AOC Gaming CQ27G2S/BK Review
A mid-range monitor with a lot to like
Verdict
The AOC Gaming CQ27G2S/BK is a solid gaming monitor. It’s well-priced, while offering a great blend of features and looks, as well as an excellent overall display with good colour accuracy and contrast. The OSD is quite clunky however, and the lack of speakers may not suit some.
Pros
- Solid build and looks
- Great overall image quality
- Lots of adjustment on stand
Cons
- OSD is clunky
- No speakers may not suit some
Key Features
- 27-inch 1440p 165Hz VA panel:The AOC Gaming CQ27G2S/BK comes with a great panel for most people, with a slightly curved 27-inch QHD-res display with a 165Hz display.
- Tool-less construction:This AOC monitor also needs no tools to put it together, and comes with a highly adjustable stand.
Introduction
The AOC Gaming CQ27G2S/BK is a gaming monitor truly designed for the vague term of ‘most people’.
At £220/$290, it’s affordable for a gaming monitor of its quality, while also hitting the sweet spot in terms of resolution and screen size with a 27-inch 1440p display, complete with 165Hz refresh rate, a 1ms response time, and a slight 1500R curve for more immersion.
While it may not be a fascinating OLED, QD-OLED or Mini LED panel, this is a functional gaming monitor that sits well alongside similarly specced options including the Dell S2721HGF and MSI Optix MAG272CQR. I’ve been testing the CQ27G2S/BK for the last few weeks to see if it’s one of the best 1440p monitors you van buy.
Design
- Modest looks
- Convenient stand adjustment
- Solid port selection
The AOC Gaming CQ27G2S/BK may not be the most exciting-looking monitor ever made, but its black frame with small red accents certainly looks the part. Compared to some of the other gaming monitors in this price category that try a little too hard to look mean and gamer-y, AOC’s latest option is more functional. It looks great, while also retaining modern touches such including thin bezels on three of its four sides.
It’s easy to build, too, with a tool-less construction thanks to a screw-in stand, meaning you can get up and running with the CQ27G2S/BK without faff. I had no trouble putting it together, even if I do have an issue with manual labour.
The CQ27G2S/BK also comes with a reasonable stand in terms of its scope of adjustment with good ranges of tilt and swivel, as well as height adjustment. You don’t get any portrait orientation however, perhaps owing to the panel’s gentle 1500R curve. If you don’t want to use the integrated stand for whichever reason, the CQ27G2S/BK is also 100mmx100mm VESA-mountable, which is convenient.
AOC’s budget hero also doesn’t spring many surprises in terms of its connectivity options, featuring a DisplayPort 1.4 option for the full 165Hz at 1440p, while the pair of HDMI 2.0 ports are suitable for 1440p/144Hz output. Otherwise, you also get a headphone jack for connecting a separate audio option if the internal speakers aren’t your jam. There aren’t any other ports, including more modern touches such as extra USB ports and although they are nice-to-haves, I wouldn’t necessarily expect them at this price.
Image Quality
- Excellent colour accuracy for the price
- Solid brightness and contrast
- Marvellous motion handling in games
Far too often, more affordable gaming monitors sacrifice a lot in terms of their panel, and thankfully, the CQ27G2S/BK isn’t one of them. It may be a VA panel, but it offers fine results overall for a panel at its price point.
Colour accuracy is reasonably good, with a measured 100% of the sRGB colour space, meaning the CQ27G2S/BK displays all of the mainstream colours for work and play in excellent fashion. It’s also able to display more specialist gamuts above the requisite 80% level. For DCI-P3, the CQ27G2S/BK achieved 89% coverage, while for Adobe RGB, it was 83%. That’s some fantastic accuracy.
Out of the box sRGB brightness of 177.5 nits is more than passable, while its 6500K white point and colour temperature is bang-on where it should be. Blacks are also rather deep for a VA panel with a measured 0.07 level, while the CQ27G2S/BK also offers some solid contrast and dynamic range with a 2700:1 ratio.
In cranking up the panel to max brightness, it hit 240 nits, which is a little way off AOC’s quoted 250 nits, but still ensures the CQ27G2S/BK offers a level of vibrancy. The same also goes for contrast ratio, which sits at 3040:1, as opposed to AOC’s own 4000:1 quoting, and for a monitor at this price, it offers some excellent colours and contrast with deep blacks.
The combination of a 27-inch display and 1440p refresh rate makes this panel an easy one to run with a mid-range gaming system, and means it’s an excellent one for competitive and cinematic titles alike, especially with that gentle 1500R curve. In playing the likes of Forza Horizon 5 and Counter Strike 2, the CQ27G2S/BK felt responsive with solid motion thanks to that 165Hz refresh rate over DisplayPort 1.4. Even in day-to-day work, a higher refresh rate offers smoother output, which is welcome.
Screen-tearing and juddering also shouldn’t be an issue here, with the CQ27G2S/BK supporting Adaptive Sync and AMD FreeSync, so you’re covered on both AMD and Nvidia GPUs. For a semblance of HDR content, this AOC panel also supports HDR10, although lacks the high peak brightness to be able to truly take advantage of it.
Software and Features
- OSD is cumbersome and slow to use
- No speakers present
Where the CQ27G2S/BK falls down is with its OSD, or on-screen display. It offers a lot of features and dedicated game modes including those for FPS and Racing, although there are also three customisable options for your own presets. However, the OSD is a pain to navigate without a joystick, as it requires pressing buttons several times to even get into the menu you want to. Otherwise, it isn’t the most responsive and takes a few seconds to scroll through each option.
There are also aren’t any speakers present in the CQ27G2S/BK, meaning you will need to make use of the 3.5mm jack on the monitor as an output. They aren’t too much of a sore miss, given the meagre quality of other affordable monitor’s speakers, although if you don’t have the desk space for other speakers, they would have been useful
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Should you buy it?
You want a great value monitor:
The AOC Gaming CQ27G2S/BK is a fantastic value gaming monitor which hits the sweet spot of resolution and screen size, while also offering good looks, which makes it a good choice for most people.
You want a convenient OSD:
Where the AOC Gaming CQ27G2S/BK falls down is with its iffy on-screen display that isn’t easy to navigate without a joystick. Other best gaming monitors at this price offer much better software.
Final Thoughts
AOC’s Gaming CQ27G2S/BK may not be the most exciting monitor I have reviewed, but it is at least a functional and well-specced choice that delivers the goods where it matters. Overall image quality is solid, with excellent colours and contrast for a VA panel at its price, while the CQ27G2S/BK also provides decent motion handling and detail in games.
It also looks the part, with an egalitarian aesthetic which makes it suitable for a wide variety of places, while offering a handy port selection that covers the basics and a stand with great scope for adjustment. However, it’s with a clunky OSD that the CQ27G2S/BK falls down, especially without a joystick for convenient navigation, while its lack of speakers are a miss compared to some of the competition.
Against similarly priced options though, the CQ27G2S/BK is an excellent gaming monitor that’s sure to suit most people with good specs that are reasonably easy to drive and great image quality in a solid package. For more options, 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
Yes, you can, although you will be limited to 1440p/120Hz output.
Yes, it does – it supports both AMD FreeSync for AMD GPUs and Adaptive Sync for Nvidia ones.
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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.
