AOC Agon Pro AG276QZD Review (£500 OLED!)

1. Introduction2. Design3. On-screen Display (OSD)4. Panel Analysis: SDR5. Panel Analysis: HDR6. Response Times7. Input Latency8. Closing Thoughts9. View All Pages

Having now reviewed several OLED monitors over the last couple of years, the AOC Agon Pro AG276QZD is comfortably the cheapest I have tested, and it's been fascinating to see what this OLED can bring to the table.

The first thing to know is that this monitor uses the same 1st Gen LG WOLED 1440p/240Hz panel as the likes of the ASUS PG27AQDM, LG 27GR95QE-B and Corsair 27QHD240. In that regard, it doesn't fix any of the issues or criticisms we have had with this technology in general – things like the text fringing as a result of the RWBG sub-pixel structure, the heavy matte coating which won't appeal to everyone, relatively low full screen brightness compared to an LCD, or the slightly lower peak brightness in HDR mode when compared to other QD-OLED screens.

And then there's a few corners that AOC have cut to reduce the price. This presents itself by a lack of USB-C or KVM functionality, the two HDMI ports are only of the 2.0 variety rather than HDMI 2.1, and general build quality does feel just a little creaky (but it's fine when sat still on a desk).

However – and this is a big however – none of that changes the fact that the AOC AG276ZQD is offering a 240Hz OLED screen that's currently less than £500 here in the UK, something that still blows my mind even after testing it for the last week. Sure, we know the panel has limitations – but that applies to every other WOLED monitor, and it's hard to overstate how impressive this technology is for gaming. The near-instant response times and incredible motion clarity at 240Hz are really something next level compared to an LCD, as is the HDR performance thanks to the per-pixel nature of OLED displays.

I do fully appreciate that £500 is still a lot of money for a gaming monitor, particularly one that's 1440p, not 4K. However, in the context of the market, to me it signifies that next big step for getting OLED into the hands of more and more gamers. To give some examples of similar screens, the LG 27GR95QE-B is still around £700, the Alienware AW2725DF is just under £700 and the MSI MAG 271QPX is about £750 – so this AOC is the cheapest by almost £200 right now. Even compared to 240Hz 1440p LCD displays, on OCUK right now, all but two are listed for more than £400, at which point I really think if gaming is your primary concern, stepping up to OLED is just the logical thing to do.

So no, the AOC Agon Pro 276QZD isn't perfect and as impressive as OLED technology is, it won't be for everybody. However, if you've been waiting for OLED monitors to get that bit cheaper, I really think this screen would be very hard to beat at the current £500 price point.

You can buy one for £499.97 on Amazon UK HERE or from CCL HERE.

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Pros

• Comfortably the cheapest OLED we have ever tested.
• Near-instant response times.
• Superb motion clarity at 240Hz.
• Great HDR performance with per-pixel dimming.
• Effectively infinite contrast ratio.
• Pretty colour accurate out of the box, with impressive greyscale accuracy too.
• Compact and clean design.

Cons

• Text fringing will be an issue for some.
• Matte coating won't appeal to everyone looking for an OLED.
• Build quality could be better.
• sRGB emulation clamps gamut too aggressively.
• No HDMI 2.1.

KitGuru says: If the AOC AG276QZD was priced around £700-800, we'd say it was lacking a few features and the build quality could be better. At the current price of just 500 quid however, it is a highly compelling option for anyone looking to get into the world of OLED monitors.

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