AOC Q2577PWQ review

The Q2577PWQ fits a 2,560×1,440 resolution panel into an unusual 25in format, falling between desk-friendly 23in monitors and slightly oversized 27in screens. It’s a professional display, meaning it has all the ergonomic bells and on-screen adjustment whistles you would expect, along with a price to match.

The WQHD resolution gives you nearly double the number of pixels of a Full HD monitor, but more pixels doesn’t always mean a better viewing experience. High resolutions on smaller monitors can sometimes result in illegible text and tiny programs, particularly in the Windows operating system. The 25in panel is just large enough to read size-11 text without having to resort to Windows’ patch UI scaling. It’s just on the edge of legibility, though, so anyone who’s moderately short-sighted will need to turn on Windows display scaling.

There are practical benefits to having more pixels, though: placing two or three Windows side by side is not just possible, but comfortable at this resolution, which can work wonders when you’re trying to be as productive as possible.

Aside from the high pixel count, the LG-made IPS panel is capable of displaying gorgeous images and vibrant colours. Out of the box, we measured sRGB colour gamut coverage at 98.8% and contrast levels at 1258:1. This, along with the reasonably low black levels of 0.28cd/m2 left images looking punchy and vibrant while still managing to maintain plenty of detail in darker scenes. You’ll be well served by this screen if you’re into night time photography.

This might be a monitor designed for the workplace, but it’s not for graphic designers or photographers who work with print. AOC doesn’t make any claims regarding accuracy in the wider Adobe RGB colour gamut, and in our tests we measured coverage at 73.2%, which won’t be good enough for professionals.

Still, colour reproduction in the sRGB space is exceptional. Our Delta E measurements, where a lower score is better and a score of 1 is generally accepted as imperceptible to the human eye, saw an average of 1.08. The only colours that were noticeably off were deep blues, which came in with delta E scores of around 4.

Backlight uniformity is only average at best, however. The bottom centre of the screen, where the backlight is at its brightest, is around 20% brighter than the top-left corner. It’s barely noticeable in normal use, and if you turn the monitor’s brightness down to avoid eyestrain, you definitely won’t notice.

While this monitor isn’t designed with gaming in mind, it’s a perfectly competent for non-competitive gaming. It has a 60Hz refresh rate, which is standard for professional monitors, and we measured its input lag time at 27ms. This is by no means quick, so twitchy shooters will need to look elsewhere, but is fast enough for casual games and consoles.

The onscreen menus are reasonably easy to navigate, although without a dedicated joystick it’s a little bit fiddly. Features like the ‘Picture Boost’ bright frame mode may come in handy for some, letting you make an area of the screen brighter than the rest to make it easier to pick out details, or make things easier on your eyes.

Ergonomics are excellent, with 105mm of height adjustment and the monitor able to sit just 45mm above the desk at its lowest point. It can also swivel on its base, but because the mechanism is built into a turntable in the base, the entire base shifts whenever you move it.That means you’ll need plenty of space on your desk in order to rotate it cleanly.

Build quality is at a high standard and the stand feels robust. Not everybody will like the silver metallic material that adorns the base and frame, but it’s hard to argue with the wafer-thin bezels on the top, left and right of the screen, which have the effect or drawing your eyes into the screen.

We were a little disappointed to find no USB hub; many professional monitors will come with at least a couple of USB3 ports and the best of them come with four, with two connectors on the side and two on the bottom. The AOC has none, however, which means it’s less flexible than some of its professional rivals. Elsewhere, there’s plenty of input options including single DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort and VGA connectors, as well as 3.5mm audio input and output jacks.

The Q2577PWQ is a great workplace monitor with excellent image quality, but its 25in size may not be right for anyone that struggles with text legibility. Furthermore, its lack of USB ports is a mild disappointment for an otherwise fully featured and functional monitor. If you fancy something a bit larger for £30 more, the BenQ GW2765HT has a 27in panel with the same high resolution and superb image quality.