AOC Agon PRO AG274QZM 27” Tournament Gaming Monitor, QHD 2560x1440, 240Hz 1ms, G-SYNC Compatible, DisplayHDR 1000, Mini-LED Backlight, Height Adjustable,Black

A little background, I had many OLED monitors in the past ranging from QHD to 4K, WOLED and QD-OLED and while I was happy with them, because I work from home 90% and play games/watch movies 10%, I needed to move away from OLED to stop my burn-in anxiety and to get better text rendering.That is when I switched to Mini LEDI was happy with my previous AOC Q27G3XMN, but one thing that bothered me was the fact that I couldn't run it @ 180Hz since it only has HDMI 2.0 and my Razer Blade 16 2025 laptop only has an HDMI 2.1 port. Yes, I could've just connected it via USB-C and gotten the 180Hz. Still, when I did that, the signal was coming through the integrated GPU, not my nVIDIA GPU, causing a slight performance hit and disabling RTX Video Enhancement in the nVIDIA Control Panel.So I scoured the net looking for a QHD (I don't want 4K anymore for performance reasons) Mini LED monitor that had HDMI 2.1 and preferably a USB hub. I was surprised that there were no monitors to meet all those requirements. There is a Samsung Odyssey G7 4K Mini LED (which I had before and returned it), but I didn't want to get a 4K monitor.That is when I came across the AOC Agon PRO AG274QZM. I was surprised there are no reviews of this monitor anywhere, and it was released in 2023, yet it still beats everything out there in terms of features!- HDMI 2.1- IPS panel (more on that later)- 750 nits of brightness in SDR- 576 local dimming zone (yes, not the best, but better than the Q27G3XMN, which only has 336 dimming zones )- USB Hub with 4 USB 3.2 ports and a USB-C port- 10-bit colors- 240Hz refresh rateThe Amazon reviews leave a lot to be desired, most of them complaining about receiving the monitor with dead pixels. I took a chance anyway, as Amazon has a great return policy.The monitor arrived, the box was almost as big as a 42-inch TV, and it's enormous. So many parts, including a privacy/bright light hoodAfter unboxing the monitor and turning it on, I was a bit worried, it had this matte grainy effect, but the moment you crank up the brightness, it becomes crystal clearIt also comes with a controller to navigate through the OSD settings, so no more fiddling around with awkwardly placed buttons on the back / underneath the monitor. It is so easy to change settings using the controllerThe colors are very punchy and vibrant, the brightness makes everything pop so much.Even though it is an IPS monitor, which I was skeptical about as I hate IPS glow, this monitor has 0 IPS glow, it's almost as good as having an OLED monitor but without the OLED downsides such as burn-in or text fringing or low brightness.Turning on local dimming slightly reduces the brightness in SDR (not in HDR), but not as much as it did on my AOC Q27G3XMN. So I turn off local dimming in SDR but turn it on in HDR.The monitor is also G-Sync compatible, and I had 0 flickering issues.I highly recommend this monitor. I still can't believe this monitor was released in 2023, yet it rivals and beats monitors recently released in terms of features and performance