AOC e2752Vq review

From the outside the AOC e2752Vq doesn’t look particularly special. Its rather basic black plastic surround and simple stand make this display look like any other budget 27in monitor. While it may not illicit excitement, it’s actually a well-priced, high-quality display with plenty of inputs.

We’re not used to seeing monitors at this price with a DisplayPort input, so it’s a nice surprise to find one. Given that DisplayPort is getting more and more prevalent on graphics cards and it’s the graphics output of choice for Apple products (via the compatible Thunderbolt output) this input is becoming more important. Not that older connections are left out, as HDMI and DVI inputs cover all bases.

It’s also good to see that there’s a four-port USB hub, with two ports on the rear and two on the side. It’s always useful to have extra ports within easy reach, such as for your keyboard, mouse and USB flash drives. The only minor disappointment is that the hub doesn’t support the faster USB3 variant.

Even though this is a budget 27in model, AOC has fitted the e2752Vq with a high-quality TN panel. Running the monitor at its default settings, we measured the screen using our colour calibrator. This showed us that the e2752Vq was displaying an excellent 97.2 per cent of the sRGB colour gamut. Running full calibration on the monitor and installing a custom colour profile, we increased this to 98.1 per cent of the sRGB colour gamut. That’s pretty impressive, regardless of the price.

After calibration the monitor could produce an impressive 98.1 per cent of the sRGB colour gamut

In real terms, in translates into a display with excellent contrast and bright, vivid colours. We ran through our tough set of test photos and found that detail was clear in both the light and dark parts of our high-contrast images. This is certainly a display that you can use for fine photo editing.

There’s plenty of control over the picture, including individual RGB controls, as well as brightness and contrast. There’s a dynamic contrast mode and a dynamic colour mode; both are designed to enhance the image, but they disable the other controls, so we recommend disabling them and fine-tuning the picture the way you want it.

AOC quotes 170-degrees vertical and horizontal for the e2752Vq. We found them to be pretty good, although the picture starts to appear darker if you move off-centre, although you don’t lose colour accuracy. You may want to put the AOC e2752Vq on a stand to get the best viewing position, as its basic stand doesn’t have any adjustment.

We tested for light-bleed by showing flat patterns of colour. We only picked up on one minor issue, in that black had s light purple tint to it, in a thin strip on either side of the monitor. It’s something that you wouldn’t notice on a daily basis and you have to strain to find.

AOC quotes the e2752Vq as having 2ms response times and we certainly didn’t notice any problems with ghosting or other motion artefacts. It’s safe to say that if you want to play games or watch films, this monitor will do the job well.

Rounding off the package is a set of 2.5W stereo speakers. These will take the audio pumped through the DisplayPort or HDMI inputs, but you can also use the 3.5mm minijack input directly from your soundcard. As you’d probably expect, the speakers are very tinny and completely lack bass, but they’re fine for the YouTube video or standard Windows notification sounds. What’s more likely to be useful is the headphone port on the rear, so you don’t have to stretch your cable to your PC. The one annoyance is that you have to press the Volume ‘+’ button first before you can decrease the volume, as the Volume ‘–’ button cycles through the monitor’s inputs.

The AOC e2752Vq may have a rather basic stand and look a little drab, but the image quality is brilliant, there’s a huge range of inputs including DisplayPort, and it’s available for a great price. It wins our Budget Buy award.