AOC Gaming CQ27G2S/BK: Two-minute review

It’s gotten to the point where you don’t need to spend a fortune to get a generally solid gaming experience. That’s certainly where AOC is positioning their latest panel, the catchily named AOC Gaming CQ27G2S/BK, which brings with it the ideal combo of panel size and resolution – 2560 x 1440 strewn over a 27-inch screen – alongside purposeful looks and a generally great image for reasonable money in today’s economy. 

There’s quite a sea of options at this more affordable price point, but the AOC Gaming CQ27G2S/BK offers a lot for a good price, and may well just be one of the best gaming monitors out there in its price bracket.

The AOC Gaming CQ27G2S/BK is perhaps a little non-descript compared to some similarly-priced gaming monitors, opting for a simple but effective black plastic chassis with flecks of red on the stand and underside of the bottom bezel. This is typical for AOC monitors and makes this panel look as if it’s a successor to the AOC display I use day to day. 

Its simple design pays off, as it’s a good-looking monitor, with thin bezels helping it to look reasonably modern. A weight of 5.5kg gives it some nice heft, and it feels well-made, considering the price. The stand on offer is practical, offering solid adjustment with tilt, height, and swivel, but not rotation - arguably given the slight 1500R curvature. This is also a VESA-compatible panel if you want to opt for wall mounting or on a desk clamp with a mount, as opposed to the bundled stand. 

It’s also easy to put together with a tool-less construction. Instead, the CQ27G2S/BK uses a screw-in stand that attaches to the panel especially conveniently, making life easy. If you’re like me and have a small phobia of manual labor then putting together AOC’s candidate is a doozy.

As for inputs, the CQ27G2S/BK features a pair of HDMI 2.0 ports and a singular DisplayPort 1.4 option, as well as a headphone jack. Given the more affordable price point, I’m not too worried about the lack of more modern accoutrements such as any USB ports, although they would have been nice to have.

There are built-in speakers, although they aren’t the best, sounding thin overall with little in terms of bass and top-end. The saving grace here is that the AOC Gaming CQ27G2S/BK features a 3.5mm earphone jack so you can connect up external speakers, which would be preferable.

Apart from the actual panel itself, the AOC Gaming CQ27G2S/BK doesn’t offer much else in the way of additional features. The big thing here though is its on-screen display (OSD). While offering plenty of features to play around with including dedicated gamer modes as well as a handful of HDR modes you can enable, it isn't easy to navigate. It takes a few seconds to move from menu to menu, and the buttons on the bottom right offer very little in the way of assistance with function and direction. A joystick would have made things a lot easier.

In delving into the actual panel, the CQ27G2S/BK utilizes a 27-inch VA panel, complete with a 2560x1440 resolution and 165Hz refresh rate. There is support for VRR with AMD FreeSync, although Nvidia GPUs are supported with adaptive sync, and there's a vague semblance of HDR with support for DisplayHDR 10. 

In testing, the AOC Gaming CQ27G2S/BK provided some excellent image quality. It provides decently bright images with a measured peak figure of 242 nits while offering pretty deep blacks and solid contrast that actually exceeds AOC’s own quoted 4000:1 by a little bit. Its 6900K color temperature is solid for a monitor of this price too, as is its SDR color accuracy. 100% sRGB coverage means it displays all the colors needed for mainstream work and play as accurately as possible while 90% DCI-P3 means it could handle more specialist workloads if you wanted to.

In enabling HDR though, it’s where AOC’s more affordable mid-ranger falls over. It becomes a much more washed-out and overall less enticing picture. Its 80% sRGB and 59% DCI-P3 color space coverage mean that the CQ27G2S/BK isn’t at all suitable for HDR workloads, and you should stick to working in SDR.

However, it’s important to note that this isn’t necessarily a panel designed for color-sensitive workloads, and for gaming in SDR, it was excellent. The combination of a 27-inch screen and 1440p panel offered solid detail over a great size for my desk, while the 165Hz refresh rate ensured output was smooth. Playing CS:GO at a high frame rate felt especially responsive while using it for day-to-day work and running my Football Manager 2023 save felt sharper. 

The moderate 1500R curve helped to provide a tad more immersion in FPS titles, and allowed me to focus more on firing at bots in CS:GO (I refuse to play online, I don’t want to get smoked!). That curvature was also welcome for filling my eyesight for day-to-day working, and while it may seem like an odd thing to say, the CQ27G2S/BK helped to immerse me in what I needed to get done. When rewatching the last series of The Marvelous Mrs Maisel on Prime Video, the curvature helped there, and viewing YouTube videos was solid too.

AOC Gaming CQ27G2S/BK: Price & availability

• How much does it cost? £220 (US model $290, about AU$425)
• When is it available? Available now
• Where can you get it? Currently available in the UK

The AOC Gaming CQ27G2S/BK appears to be a UK-exclusive panel, being priced at £220 - at least, this exact model. A virtually identical monitor - the AOC Agon Q27G2S - is available in the US for $290 (around AU$425). It sits well amongst some of the best high refresh rate monitors we’ve looked at in the past, such as our top choice, the Gigabyte Aorus CV27Q, and other similar specced options.

The CV27Q, despite now being a slightly older panel, matches well against AOC’s latest option with the same screen size, resolution, and refresh rate, although offers a quicker response time of 1ms, but a worse contrast ratio at 3000:1 compared to AOC’s 4000:1. 

Perhaps the next nearest competitor to the CQ27G2S/BK is an option from the brand 'X=', a spin-off from UK retailer AWD-IT. Their X=XRGB27WQ offers a virtually identical spec sheet to AOC’s choice with the same resolution, screen size, and resolution. It gets a little brighter than the CQ27G2S/BK with 350 quoted nits and offers an IPS panel as opposed to VA. That’ll run you £230, although you are banking on trusting a lesser-known brand.

Other options from the likes of Dell are going to cost at least £100 or so more than the CQ27G2S/BK, making it a rather great value-for-money choice in its category.

Should you buy the AOC Gaming CQ27G2S/BK?

Buy it if...

Don't buy if...

Also Consider

 AOC Gaming CQ27G2S/BK: Report Card

How I tested the AOC Gaming CQ27G2S/BK

• Spent nearly two weeks testing
• Used for gaming, photo editing, watching videos and day to day work
• Tested using a colorimeter for testing overall image quality

During my time with the AOC Gaming CQ27G2S, I used it as my main working monitor, using it for day-to-day work writing articles and editing images with Photoshop. I also used it to watch streaming content on Disney+ and Prime Video after work, as well as playing a variety of games

This is a monitor primarily designed for gaming, hence my testing in eSports titles such as CS:GO, where you’re more likely to feel the benefit of the panel’s 165Hz refresh rate. Its excellent color accuracy also makes it suitable for productivity and generalist workloads, as opposed to using it for more specialist tasks.

As someone who has a few years of experience writing reviews and testing all sorts of monitors, I’ve got the right tools to help you through the minefield of whether a monitor is actually any good or not. You can trust me to take everything into account to help you make the right buying decision.

• First reviewed March 2024

Lenovo Legion R45w-30: One-minute review

It’s easy to see the appeal of ultrawide monitors, as long as you’ve got the space for them. You get loads of horizontal screen real estate to give you more screen space to use, and that can wrap around you to get you more immersion. 

It’s also gotten to the point where you can get solidly specced choices that don’t cost the earth, relatively speaking, That’s where Lenovo is aiming to push their latest screen, the Legion R45w-30, which is one of the larger ultrawide panels available on the market today, and undercuts many of the best ultrawide monitors around in price by quite some distance in the name of offering a solid overall experience backed by a massive 44.5-inch screen.

Lenovo Legion R45w-30: Price & availability

• How much does it cost? $799 / £799 / AU$999
• When is it available? Available now
• Where can you get it? Available in the UK and USA

The Lenovo Legion R45w-30 is available in both the UK and USA for reasonable sums of money compared to other ultrawides, and was subject to a handy discount in the UK this past Black Friday to bring its price down further.

It matches reasonably well against our top ultrawide monitor choice, the LG UltraGear 38GN950, which clocks in at a third more in price than this Lenovo option, at £1200 or so. That panel offers a smaller screen size and aspect ratio, but makes up for it with higher brightness and contrast. It lacks some other nice-to-have features though, including extra USB ports and a KVM switch, making this Lenovo choice especially good value.

Other options from the likes of Samsung are going to cost nearly double that of the Legion R45w-30, given they are OLED, making the Legion R45w-30 a rather great value-for-money choice in its category.

• Value: 4 / 5

Lenovo Legion R45w-30: Design

• Easy setup
• Plenty of connectivity options  
• Lackluster speakers

The Legion R45w-30 is a good-looking monitor, and carried a lot of presence when placed on my desk. It filled my 120cm desk entirely, and offers a lot of display real estate for the price, that’s for sure. Its black plastic construction feels sturdy, and the flecks of metal across the base of the stand were a nice touch alongside the small Lenovo logo. It means that it should fit well in virtually any setup, with looks to it that are far from being the most obnoxious.

On the point of the stand, that’s especially sturdy, as it would have to be to support such a large monitor. The Legion R45w-30 is also especially easy to put together, and requires no tools to do so. This proved useful if you’re someone who has no dexterity in your hands like I do, so being able to put this Lenovo ultrawide together with little effort was rather handy. You do have to be a bit stronger to put it on the VESA mount if you don’t want to use the included stand, though - and of course, for that you’ll need to make sure you’ve got a stand that supports a monitor that weighs 8.3kg without the stand.

The scope for adjustment is decent, and you can tilt and pivot the Legion R45w-30 to your liking. It can swivel left and right up to 30 degrees, as well as being height adjustable with a scope of five inches, while its tilt is between 5 and 22 degrees, which is useful for making sure you’re comfortable. Admittedly, in using the Legion R45w-30, the massive screen did take some getting used to.

The vast array of inputs on offer pushes the Legion R45w-30 up a lot in my estimations, given it also packs in some options you don’t usually see on more affordable panels. You get a pair of HDMI 2.1 ports, a DisplayPort 1.4 as well as an Ethernet jack, a trifecta of USB-A downstream ports, a USB-C upstream and USB-B upstream, as well as a headphone jack. That gives you a lot of options for connecting additional devices, speakers, and multiple desktops or laptops.

• Design: 4 / 5

Lenovo Legion R45w-30: Features

• Easy-to-use UI
• KVM switch is useful
• Weak, thin-sounding 3W speakers

The OSD that the Legion R45w-30 provides is easy to navigate, especially with the mixture of buttons and a joystick to navigate through its numerous modes. Inside it, you can toggle between various HDR modes and profiles, and fiddle with more traditional settings such as brightness and contrast. I did find myself pressing the wrong buttons inherently, but that’s down to my own incompetence more so than the monitor. Having the joystick for navigating inside menus was a godsend though, and made my life a lot easier.

You even get access to a KVM switch, meaning you can have two devices connected to the Legion R45w-30 and use the same input devices. Switching over from my MacBook Pro to my desktop PC using the same peripherals (don’t worry, my keyboard has dual legend keycaps) was seamless. If you want to, you can also split sources on-screen by using either USB-C or the DP port with picture-in-picture, allowing you to work on two systems at the same time, which is a nice touch, and means you can take full advantage of the 44.5-inch screen for multitasking. Features like that truly exhibit the purpose of an ultrawide panel for productivity workloads.

There are built-in 3W speakers, although they aren’t the best, sounding thin overall, although they do give plenty of volume. You’ll definitely be thankful for the presence of that 3.5mm jack for connecting some external speakers to boost your audio performance.

• Features: 4 / 5

Lenovo Legion R45w-30: Performance

• Overall image quality is fantastic
• Deep blacks and vibrant color reproduction in games
• HDR performance is weak

In testing the Legion R45w-30, it provided some good detail and especially smooth output when running Counter-Strike 2, Assetto Corsa Competizione, and Forza Horizon 5 - even if the latter would only run at 21:9, so it couldn’t take advantage of the full wide 32:9 aspect ratio on offer.

Nonetheless, the Legion R45w-30 impressed me, with its good colors and responsive feel. Having never used an ultrawide panel for games before for an extended period, I can certainly see the appeal. ACC especially impressed me, with the entire cockpit of the GT3 Bentley Continental I was driving around Silverstone wrapped around me. Using such a wide monitor seemed to also take away the need to use the camera navigation buttons to move around, as I physically turned my head to take note of where competitors were. The Legion R45w-30 worked wonders for sim racing, not least when I moved from using an Xbox Elite 2 controller to my trusty Logitech G29 wheel. 

It also proved to be much the same story when playing Dirt Rally 2, with sharp images and smooth motion thanks to the 165Hz refresh rate. On tight, twisting rally stages with lots of quick changes of direction, the sharper output was most certainly welcome. Counter-Strike 2 was a lot of fun in ultrawide form, with detailed visuals and smooth frames with that 170Hz refresh rate, even if I was terrible at killing enemies.

Out of the box, the Legion R45w-30 offered up relatively deep blacks and near-perfect whites alongside wonderfully accurate colors. It offered a crisp experience for both work and play, and the 5120 x 1440 resolution served up some excellent detail whether I was bombing my way across a New Zealand rally stage or watching some mindless content on YouTube.

A peak brightness of 367 nits is good enough for the price, and meant images did look rather vibrant. Cranking things up to that level didn’t have that much of an impact on whites, although blacks weren’t quite as deep. However, as much as SDR performance here was great, the same can’t be said for HDR. Enabling HDR400 on the monitor and in Windows revealed more washed-out colors and lower color accuracy, meaning this isn’t necessarily the best panel for those workloads. Stick to SDR though, and you’ll be golden.

• Performance: 4 / 5

Should you buy the Lenovo Legion R45w-30?

Buy it if...

Don't buy if...

Also Consider

Lenovo Legion R45w-30: Report Card

How I tested the Lenovo Legion R45w-30

• Spent nearly two weeks testing
• Used for gaming, as well as photo editing and watching videos and day to day work.
• Tested using a colorimeter for verifying overall image quality

During my time with the Lenovo Legion R45w-30, I used it as my main working monitor, using it for day-to-day work writing articles and editing images with Photoshop. I also used it to watch streaming content on Disney+ and Prime Video after work, as well as to play a variety of games, including sim racing and shooter titles.

This is a monitor primarily designed for gaming, hence my testing in eSports titles such as Counter-Strike 2, where you’re more likely to feel the benefit of the panel’s 165Hz refresh rate, and using it in sim racing titles such as Assetto Corsa Competizione and Dirt Rally 2 allowed me to gauge its true immersion capabilities. Its fantastic color accuracy and detail also make it suitable for productivity and generalist workloads.

As someone who has a few years of experience writing reviews and testing all sorts of monitors, I’ve got the right tools to help you through the minefield of whether a monitor is actually any good or not. You can trust me to take everything into account to help you make the right buying decision.

Read more about how we test.

• First reviewed March 2024