AOC Gaming Q27G3XMN/BK Review
A Mini LED panel that punches well above its weight
Verdict
The AOC Gaming Q27G3XMN/BK is an excellent mid-range gaming monitor. It looks good, and offers some sublime image quality thanks to a Mini LED-backlit VA panel with bright images, accurate, vivid colours and fantastic contrast. While its OSD is quite cumbersome and there aren’t any speakers, that’s a small price to pay for what is a brilliant monitor.
Pros
- Highly-adjustable stand
- Wonderfully vibrant images
- Solid build quality
Cons
- Lack of speakers may not suit some folks
- OSD can be fiddly to use
Key Features
- 336-zone Mini LED backlit VA panel:The Q27G3XMN/BK is special for offering a Mini LED VA panel with local dimming for a vibrant gaming experience
- DisplayHDR1000 support:It also comes with fully-fledged HDR support, which can allow for up to 1000 nits of peak brightness.
- Highly-adjustable stand:This AOC monitor comes with a highly adjustable stand with everything from height adjust to portrait orientation, and also needs no tools to put it together.
Introduction
In a similar vein to some of the brand’s more recent monitors, the AOC Gaming Q27G3XMN/BK aims to bring a powerful monitor with some fantastic specs and performance to the people for a reasonable price.
The Q27G3XMN/BK is priced at £349.99/€399 and brings the powers of a 27-inch 1440p VA panel with a 336-zone Mini LED backlight, a 180Hz refresh rate and a 1ms response time for an especially reasonable price, all things considered.
For reference, one of our favourite Mini LED choices, the Samsung Odyssey Neo G7 (2023) sits at £899/$999, so it’s truly excellent to see the prices of Mini LED panels as capable as this AOC choice become much more wallet-friendly.
On paper at least, the Q27G3XMN/BK has all the makings of one of the best gaming monitors we’ve tested; I’ve been putting it through its paces for the last few weeks to see how well it performs.
Design
- Modest, but modern looks
- Easy to assemble
- Fantastic stand adjustment but basic port selection
Minus its slight curve, the Q27G3XMN/BK looks remarkably similar to another one of AOC’s more affordable picks, the CQ27G2S/BK. This option also offers the same screen size and black and red colour scheme with angular base, and you wouldn’t know by looking at it that this is a powerful Mini LED panel. The plastics used in its construction are solid, while the small flecks of red add some welcome flair to an otherwise quite nondescript panel.
Far too often, monitors at more affordable prices could try too hard to fall into the gamer aesthetic, but the Q27G3XMN/BK walks the line well in offering a monitor that looks as if it would fit in both an office or a gaming den. This also looks modern too, with thin bezels on all but the bottom side, maximising screen real estate.
The Q27G3XMN/BK was also simple to put together, with a toolless construction and a simple screw-in stand. That means anyone can be up and running in a matter of moments.
Speaking of the stand, it offers some brilliant adjustment with lots of room for height adjust, swivel and tilt, while the Q27G3XMN/BK can also be put into a portrait orientation in either direction, if you’d prefer.
Of course, if you are going to put this panel into a portrait mode, make sure you haven’t got items to either side, as you may end up knocking them as the monitor swings round. If the stand isn’t your jam though, then the Q27G3XMN/BK is 100mm x 100mm VESA mountable.
The port selection around the back is a reminder of the fact that the Q27G3XMN/BK’s affordability with a sum total of four ports. To be specific, there’s a pair of HDMI 2.0 ports, as well as a DisplayPort 1.4 out for the full 180Hz at 1440p. There is also a headphone jack for connecting a separate wired means for audio which you may need as this monitor doesn’t have speakers. There isn’t a USB hub or KVM functionality, which is a bit of a shame, but then again, it isn’t an expectation for a monitor at this price.
Image Quality
- Mini LED backlight offers vivid images
- Excellent colour accuracy
- Brilliant motion handling
It’s on the front of general image quality and performance where the Q27G3XMN/BK impresses most. It arguably has to perform well to justify even a small look-in against the competition, given how overcrowded the 27-inch 1440p section of the monitor market is.
Out of the box and even without the full effect of the Mini LED’s local dimming, this monitor offered some vibrant images with 417 nits of brightness, as well as decent blacks and contrast with tested levels of 0.12 and 3530:1 respectively.
Its 6000K colour temperature out of the box is solid, although it can be improved a smidgen. With no local dimming, the Q27G3XMN/BK provides a peak brightness of 634 nits peak brightness, which means it offers fantastic vibrancy, while it also boosts contrast at the expense of a worse black level.
In enabling Local Dimming on its medium setting, it took the Q27G3XMN/BK to another level. While its brightness out of the box is just 371.5 nits, it allowed for much deeper blacks with a recorded 0.05 level, as well as a doubly better contrast ratio of 7050:1 and a bang-on colour temperature of 6400K.
Across the board, the colour accuracy is also solid, with a measured 100% of the sRGB space, meaning we’re getting all of the mainstream colours displayed in a wonderfully accurate fashion.
Elsewhere, its 95% DCI-P3 and 91% Adobe RGB coverage means you could technically use this panel for more colour sensitive workloads given its portrayal of those colours above the requisite 80% level, although for specialist workloads, there are more focused choices out there.
The tried-and-tested 27-inches of screen real estate and a 2560×1440 resolution means we’re also getting a marvellous blend of a usable screen size with a resolution that captures lots of detail and is easy to drive.
The 180Hz refresh rate offered marvellous motion handling and smooth output, which was beneficial in both cinematic titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and competitive shooters such as Counter Strike 2.
VRR support is present with AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, so people with AMD GPUs are covered for a tear and stutter-free experience, and there is also Adaptive Sync support for Nvidia GPUs, too. The Q27G3XMN/BK also has fully-fledged HDR support, supporting VESA DisplayHDR1000. With supported content, AOC says that should mean a peak brightness of 1000 nits in certain windows, allowing for a truly vibrant experience.
Software and Features
- OSD is cumbersome and slow to use
- No speakers present
The Q27G3XMN/BK unfortunately continues the theme of AOC’s more affordable panels with respect to its OSD, or on-screen display.
Being entirely button-operated in the absence of a joystick makes it a bit of a pain to trawl through menus, although on the plus side, there are an awful lot of settings including varying HDR modes and picture modes for games and for changing the level of the local dimming.
There also aren’t any speakers here to judge, which is becoming more common with gaming monitors across the board, not just more affordable ones. If you’ve got separates or a soundbar already, then this isn’t an issue, although if you lack the desk space for speakers, then internal ones would have been useful for some.
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Should you buy it?
You want a bright and responsive screen:
The Q27G3XMN/BK offers some brilliant image quality with lots of brightness and excellent contrast across a sensible screen size with an easy-to-drive resolution. If you want a display that’s affordable with a lot to like about it, this is top contender.
You want an OSD that’s easier to navigate:
The lack of a dedicated joystick for convenient navigation makes the Q27G3XMN/BK’s OSD a tad difficult to work with. If you want a convenient configuration, you may want to look at other options.
Final Thoughts
AOC Gaming Q27G3XMN/BK is a brilliant Mini LED gaming monitor that severely undercuts the competition in terms of price, without sacrificing too much elsewhere.
Its design may be a bit more conventional and modest, but you are getting a stand with lots of adjustment and a panel that’s easy to put together with a tool-less construction. The port selection isn’t necessarily the best, but it’s liveable.
Elsewhere, the 336-zone Mini LED backlit VA panel offered some fantastic image quality with vibrant images and vivid, accurate colours. The real bonus is enabling Local Dimming which allows for deeper blacks and more accurate temperature, which pushes the Q27G3XMN/BK above its rivals. Support for DisplayHDR1000 is also welcome for supported content, while its boosted 180Hz refresh rate helps for sublime motion handling.
All in all, the AOC Gaming Q27G3XMN/BK is a fantastic gaming monitor for its sub-£350/€400 price tag, and for the same feature set elsewhere, you’ll be paying a fair bit more.
If you want a bright and vivid gaming experience on a responsive panel for a steal of a deal, then this is the panel to go for. For more options though, check out our list of the best gaming monitors we’ve tested.
How we test
We use every monitor we test for at least a week. During that time, we’ll check it for ease of use and put it through its paces by using it for both everyday tasks and more specialist, colour-sensitive work.
We also check its colours and image quality with a colorimeter to test its coverage and the display’s quality.
We used a colorimeter to get benchmark results.
We used our own expert judgement for image quality.
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FAQs
The AOC Gaming Q27G3XMN/BK features a 2560×1440, or 1440p, resolution across a 27-inch screen.
You can use the AOC Gaming Q27G3XMN/BK with a console, although because of the limitations of the HDMI 2.0 port, you will only get a 144Hz refresh rate at 1440p.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
