Computer Shopper 2019-11-01

MONITORS

ISSUE 381|COMPUTER SHOPPER|NOVEMBER 2019 75

THEAD27QDIScomponents manufacturer
Gigabyte’sdebut in the monitor market, and a
it’s aconfident one: afully fledged gaming
monitor with all the bells and whistles.
It even has some unique tricks of its very
own. The best is OSD Sidekick, aWindows
application that –once you’ve hooked up
asimple USB cable from your PC to the
monitor –lets you access the AD27QD’s
settings from the comfort of your desktop.
The result is afar smoother experience than
traditional OSD control schemes, which
invariably involve manipulating multiples
buttons and tiny joysticks.
There’s also the RGB Fusion app,which
allows you to customise the rear-mounted
RGB lights. This is altogether less
revolutionary,and the lights themselves
aren’t particularly bright, but still it’s afun
bit of eyecandy.

MIC DROP

It’s abit annoying that OSD Sidekick and the
actual OSD have drastically different layouts,
even if changes made in one are affected by
the other,and the standard OSD doesn’t give
you access to the ANC microphone settings
as the desktop software does.
Still, this isn’t ahuge loss. The ANC feature
itself is anice idea: if you connect a
microphone to your PC through the monitor’s
3.5mm audio input, aset of built-in
microphones situated around the bezels are
used to detect and subtract ambient noise
from the signal. However,wefound that
recording quality was poor: you’ll get better
sound overall if you stick to your usual
sound card, whether it’s adedicated unit or
built intoyour motherboard.
Forvideo input, Gigabyteprovides two
HDMI ports and asingle DisplayPort
socket. It’s fully certified forAMD
FreeSync, so owners of supported
Radeon cards can enjoytear-free gaming.
Nvidia users aren’t leftout, either,asyou
can unofficially enable G-Sync over a
DisplayPort connection with aGTX
10-series card or newer.Both systems
also work in combination with another of
the Aorus AD27QD’s party tricks: HDR.
The 27in panel is flat rather than
curved, which might disappoint those
wanting that extra layer of immersion.
However,the three-sided borderless design
looks sharp and the triangular stand is pretty
flexible: it provides -5° to 21°oftilt, -20° to 20°

GIGABYTE

AorusAD27QD

★★★★★

£529•From http://www.amazon.co.uk

VERDICT

TheAD27QDhasplentyto offer,butit’s
atoughsellagainststrongrivalswith
lower prices

of swivel and 130mm of height adjustment,

and it can also pivot by afull 90°. If you’d

prefertomount the displayonawall or a

different stand, there’s a100x100mm VESA

mount around the back, and ahandle at the

topmakes it easy to transport.

We found colour reproduction to be very

good, with our calibrator reporting an average

delta-E of 1.43, which is agreat result fora

gaming panel, even if the AOCC27G1 and

CQ32G1 are both even more accurate. The

AD27QD is also nicely vivid, covering 95.6% of

the sRGB gamut colour space with apunchy

contrast ratio of 1,214:1. Again, both AOC

monitors perform as well or slightly better,

but it’s still afine result on Gigabyte’spart.

LIGHTTOUCH

Brightness depends on which displaymode

you choose.The pre-calibrated sRGB mode

achieves apeak of 190cd/m2, which isn’t

exactly dazzling, but disable it and the

monitor is capable of pumping out afar more

impressive 495cd/m2 –well beyond the

350cd/m2 claimed by Gigabyte(and required

by the DisplayHDR 400 certification).

Besides the high 144Hz refresh rateand

syncing support, there are afew more

specialised treats forgaming. An interesting

one is the Aim Stabiliser displaymode.

Youdon’t get the maximum brightness in

this mode –it’s not much brighter than

sRGB mode –but it vastly reduces motion

blur and boosts the overall responsiveness

of the panel. It’s great forplaying at night,

although we found the limited brightness

frustrating during the day.

There are also some overdrive settings

that you can tinker with manually.Wefound

that Balance mode,with its limited inverse

ghosting, offered the best experience in more

casual, slower-paced games. The Speed

setting, meanwhile,seemed better fortwitch

shooters by offering an even higher pixel

response rate, although this came at the

expense of more noticeable inverse ghosting

and purple trailing.

EARLYADOPTION

Forafirst crack at agaming monitor,the

AD27QD makes an impressive statement. The

panel is fast and sharp with excellent HDR

colour,the software-based OSD is fantastic,

and the inclusion of FreeSync and G-Sync

compatibility only sweeten the deal.

Not everything is perfect, however.The

ANC feature isn’t as great as it sounds,

and the dedicated gaming modes come

with caveats. There’s also the matter of

it being much more expensive than the

AOCCQ32G1, which has the same

resolution and refresh ratebut also a

larger panel that generally performs

better.The CQ32G1 doesn’t have HDR

support, but then the Aorus AD27QD

only caters forthe most basic form of

HDR, not the gleaming home-cinema sort

you’d get from agood HDR TV.

The Aorus AD27QD is astriking and

very likeable monitor,and it’s great to see

some new ideas coming intothe market. At

£529,however,it’s very hard to recommend

ahead of its more established competitors.

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Besides the high 144Hz refresh rateand

syncing support, there are afew more

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MONITORS

of swivel and 130mm of height adjustment, specialised treats forgaming. An interesting