AOC Agon AG405UXC review: "So good I'm buying one"

Dec. 22, 2023

Plenty of ports for connectivity

Absolutely stunning visuals

Great value for money

Remote is a little finicky

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Specs

Connectivity-wise, this is a monitor that packs plenty of I/O ports. They’re all situated at the bottom rear of the monitor and you’ve got two HDMI 2.0 and one DisplayPort 1.4 ports, a Type-C port for 90W charging and DP alt mode video, a 3.2 USB Type-B, and four USB-A 3.2 ports. They’re not that easily accessible because of where they’re situated though, so you will have to rummage around a little to find what you want if you’re frequently changing up your setup. Interestingly it’s also set up for full KVM, with a dedicated KVM button on the front so you can use the same keyboard and mouse with multiple connected computers if you so wish.

It’s also fairly aesthetically discreet too. It has a slim lip at the bottom where the AGON logo is placed in a stylish metallic red, and along the bottom-right-hand edge there are five-panel buttons, which you can use to navigate system menus. Like many monitors, it struggles a little with awkward button press choices, but it does offer a good array of setting toggles from HDR and Dynamic Contrast Ratio to brightness and contrast. There is a remote included, which makes things easier to navigate but you have to be pretty accurate in where you’re pointing the IR beam if you want to get it working smoothly. Elsewhere though, the bezels around the screen are just 10mm thick, which means they don’t detract from the overall immersive experience when playing.

There’s lots of adjustability in the stand too, with plenty of room (150mm in fact) to heighten or lower the monitor without needing a riser and lots of swivel. You can’t rotate it vertically, but I don’t see that as a downside for a monitor of this size. There’s even a hidden headphone hanger that you can retract if you don’t want it poking out and ruining the vibe.

This 40-inch ultrawide monitor is an absolute beauty in action, especially running on aNvidiaRTX 3080. It’s only got a pixel density of 93dpi because of its 3440 x 1440p resolution on that size display, but when you’re gaming that’s really not noticeable at all. The quality of the IPS tech here really goes beyond its price tag. I didn’t notice any motion handling issues even at full resolution and games set to ultra. It’s worth noting that the Agon monitor is only certified forAMDFreeSync VRR, but I had no issues using Nvidia’s G-Sync tech.

I never found myself having to mess around with contrast or brightness levels whatsoever, but there are plenty of options to tweak if it’s not to your liking. Turning on the Windows HDR setting meant that a lot of the stress of having to think about settings was taken away, as the monitor automatically adjusted from there.

While working, even though it took a little while to adjust to the large wide-screen display, there were no issues thanks to the high refresh rate and the anti-glare treatment - particularly handy in a bright, sunny room. Movies and TV also look great, albeit with not much taking full advantage of the 21:9 resolution, which is a bit jarring although not a fault of the monitor itself.

The 93dpi pixel density certainly isn’t a patch on a 4K panel, but this is definitely giving the higher-priced gaming monitors a run for their money. This is one beautiful bargain.

You can read more onhow we test gaming monitors at GamesRadar+as well as our more holistic approach to gaming tech in our fullHardware Policy.

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