The AOC M2752Pqu is a monitor that caught our attention with its attractive spec sheet. This 27" display has a Full HD MVA screen panel, a good range of connections and a few nice extras like a USB hub and a height-adjustable stand. On paper, it looks like it could pull off a five-star review. So how does it shape up in practice?
Design and Build
Even though this monitor may not look like anything special with its matte black plastic casing and slightly out-dated look, the AOC M2752Pqu offers very wide viewing angles from all directions thanks to its MVA screen.
There's a good choice of connections on hand too, with HDMI, DVI, VGA and DisplayPort sockets for hooking up to all kinds of sources.
Audio is covered by a couple of speakers (power not stated), an audio line in and a headphones out. The line in means that you can enjoy audio through the monitor's speakers when connected to a video source via DVI or VGA (these connections don't input both video and audio signals like HDMI).
This monitor can even be used as an occasional TV thanks to its HDMI connection and built-in speakers—just hook up your set-top box, games console or Blu-ray player. The wide viewing angles brought by this MVA screen panel are a real plus point for those kinds of activities.
On top of all that lot, the AOC M2752Pqu has four USB 2.0 ports (two at the back, two on the left-hand edge), as well as a swivel and height-adjustable stand complete with tilt function and portrait mode.
Some users may have preferred to see 1920 x 1200 pixels rather than Full HD resolution. Then again, you do get a whole load of hardware features here that you don't always get elsewhere. It's swings and roundabouts.
Responsiveness
Unfortunately, this monitor's responsiveness is no match for its hardware. The tech specs promise a response time of 8 ms, but we measured nearer 19 ms in our "ghosting time" test.
The input lag of 18 ms, on the other hand, is too low to give any noticeable or troublesome latency (in games, for example) between your actions and the results onscreen.
Colours and Contrast
The response time may be low, but contrast levels in the AOC M2752Pqu proved a very nice surprise. With an MVA panel, we were expecting to measure contrast at about 1000:1, but instead we got an excellent 4230:1! That places the AOC M2752Pqu ahead of our previous record-holder, the Samsung F2380M (3267:1).
The colour temperature is fine, but that doesn't seem quite so important when you've got an average Delta E of 7 (Delta E measures the difference between "perfect" colours and those displayed onscreen. It should be under 3 for colours to be considered "accurate"). The best option here is to switch the Gamma from 1 to 2 to improve the distribution of brightness within the various colours. This in turn pushes the Delta E down to a more palatable 4.9. There's no way of getting it any lower.
This also has the advantage of pushing up the contrast to an even more impressive 4600:1!
Design and Build
Even though this monitor may not look like anything special with its matte black plastic casing and slightly out-dated look, the AOC M2752Pqu offers very wide viewing angles from all directions thanks to its MVA screen.
There's a good choice of connections on hand too, with HDMI, DVI, VGA and DisplayPort sockets for hooking up to all kinds of sources.
Audio is covered by a couple of speakers (power not stated), an audio line in and a headphones out. The line in means that you can enjoy audio through the monitor's speakers when connected to a video source via DVI or VGA (these connections don't input both video and audio signals like HDMI).
This monitor can even be used as an occasional TV thanks to its HDMI connection and built-in speakers—just hook up your set-top box, games console or Blu-ray player. The wide viewing angles brought by this MVA screen panel are a real plus point for those kinds of activities.
On top of all that lot, the AOC M2752Pqu has four USB 2.0 ports (two at the back, two on the left-hand edge), as well as a swivel and height-adjustable stand complete with tilt function and portrait mode.
Some users may have preferred to see 1920 x 1200 pixels rather than Full HD resolution. Then again, you do get a whole load of hardware features here that you don't always get elsewhere. It's swings and roundabouts.
Responsiveness
Unfortunately, this monitor's responsiveness is no match for its hardware. The tech specs promise a response time of 8 ms, but we measured nearer 19 ms in our "ghosting time" test.
Responsiveness
This kind of response time is way too slow to keep fast-action sequences looking clear and sharp onscreen, especially in video games. Anyone who's particularly sensitive to ghosting (ghost images trailing behind fast-moving objects) could also be bugged by the effects this sluggish response time in some movie scenes (e.g. travelling shots).
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This graph shows the ghosting time, measured in ms, which measures the time it takes this monitor takes to entirely remove the previous frame. The shorter the time, the more fluid moving images will appear.
The input lag of 18 ms, on the other hand, is too low to give any noticeable or troublesome latency (in games, for example) between your actions and the results onscreen.
Colours and Contrast
The response time may be low, but contrast levels in the AOC M2752Pqu proved a very nice surprise. With an MVA panel, we were expecting to measure contrast at about 1000:1, but instead we got an excellent 4230:1! That places the AOC M2752Pqu ahead of our previous record-holder, the Samsung F2380M (3267:1).
Delta E before and after adjusting the settings
The colour temperature is fine, but that doesn't seem quite so important when you've got an average Delta E of 7 (Delta E measures the difference between "perfect" colours and those displayed onscreen. It should be under 3 for colours to be considered "accurate"). The best option here is to switch the Gamma from 1 to 2 to improve the distribution of brightness within the various colours. This in turn pushes the Delta E down to a more palatable 4.9. There's no way of getting it any lower.
This also has the advantage of pushing up the contrast to an even more impressive 4600:1!
Pros
- Wide viewing angles (MVA screen panel)
- Hardware features
- Contrast over 4300:1
Cons
- Response time is too slow for gaming
- Colours aren't accurate enough for graphic designers or photo editing buffs (Delta E = 4.9)
Conclusion
The first-rate hardware, wide viewing angles and excellent contrast (4600:1!) earn the AOC M2752Pqu four stars in our review. It's just a shame that the colours and response time aren't better, otherwise it could have been a serious contender for a five-star score.
OUR SCORE
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