AOC CQ27G1 Review 2022: Budget Gaming Monitor - DisplayNinja

Bottom Line

The AOC CQ27G1 is an affordable 27″ 1440p 144Hz gaming monitor that offers an immersive image quality as well as a smooth performance.

Its excellent design quality and the plethora of features are also a great addition considering the price.

Design: (4.5)Display: (4.7)Performance: (4.0)Price/Value: (4.0) 4.3 See Price

The AOC CQ27G1 is one of the most affordable 27″ 1440p 144Hz gaming monitors.

It offers an excellent image quality thanks to its high contrast ratio, high resolution and punchy colors.

What’s more, it has plenty of gaming components such as FreeSync and 1ms MPRT.

Image Quality

The AOC CQ27G1 is based on a 27″ curved VA panel with true 8-bit color depth and wide 122% sRGB color gamut, which makes for vibrant and rich colors.

Further, it has a high static contrast ratio of 3,000:1, which results in deep blacks. Now, the colors aren’t as accurate and consistent as they are on IPS models, but black and dark shades are much more vivid.

With a peak luminance of 250-nits, the monitor isn’t particularly bright, but under normal viewing conditions, it is more than bright enough.

For the optimal viewing experience out of the box, change the color temperature from ‘Warm’ to ‘sRGB’ or ‘User.’

Moving on, VA panels also have wide 178-degree viewing angles. So, unless you’re looking at the screen from a really weird angle, there won’t be any changes in color or contrast.

1440p resolution hits the pixel density sweet spot of ~108 PPI (pixels per inch) on 27″ screens meaning that you’ll get plenty of screen real estate as well as sharp details and text.

Lastly, the AOC CQ27G1 has a flicker-free backlight and an integrated low-blue light filter allowing you t look at the screen for hours without having to worry it will cause you eye strain or headaches.

All in all, you get a brilliant image quality for the price with deep blacks, attractive colors, and crisp details. If you have too strong lighting in your room, you might want to dim the lights and shut the drapes for the best viewing experience as it will help the deep blacks stand out even more.

Performance

Input lag is just below 4ms of delay, which is imperceptible, while the 144Hz refresh rate makes for a responsive and enjoyable gaming experience.

As it’s the case with all high refresh rate VA panel gaming monitors, there is noticeable smearing of fast-moving objects when dark pixels are predominant in the picture. Still, it’s tolerable – unless you’re a hardcore FPS gamer in which case you’d be better off with a 240Hz display at this price range anyway.

The AOC CQ27G1 display is equipped with the 1ms MPRT motion blur reduction technology, which can via backlight strobing reduce the amount of perceived motion blur in fast-paced games.

Enabling 1ms MPRT, however, limits the monitor’s maximum brightness. Luckily, using the MBR setting in the OSD (On-Screen Display) menu of the monitor, you can manually adjust the frequency of the backlight strobing from 0 to 20 in increments of 1 until you find the perfect trade-off between motion clarity and picture brightness for you.

1ms MPRT cannot be active at the same time as AMD FreeSync on this monitor.

When you enable FreeSync, the monitor will change its refresh rate dynamically to match GPU’s frame rate.

This will eliminate screen tearing and stuttering for good as long as your FPS (Frames Per Second) is within 48-144Hz/FPS, which is the variable refresh rate (VRR) range of the AOC CQ27G1.

While the monitor is not certified by NVIDIA as G-SYNC compatible, you can use FreeSync with compatible NVIDIA cards. However, some users experience brightness flickering when FreeSync/G-SYNC is enabled.

This only affects some units of the monitor, and the brightness flickering is mostly present below 48FPS and/or when your FPS fluctuates a lot.

Features

In the OSD menu of the AOC CQ27G1 curved monitor, you will find many additional features. The menu is well-organized, but navigating through it is a bit tedious as there are four hotkeys instead of a joystick.

Alternatively, you can download the AOC G-Menu desktop application and make some adjustments there.

Gaming features include Shadow Boost (increases visibility of objects in the dark), Game Color (quick color saturation adjustments), Frame Counter, Low Input Lag (bypasses certain image post-processing for minimal input lag), custom crosshairs, and picture presets (three custom modes plus FPS and RTS presets).

There are four pixel response time overdrive options (Off, Weak, Medium, and Strong). For desktop use and most video games, we recommend using the Medium preset. ‘Strong’ may provide a better performance in certain games, but in most cases, it will introduce too much pixel overshoot i.e., reverse ghosting.

Available standard adjustments include brightness/contrast, input source, color temperature (manual red, green, and blue color adjustments), and three gamma presets.

Design & Connectivity

The build quality of the AOC CQ27G1 144Hz monitor is marvelous considering the price. You get thin bezels and a sturdy metal stand which even offers height adjustment up to 130mm, swivel by +/- 35°, and tilt by -4°/22°. Alternatively, you can mount the screen on a third-party stand via the 100x100mm VESA pattern.

Connectivity options include two HDMI 2.0 ports, DisplayPort 1.2, and a headphone jack. FreeSync is supported over all three display connectors up to 144Hz at 2560×1440. The monitor also supports 1440p 120Hz on Xbox One X.

Price & Similar Monitors

The AOC CQ27G1 price amounts to ~$250, which makes it one the cheapest 27″ 1440p 144Hz gaming monitors.

There’s now an updated model, the AOC CQ27G2, which has a steeper 1500R curvature and all the same features as the CQ27G1.

If you’re sensitive to smearing and don’t want to bother with VRR brightness flickering, we recommend getting a 1440p 144Hz IPS gaming monitor at this price range instead, such as the Acer XV272UV or the HP X27q.

Visit our always up-to-date best gaming monitor buyer’s guide for more information.

Conclusion

Overall, the AOC CQ27G1 is an excellent gaming monitor for the price if you’re not sensitive to smearing and screen tearing; otherwise, you should get an IPS variant, but you won’t get as high contrast ratio.

Specifications

Screen Size	27-inch
Screen Curvature	1800R
Resolution	2560×1440 (WQHD)
Panel Type	VA
Aspect Ratio	16:9 (Widescreen)
Refresh Rate	144Hz
Response Time (GtG)	4ms
Response Time (MPRT)	1ms
Adaptive Sync	FreeSync (48Hz-144Hz)
Ports	DisplayPort 1.2, 2x HDMI 2.0
Other Ports	Headphone Jack
Brightness	250 cd/m2
Contrast Ratio	3000:1 (static)
Colors	16.7 million (true 8-bit)
VESA	Yes (100x100mm)

The Pros:

• Affordable 1440p 144Hz display
• High contrast ratio, rich colors, and vivid details
• Plenty of gaming features including 1ms MPRT and FreeSync
• Sturdy and ergonomic design

The Cons:

• Moderate ghosting in fast-paced games, mainly in darker scenes
• Peak brightness could be higher, but it’s acceptable
• OSD joystick would be better than standard hotkeys

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