AOC U27G3X 27-inch Gaming Monitor Review - 4K 160Hz for $500

TweakTown's Rating: 90%

The Bottom Line

AOC's U27G3X is aimed directly at gamers wanting to make the leap to 4K gaming at beyond 144Hz without breaking the bank. For $500 (and a little less at the moment), you will get everything you need for a premium gaming experience.

Pros

• + Decent color accuracy
• + 4K @ 160Hz
• + Price
• + Versatility

Cons

• - HDR performance
• - Basic aesthetics
• - Reflections
• - No USB ports
• - Wide stand

Should you buy it?

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Introduction & Specification Details and Close-up

AOC has released a new 4K 144Hz+ gaming monitor with a range of specifications that make its $500 price tag extremely attractive.

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Firstly, running 4K 144Hz+ is no easy task for a computer, especially on some of the latest games, which means if you are looking to make the jump from 1440p to 4K, I would first check your PC hardware is capable of reaching these specs before running out an buying a 4K gaming monitor. However, if you are able to reach the premium gaming experience and don't want to shell too much out for a gaming monitor, the U27G3X may be one of the best options on the market.

The U27G3X is a $500 gaming monitor that comes with a 3840 x 2160p (4K) resolution, a 160Hz refresh rate, HDMI 2.1 connectivity for consoles, a 1ms GtG response time, and impressive color accuracy, making it good for content viewing and even some creative workflows. On paper, AOC has seemingly knocked it out of the park with the U27G3X, but let's find out where it falls short.

Specifications

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Close-up

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AOC U27G3X 27-inch Gaming Monitor

	Today	Yesterday	7 days ago	30 days ago
	$469.99	$469.99	$469.99	-	Buy
	$469.99	$469.99	$469.99	-	Buy
* Prices last scanned on 5/18/2024 at 1:46 pm CDT - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission.

Design

The physical design of the U27G3X is somewhat disappointing but understandable. AOC has clearly put most of its manufacturing budget per unit into the U27G3X's panel and pixel technology, as the aesthetics of this monitor are quite lackluster. There aren't any visual bells and whistles on the U27G3X as it's encased in a hard black plastic shell that features a splash of red on its backside vents and lower border. Visually, the U27G3X looks like an extremely basic gaming monitor, and unfortunately, the decision to go with an X-shaped stand was a sore spot for me.

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While being very sturdy, the legs of the stand take up quite a bit of desk space, which meant a lot of collisions taking place between my mouse and the right-hand stand leg - especially when I was attempting to flick in first-person-shooter games. Despite the feet on the stand being a pain, overall, there is a good range of ergonomics with a decent amount of height adjustments, swivel, and forwards and backward tilt. I believe there would be more than enough ergonomics to satisfy the average gamer.

The stand problem was solved by placing the U27G3X on one of my monitor arms through its VESA mount support, enabling me to get a much better look at the image on the screen and its overall position. Moving to the bottom of the display, AOC has equipped the U27G3X with five buttons under the monitor for On-Screen-Display (OSD) control. While the buttons are straightforward to use and make for easy navigation of OSD settings, I would have appreciated seeing a nice multi-directional joystick, which I believe would have complimented the overall minimal design of the U27G3X.

Keeping to the back of the U27G3X, users will find a decent number of connectivity options, with two DisplayPort 1.4 ports, two HDMI 2.1 ports, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The decision to have multiple DisplayPorts and HDMI ports is another clue as to what type of gamer AOC is aiming the U27G3X at - a gamer that plays on both PC and console. The multiple input connectivity options enable a PC gamer that lightly flexes into console gaming (or the reverse) to utilize the 4K, 144Hz+ gaming monitor by simply switching the input via a button on the underside of the display.

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Despite having awesome colors, creatives take a blow when it comes to USB connectivity, which it completely lacks. While this may be a downside, you need to remember this monitor is $500, and isn't aimed at creatives, despite having high productivity potential. I would say this is a small downside that is worth it to keep the price of the U27G3X as low as possible.

Ultimately, the U27G3X doesn't have any bells and whistles that would have increased its price well above the $500 mark, but that wouldn't be why you be purchasing this monitor. If you after sparkle there are plenty of other flashy LED monitors on the market. What you are getting with AOC's U27G3X is under the hood.

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Panel Breakdown

The U27G3X is a 27-inch IPS monitor that has a 4K resolution and a maximum refresh rate of 160Hz. 27 inches would typically be the size of monitor I would recommend for a 4K panel due to the pixel density, but the U27G3X has won me over for the experience it provided. The U27G3X provided me with an incredibly sharp image that I immediately bumped up to its maximum 450 nits of brightness.

The image itself was pretty vibrant, with colors that looked very accurate to the eye and were not oversaturated. Due to the accuracy of the colors, size and pixel density I believe the U27G3X could be comfortably used as a solution for video content (movies/TV shows) and creation (video/photo editing), which only adds more to the U27G3X's versatility.

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The IPS panel makes text look very crisp, making the U27G3X also good for text-based operations such as writing this review. The physical panel does suffer from a bit of glare caused by bright lights bouncing off the anti-glare finish. This problem was solved by repositioning some of my independent light sources in my studio and bumping up the brightness to max.

Where things start to get messy, and you realize how this monitor is only $500 is the HDR performance. Yuck. If you do happen to pick up a U27G3X the first thing I recommend you to do is put it in SDR and make sure HDR is switched off. SDR performance on this display is more than enough to get a good experience, and it appears that when HDR is switched on it makes the image look slightly worse.

Performance

Gaming performance is what AOC is intending users of the U27G3X truly enjoy, and I can honestly say that I did truly enjoy my time gaming on the U27G3X. At first I was sceptical of the 27-inch at 4K pairing, but after a few hours spent in-game I was completely persuaded. I tested the following titles on the U27G3X: Age of Empires IV, DOOM Eternal, Overwatch 2, Red Dead Redemption 2, Cyberpunk 2077, No Rest for the Wicked, and Helldivers 2.

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Having such an extensive suite of games to test allows me to identify the type of gamer best suited for the U27G3X and against my preconceived notions about the display, I would say FPS gamers would get the most out of the U27G3X. This is for two reasons: the 27-inch size, while packing an extreme amount of detail, allowed me to really lock into FPS gunplay, with the 1ms response time enabling fast camera spinning from flicking from target to target without any noticeable motion clarity degradation. I believe the vast majority of FPS gamers on both PC and console would be more than happy with the performance the U27G3X provides.

Another reason I think FPS gamers would get the most out of the U27G3X is RPG titles such as Cyberpunk 2077 and Red Dead Redemption 2 left me wishing the display was slightly larger, particularly 32 inches so I could really immerse myself within the expansive world I was traversing.

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Despite feeling slightly too small for RPG titles, the U27G3X produced incredible colors in all of the aforementioned titles and provided a seamless gaming experience that I believe would be more than adequate for the average gamer flexing between different titles.

Final Thoughts

So, should you buy AOC's U27G3X? Yes, but if you match the following buyer description.

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The U27G3X is an absolute steal for $500 if you are looking to upgrade from a 1440p gaming monitor to 4K, but don't want to break the bank doing so and predominately care about in-game performance (4K, 160Hz, and 1ms response time). The U27G3X is also a fantastic purchase for a gamer that flexes between PC gaming and console gaming, as current-gen consoles can utilize the 4K @ 120Hz refresh rate (in select games).

There are also the benefits of color reproduction, which is some of the best that I have seen at a monitor of this price. Ultimately, if you are after a 4K gaming monitor with a high refresh rate, a low response time, and connectivity options for console gaming, you are going to struggle to find something that can outperform AOC's U27G3X. Absolutely fantastic work here, AOC.