AOC Agon AG273QXP review: Our new favourite 1440p gaming monitor?

The AOC Agon AG273QXP is a monitor that ticks practically every box the average gamer might think of. High refresh rate? Check. 1440p resolution? Check. Phenomenal colour accuracy? Check. Low input lag? Check. RGB lighting? Check. The list goes on and on.

In fairness, the AG273QXP is surrounded by similarly specced monitors, but it has one final ace to play after you’ve witnessed the impressive specs list, and that’s the competitive price tag. If you want a gaming monitor that somehow does it all without denting your bank balance too heavily, the AG273QXP could be the one for you.

AOC Agon AG273QXP review: What you need to know

The AOC Agon AG273QXP is a 27in Nano IPS gaming monitor with a resolution of 2,560 x 1,440, a refresh rate of 165Hz, a quoted response time of 1ms MPRT, DisplayHDR 400 capabilities and support for both Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync. On the rear, you’ll find two DP 1.4 ports, two HDMI 2.0 ports, a 3.5mm headphone jack and two USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports plus a USB-B port to power them. You’ll also find a large RGB light ring, but no USB-C port.

The panel is mounted on a stand with 30 degrees of swivel left/right, 22 degrees of backwards tilt and 110mm of height adjustment. The AG273QXP can also rotate into a portrait orientation.

At £430, the AG273QXP is keenly priced for such a well-specced monitor. In terms of competitors, the MSI Optix MAG272CQR offers a broadly similar specs sheet for a similar price but has a curved VA panel and a USB-C port at the expense of stand adjustment options and built-in speakers.

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AOC Agon AG273QXP review: What features do you get?

The AG273QXP is striking to look at, particularly from behind, where the circular RGB light strip glows brilliantly. The borderless design is elegant, and the panel is quite slim, which saves the monitor from dominating your desk.

The stand and panel are sturdily made and quite heavy, and a carry handle has been incorporated into the top of the stand by AOC, so moving the AG273QCXP is straightforward.

The onscreen display (OSD) is a bit quirky to begin with, but it’s easily navigated once you get the hang of it. You adjust settings via a joystick on the bottom of the monitor, and depress the joystick to select the various menu items. Hold the joystick in, and it turns the display on or off. In all honesty, I strongly prefer it to monitors that use multiple buttons, as these are prone to being fiddly and confusing.

The OSD provides the usual array of colour and brightness settings, plus options for toggling HDR, overdrive and MBR (motion blur reduction). You can also control the RGB lighting from here. Alternatively, you can nudge the joystick to the right for lighting controls; upwards for source selection; left for the game mode toggle; and downwards for an aim reticle overlay. These quick inputs are too easy to hit by accident, but they are undoubtedly useful once you have them memorised.

AOC Agon AG273QXP review: What’s the image quality like?

In a word: excellent. Dive into the menus and you’ll find a dedicated sRGB mode hidden in the “Colour setup” settings. With this enabled, the AG273QXP reproduced 95.4% of the colours in the sRGB gamut with a low average colour variance (Delta E) number of 1.03. That’s a remarkable result for a gaming monitor and means that colours will look exceptionally natural across the spectrum.

Stick to default settings, and the AG273QXP covers 99.9% of the sRGB colour gamut and 95.6% of the DCI P3 gamut, with an enthusiastic average Delta E of 2.4. Colours therefore appear quite oversaturated in default mode, but this is simply a reflection of the fact that the monitor is calibrated to the DCI-P3 colour space and as such produces a far wider colour gamut than the sRGB gamut Windows is expecting.

Running a colour accuracy test specific to the DCI-P3 colour space produces an average Delta E of just 0.97, which is a great result. Paired with the results in sRGB mode, it proves that the AG273QXP is a good option for gamers who want to dabble in video or photo editing in their spare time.

Luminance tops out in default mode at around 380cd/m², which is more than good enough for the brightest rooms. Contrast hovers at between 800-850:1, which is a little below the 1,000:1 quoted by AOC. Toying with the contrast slider in the settings at max brightness can give you around 430cd/m² max luminance and a contrast ratio of up to 930:1, but colour accuracy suffers as a result.

All in all, it’s a pleasure to play on. I fired up my current sweetheart, Viking survival game Valheim, and was met with stunningly vibrant, crystal-clear vistas. You might enjoy the in-your-face colours produced in default mode, but if not, be sure to switch into sRGB mode for the most natural-looking scenes.

Of course, there’s no denying that you’ll probably struggle to hit a steady 170fps in your favourite games at 1440p unless you have a world-beating CPU and GPU at your disposal. But having the ability to find that balance between resolution and refresh rate is what has earned the 1440p monitor its spot as the gaming champ, and the AG273QXP is no exception. And once you factor in the G-Sync and FreeSync support, you’re more likely to be getting tear-free gaming even when your GPU does struggle to hit triple-figure framerates.

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AOC Agon AG273QXP review: What could be better?

I only have one bone to pick with the AOC Agon AG273QXP, and that concerns its HDR performance. It supports 10-bit colour and offers a 90%+ DCI-P3 colour gamut, but the HDR400 certification means that it just doesn’t go bright enough to really make the most of HDR content.

That’s not to say it doesn’t look good. Fire up an HDR-enabled game – I loaded up Battlefield V, a game known for its decent HDR implementation – and you’ll note a definite improvement in colour vibrancy once HDR is enabled. As the panel covers over 95% of the DCI-P3 gamut, the AOC manages to produce a tantalisingly vivid palette of colour.

If you’re hoping for a boost in dynamic range, however, you’ll be disappointed. The AG273QXP’s lack of local dimming and relatively low contrast panel just aren’t capable of delivering proper HDR. As the AOC’s backlight has to be cranked to maximum in order to hit the highest possible brightness, it leaves darker elements on the screen looking overbrightened. Combine that with the panel’s relatively low peak brightness, and HDR images lack the intense highlights and inky blacks that we’re used to seeing on the finest displays.

AOC Agon AG273QXP review: Should you buy it?

That said, you shouldn’t be buying this monitor solely for its HDR capabilities. The AG273QXP is an excellent monitor with a colour-accurate panel and most – if not all – of the key gaming features.

What’s more, it’s as suitable for work as it is play: if you’re looking for a monitor that will allow you to hone your headshots in everything from Call of Duty to Adobe Photoshop, the AOC AG273QXP is a great choice.