AOC G2460PF assessment: An amazing finances monitor for simply £170

Take one take a look at the AOC G2460PF’s price of £170 and also you’d most likely suppose it was a fairly normal type of show. After all, 24in Full HD monitor costs usually begin across the £100-200 mark, and yow will discover a number of screens across the identical £170 mark that don’t have something to shout about apart from a mildly adjustable stand.

AOC’s G2460PF, nonetheless, is something however peculiar. Despite its low value, this monitor has a 144Hz refresh charge and AMD FreeSync help, plus a height-adjustable and rotatable stand. It’s not overly garish, both, as the one concession it makes to being a so-called ‘gaming monitor’ is a skinny pink strip that runs alongside the decrease bezel. Otherwise, you possibly can fortunately put this on any type of desk and never be embarrassed about it.

The solely factor that provides its value away is the clip-on plastic cable tidy. It’s not probably the most elegant resolution in comparison with different screens which have built-in cavities to string them by the again, however I truthfully don’t thoughts when the G2460PF is a lot simpler to manoeuvre within the first place. With swivel, tilt, top and rotation adjustment, connecting cables to its beneficiant array of ports (VGA, DVI-D, HDMI and DisplayPort) is an absolute cinch. You even get a four-port USB2 hub, which is fairly uncommon on a monitor this low-cost, and separate headphone and microphone jacks, too.

Its 1920×1080 TN panel can also be wonderful. I used to be a bit nervous after I first turned it on, because the sharpness gave the impression to be dialled as much as eleven and the distinction appeared utterly out of whack. Turning off the Overdrive perform helped to some extent, however my high-res desktop wallpapers nonetheless appeared just a little compressed even after calibration. Still, I’m prepared to gloss over that, as its color accuracy was just about spot on straight out of the field.

The clip-on cable tidy isn’t very elegant, however it will get the job carried out.

TN panels normally battle on this division in comparison with their IPS counterparts, however the G2460PF doesn’t actually require any fiddling in any respect to get picture. On its Standard image profile, the one factor I needed to do was swap from the Normal color temperature to the sRGB choice. With these settings, color accuracy was wonderful (95.2% of the sRGB color gamut, in the event you should know), and whites had been lots shiny sufficient to deal with a mess of various lighting environments.

As it turned out, its distinction measurement was really decrease than I used to be anticipating (simply 906:1, relatively than the same old 1000:1). That mentioned, I nonetheless noticed loads of shadow element each in-game and in my varied check photographs, so that you received’t be caught quick once you’re venturing by the dingy locales of video games like Resident Evil VII or The Evil Within 2.

Then, in fact, there’s that prime 144Hz refresh charge. As I’ve talked about earlier than when reviewing the Asus PG248Q and Acer XF270HUA, the upper the refresh charge, the upper the body rely will be in your favorite video games, permitting you to push previous the normal 60fps mark and enter the realms of excessive body charge gaming – on this case, a most of 144fps. You’ll want a reasonably respectable graphics card to actually get probably the most out of it (both that, otherwise you’ll must dial down the graphics settings), however the result’s silky clean motion that actually lets your card fly at 1080p.

In addition to DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort and VGA, you additionally get 4 USB2 ports.

I admit I most likely can’t fairly inform the distinction between, say, 120fps and the complete 144fps accessible on the G2460PF, however the distinction between 120fps and 60fps is simply as dramatic because the leap between 60fps and 30fps. There’s a noticeable leap in the best way the digital camera glides throughout the horizon, and fight in Assassin’s Creed Origins, for instance, simply appears to be like and feels that rather more fluid and responsive.

The identical goes for Doom, which has all the time been fantastically optimised. Ramp up the movement blur, for instance, and it feels such as you’re tearing spherical its demon-packed arenas with a good madder power than earlier than. Combined with AMD FreeSync help that helps stabilise body charges after they take surprising dips, and even these with much less highly effective graphics playing cards ought to nonetheless be capable of take pleasure in lag-free gaming.

The solely actual shortcomings of the G2460PF are its menu interface and tinny 2W audio system. The latter are satisfactory in your typical Windows pings and whizzes, however something extra and also you’ll desire a pair of headphones. The menu, however, is just about the identical on each AOC monitor I’ve ever examined. It’s easy sufficient to make use of, however the button structure takes just a little getting used to.

All in all, the G2460PF is a fairly nice little monitor, and arguably one of many best budget buys I’ve seen all 12 months. Nvidia card homeowners needn’t fret, both, as there’s an similar, albeit barely dearer, G-Sync model as effectively – the G2460PG, which prices round £320 from Scan.

This, AOC has assured me, has precisely the identical type of panel because the G2460PF, so you possibly can anticipate close to similar picture high quality between the 2 fashions. The solely actual distinction is that the G2460PG solely has a DisplayPort connector, relatively than the extra beneficiant vary of ports on provide with its PF counterpart.

In both case, each are less expensive than the Asus PG248Q, which at the moment prices round £400, they usually each produce a a lot better image, making them my 24in monitor of alternative (to this point) for top body charge gaming. If you need a larger show, however, then I’d nonetheless advocate saving up for the £500 Acer XF270HUA.