AOC AGON AG271QX vs Dell E2318Hx

One neat feature of the AOC AG271QX is a headset hanger which is situated near the monitor’s audio output.

Unlike many other gaming monitors that are built purely from plastics, the AOC AG271QX does have some eye-catching and rigid metal parts. For example, the entire stand of the monitor is made from aluminum, which is an infrequent feature at the given price point.

This monitor doesn't have any problems with ghosting or motion blur since they're kept under control by the aid of the panel's fast pixel response time and high native refresh rate.

As the monitor's pixels can change their colors fast enough to eliminate even the tiniest trails from fast-moving objects, the AOC AG271QX doesn't suffer from motion blur and ghosting. Such rapid color transition is possible because of the monitor's full pixel response time of 1 ms.

Additionally, the overall motion looks smooth and fluid because of the display's 144 Hz refresh rate, which ensure that the image updates every seven milliseconds.

The AOC AG271QX offers responsive and lag-free gaming experience as its input lag of 5.2 ms is on par with the majority of competitors in its price range.

Input lag corresponds to the delay needed by a monitor to process a single frame generated by a computer's graphics card. It can have a substantial impact on the overall gaming experience.

Adjustability-wise, the AOC AG271QX has everything sorted as the monitor offers tilt, swivel, height, and even pivot adjustments which you can use to get the best viewing angles out of this panel.

FreeSync eliminates stutter and vertical tearing as it allows the monitor to adjust its refresh rate to match the framerate of your graphics card.

The AOC AG271QX supports FreeSync in the 48-144 Hz range.

FreeSync works only with AMD's Radeon graphics cards.

Featuring decent contrast ratio, high peak brightness, exceptional color accuracy, and excellent gamma response, the AOC AG271QX offers better picture quality than the majority of other gaming monitors in this price range.

While the monitor's dark scenes are not the top-notch, it does an outstanding job of reproducing images with vivid and consistent colors as well as some beautiful intermediate tones. Dark scenes look good thanks to the monitor's contrast ratio of 1040:1. Colors pop and appear luminous because of the monitor's peak brightness of 350 nits. Color inaccuracies are virtually unnoticeable to the human eye thanks to the average color error dE of 1.31. Mid-tones look lifelike because of the monitor's near-perfect gamma of 2.18.

Additionally, this QHD monitor displays sharper and more saturated scenes compared to its 27-inch FHD competitors, because it has 42% higher pixel density.

The AOC AGON AG271QX is an excellent choice for gamers at this price point because it offers high responsiveness and fantastic motion handling capabilities while keeping its picture quality to very high standards.

The AOC AG271QX does an excellent job in bright rooms, where the monitor's peak brightness of 350 nits allows it can deal with glare and heavy reflections.

The Dell E2318Hx is one of the cheapest 23-inch IPS monitors on the market. You’ll be hard-pressed to find it a matching competitor in its price range since the big manufacturers like HP, Dell, Samsung, LG, Phillips, Asus, Acer, and AOC don't offer such large panels in the sub $120 range.

Running this monitor 24/7 will cost you less than $1.2 per month in electricity bills because the Dell E2318Hx consumes only around 16 W of electricity, which makes it one of the most energy-efficient monitors in this price range.

This monitor doesn't feel disconnected and reacts to your actions quite rapidly as there is almost no lag between your actions and the actual stuff happening on the screen.

The motion looks good and blur-free because of the monitor's full pixel response time of 5 ms, which allows each pixel of the panel to change their colors within only five milliseconds. Therefore, only very tiny trails may follow fast-moving objects.

The monitor's picture quality is a tiny bit below the average because of its limited color gamut. However, the panel's peak brightness and native contrast ratio are on par with the rest of its competitors in this price range.

The Dell E2318Hx displays adequately-looking pictures with average blacks and vivid, yet a bit inaccurate colors. The dark scenes look mediocre because the monitor's native contrast ratio of 1000:1 is a little bit too low and can't push blacks to really intense levels. Colors look shiny since the monitor's backlight can get up to 250 nits bright.

However, you might spot some color inaccuracies because of the monitor's incomplete coverage of the sRGB color space, which results in color shifting.

The Dell E2318Hx is among the most versatile budget monitors because it offers fair responsiveness, low energy consumption, and adequate picture quality without breaking the bank.