Despite its impressive specs, the AOC AGON PRO AG274QZM falls short in the real world.
About the AOC AGON PRO AG274QZM
Here are the specs of the monitor we tested:
- Price: $1,050
- Display size: 27 inches
- Resolution: 2560 x 1440 pixels
- Refresh rate: 240Hz
- Peak brightness:750 nits (rated), 1000 nits peak with HDR enabled (rated); 680 (tested), 1348 with HDR enabled (tested)
- HDR support: VESA DisplayHDR 1000
- Color depth: 10-bit
- Color saturation: 99.8% sRGB (tested), 92.7% DCI-P3 (tested), 96.7% AdobeRGB (tested)
- Contrast ratio: 1,000:1 (rated), 80 million:1 (rated dynamic contrast ratio); 1115:1 (tested, local dimming disabled)
- Pixel response time (GtG): 1ms
- Ports: 1x DisplayPort 1.4, 2x HDMI 2.1, 1x USB Type-C (DP alt mode, upstream) with 65 watts of power delivery, 4x USB Type-A at USB 3.2, microphone in, 3.5mm headphone out
- VRR Support: VRR, AMD FreeSync Premium, G-Sync compatible
- Other features: VESA mount, integrated KVM, 2x 5-watt speakers, 576 local dimming zones, addressable rear RGB, OSD control pad, included light control hood, integrated headset stick, holographic logo projector in stand
What we like
The blazing-fast display
Credit:
Reviewed / Timothy Renzi
The AGON PRO has a 240Hz refresh rate and rapid 1ms GTG response time that helps you hit moving targets with precision and get you ahead of the competition by milliseconds.
As 240Hz, 1440p gaming monitors enter the mainstream (powered by the availability of high-end graphics cards like Nvidia’s RTX 4090, it’s important that they offer pixel refresh rates that can keep up. Even if a monitor offers a fast refresh rate, if its pixels can’t change fast enough to match, you’ll often see ghosting or smearing trails behind fast-moving objects.
Thankfully that isn’t the case with the AOC AGON PRO AG274QZM. It puts out extremely fast, extremely clear images even with Overdrive disabled, meaning I didn’t need to overclock the pixel response time at the cost of color accuracy. In fact, I never once spotted ghostly trails behind moving objects or projectiles even while rapidly whipping the camera around in Returnal and Overwatch 2. The scene never becomes muddy even in Returnal’s extremely dark and crowded environments.
That carries over to the Blur Busters UFO test. I can’t spot any motion trails or judder on the test pattern; the AGON PRO AG274QZM has just about the best motion clarity I’ve ever seen on a non-OLED display.
It also sports decent contrast for an IPS panel. Monitors with local dimming zones typically rely on them to boost their contrast rating and can’t compete when it’s turned off. Take the Sony Inzone M9 for example, which dropped from a 1064:1 contrast ratio with local dimming enabled to only 935:1 when it was turned off. That isn’t the case with the AGON PRO, as I measured a respectable 1138:1 contrast ratio without local dimming, a bit better than the standard 1000:1 for these panels.
Unfortunately, that contrast ratio is more the result of brilliant white levels rather than deep blacks, and I found games like Control and Returnal are more “gray” than atmospherically dark.
The eye-searing brightness
Mini-LED monitors use traditional IPS panels backed with a gridded array of miniature LEDs that can independently brighten or dim to form the local dimming zones. While the local dimming inherently isn’t as good as an OLED monitor like the LG UltraGear OLED 27GR95QE-B where every pixel is individually self-lit, it means that mini-LED monitors can get extremely bright.
On that front, the AGON PRO AG274QZM doesn’t disappoint. I measured a peak brightness of 680 nits in SDR and a blinding 1348 nits peak brightness with HDR enabled. That falls a bit short of the 750 nits peak brightness in SDR that AOC specifies, but seeing as most cheaper monitors can only hit about 400 nits, I still find myself keeping the monitor at about 70% brightness; with HDR enabled, you should set an in-game cap to keep the highlights manageable and stop your whites from being blown out.
After calibrating the monitor and dialing in the settings, it also proves vibrant and color accurate. I measured 99.8% coverage of the sRGB color space, which is standard, but also a very respectable 92.7% of the DCI-P3 color space and an excellent 96.7% of AdobeRGB. While that might sound like the AGON PRO AG274QZM is well suited for creative work like photo and video editing, the color reproduction might not be accurate enough.
I measured an average Delta E, or difference between a specified value and what’s actually measured, of 1.45, which is low enough that you won’t be able to spot errors with the naked eye, but a maximum Delta E of 3.59 for white. Again, that likely won’t be noticeable to most people, but may not be acceptable if your work is extremely color sensitive.
Viewing angles are also uniformly excellent, without any off-coloration or distortion.
The obscene number of extras
Credit:
Reviewed / Timothy Renzi
The AGON PRO comes with a variety of accessories, such as, OSD control pad, light control hood, integrated headset stick, holographic logo projector in stand, and more.
We handle a lot of monitors at Reviewed, and the truth is that some of them break in shipping. That likely won’t happen with the AGON PRO AG274QZM; AOC ensconces the panel in a thick cocoon of styrofoam.
Within the box is a packaging pod containing a solid stand with an integrated holographic logo projector, a disc-shaped remote for switching between the four inputs and navigating the monitor’s OSD, and an anti-glare hood. There’s also a massive 330-watt power brick that, at eight inches long by 3.9 inches wide and 1.75 inches thick, is officially the largest and heaviest I’ve ever seen.
The monitor has plenty of quality-of-life features too, including a headset rest that slides out of the back, bands of programmable RGB lighting on the backside, an absurd amount of USB connectivity and integrated KVM for device switching, and even two 5-watt speakers. They aren’t amazing by any means, with a flat, compressed sound that lacks bass and seems to project from the rear of the panel, but it’s better than nothing. If you’re buying a monitor this expensive, you’re probably going to pair it with external speakers anyway.
I was particularly excited that the USB-C port delivers up to 65 watts of power. I had no issue connecting either my Steam Deck or MacBook Pro 13 M2 and playing indie games at 240Hz while both remained charged. It’s not the 90 watts that some high-end monitors provide, but it should be more than adequate for most devices.
Although the projector built into the stand isn’t super useful—I quickly turned it off, along with the rear lighting since I couldn’t see it—the stand itself is rock solid. It’s constructed from solid steel, and the red accents at the top lend it sort of a cyberpunk aesthetic. The panel never wobbled when it was mounted and could tilt, swivel, and pivot just fine. The two front feet are quite long, so if you want to use the stand, you’ll need a deep desk.
What we don’t like
Local dimming crushes color and detail
Credit:
Reviewed / Timothy Renzi
The AGON PRO comes with an anti-glare hood.
Although I praised the AGON PRO AG274QZM’s SDR performance, and even though it has 576 dimming zones, I mainly use it with local dimming disabled.
Rather than simply dimming or brightening each zone, AOC has opted to implement some kind of forced dynamic contrast to enhance the effect. In practice, this means that details get crushed and blown out as the contrast in each zone cranks up. With a dark window open, icons on my taskbar lost fine edges, and white-on-black text is rendered fuzzy and “blob-like” even after running Windows ClearType Tuner to adjust the line thickness. Moving a dark image around against a white grid created a strange halo effect that seemed to invert the grid lines.
While that is unfortunate, the local dimming can be turned off without affecting the contrast too much. What’s worse is that it also happens when HDR is enabled and disabling local dimming in that case makes it near unusable, resulting in a terrible, washed-out image. So, although this monitor is HDR1000 rated and certainly can hit those heights, I was disappointed by how it handled menus in dark games like Returnal, as the pure white text ends up looking dim and washed out.
Apart from that, HDR is implemented well and really shines in brighter scenes. Whether it was traveling across a dusty desert in Horizon Zero Dawn with the sun overhead, or swinging through a snowy Manhattan in Spider-Man: Miles Morales, there is a richness and depth to the colors and highlights that are more discernible than in SDR. This is likely due to the panel’s ability to output true 10-bit color when HDR is enabled, even at 240Hz. Still, when exploring dark caves in Horizon Zero Dawn, it felt more “dusky” than truly dark.
Poor out-of-the-box calibration
The AGON PRO AG274QZM can put out an impressive range of colors and do it fairly accurately, but getting there was a hassle. Out of the box, the monitor’s default is a “warm” color profile that turns everything orange. Even changing it to the “normal” profile and calibrating the display left everything with a red tinge, and the black-and-white photos I reviewed looked more sepia than monochrome.
I eventually fixed this by changing to the “cool” preset and then dialing in a custom user-defined profile that hewed closer to that color balance. The end result works well, but it wasn’t a plug-and-play experience, and getting everything set up correctly was a frustrating process—that’s a big red flag for a $1,050 monitor.
In fact, setup in general was a bit of an inconvenience. The panel is thick and heavy, and getting it mounted on my dual-end monitor arm after testing the stand took some patience. It also runs hot and kicked off that “hot electronics” smell for the first two days of use.
The price
Mini-LED and OLED monitors are both racing to reach palatable price points for mainstream consumers, and $1,050 isn’t quite there yet for most people. Of course, if you’re in the market for a 240Hz monitor in the first place, it’s likely you’re playing the types of games where those extra frames matter.
For everyone else, it’s probably overkill; I couldn’t really tell the difference between games running at 240Hz and games running at “only” 170Hz on my regular 1440p gaming monitor. That’s about the standard for mid-tier monitors these days, and it’s even possible to buy a truly excellent 27-inch, 1440p gaming monitor that can still hit 240Hz like the Alienware AW2723DF for literally half the price.
If you can live with a slightly slower display, the $550 Cooler Master Tempest GP27Q promises the same specs as the AGON PRO AG274QZM, apart from capping out at 165Hz.
Those extra frames will ultimately determine whether you think the AGON PRO AG274QZM is worth the premium. I found the extras AOC threw in to be nice surprises that work well enough, but accessories never really sway my purchasing decision.
Should you buy the AOC AGON PRO AG274QZM?
Maybe, if the dimming issues get resolved
Credit:
Reviewed / Timothy Renzi
The 27-inch AGON PRO tournament gaming monitor comes with 2K Quad HD 2560×1440 resolution IPS panel for excellent visuals.
The AOC AGON PRO AG274QZM is a good monitor. It’s extremely fast, responsive, and comes jam-packed with extra features and accessories. The motion clarity is top-tier, and it’s possible to coax a colorful and reasonably accurate image out of the display. But for $1,050, I don’t think it’s worth it for most gamers unless you’re an esports pro.
The problem is that there are too many competitors who get most of the way there for a much lower price. The 240Hz Gigabyte M27Q X certainly doesn’t get as bright, but if you just want speed on a budget, you can usually find it for only $430. The aforementioned Alienware AW2723DF is rated for DisplayHDR600 and usually goes on sale for $550.
Then there’s the elephant in the room: the $1,000 LG UltraGear OLED 27GR95QE-B, a 240Hz, 27-inch OLED display that, although a bit dim in SDR, is still rated to hit 1000-nit highlights when HDR is enabled. Although it lacks a USB-C port, its contrast and color reproduction are second to none.
Lastly, there’s the local dimming issue. The Cooler Master Tempest GP27Q has its own problems that the company has been addressing through firmware updates, so there’s hope that AOC can fix my biggest qualm with the AGON PRO AG274QZM. If it does and you’re in the market for an extremely fast, extremely bright professional-level monitor, it would be worth snagging on sale.
AGON PRO
The AGON PRO has excellent motion clarity and response with a variety of useful add-ins.
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Prices were accurate at the time this article was published but may change over time.
Meet the tester
Jonathan is an Electronics Editor for Reviewed specializing in gaming gear and has experience with everything from controllers to benchmarking the latest GPUs. He was previously the Web Editor at The Architect’s Newspaper.
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