamp is no-go, as I’m on Linux. Is there any other option?
That’s it from me. Just thought someone could find this helpful.
PCM2Hi JustAPasserBy,
I appreciate you sharing your thoughts on the Q27G4X and how it compares to your C24FG73. I’m glad you’re enjoying the monitor overall, but it’s a shame the restrictive sRGB mode with gamma calibration issues isn’t working out for you. 🙁 Does your graphics driver have a gamma control you could adjust whilst still using the sRGB setting of the monitor? It won’t help fine-tune different parts of the gamma curve but could at least displace it to perhaps offset some of what you are seeing using the default setup.
Unfortunately I’m not sure how you’d go about clamping to sRGB in Linux as I have no recent experience with that OS. I’m not sure if anybody has written a program with the necessary functionality to do that. Hopefully somebody else with some Linux experience could chime in.
JustAPasserByThanks for the response. Unfortunately, Linux GPU drivers (Mesa) don’t have any UI with such functionality and I’m also not aware of any other software-side solution, CLI or otherwise. And I’m definitely not going back to Windows with what Microsoft’s doing with it…
In any case, I guess I’ll have to get used to it. However, I might as well add that there is one other “oddity” I’ve noticed: I can’t put my finger to it, but the AOC somehow seems dimmer in certain scenes. And I can safely say this isn’t due to the backlight or the intensity of the colors. Perhaps gamma calibration is just wrong no matter the setting. But then, Lagom test definitely looks fine on 2.4. I can’t quite see the first 2 squares (which are distinct on the Samsung monitor, perhaps due to the VA panel(?)) but the rest are clearly visible in a gradual way. Curiosly, I’ve compared it to my old, basic IPS TV in games and TV shows (which I’ve used almost daily alongside the C24FG73, so I’m used to both the IPS and the VA “look”) and the image – aside from the more vibrant colors – seems pretty much the same. However, when I’m switching beetween the two monitors it seems somewhat, although very mildly, jarring. For the life of me I can’t figure out why it seems that way. Perhaps my eyes are playing tricks on me.
PCM2Tough to say, but it’s possible the gamma curve is wonky (off for mid-tones) even if it’s fine for dark shades. That would make visibility on Lagom appear fine even if some of the shades are a bit brighter than they should be. The slight uplifts are difficult to see using Lagom but clearer for ‘actual content’ you’re familiar with.
JustAPasserByYeah, that seems like a plausible explanation. In any case it’s not a dealbreaker. Thanks again.
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