AOC CQ27G1 Monitor Review

The CQ27G1 has a gamer-friendly look with a black finish and some red on the front, back, and the stand. It also has thin bezels on three of the sides.

The stand is wide and there's space to put stuff in front of it. It supports the monitor well.

Okay ergonomics. The CQ27G1 has a wide swivel range but limited tilt range, and as is the case with most curved monitors, you can't switch it into portrait mode.

The back of the CQ27G1 has a gamer-friendly design on it. It can be VESA mounted and there's a quick-release on it. There's cable management through the stand.

The borders are thin, perfect for a multi-monitor setup.

Since the CQ27G1 has a curved screen, it's thicker than most flat monitors. However, it's much thinner than the Samsung CHG70.

The CQ27G1 has a good build quality. It's entirely built out of plastic, which feels solid. There's not a lot of flex to it except near the inputs, and the bezels don't bend either. However, there's a bit of a gap between the bottom bezel and the back, but overall, it's well-built. The MSI Optix MPG27CQ has a similar design and has a better build quality.

As is the case with most VA panel monitors, the CQ27G1 has a very good contrast ratio. Blacks appear as they should when viewed in the dark.

Unfortunately, there's no local dimming feature to further deepen any blacks.

There's no local dimming feature. The video above is provided for reference only.

Decent SDR peak brightness. Overall, the CQ27G1 doesn't get very bright, which might not be enough to combat glare in most rooms. However, the brightness remains fairly consistent across different content, although small highlights are slightly less bright. The Samsung CHG70 can get much brighter.

This monitor doesn't support HDR.

As is the case with most VA panel monitors, the horizontal viewing angles are disappointing on the CQ27G1. You'll lose image accuracy when viewed from the side. If you're looking for a 144Hz monitor with great viewing angles, check out the ViewSonic VX2758-2KP-MHD.

Poor vertical viewing angles. The edges of the screen will appear darker if you sit close to the monitor.

Excellent gray uniformity. The screen's slightly darker around the edges, but it's not very noticeable. There's no visible dirty screen effect, so panning shots or fast-moving objects, such as in sports, will look great.

Poor black uniformity on the CQ27G1, much like the Samsung CHG70. There's visible backlight bleed along the top and bottom of the screen. Unfortunately, there's no local dimming feature to improve the black uniformity.

Impressive out-of-box color accuracy. Most colors appear accurate, although the color temperature is colder than the 6500K target, so some colors will have a blue tint to them. Overall, the gamma curve follows the target well, but dark scenes will be darker than they should, and bright scenes will be brighter.

Post calibration, the color accuracy is outstanding. Most colors will be accurate, and the color temperature is only slightly warmer than the 6500K target. The gamma curve follows the target better than it was before calibration.

You can download our ICC profile calibration here. This is provided for reference only and shouldn't be used, as the calibration values vary per individual unit even for the same model, due to manufacturing tolerances.

Excellent SDR color gamut. It covers almost all of the sRGB color space used in most content, and it has great coverage of the Adobe RGB color space used in photo editing.

Outstanding color volume. Thanks to its very good contrast ratio, it can display deep colors, and it can also display rich, saturated colors.

This monitor doesn't support HDR.

This monitor doesn't support HDR.

As with most VA panels, there are no issues with temporary image retention or permanent burn-in.

Great gradient performance, but there's some banding with dark gray, dark blue, and dark green.

There's no visible sign of color bleed on the CQ27G1.

Okay reflection handling. The matte finish does an outstanding job handling a moderate amount of light, but really struggles with a lot of light. The CQ27G1 is better suited in average-lit rooms.

The text clarity is decent. It can be improved using ClearType (top photo), which makes the diagonal or curved lines on the letters R, N, G, and S clearer.

The CQ27G1 has a very good response time at its max refresh rate. With the Response Time setting at 'Strong', motion looks clear, although there's some overshoot on some of the darker transitions. With the other settings enabled, there's some ghosting and artifacting, but still not very noticeable.

Decent response time at 60Hz. The best Response Time setting is 'Off' but there's obvious blur trail behind fast-moving objects and there's undershoot in most transitions.

The CQ27G1 is flicker-free at all backlight settings, which helps reduce eye strain.

The CQ27G1 has an okay black frame insertion feature, which is called MBR in the settings. The backlight flickers whenever the MBR is enabled, and it dims the screen quite a bit. FreeSync can't be used when MBR is enabled.

Amazing refresh rate. It supports FreeSynch variable refresh rate technology to reduce tearing in games but unfortunately isn't G-SYNC compatible. Its max refresh rate of 144Hz can't be overclocked and the VRR range can go as low as 20Hz.

The CQ27G1 has an incredibly low input lag. It's slower with variable refresh rate enabled, but it still responds to your actions quickly. It's also slower when the refresh rate is 60Hz, which is normal, and the input lag is still very low.

The CQ27G1 has a great resolution. The 27 inch screen provides enough screen space to open multiple windows and the 1440p resolution delivers a clear image. If you want a bigger screen, check out the larger variant, the AOC CQ32G1.