AOC Agon Pro AG346UCD Ultrawide Gaming Monitor Review - QD-OLED at 175Hz for $749

TweakTown Rating: 90%

Our Verdict

The AOC Agon Pro AG346UCD is a QD-OLED gaming monitor that suffers from a poor physical design, but makes up for it with stellar in-game performance and a great price. TheAG346UCD is simply a great entry-level QD-OLED ultrawide.

Pros

• Stellar in-game performance
• Price

Cons

• Unnecessarily heavy
• Poor stand design
• Tedious setup process

Should you buy it?

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Introduction & Specification Details and Close-up

OLED gaming monitors are in abundance, with gamers nowadays having numerous options to choose from when they are deciding to upgrade to their next panel. So, which one do you choose? That, of course, comes down to price, use case, and general preference.

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Today, we are taking a look at the AOC Agon Pro AG346UCD Ultra-wide OLED gaming monitor, which may just be the next OLED gaming monitor you add to your shortlist of potential gaming monitor upgrades.

The AG346UCD is a 175Hz Quantum Dot OLED (QD-OLED) gaming monitor that sports a 34-inch panel, 3440 x 1440 (WQHD) resolution, and 0.03ms (GtG) response time. Essentially, that is everything you would need for a kickass gaming experience. But what are the shortcomings of this display? And who is really for? Let's dive into this $749.99 gaming monitor and find out.

Specifications

Close-up

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Design

The AG346UCD is housed in a black hard plastic shell that features asymmetrical aesthetics when viewed directly from the back of the display. One side of the monitor features 2x USB 3.2 upstream ports, while the other features a multidirectional joystick for controlling the monitor's On-Screen Display (OSD) options.

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The back of the monitor is relatively boring until the display is switched on and plugged in, as users will notice where the stand connects to the panel itself via a bracket, which has RGB lighting placed around the mounting plate. Keeping to the mounting process. Boy, this was a difficult monitor to get set up. The unboxing experience for the AG346UCD is one of the worst unboxing and setup experiences I have had with a gaming monitor, and I have tested countless at this point.

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Here's what happened. The AG346UCD panel is connected to the stand via a small piece of protruding metal with two screw holes. We will call this side the male end. The stand features the corresponding female end of the connection, which slips over the male end and lines up over the top of the two screw holes. While this sounds easy enough, and it should be, when I went to use the provided screws, the holes weren't lined up perfectly, making it extremely difficult to mount the stand to the panel.

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Typically, this can be easily fixed by wiggling the panel around a little bit until it's seated perfectly. Unfortunately, the AG346UCD weighs 7.65kg or 16lbs, which by comparison, is more than the Acer Predator X32 X3 (32-inch QD-OLED gaming monitor) with its stand at 6.98 kg (15.41 lbs). Trust me when I say this, the AG346UCD is heavy and we haven't even talked about its stand yet, which adds another 2kg for a grand total of 10.82kg or 24lbs.

The AG346UCD eventually conceded, and the screws went into place, albeit with a tremendous amount of trouble. So much so that I believe I may have received a unit that had faulty screw holes, as I don't believe AOC intended for this setup process to be that much of a struggle.

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Despite the benefit of the doubt I hand to AOC for its potentially dodgy review unit, I can criticize the general design of the AG346UCD stand/monitor setup. On almost every other QD-OLED or just OLED gaming monitor I test, brands have opted for a quick-release mechanism to make the setup process as streamlined as possible. The fact that I even have to be screwing anything into my display to attach it to my stand is a red flag in my book.

I believe AOC has opted for this design due to the weight of the monitor, as perhaps a quick-release mechanism wouldn't provide enough structural integrity to hold the AG346UCD in place. If that is the case, then cut the weight of the monitor as it's egregious anyway, especially considering OLED panels are ridiculously light. Why is the AG346UCD so damn heavy?

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There is also a significant trade-off with the weight that isn't just to do with a tiresome setup procedure, but also for anyone who is looking to use the AG346UCD on a monitor arm. Instead of using a typical monitor arm that is rated between 6 to 8kg (13lbs to 17lbs), buyers will have to purchase a higher-rated weight monitor arm to accommodate the AG346UCD, or risk it sagging.

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Unfortunately, the problems with the AG346UCD don't stop. Despite its intense weight, the AG346UCD's stand is an extremely solid, well-built piece of metal. My only issue is that it's a forked-feet design that has feet that are extremely wide. Having wide feet on a gaming monitor runs the risk of a gamer with minimal desktop space and playing at low mouse sensitivity slamming their mouse into either foot of the stand. This is particularly the case for gamers playing competitive titles such as Counter-Strike, Valorant, or any other game where low sensitivity is typically used.

Panel Breakdown

QD-OLED panels are the best of the best when it comes to gaming performance, as the OLED pixels provide not only rich, milky colors but also extremely low response times. The AG346UCD is no exception here, and features exactly what you would expect out of a QD-OLED monitor, albeit at 175Hz. Right out of the box, the AG346UCD provided intensely good color performance and didn't require any additional tweaking. I can happily recommend anyone who purchases this monitor not to bother with adjusting any color options, as what you will be getting out of the box is more than good enough.

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The AG346UCD features a 21:9 aspect ratio, meaning the resolution is 3440 x 1440 (WQHD). Paired with this resolution that sits between 2560 x 1440 (QHD) and 3840 x 2160 (4K/UHD) is a 1800R curved panel, which, when seated directly in front of, provides a very immersive feel to the display. The curvature is subtle, and I noticed it disappears almost immediately after approximately 5 minutes of use. If you are wondering if the curve causes any distortion to browsers or spreadsheets, it doesn't, or at least I didn't notice any throughout my testing time.

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At this resolution and size, users will be getting 109 Pixels Per Inch (PPI), which falls above the recommended minimum of at least 100 PPI. Notably, the 109 PPI is the same pixel density as a 27-inch 1440p (QHD) display, which is more than adequate for the average gamer. Images on the AG346UCD were clear and crisp, with no blurring or noticeable text fringing when testing word processing tasks.

The elephant in the room here is the 175Hz refresh rate, which typically on these ultrawide QD-OLED gaming monitors is clocked at 240Hz. However, that 240Hz comes with a significant price hike compared to the AG346UCD's reasonably humble $749. At 175Hz, gamers aren't going to experience any motion blur as it's simply fast enough, and while it isn't the best in its category, its panel performance is more than good enough to get a recommendation from me.

Colors pop, and the contrast between them is very good, making every image very easy on the eyes. While motion performance isn't at the levels of a 240Hz or even 500Hz panel, the 175Hz does its job to a point that I believe any gamer would find more than passable. Motion clarity is simply great, and any problems would only be noticed by the trained eye.

OLED Care

AOC has equipped the AG346UCD with a selection of OLED Care features intended to mitigate the chance of burn-in occurring. The suite is as follows: Pixel Orbiting, Auto Warning, Screen Saver, Logos Protection, and Pixel Refresh.

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Notably, the Pixel Refresh warning presents itself about halfway up the monitor after 4 hours of use. I promptly turned this off as it was extremely annoying. I wish AOC would implement warning timers so users could select one representative of their use case; e.g, 4, 6, 8, 12, 16, 24-hour intervals.

The On-Screen Display (OSD) options are relatively easy to navigate and won't get any complaints from me, as the most-used options are front and center and easy to access.

Performance

As with all of my gaming monitor reviews, I like to test the monitor I have under the spotlight in a variety of different titles to determine what type of game it performs best in and, ultimately, what type of gamer would be best suited for the display. For the 272QP X50, I tested it in the following titles: League of Legends, Apex Legends, Overwatch 2, Black Myth: Wukong, Cyberpunk 2077, The Witcher 3, God of War Ragnarok, Valorant, DOOM: The Dark Ages, Overwatch 2, and Age of Mythology: Retold.

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With the AG346UCD being an ultrawide monitor, there are a few things you should know before considering purchasing one. Definitely research if your favorite games come with native support for the 21:9 aspect ratio, because if they don't, you will be faced with two options. The first is running your games in 16:9 with back bars on either side of your game, somewhat killing immersion. The second is running your games in 21:9, but the game only actually renders in 16:9 and stretches out to 21:9. The second option is better than the first, but still nowhere near as good as native 21:9 support when scaling is at 100%.

With that disclaimer out of the way, not many of the games that I tested above come with native 21:9 support; most of them worked with partial support, meaning locked FOVs, UIs being stuck at 16:9, stretching, etc. As for the best experiences I had with the AG346UCD, Cyberpunk 2077 provided an incredible experience that was very immersive for the several hours I was causing havoc in Night City. The native support for 21:9 meant there were no black bars, stretching, or UI issues, and the AG346UCD rocked with its awesome colors and smooth refresh rate.

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The same goes for God of War RagnarÜk, which comes with native support for ultrawide and even super ultrawide monitors (32:9). The experience in both of these games is truly quite impressive, as the curved display really creates a locked in immersive feeling after playing for just a few minutes. Additionally, titles such as League of Legends, Apex Legends, The Witcher 3, and Black Myth: Wukong all partially support 21:9.

For example, you can enable 21:9 in League of Legends, but the Field of View (FOV) remains locked at 16:9, meaning no extra vision is granted. Apex Legends is similar, but instead, the game renders at 16:9 and stretches out to the 21:9 aspect ratio. The Witcher 3 supports ultrawide gameplay, but scenes may display black bars.

In these titles, and the remaining ones I listed within the first paragraph, the AG346UCD performed to the best of its ability and with what it could do with the given game. In each of these titles, color performance was great, blacks were deep, colors vibrant and rich, and motion clarity performance didn't produce any complaints from me whatsoever.

Final Thoughts

So, should you buy the AOC Agon Pro AG346UCD for $749.99? It's clear the AG346UCD is aimed at gamers looking to get an OLED ultrawide gaming monitor on a budget, hence the 175Hz refresh rate, and despite its many shortcomings, there is a very good case to be made to buy this gaming monitor.

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I believe that a gamer who has verified their most-played titles come with at least partial ultrawide support, don't necessarily think they need that 240Hz refresh rate as those games may not be able to reach that FPS in-game, and just want the awesome colors of an OLED panel, should consider the AG346UCD. Despite its shortcomings with its design, the gaming performance here for the price AOC is asking is quite good.

Potential buyers of the AG346UCD should know this is a value-oriented gaming monitor, and isn't the best in its category by any means. However, it isn't trying to be, nor is AOC marketing it as such. What you will get here is a QD-OLED ultrawide gaming monitor that will make all of your games look and feel great.

I would recommend the AG346UCD to someone who is moving up from an IPS ultrawide and doesn't want to break the bank, and simply wants to experience OLED at a reasonable refresh rate. Or, a gamer that is looking to step out into something different from their traditional 16:9 gaming monitor and is really interested getting that OLED pixel technology for the colors and doesn't necessarily care too much about an insanely high refresh rate as the games they are playing/PC they are running wouldn't be able to take advantage of it anyway.