AOC Q2770Pqu review

You’d expect a large, 2,560×1,440 display to be overly expensive, but that isn’t the case with the AOC Q2770Pqu, one of the cheapest 27in, 2,560×1,440 monitors we’ve seen. It’s also one of the best, as our colour calibrator showed it was already displaying 100 per cent of the sRGB colour gamut at its default settings, so you don’t have to calibrate the monitor to get the best image quality.

This is partly because the Q2270Pqu uses a Super-PLS LCD panel, which is an evolution of IPS panel technology. Generally speaking, IPS screens have excellent colour accuracy, but Super-PLS panels supposedly produce even better colours. Super PLS panels we’ve tested in the past haven’t always conformed to this theory, though, a case in point being the Philips 272P4QPJKEB/00, but we were pleased to see the Q2770Pqu was an exception.

Super-PLS panels are also meant to have wider viewing angles than IPS monitors. This was certainly true with the Q2770Pqu, as we were able to see the screen clearly even when we were looking at the screen side-on.

Unsurprisingly, the Q2270Pqu looked fantastic in our subjective image tests. Our solid reds, greens and blues all looked as rich and vibrant as our reference monitor, and the monitor’s low black level of 0.28cd/m2 meant that blacks looked deep all the way across the screen. We didn’t see any traces of backlight bleeding either, and whites were clean and bright.

We were pleased with the monitor’s contrast levels, too. We measured a contrast ratio of 931:1 with our colour calibrator, which isn’t far off AOC’s claimed figure of 1,000:1. A few of our high contrast test images were a little dark in places, but on the whole we were able to pick out a great level of detail in all our test photos. Night shots were particularly well-illuminated, but we did notice a very small amount of glare onscreen when the monitor was facing direct sunlight. This made it a little difficult to see the detail in particularly deep shadow areas, but the monitor’s flexible stand made this very easy to correct.