Corsair XENEON 27QHD240 Monitor Review

The Corsair XENEON 27QHD240 has a rather simplistic look with an all-plastic black body, and it shares some design elements with the larger Corsair XENEON FLEX 45WQHD240. It doesn't have a heavy gamer aesthetic, so it blends into any environment.

The build quality is excellent. The plastic materials feel nice, and even the plastic on the back is well-made. The stand is also solid and holds the display well, with minimal wobble.

The Corsair XENEON 27QHD240 has good ergonomics, and unlike the Corsair XENEON FLEX 45WQHD240, you can remove the stand to mount it. At the stand's lowest height adjustment, the bottom of the screen is 3.1" (8 cm) from the desk. The back features smooth plastic with some grill designs on the stand and where the vent is, as you can see here. There's also a large cutout in the stand for cable management.

The stand supports the display well, and there's enough space between the feet to put your peripherals.

There are three buttons underneath the bottom bezel to control the on-screen display, and they can be hard to use. For example, you may accidentally press the wrong option while using the joystick. There's also a sensor that puts a pop-up on the screen to show where the buttons are, which is nice when you can't find them. It works well and isn't overly sensitive, so passing your mouse underneath won't trigger it and bother your gaming session. You really need to put your hand right underneath the bezel for it to appear.

• DisplayPort cable
• HDMI cable
• Power supply and cable
• USB-C to USB-C cable
• USB-C to USB-A cable
• User documentation, including calibration report

The Corsair XENEON 27QHD240 has a near-infinite contrast ratio thanks to its OLED panel. This means it displays deep and inky blacks next to bright highlights in dark rooms.

OLED panels like this one don't have a backlight, so they don't require a local dimming feature. However, with a near-infinite contrast ratio, there isn't any blooming around bright objects, and it's the equivalent of a perfect local dimming feature. We still film these videos on the monitor so you can see how the screen performs and compare it with a monitor that has local dimming.

The SDR brightness is disappointing. It doesn't get bright enough with most content to fight glare in well-lit rooms. It also has an aggressive Automatic Brightness Limiter (ABL), even more so than the ASUS ROG Swift OLED PG27AQDM and the LG 27GR95QE-B. You can see the screen dim when changing window sizes, but it's also slow to change brightness, which is noticeable. There's a Brightness Stabilizer setting that limits the ABL by dimming the entire screen, and you can see the results with it on below. These results are with firmware V103, which makes it brighter than with V102 with this setting enabled, as the brightness was closer to 110 cd/m² in most content with that firmware.

• Real Scene 122 cd/m²
• Peak 2% Window 147 cd/m²
• Peak 10% Window 153 cd/m²
• Peak 25% Window 157 cd/m²
• Peak 50% Window 158 cd/m²
• Peak 100% Window 158 cd/m²
• Sustained 2% Window 146 cd/m²
• Sustained 10% Window 153 cd/m²
• Sustained 25% Window 157 cd/m²
• Sustained 50% Window 157 cd/m²
• Sustained 100% Window 158 cd/m²
• ABL 0.005

Both of these results are from after calibration with the 'Standard' Preset, Color Temperature on 'Custom' (Red 88, Green 85, Blue 73), and the Brightness at its max.

The Corsair XENEON 27QHD240 has alright peak brightness. Some small highlights stand out, but it isn't nearly as bright as the ASUS ROG Swift OLED PG27AQDM, and it's closer to the LG 27GR95QE-B. Its overall brightness is limited, and even the EOTF doesn't follow the target well, as it darkens most scenes before there's a slow roll-off, meaning it doesn't let highlights get the brightest they can.

These results are in HDR with Brightness locked to its max, Brightness Stabilizer off, and Color Temperature on 'Standard'. There aren't any preset modes in HDR either. The monitor gets brighter in smaller highlights with Color Temperature set to 'Default' instead of 'Standard', even though 'Standard' is the default setting. However, the color temperature is also a lot colder with 'Default'.

• Peak 2% Window 845 cd/m²
• Peak 10% Window 733 cd/m²
• Peak 25% Window 413 cd/m²
• Peak 50% Window 224 cd/m²
• Peak 100% Window 130 cd/m²
• Sustained 2% Window 762 cd/m²
• Sustained 10% Window 720 cd/m²
• Sustained 25% Window 408 cd/m²
• Sustained 50% Window 223 cd/m²
• Sustained 100% Window 129 cd/m²
• EOTF

Like in SDR, the aggressive ABL results in distracting changes in brightness. You can limit it by enabling Brightness Stabilizer, but that dims the screen a lot and defeats the purpose of having a bright display for HDR content. These results are with firmware V103, which is brighter than V102, but there isn't a significant difference with most content either.

• Real Scene 159 cd/m²
• Peak 2% Window 360 cd/m²
• Peak 10% Window 318 cd/m²
• Peak 25% Window 208 cd/m²
• Peak 50% Window 207 cd/m²
• Peak 100% Window 208 cd/m²
• Sustained 2% Window 356 cd/m²
• Sustained 10% Window 315 cd/m²
• Sustained 25% Window 208 cd/m²
• Sustained 50% Window 206 cd/m²
• Sustained 100% Window 207 cd/m²
• ABL 0.042

The Corsair 27QHD240 has an incredible horizontal viewing angle. You won't notice any issues when viewing content from the sides.

The vertical viewing angle is remarkable. While it isn't perfect, the image remains consistent even if you stand up and look down at the monitor.

The gray uniformity is amazing. While the edges of the screen are a bit darker than the rest, it's hard to notice and isn't distracting.

The Corsair XENEON 27QHD240 has perfect black uniformity thanks to its OLED panel. There isn't any blooming around bright objects on dark backgrounds.

The accuracy before calibration is good. The dedicated sRGB mode locks colors well to the sRGB color space, but not all colors are entirely accurate. The white balance is still off, especially with darker gray, and gamma is much darker than the intended sRGB mode. The color temperature is close to the 6500K target, but it's still on the warm side. Unfortunately, the sRGB mode locks some settings like Gamma and Color Temperature, so if you prefer using another mode to customize those settings, colors are more oversaturated, as you can see here.

The accuracy after calibration is fantastic. Calibrating it fixes most issues, and you won't notice any inaccuracies.

The SDR color gamut is fantastic. It has perfect coverage of the sRGB color space used in most content, and it also displays a ton of colors in the Adobe RGB color space used in some photo editing, but some colors are inaccurate.

The SDR color volume is incredible. It doesn't have issues displaying a wide range of bright and dark colors.

The Corsair XENEON 27QHD240 has an incredible HDR color gamut. It displays a wide range of colors in the common DCI-P3 color space, but it doesn't tone map all that well, as most colors are still inaccurate. It has decent coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 color space, but once again, there are tone mapping issues. These results are with the 'Standard' Color Temperature setting, and you can also see the results with the 'Default' setting, which has a colder color temperature:

DCI-P3

• DCI-P3 Coverage 97.0%
• Tone-Mapped DCI-P3 Coverage 83.1%

Rec. 2020

• Rec. 2020 Coverage 69.6%

The Corsair XENEON 27QHD240 has mediocre HDR color volume. It struggles to display colors at a wide range of brightness levels, especially bright colors. These results are with a 10,000-nit metadata signal, and it performs similarly even with 600 and 1,000-nit signals, meaning it has a limited color volume no matter what signal you send. You can see the results below:

• DCI-P3 - 1,000 nits
• Color Volume 59.4%
• Rec. 2020 - 1,000 nits
• Color Volume 57.7%
• DCI-P3 - 600 nits
• Color Volume 69.0%
• Rec. 2020 - 600 nits
• Color Volume 57.7%

These results are with Color Temperature set to 'Standard', and the color volume is similar with it set to 'Default', as you can see here:

• DCI-P3 In ICtCp 58.0%
• Rec. 2020 In ICtCp 56.0%

Overall, the color volume is much less than the ASUS ROG Swift OLED PG27AQDM as it doesn't display the same bright and vivid colors. You can see the differences between both monitors below:

ASUS (Left) vs Corsair (Right)

The Corsair XENEON 27QHD240 has fantastic reflection handling. It has an aggressive matte screen coating that reduces glare from strong light sources well, but it still struggles in bright rooms because of its low peak brightness.

The text clarity is alright. Computer programs don't render text well with its RWBG subpixel layout, causing color fringing around text, as you can see with ClearType enabled (top photo). The same issue occurs even in Windows 11 with ClearType on and with ClearType off. The matte screen coating also negatively impacts the text clarity, as text is hazier than on monitors with a less aggressive screen finish.

Due to its RWBG subpixel layout, all four subpixels are never on at the same time. You can see more examples of the pixels in the LG 27GR95QE-B review, which uses the same panel.

The Corsair XENEON 27QHD240 has incredible gradient handling, as you won't see any banding in scenes with shades of similar colors, like a sunset.

You can reach the monitor's max refresh rate with any type of connection. Still, your graphics card needs to support Display Stream Compression for 10-bit signals, which any NVIDIA 16 Series or AMD RX 5000 Series and newer graphics card supports.

The Corsair XENEON 27QHD240 supports VRR over its entire refresh rate range, and it supports Low Framerate Compensation for the VRR to continue working at lower refresh rates.

The response time at the max refresh rate of 240Hz is incredible. It has a near-instantaneous response time, resulting in minimal blur behind fast-moving objects, but there's still some persistence blur caused by the OLED's sample-and-hold method.

The response time at 120Hz is once again fantastic as it's near-instantaneous. Interestingly, the monitor still refreshes at a 240Hz refresh rate when you send a fixed signal below 240 fps, meaning the response time is similar to its performance at 240Hz. It only refreshes lower than 240Hz, like at 120Hz, when the monitor and the source handshake at 240Hz, then VRR is activated to reach lower refresh rates. Regardless, motion is smooth no matter what the monitor is refreshing at.

The Corsair XENEON 27QHD240 has a fantastic response time at 60Hz. Like at 120Hz, the monitor only refreshes at 60Hz when VRR is on and the frame rate drops down to 60 fps, causing the refresh rate to match the frame rate. Motion looks smooth, thanks to its near-instantaneous response time.

The Corsair XENEON 27QHD240 doesn't have an optional black frame insertion feature to reduce persistence blur.

The Corsair XENEON 27QHD240 technically isn't flicker-free because a slight dip in brightness corresponds to the 240Hz refresh rate. However, it isn't the same as pulse width modulation because it isn't a full screen on and off, and you won't notice this flicker.

The input lag is low at 240Hz, resulting in a responsive feel. It increases a lot more at 120Hz and 60Hz, which is disappointing if you're a competitive gamer and need the least delay possible, but it's also not terribly high either. The ASUS ROG Swift OLED PG27AQDM and the LG 27GR95QE-B had the same issue before a firmware update, so we'll update this review if the monitor receives an update that lowers the input lag. We tested it with firmware V102.

The Corsair 27QHD240 works perfectly with the PS5 thanks to its HDMI 2.1 bandwidth. It even downscales 4k games, which results in a more detailed image than a native 1440p signal. However, because the monitor only supports 24 Gbps bandwidth of HDMI 2.1, it only supports chroma 4:2:0 with 4k @ 120Hz signals vs. 4:2:2 with other signals from the PS5, which negatively impacts text clarity.

The Corsair XENEON 27QHD240 works perfectly with the Xbox Series X|S, and you don't need to enable the HDMI override setting for 1440p to work.

As it doesn't support the full 48 Gbps bandwidth of HDMI 2.1, your source needs to use compression to meet its bandwidth limit.

The USB-C port on the left side supports DisplayPort Alt Mode to display an image from a compatible device and supports 65W of power delivery. The USB-C port on the right side is an upstream port for the KVM switch, or you can use it to charge smaller devices as it supports up to 15W of power delivery.

The Corsair XENEON 27QHD240 works well with macOS over USB-C. There aren't any issues with HDR, and VRR works from 40Hz to 240Hz. If you're using a MacBook, you can close the lid and continue working on the screen.

The Corsair XENEON 27QHD240 has a few extra features to improve the user experience. You can use its Picture-by-Picture and Picture-in-Picture modes with either two HDMI sources or a combination of sources connected to HDMI, DisplayPort, or USB-C. It also has a KVM switch that makes it easy to switch between sources and use the same keyboard and mouse connected to the monitor. To use this feature, you need to have the USB-C to USB-A cable connected from the USB-C port on the right of the monitor to your computer, and you can have one device connected via HDMI or DisplayPort and the other via USB-C using DisplayPort Alt Mode.

Like any OLED, it has features to reduce the risk of burn-in. It has an Orbit setting that's supposed to shift the pixels to avoid image retention, and there's also an Image Retention Refresh setting that runs after 8 hours of usage when you power off the display, or you can run it manually. However, it doesn't have settings some other OLEDs have, like auto logo dimming or a full image refresh cycle.

Corsair offers a warranty against burn-in in the U.S., but this can also vary between regions. Although they advertise a warranty for burn-in specifically, the info sheet that comes with the monitor states that the warranty excludes 'wear and tear associated with normal use', and it doesn't specifically mention OLED burn-in, so it's unclear in what cases they cover the burn-in. You can read the warranty info here.