Several months ago, AOC announced that all future products aimed at gamers would fall under its new Agon sub-brand, the first of which being a 27-inch display with a 144Hz refresh rate (via DisplayPort and Dual-Link DVI) and 1ms response time. Fast forward to today and for those interested, that monitor is available for purchase, and for $100 less than advertised.
At the time, AOC said the 27-inch Agon AG271QX would run just shy of $600. Even the press release it sent out today mentions that same price point, though a quick visit to two of the places it lists as sellers—Amazon and Newegg— shows both are selling it for $500. Best Buy will also stock the panel at some point, though at the time of this writing it doesn't show any stock or pricing info.
The AG271QX is a tough sell at its $600 MSRP considering that it's a Twisted Nematic (TN) panel and not an In-Plane Switching (IPS) display. Knocking $100 off the price certainly helps the value proposition, though it remains to be seen if gamers will be enticed.
In addition to a high refresh rate and low response time, the AG271QX delivers a 2560x1440 display resolution, 50,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, 350 cd/m2 brightness, and Adaptive Sync support. The stand supports pivot, swivel, tilt, and height adjustments.
Connectivity options include four USB 3.0 ports (presumably 1 up and 3 down), VGA (D-Sub), DVI, DisplayPort, and two HDMI inputs.
If a TN panel doesn't do it for you, AOC says it plans on releasing an IPS version (AG271QG) with G-Sync support in October for $799. It will have the same resolution as the AG271QX that's available now, along with similar specs across the board, save for better viewing angles (an advantage of IPS), higher response time and refresh rate (4ms and 165Hz), and less inputs (HDMI, DisplayPort, and USB).
