AOC Agon 4 Pro AG324UX: Finally in the big leagues

Details

I usually praise AOC in our tests for its great price-performance ratio, as the monitors we’ve tested so far have been aimed more at the lower to mid-range segment. Thus, there were usually a few compromises that the manufacturer made to keep the price attractive. The new AG324UX, however, is something entirely different. It is the first truly high-end gaming monitor from AOC in our tests to offer 4K at 144Hz, Adaptive Sync, HDR and USB-C.

Basic parameters

Packaging and accessories

The packaging of the new AOC monitor continues the trend of colourful and graphically interesting themes. Apart from the monitor itself, we can also see a few basic specs such as UHD resolution, 144Hz refresh rate or HDR support and the presence of a USB-C port.

The contents of the package (i.e. the panel itself and the accessories) are packed in a premium way in a separate box, which I like better than when the cables are just piled up between the polystyrene.With the monitor you get a manual with CD, HDMI and Displayport cables (both marked 8K), a cable with USB-C connectors on both ends,as well as a USB-C to USB-A reducer, then there’s a massive power adapter, a puck-shaped cable driver for menu control, a pair of cable grips and a screwdriver.

The stand got a new design, which is welcome, as we’ve seen the older version for quite a long time,
e.g. for models CU34G2X and Q27G2U. The new stand is thinner and has a small lift, which gives a premium impression.

The main part of the stand has undergone even more significant changes, it is much more robust. It has a metallic finish and red details, including a handle to carry the monitor by. I like that a lot.

You still don’t need any tools to connect the two parts of the stand and it’s just a matter of seconds.

The new stand hides one more interesting feature and that is a projector for displaying the logo on the table. We will show it in practice later in this article.

The rear side has also undergone significant changes. While it’s still plastic and black, the red lines have disappeared and the AOC logo has been replaced with the Agon gaming emblem. There’s no need to worry about the back being inconspicuous as the red lines have been replaced with transparent lines that will offer RGB lighting.

You might be interested in the gold contacts inside the VESA mount or at the end of the stand. These are for power and data transfer to the projector, and we’ve seen this solution on monitors that had a backlit stand. The gold quarter circle also tells us that the pivot will only be possible to one side,

What I commend the manufacturer for is the quick installation of the stand to the monitor without having to use any tools or screws.

A look at the front shows a bezel-less display on three sides with an average-sized chin that features the new red Agon logo. We can also see the new stand, which is certainly more attractive than the previous model.

The back side, as already mentioned, has undergone a significant change, and so far without being plugged into the wall we can’t see it in its full glory, but we’ll look at that in a moment.

The port selection has also improved significantly, offering up to four inputs, a USB hub and audio connectors, but let’s take it one step at a time. On the left we have the power adapter connector and the power button. Next up are two HDMI 2.1 inputs and one DisplayPort 1.4 input with DSC. New is the USB-C connector, which supports DisplayPort, data transfers and also 90W charging, so you can use it to connect your laptop with one cable.
Next to the USB-C connector is a pink microphone output. MicroUSB is used to connect a wired OSD controller. This is followed by USB Type-B to liven up the USB hub with four Type-A connectors, one of which supports fast charging. A pair of audio connectors for microphone input and headphone connection round out the lineup.

Worth mentioning is the presence of a KVM switch, which allows you to connect two computers to the monitor and control them with a single keyboard and mouse. Specifically, you connect both computers via video cables and USB to the monitor (one via USB-C and the other via USB Type-B), then connect the mouse and keyboard to the USB hub and change which computer you’re currently controlling when switching the video input.

A 5-position joystick is used to control the OSD menu, which is a significant step up from the 5 buttons previously used by the manufacturer. We’ll cover the joystick and menu options more on the next page.

The new stand offers a wide range of positioning options in portrait as well as tilt and pivot. Specifically, tilt is possible between +23° and – 5°, which are standard values.

You can adjust the height from 65 to 195 mm from the base. The top edge of the monitor thus moves from 488 to 618 mm from the table. The total height adjustment range is therefore 130 mm.

Rotation around the stand axis is possible in 20 degrees to either side.

The stand also offers the possibility of pivot, i.e. rotation to a vertical position. In the beginning we estimated that this would be possible only to one side, which was confirmed. The monitor can only be rotated clockwise.

Another interesting feature is a handy holder to put your headphones away when you’re not using them.

We’ve already mentioned that AOC has finally implemented RGB lighting, which was lacking on previous models. What’s backlit is a thin bar at the bottom of the front.

On the back, the previously mentioned transparent lines are backlit. There are a number of colours and effects to choose from, which we’ll mention when we look at the settings. Compared to other monitors, however, the backlight isn’t exactly high brightness, and what’s more, it gets even lower away from the centre, so that the lines on either edge are barely visible.

In addition to the RGB lighting, the monitor also has a tiny projector in the stand, which we showed during assembly. This can display the Agon logo on a pad, which looks spectacular, but you’ll probably be hard pressed to find a practical use for it.

The backlight bleed test turned out very well, except for a slight edge bleed on the top side, the backlight is more or less even and no significant defects are visible. It is therefore a significant step forward compared to other tested pieces from the manufacturer, and especially the last tested curved CQ32G2SE had significant shortcomings in this area. So the newcomer once again confirms that it has higher ambitions than what we have seen from AOC so far. We’ll measure the uniformity later with a colorimetric probe.

I usually praise AOC in our tests for its great price-performance ratio, as the monitors we’ve tested so far have been aimed more at the lower to mid-range segment. Thus, there were usually a few compromises that the manufacturer made to keep the price attractive. The new AG324UX, however, is something entirely different. It is the first truly high-end gaming monitor from AOC in our tests to offer 4K at 144Hz, Adaptive Sync, HDR and USB-C.

Range of settings

Another big change compared to its predecessors happened on the back, where a 5-position joystick was added to navigate the OSD menu. AOC has thus said goodbye to the five physical buttons on the bottom or front, which were often complicated to feel or associate with the pictured symbol. This often resulted in pressing the wrong button and either selecting something you didn’t want or even turning the monitor off.

With the new joystick, the manufacturer has finally matched the ease of use to competing models and eliminated one of the recurring complaints I’ve had with AOC monitors. As they say, better late than never, but it really was about time.

However, the manufacturer didn’t stop there and apparently realised that a joystick on the back isn’t exactly ideal either, especially if you have the monitor wall-mounted. That’s why you’ll find a “puck” in the package, which you can use to conveniently control the monitor’s settings without having to reach for the display with your hand. It plugs into the microUSB port and, thanks to a long enough cable, you can always keep it at hand.

Another improvement can be seen in the OSD menu itself, which has received new graphics and significantly differentiates the AGON model from previous gaming but not AGON branded monitors from AOC, which we have tested.

The new menu is divided into square sections. The first one is the gaming settings, where you will find mainly the ability to switch game modes, black settings, FPS counter or control of Adaptive Sync, Overdrive and Low input lag.

This is followed by the backlight and colour settings, which include the typical contrast and brightness settings, gamma and colour temperature adjustments.

A new section is LightFX, which is specifically for controlling RGB lighting. You can choose from a number of modes as well as a trio of backlight intensities as well as turn the backlight off completely. If the preset colours aren’t enough, you can also mix your own using the RGB channel values. A separate section has also been given to the sound settings, as the monitor has quite decent speakers that go beyond the standard.

Finally, we are left with the basic settings where we see the options to change the language, transparency of the menu itself, timer settings, pauses during use or even control the projection of the AGON logo on the pad.

With a quick menu that you activate by moving the joystick or keypad side to side, you can turn on the crosshair, change the game mode, toggle input or control the backlighting. I kind of miss the ability to change these quick actions that other manufacturers use. For example, having the RGB lighting change on the quick dial seems unnecessary to me and I would much rather control brightness or volume.

To wrap up the OSD menu overview, here’s a look at what the FPS counter looks like.

PiP and PbP

AOC often offers PiP and PbP modes, which make sense especially for larger screens, which the 32″ AG324UX definitely is.

In picture-in-picture mode, you have a choice of three secondary input sizes.

You can place it in each of the four corners.

You can also swap the main input for a secondary input at any time and vice versa.

The monitor also offers a PbP mode, or picture-by-picture, where you can split the display in half and display the inputs side by side. However, you then need to adjust the resolution on each input, as it seems to stretch the image in basic mode. However, on other monitors I’ve seen the other option where the aspect ratio was maintained and there were large black areas at the top and bottom and the image couldn’t be changed in the pc, so the potential is there.

Apps

App support, like the OSD menu, has been one of the weaker points with AOC. The redesigned G-menu brings significant improvements in this area as well.

The app will be a centralized place to control AGON products, probably something like Armoury for ROG products. Since we only have a monitor to test, the app only recognized this device. If you also have a mouse or keyboard, other options will become available, which we may look at next time.

In the basic settings, you can switch between game modes, turn on one of the eco modes or adjust the volume or toggle the input, change the orientation, resolution or control USB charging. I like the Game sync feature, which allows you to activate a selected game mode for your chosen app. This allows you to select a preferred monitor mode for each of your games based on its genre. This way you won’t have to change the mode manually when switching from an FPS to a racing simulator, but the app will take care of it for you.

The app is also used for control of the RGB lighting, which is a little clearer here than on the monitor itself.

You can also create your own profiles that can be imported, exported or saved to the monitor’s memory.

In addition to the revamped G-menu, you’ll also find a second app called i-Menu on the manufacturer’s website, which is strikingly reminiscent of the OSD menu graphics from older AOC monitors that used the same icons and customization options. While the app isn’t the pinnacle of graphic design, it serves well for quickly customizing monitor settings.

I usually praise AOC in our tests for its great price-performance ratio, as the monitors we’ve tested so far have been aimed more at the lower to mid-range segment. Thus, there were usually a few compromises that the manufacturer made to keep the price attractive. The new AG324UX, however, is something entirely different. It is the first truly high-end gaming monitor from AOC in our tests to offer 4K at 144Hz, Adaptive Sync, HDR and USB-C.

Image properties

We tested the display properties using the Datacolor Spyder5Elite sensor. The display has a 31.5-inch IPS panel with a traditional 16:9 aspect ratio, 3840×2160 px resolution, anti-glare coating, and equally wide bezels on three sides. The main selling point of the display is the 144 Hz refresh rate combined with FreeSync premium with a range of 48-144 Hz. The manufacturer claims 125 % spectrum coverage for sRGB, 107 % for AdobeRGB, 100 % for DCI-P3 and 109 % for NTSC, 1000:1 contrast ratio and 1ms response times for both GTG and MPRT. The display also received VESA DisplayHDR 400 certification, the manufacturer claims a brightness of 350 nits and 16 local dimming zones, which will help HDR content a bit, but of course it doesn’t stack up to microLED or OLED. In any case, this is the first high end gaming monitor from AOC in our test, while 4K 144 Hz was, until recently, the luxury of monitors for 2000 euros, which disqualified them from the choice for many customers and me personally as well. It is also the reason why LG OLED TVs have gained a lot of popularity in the PC community, but more on that another time, let’s get back to AGON.

The paper parameters stated by the manufacturer looked more than good, but we measured slightly lower numbers with the sensor. We compared the display quality in the basic mode, i.e. the one the monitor will be in right out of the box. There we measured 100 % sRGB, 84 % AdobeRGB, 90 % DCI-P3 and 80 % NTSC coverage. These are pretty good values compared to other gaming displays, but after reading the product page I was expecting a slightly better result. Conversely, the monitor performed reasonably well in the Delta E colour deviation test with a value of 1.81, while values below 2.0 are considered very good.

The peak brightness reached 325 nits in normal color mode, which is not that far from the presented 350. Still, the monitor doesn’t offer dedicated AdobeRGB or DCI-P3 modes, and sRGB is offered as the mode of choice when selecting color temperature, with brightness dropping dramatically when it’s selected. So I wouldn’t recommend the monitor for any professional graphics work, but for casual users for photo and video editing it will do just fine. Traditionally, the monitor offers three Gamma modes, with values of 2.1, 2.0 and 2.3, with fairly accurate values and only minimal deviations of 0.01 for the first two. Uniformity is quite good, although the sensor did reveal slight variations that we couldn’t see with the naked eye in the black level display test. I also tested compatibility with the Nvidia graphics card as standard, and although the monitor is not an official Nvidia Compatible or Ultimate monitor, G-Sync works when AdaptiveSync is turned on and enabled via the Nvidia Control panel.

The manufacturer also supplies a custom calibration sheet with the monitor, but it measures values in sRGB mode.

Input Lag and Response Time

We also measured input lag on the monitor in multiple Overdrive modes.

We measured 13.1 ms in the basic setting, and by gradually switching to the Weak, Medium and Strong modes we see slight reductions to 13.0, 13.0 and 12.7 ms respectively. These are average values, with top monitors achieving values below 10 ms, but we’ve seen worse with numbers around 15 ms and above. For some unclear reason, the monitor didn’t allow Low input lag mode to be enabled when the test device was connected, so it’s likely that the values may be even lower.

On the manufacturer’s website you will find information about 1 ms response time, i.e. pixel refresh rate. However, this value is valid for both GTG and MPRT, where brightness is greatly reduced. The other Overdrive modes offer the same brightness. Given that the brightness is significantly reduced when MBR and Boost Overdrive mode are enabled, this setup won’t exactly be ideal to use. It is also worth mentioning another limitation, namely that MBR + Boost are active only when Adaptive-Sync is disabled, which is very reminiscent of the situation from the CQ32G2SE test.
For this reason, we won’t cover the MBR and Boost modes and will only focus on the basic Overdrive values. Here we can see that Medium mode offers the best results without the unwanted inverse ghosting that is very noticeable in Strong mode.

Power draw

After repeated requests for power draw measurements, I looked at the AG324UX’s power draw in several situations. So far the measurements are done via the Zeon smart socket, but a better methodology is already in the works using a calibrated UNI-T UT71E multimeter, which we will use in the next review. In the first test I looked at the power draw on the Windows desktop after resetting the monitor settings, so again the basic state in which you first take the monitor out of the box. Here, the socket showed me 40W, with the monitor set to 30 % brightness.
I then opened Eizo monitor test, displayed the white color and measured the power draw at 0 and 100 % brightness.

The values measured are 37.6 and 59.3 W. Afterwards, I opened YouTube and played the 4K HDR video Costa Rica to test the power draw in HDR mode, here the values varied between 57 – 59 W depending on the current scene. The last thing I tried is charging via USB-C, I plugged in a MacBook Pro 14″ that had 50 % battery and waited for it to start charging. The power draw jumped to 72.3 watts. However, the MacBook was showing that it was only charging at 8W and it would take 5 hours to charge from 50 %. That’s a bit of a disparity to the advertised 90 W for USB-C charging that the manufacturer declares.

I usually praise AOC in our tests for its great price-performance ratio, as the monitors we’ve tested so far have been aimed more at the lower to mid-range segment. Thus, there were usually a few compromises that the manufacturer made to keep the price attractive. The new AG324UX, however, is something entirely different. It is the first truly high-end gaming monitor from AOC in our tests to offer 4K at 144Hz, Adaptive Sync, HDR and USB-C.

Conclusion

The AOC AGON 4 PRO AG324UX is a big step forward for AOC in the field of gaming monitors. It brings a number of improvements in areas that I’ve often criticized with other monitors from the brand, whether it was the OSD menu, hw buttons, panel quality and its backlight bleed, service apps, or the absence of RGB. All of these areas have been vastly improved and most of the problems have been eliminated, which is definitely to be commended.

I also praise the good connectivity, the presence of a USB hub or the KVM switch function, which works very well. The new materials and the design of the stand or the overall impression of the workmanship are also a level above the predecessors. The speakers are also surprisingly good, which can rarely be said for monitors.

However, the new product is not perfect and could have performed better in a few areas. HDR support is again rather on paper and in this price range it would be nice to see at least HDR 600, if not HDR 1000, which can already be realistically used, since the present HDR 400 is only for show.

The color rendering is not bad, but somehow it is not equal to what the manufacturer presents in the specifications, and then there are problems such as low brightness in SDR mode, the inability to combine AdaptiveSync and MBR/Boost OD, which we have already seen with predecessors. So there’s definitely room for improvement here. This is also true for the OSD menu, which is miles better than the previous one but the lack of the ability to change quick options, for example, disappoints. With a price of around 1,000 euros, the AG324UX certainly won’t have it easy, and it doesn’t help that I couldn’t find it anywhere in our eshops. The closest I found it on sale is in Germany, for 1049 EUR, which is dangerously close to the Asus ROG Swift PG32UQ, which has HDR 600, 450 nit brightness, official G-Sync Compatible support, and certainly a more sophisticated OSD and apps to make it more enjoyable to use.

AOC’s price has put it in the big leagues, where, however, some shortcomings are hard to justify, and we’ll see if the AG324UX’s availability and price development improve over time to make it as attractive a model as some of the more recently tested pieces from this manufacturer.

English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš

• Contents
• Details
• Range of settings
• Image properties
• Conclusion