The ideal affordable monitor for single screen content creator setups.
- Developer: AOC
- Model: Q27T1
- Reviewed on: Xbox One X, Windows PC
- Supplied by: AOC
The Q27T1 is one of AOC's stunning offerings in their Home and Office range, with some of the most stunning and modern design you can find on a monitor. With an ultra-thin panel, concealed ports and a unique and aesthetic stand, the Q27T1 is most definitely a looker. Now it may seem strange that I feel the need to shout about a Home and Office monitor on a gaming site, but bear with me.
Firstly, specs - the Q27T1 does not have the high-spec credentials that its gaming orientated Agon cousins have, but it’s still no slouch.
At 1440p QHD the display is stunning, and the resolution is no issue, especially with the Ultra-sharp setting switched on, which adds extra crispness to every pixel. In addition, the IPS panel provides amazing viewing angles, paired with an anti-glare layer. No matter the angle or lighting at which you use the Q27T1, it always looks good. The best feature for the screen, however, is its wide colour gamut, and this is part of my reasoning behind saying that it is one of the best monitors for single monitor setups.
Consider this: if, like me, you are a content creator and a passionate gamer, or even make gaming content. This is near perfect, the wide colour gamut and IPS panel support you in colour grading. You can be sure that the colour you see on your screen is the colour it actually is. Colour correction for videos becomes slightly easier, with peace of mind that it will look good once it’s being played on a multitude of different devices. The AOC Q27T1 achieved a colour gamut coverage of 102% sRGB and 87% AdobeRGB in testing, with a maximum brightness of 352 nits. Given there is no HDR on this monitor, the brightness is adequate for all but the most brightly lit of rooms, and despite this only being an 8-bit panel, colour reproduction is excellent. The factory calibration is very good too, and shouldn’t take much adjustment, if any, to achieve the best image quality.
Designing an overlay? New panels for Twitch? Or even some assets for your social platforms? The Q27T1 will be outstanding for all of it.
On the flip side, when you're ready to jump into your game of choice, the Q27T1 can more than keep up. With a 5ms response rate, FreeSync and a 75 Hz refresh rate, you won't have many complaints about its gaming performance. While it's not a competitive level spec, it is more than capable, and still an improvement over the usual TVs and monitors.
Though the following is a specific need, it is becoming more and more common. There are budding content creators emerging every single day, and this makes products like the Q27T1 worth finding and talking about. What would to most seem like just a fancy office monitor, has, for me, a special place in the gaming world. I for one would die to have this monitor permanently parked on my desk.
Aside from what I argue makes it the ideal single set-up monitor, the Q27T1 has a few other design factors that would appeal to the more aesthetically inclined amongst us.
Though there are a great number of lovers of RGB and people who desire everything to look extremely “gamer,” the Q27T1 gave me a new appreciation for modern design. With its three-sided borderless screen, it looks sleek straight out of the box, not least of all due to the fact that it's ultra-slim and has a pop-off panel on the back to hide all of the ports with only a cut-out to route your cable out of. On the rear of the panel are a single DisplayPort 1.2, two HDMI 1.4 ports, and line in and line out 3.5mm jack ports.
The stand is what impressed me the most, though. Being designed by Studio F.A. Porsche, you can expect a certain amount of class in the design, and it is all centred around the unique stand. Rather than the usual V shape or flat base, the Q27T1 has an offset attachment point that comes down at an angle forming half a square on the surface it sits on. This quickly became my favourite aspect of the monitor as it was the perfect spot on which to place my Stream deck or Mixamp TR Pro. To add to that, due to it not being a full square, the back is left open so your cable does not have to jump over parts of the stand and can run back and straight off the desk, allowing for a super clean aesthetic all around (given that anyone who has seen my desk knows it is cable hell). There is no VESA mount, but considering the quality of the stand, this was probably a conscious aesthetic decision from the manufacturers.
To put the final boon in the chest that is the Q27T1, it has an extremely appealing price point, listed at only £249.99 on Amazon, which is an absolute steal.
There is, however, one single con I can identify with the Q27T1: The stand, while unique and stunning in design, has no height or swivel adjustment. I could live without swivel adjustment, as you can always just adjust the monitor and stand to suit, but height adjustment is, in my opinion, a must on every monitor in this day and age.
Summary
Overall, I love the Q27T1, and it is one of my favourite monitors to date. With its stunning design and cross-purpose capabilities, it is the ideal monitor for a single display set-up. This is particularly so in light of its low price point.
