Aoc Agon Gaming Monitors United States

The summit-end of the gaming monitor marketplace expands in a few directions – size, speed, resolution, and so on – and the AOC Agon PD32M looks to catch equally many of those threads as possible and smash them all together in a premium display that costs a pretty penny. Well, $1,799 to be exact.

It’s premium, but this is a thing of beauty on the inside and outside, and offers a spec list to brand the most expensive gaming TV blush. With looks to beautifully complement a minimalist gaming setup, the AOC Agon PD32M has the promise to exist one of the best gaming monitors to enter the market in 2022, and possibly for a expert long while.

I’ve lived with the monitor for a while, using it for piece of work and play – on PC and console – and allow me tell you lot, this is perchance the brightest gaming monitor I have always seen, and it throws in a bunch of premium features likewise. But does this automatically mean information technology’s one of the all-time 4K monitors? The signs are promising only what’s it similar in reality?

Design

While this is a big monitor, it is sleek and modern, and very cool in its aesthetic. Having reviewed the AOC PD27 a couple of years ago, the PD32M is instantly recognisable to me as being from the Porsche Pattern schoolhouse. Matte blackness and steel finishes abound and it’southward a symphony in class. It’s near ‘classier’ than the PD27, really also.

The PD27 was a curved monitor with a sizeable stand evoking a car’s curlicue cage, taking up some serious desk-bound real estate and stopping it from beingness VESA mounted. The PD32M is a little more restrained in that sense, and is VESA compatible – though it is a bit on the heavy side, at 8.29kg without the stand. Despite being a apartment monitor, the PD27 does accept up a bunch of desk space: the legs span to a maximum distance of near 50cm, and the forepart to back measurement is a good 30cm or so.

Features

The PD32M is a 4K, 32-inch monitor with an IPS console, and Mini-LED backlighting, offer up to 144Hz refresh rates, and a GtG response time of 1ms. The specifications also state a Vesa Display HDR 1400 and a acme brightness rating of 1600 nits, which is just bonkers. ‘Nearly’ gaming monitors have somewhere in the 300-500 range of brightness, and the new Alienware QD-OLED AW3423DW has a rating of i,000 nits so this is huge if truthful.

This is an unbelievable canvas of monitor specs, and if you lot were to write a tick list, this crosses off a bunch of them all in one hitting. The only matter ‘missing’ is G-Sync, merely you are well served by its FreeSync cousin.

To apply all the gaming chops, you lot’re well gear up with ports also: there’s one DisplayPort ane.4, USB-C connectivity (for brandish and charging) a USB hub, and two HDMI two.1s. Yes, two HDMI two.1s. This factor means the PD32M tin be pointed at those with new-gen consoles as well equally PC gamers – or, indeed, those folks who have both.

The finishing touches are the healthy onboard menu with a bunch of settings to help you tweak and optimise – more on that afterwards – and some funky RGB lighting, too equally some surprisingly decent speakers (which will take you past surprise on every boot-upwards of the monitor).

At that place’s as well the same triangular remote control that featured with the PD27, and, in a relentlessly boring but necessary take, I do feel the demand to tell that the power brick is enormous. Obviously, that helps to supply the monitor and all its ports with plenty juice, but, seriously, you lot could impale a man with that thing.

Functioning

As presently as I turned the PD32M I was immediately hit by the brightness. Male child, is the effulgence
actually
there – y’all can tell this has got beans and that HDR1400 rating isn’t an exaggeration. But it wasn’t a i-off in this regard: having lived with the monitor I can tell you it’s the brightest gaming screen I take e’er used.

But with that comes a few small-scale challenges. And that is that it is sometimes too bright – to the point of oversaturation. I was spending a lot of fourth dimension diving straight into the menus and increasing and decreasing levels and brightness, making HDR changes, and so on. Even if it didn’t get to 1400 peak brightness and merely got to 1000 or then, it would still be mode brighter than most.

The out-of-the-box image is skilful, don’t get me wrong, just it wasn’t perfect and you volition need to practise some calibration to detect your perfect setting or settings. The born presets for a range of games practice offer good choices, but I did notice it tricky to find the right balance and to find it quickly. This is especially difficult when it comes to finding the elusive, all-purpose, set-and-forget remainder that nosotros all want. (Nobody wants to be going into menus every time you change from piece of work to play.)

Yet, this does really reveal how vivid the AOC AGON PS32M actually is, and how well it does colours and contrasts. and that is to say: very well indeed. It passes all the usual tests with flying colours – those UFOs looked smooth and bright as heck – and this type of performance is backed up in my day-to-day, real-world testing. Once you do hit that correct color rest, you will observe a monitor that gives you the most glorious of gaming experiences no matter what you play.

Naturally, you’ll need something at the very top end of the all-time gaming PC and all-time graphics card lists to enjoy this thing in all its 4K celebrity with high framerates. But if you tin can, and then yous are in for a treat. Gaming in 4K at 144Hz is tremendous and I’k not sure my eyes tin go dorsum to anything else now. Command is even more than cinematic than I remember, the simplest of shapes and colours in Cherry Alert Remastered pop beautifully, and Apex Legends is a different game running in such quality and at such speeds. Equally a cherry-red on the height, I was too deeply impressed by the PD32M’south operation equally a PS5 monitor. The HDMI 2.ane ports brand this seamless, the games await superb on it, and you’re keeping that door to 120Hz on console games open too.

As for the extras? I felt the RGB lighting was a little unnecessary and, along with the extending headset hangers on either side, could easily be sacrificed – particularly if it would shave even a scrap off the cost tag. Fifty-fifty against a wall, the RGB lighting was just fine – nada more. Information technology’due south the on-screen performance that does the talking and does more enough to immerse y’all.

If you accept an itch for a premium panel to fit a setup that has, say, a new-gen console besides every bit a mid-level PC then this could be perfect. Chef’south buss levels of perfect. Provided you lot take the motorcar to ability it, information technology’ll pump out quality pictures and games no matter what. 4K, 144Hz, super bright and colorful, dark and murky, whatsoever, it does it beautifully with clarity, depth, and detail.

Overall – should you buy the AOC AGON PD32M?

On functioning alone, the PD32M is a brilliant monitor. It’s a truly premium feel, and to get all that offered in ane screen is something spectacular. If you’re looking to invest in a display that ticks all the boxes, then the PD32M will not permit you down and y’all will not regret it.

I can imagine the PD32M beingness specially at domicile in a PC-and-console gaming desk setup – even one with work factored in besides. If y’all don’t need ultrawide or curves, then this could be the one gaming monitor to dominion them all.

However, the $1,799 price tag will put people off – and do and so quickly. At first, that cost does seem just enormous, and insurmountable. However, when yous start calculation it all upwardly, it’s not too bad. Factoring in all the qualities – the Mini-LED backlighting, 4K resolution, 144Hz, and then on, the nearest rival might be something like the ASUS PG32UQX which is basically twice the toll of the PD32M.

However, every bit I said in my Herman Miller X Logitech Emobdy gaming chair review, spending this much volition be a personal matter in 2022 – just it’s a decision that could well be right for some folks if the proposition and setup are right. If yous’re someone who likes to brand big investments to become things right, rather than spending more on cheap gaming monitors over the long term, and so this could admittedly be it – as long every bit you’ve got the kit to make the well-nigh of it.

The AOC AGON PD32M monitor is due out on June 15, 2022.

How we tested the AOC AGON PD32M

The PD32M became my main monitor for PC play and function piece of work and stayed like that for a good long while. Even while on a continuing desk-bound with annoying shelves above, the large monitor was my main screen – either pushed back when the desk was downwardly or brought forwards when it was upward to avert the shelves (notation: this is definitely as well shut.)

This meant I could test the monitor from everyday work tasks to belatedly-night gaming sessions. The former put the monitor through the rigours of incredible amounts of Chrome tabs, spreadsheets, and other file and paradigm management tasks, while the latter saw me test the screen with games of all genres from Strategy games like Total War: Troy, to action games like Control, and from fast shooters like Noon Legends to those with incredible environments similar Prey and Red Dead Redemption 2.

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