AOC AG273QZ Monitor Review

Over the past couple of years, gaming monitors have been steadily increasing when it comes to general performance levels, now boasting high refresh rates and low response times – all packed into 27″ (and above) panels that don’t compromise on colors or picture quality.

Today’s monitor (the AOC AG273QZ) suits the above trend nicely, hitting shelves with a combination of high-performance specs that make it a fantastic prospect for gamers. At the heart of this TN-based panel lies a 240Hz refresh rate alongside an equally impressive 0.5ms response time, putting it slap bang into the upper echelons of the responsive monitor category – if such a thing exists.

The following guide will be a more comprehensive look at the AOC AG273QZ to see how it stacks up in build quality, color accuracy, picture quality, and overall gaming performance – comparing it to similarly priced alternatives as we go.

So, with plenty to get through, let’s waste no further time and dive straight into it!

 

Specifications

Specifications

What's In The Box

The AOC AG273QZ comes in a fairly compact box that showcases the monitor and many of its specifications on the exterior. Inside, the monitor is packaged separately from the stand – completely unassembled for safety during transit.

The monitor is placed inside two large pieces of styrofoam ensuring that no damage can occur during its transport. The assembly of this monitor is extremely easy, with no tools being required to get it up and running. The base of the stand screws into the main body of the stand with a simple thumbscrew at the base. The stand clips into the monitor and is firmly secured.

Below is exactly what comes in the AOC AG273QZ box:

• AOC AG273QZ Monitor
• Kettle Plug
• HDMI 2.0
• DisplayPort 1.4
• Quick Start Guide
• Warranty

Design And Features

With specifications out the way, let’s take a closer look at the build quality, design, and mechanical features this monitor comes equipped with.

Design

The AG273QZ has been styled with a black and gunmetal grey design, finished in a matte styling that extends across the bezels and the stand. The bottom bezel plays host to a small red AGON brand logo, contrasting nicely with the black background of the bezel. The top and side bezels are dual-stage and offer a sleek look that is both immersive and premium.

The base of the stand has an unusual design that looks similar to some of the older AOC panels, albeit with a slightly more curved aesthetic. The three-pronged stand base connects to the main body of the stand via a simple thumbscrew – with no tools being necessary for assembly.

Moving to the rear of the panel is where you’ll find the majority of the design features. AGON’s logo can be found on the rear of the monitor, just above the AG273QZ’s RGB lighting. The lighting can be adjusted via the on-screen display, with numerous colors and cycles to choose from. Dual headphone holsters can be found on either side of the panel, with a simple pullout mechanism enabling users to access them.

A carry handle can be found at the top of the stand, allowing users to transport the monitor with relative ease. A cutout can be found on the rear of the stand which allows you to apply some level of cable management to your setup – albeit a little basic when compared to other alternatives.

Build Quality

Historically, AOC has been hit ‘n’ miss when it comes to their monitor’s build quality, often compromising on this area to meet strict budgetary requirements. That being said, the AG273QZ does offer solid construction, making use of hardy materials that feel fit to stand the test of time.

The stand is almost entirely metal, providing excellent stability during gaming sessions. It attaches to the rear of the monitor with a toolless design that actually feels incredibly strong. The stand’s adjustment mechanism also feels very robust, requiring light levels of force to reposition.

Whist plastic makes up the majority of the panel, it doesn’t feel flimsy in any way. The rear of the monitor is extremely tough, scoring highly in our robustness tests. Overall, it’s hard to knock this monitor for build quality. Where other AOC monitors may have failed, this one clearly excels.

Panel Coating

Like most modern panels, the AG273QZ comes equipped with an anti-glare panel coating with a matte finish (3H hardness). The panel coating does an extremely good job at mitigating both natural and manmade light sources, even at obscure angles.

One downside to the matte panel coating is, it does pick up a tonne of fingerprints. This isn’t a true con, but it most certainly noticeable and could put some individuals off.

Bezels

Bezels on this monitor are extremely slender, falling into what I would categorize as ‘highly immersive’. The bezels are dual-stage, with 1.5mm of plastic combining with the 6mm panel border to create a total bezel of 8mm on the top and sides. The bottom bezel is more traditional and offers a single-stage design that measures in at 20mm.

Stand

As we mentioned earlier, the stand is one of the stand-out features of the monitor’s design, providing excellent stability and adjustments for those that require them. With height, tilt, swivel, and pivot functionalities, you really can’t ask for more of the AG273QZ’s stand.

Below are the exact specifications of the stand:

• Forward Tilt – 5.5 degrees
• Backward Tilt – 21.5 degrees
• Left Swivel – 30 degrees
• Right Swivel – 30 degrees
• Pivot – 90 degrees
• Height – 130mm

Inputs

Inputs can be found at the rear of the monitor and are inserted in a vertical fashion, as you’d expect. AOC has equipped this monitor with a decent amount of inputs, including 4 x USB 3.2 downstream ports, mic input, headphone output, 2 x HDMI 2.0, and 2 x DisplayPort 1.4 ports.

OSD

The OSD (on-screen display) can be controlled by the included controller or the joystick found underneath the ‘AGON’ logo at the front. The OSD is extremely intuitive and offers up all the necessary settings you could need for a monitor of this caliber.

Choose between any number of color presets and gaming modes, tweaking each for luminance, contrast, and sharpness to suit your exact requirements. A tonne of game-tailored settings can also be found within the game section of the OSD, allowing you to boost shadows, color vibrance, adaptive sync, pixel response time, and more – a sure step in the right direction when compared to previous AOC monitors.

Color Accuracy & Picture Quality

Great colors and excellent picture quality are two of the main factors that help create immersion whilst your gaming. That makes them hugely important when it comes to purchasing time.

We like to test each monitor for color reproduction to see how they would perform in color-accurate scenarios.

Here are the results for the AOC AG273QZ:

We started off by testing the monitor in its factory ‘out the box’ settings. In this scenario, the monitor was set to game mode ‘OFF’, color Temperature ‘Warm’, and ‘standard’ ECO mode. We also recorded a luminance of 370 candelas, much higher than the recommended brightness for everyday usage.

We ran a quick color accuracy test to see how the preset compared to the sRGB spectrum – and to my surprise, the colors weren’t actually that bad. We saw a low white point of 6015K and a higher than normal 0.42 black depth. However, with an average deltaE of 2.45, the results were actually quite promising. Gamma read 2.23 and contrast was a little low at 874:1 – but overall, not bad.

I wasted no time and loaded up the sRGB color preset, hoping for better results across the board. The sRGB preset showcased almost identical results to that of the out the box settings, offering a white point of 6073K, black depth of 0.42, and contrast ratio of 879:1 – still below par. That said, the average deltaE was an impressive 1.21 – making this preset very accurate for the sRGB spectrum.

I decided to finish by running one of the game-mode presets to see how accurate it was. You could see straight away that the FPS preset offered a blueish hue to the image, something others found a little offputting. That being said, the results reflected this, with a white point of 7330K, black depth of 0.53, and contrast ratio of a low 760:1. Worst of all, however, was the average deltaE – measuring in at an average of 3.98.

I ran a more comprehensive color test on the most accurate color preset (sRGB) to get a better understanding of the accuracy it provided. As you can see from the table above, the average deltaE grew to 1.5 and the maximum delta was 4.1 – found in the red zones. Overall, whilst the sRGB preset is accurate, it would need a little tweaking to be determined acceptable for color-accurate work.

We quickly calibrated the monitor (using User color temperature) to see how accurate the AOC AG273QZ could become. For best results, we changed the RGB values to 46/50/48 and ran the calibration.

After calibration, the AOC AG273QZ did show clear signs of improvement when tested against the sRGB color space. The calibrated profile showcased a perfect 6446K white point, low 0.15 black depth, and an impressive 1.25 maximum deltaE. The contrast ratio did take a slight dip to 771:1, but that isn’t really anything overly concerning. With an average deltaE of 0.27, the calibrated settings were far more accurate than anything the monitor offered.

Panel Uniformity

Panel uniformity is a test we run to check how uniform the luminance and color is across the entirety of the screen. During this test, the center square is used as the reference space. Every other square is then tested to see how far it differentiates from the reference.

In an ideal world, we want every square to be green, meaning it hasn’t broken the differential threshold – something we can set at the start of the test.

Note: results will differ from panel to panel.

The AOC AG273QZ performed to an extremely high standard in this particular test, getting an extremely high score across the board. As you can see from the chart above, no quadrants returned a red score. In fact, the majority came back green – well under the 10% deviation we set before doing the test.

This monitor is great for viewing sporting events or games that have large patches of solid color – a tennis game for example.

Viewing Angles

The viewing angles of this panel were, as you might expect from a TN panel, not the best. TN panels are notoriously poor in this department, falling short of both VA and IPS variants. Despite manufacturers claiming a 170 / 160 viewing experience, there are some very aggressive color shifts that occur after around 30-40 degrees.

Fortunately, most people that opt into a TN panel purchase already know this, so it shouldn’t come as any great surprise. However, for those new to TN technology, just know this panel is pretty poor as far as viewing angles are concerned.

Color Gamut

As part of the calibration process, the DisplayCal will give an accurate measurement of the color gamut the monitor can provide. Below are the results of the color gamut test:

As you can see from the results above, this monitor actually offered a very respectable color gamut coverage – boasting over 131% coverage of the sRGB spectrum. Furthermore, with a 90% Adobe RGB volume and 92.9% DCI-P3 volume, the AG273QZ is actually very impressive in this department – having the ability to show more shades of color than many of its rivals.

Looking at the physical color gamut graph, the AG273QZ clearly covers the sRGB spectrum – displayed by the dotted line. For users looking to work within the sRGB color space, after calibration, this monitor is not bad at all.

Maximum And Minimum Brightness

We ended the color accuracy and picture quality testing by checking the maximum brightness, minimum brightness, and 120 candelas points on this panel. The results are below:

Brightness	Candelas
100% Brightness (Non HDR)	481cd/m²
0% Brightness	135cd/m²
N/A	120 cd/m²

Calibrated Profile

For those who want to use our calibrated color profile, you will find a link below where you can download the zip file.

AOC AG273QZ: Gaming Performance

With color accuracy out of the way, it’s time to put the AOC AG273QZ through a number of different gaming scenarios to see how it stacks up in pixel response, input lag, and overall immersion. Seeing as though this is AOC’s high-end gaming lineup, I expect only the best gaming experience from it. Here are the results.

Playing fast-paced shooters like CS:GO and Call Of Duty – and racing games for that matter – felt incredibly smooth and lucid. Reaching 240 frames per second was easily achievable in games like CS:GO, meaning you didn’t necessarily have to run VRR to get a great gaming experience. Whilst this was the case, we enabled FreeSync anyway – which in turn reduced any possibility of screen tear to a minimum. We tampered around with various over-drive settings in the menu, with very little difference being seen when changing between ‘off’ and ‘weak’. Medium, as is usually the case, offered the best experience with little trailing or haloing. Cranking the overdrive up to its max setting did inevitably result in some pretty aggressive overshoot, clearly visible in most games and in the alien test.

Unfortunately, playing more immersive titles (Shadow Of The Tomb, Red Dead Redemption 2) didn’t yield the kind of results you would hope for. The lower contrast ratio made extremely dark areas – and extremely bright areas – look a little washed up. It often resulted in poor levels of detail in these areas, reducing overall picture quality significantly. Whilst the games were still enjoyable, they definitely lacked some depth of detail that you might expect from a monitor of this price point. That being said, the 1440p screen resolution did offer the pixel density required for great picture quality.

Touching on input lag briefly, we were quite impressed with the times the AG273QZ showcased. With a minimum input lag of 0.8ms – averaging out at 5.2 – the AGON panel was extremely responsive overall.
Overall, the AG273QZ was an excellent monitor for gaming. Whilst it did showcase some picture quality and color accuracy flaws, the overall responsiveness of the panel was what shined through the most.

Final Thoughts

So, there you have it, our comprehensive review of the AOC AG273QZ gaming monitor – a 27″ 1440p TN panel that offers great response and excellent build quality. The only question left to answer is whether or not we feel this monitor is worth the investment – and like always, it kind of comes down to what you prioritize the most.

Ultimately, the AG273QZ is a very responsive panel that provides a wide color gamut (albeit not that accurate) and excellent picture clarity – mainly thanks to the 1440p screen resolution. Whilst it doesn’t necessarily excel in single-player titles that are more geared towards immersion, it certainly offers a fantastic gaming experience for competitive titles such as CS:GO and COD. This, however, is where the monitor gets a little bit confusing. Gamers that play such titles usually do so in 1080p screen resolution – enabling them to get the highest levels of FPS from their respective title. So, why not just make this panel 1080p? I’m not sure, doesn’t make the most sense. That being said, you can always reduce the resolution down to 1080p when playing competitive titles then raise it back to 1440p for the additional desk real-estate – you know, if you can be bothered.

AOC is often considered a budget brand, bringing a whole host of budget-oriented displays to today’s marketplace. However, at around $500, the AG273QZ actually enters an extremely competitive price pool. And whilst it does showcase great qualities, it might not be enough to convince you to part with your hard-earned cash.