AOC 27G2 IPS Gaming Monitor Review

Feel the 144Hz G-SYNC difference with the AOC 27G2

I love my personal monitor. It’s a curved 144Hz Full HD 27-incher, and I’ve spent the past two good years using it to play games. Mostly Overwatch for competitive, and JRPGs oftentimes. And for the most part? It has served me very well. Never had any complaints with it, save for it being non-VESA compatible so I was basically stuck with the stand it came with, and just like that my dreams of having a proper, clean desk was ruined.

 So, now, AOC sent us the 27G2 to experience, and that’s what I’ve been using for the good part of the month to try out. And my god am I ready for an upgrade like this.

The AOC 27G2 doesn’t play around. From the get-go, it makes a statement that it is indeed a gaming oriented monitor. Anyway, once you get the packaging out of the way, you’ll be met with the monitor itself, of course. The removable stand in two parts and a cable each for HDMI and DisplayPort. Anyway, both display cables are included as indicated on AOC’s website, but we only found an HDMI cable for this one. So do check this one out just in case.

The AOC 27G2 features a frameless design, with the bottom having some sweet subtle red accents that make up for the monitor’s aesthetics. 

Loving that subtlety.

It’s really more striking at the back, although that will be the least of your worries, since again, you’re looking at the front panel here anyway.

Tilt, swivel, lower, raise, rotate. It's all there. 

Liking the stand on this one. It’s quite robust and heavy. Feels secured and tight. 

Sure, the base would take some space for it to get firmly planted, but the fun thing you can do about it is you can adjust the monitor’s height and make it go complete 90 degrees. 

You probably wouldn’t, but yeah just in case you wanted to, you can.

As for the ports, there’s two for HDMI 1.4 and 1 for DisplayPort 1.2. There’s also one for a 3.5mm audio jack, which is great since it doesn’t have built in speakers (not that you would use them, anyway). 

If there’s something to gripe about the 27G2, it’s the OSD controls. My god are they hard and wonky to press. Not that you’d find yourself fiddling with the controls here after your initial setup, but nonetheless it was quite a pain to navigate on. Oh, and as for the OSD, we’ve had our first rodeo with the AOC a couple of years back, and they kept the same OSD layout here. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

I’m currently comparing this side by side with another 27-inch Full HD monitor, but with a VA panel as opposed to the IPS panel on the 27G2. Here’s a side by side shot.

Not sure if this photograph can give it justice, but we needed something to compare it with so here's a side by side untouched. This was taken by a Canon EOS M10 22mm, F2.0, ISO 800.

You already guessed which one's the 27G2, right?

Going with the comparison, the 27G2 has much richer, vibrant colors and deeper blacks. Contrast is quite strong and brightness level is great at 100%. No complaints here. The contrast levels are great that it looks more sharpened and deep, and the colors are definitely rich.

Oh, and by the way, you're not locked into an ecosystem anymore. Feel free to use an NVIDIA or a Radeon GPU here. The 27G2 supports both Freesync and G-SYNC. As for our test, we’ll be using a GeForce GTX 1080, because G-SYNC, man. Yeah, if you recall, there’s a thing called G-SYNC compatible monitors, which are essentially Freesync monitors certified by NVIDIA. Below is a way to demonstrate the difference when G-SYNC is enabled, and isn’t exactly something to differentiate Freesync and G-SYNC.                     

The Game Mode Test with Off VS FPS

Further, the 27G2 comes with a couple of game mode presets, and they do their job quite well. There’s FPS mode that improves black levels, while Racing Mode provides fast response time and high color saturation, RTS mode also improves the response time and brightness. More to that, you have two extra settings for fine tuning the monitor based on your preference.  And of course, you can also turn it off.

So, how does it fare?

I was wondering what angle to take here, granted since we don’t have the necessary tools to thoroughly test out G-SYNC to its full potential. Like with a proper high-speed camera and a color calibration/analysis software. Not much I can do here but compare it with another one in the same league at least.

Not much of a competitive gamer, here. Sure, I’m stuck-in-a-rut-gold elo hell. But will this give me the competitive advantage? Truth be told, it’s the 144Hz refresh rate that makes so much a difference, especially in competitive shooters where, as NVIDIA would put it, #FRAMESWINGAMES. But let’s not limit ourselves here. There’s simply night and day difference here if you’ve been playing with a 60Hz monitor. It just elevates the experience if you have the option.

Again, for color accuracy, I can’t exactly tell without the proper tools here. But based on the comparisons made here, it makes my current display look a bit washed and yellowish. The contrast and brightness on the 27G2 look sharp and easy to my eyes. It just looks so good.

Officially, the AOC 27G2 comes with a retail price of Php17,638, and less if you know where to look. If G-SYNC is your flavor, it’s definitely worth looking at. Hell, I’d be the first to admit it’s something I’d buy for my daily usage. Of course, we’re also looking for alternatives. Take for example the 27G2E that's also from AOC's camp, which is a tad cheaper (if, again, you know where to look). But again, we’re not sure what that entails aside from the non G-SYNC branding and the stand that seems to be static(?). I don’t know. Given the chance, I’ll look into it.