AOC Unveils Cheap G1-Series Curved Displays with 144 Hz & FreeSync: Starting at $280

@ 2018/09/14
AOC this month formally introduced its G1-series of curved gaming displays, which offer premium features like 144 Hz FreeSync support at affordable prices. The new monitors start at $230 for a 24-inch model and top out at $400 for a 31.5-inch version, making these among the cheapest high refresh rate FreeSync monitors on the market.

AOC’s G1 family will initially consist of four models: a 24-inch display, a 27-inch display, and two 32-inch displays. All four are based on 16:9 aspect ratio curved VA-type panels, and all of which similar specifications such as 250-nits peak brightness, a 3000:1 contrast ratio, 1 ms MPRT response times, and a 144 Hz refresh rate. The C24G1, C27G1, and C32G1 all run at a Full-HD (1920x1080) resolution, while the CQ32G1 goes one step further with WQHD (2560x1440).

The key selling points for all of AOC’s G1 monitors are their ultra-low motion picture response time (keep in mind that MPRT response time is a different thing than GtG response time usually mentioned by display makers though), AMD’s FreeSync dynamic refresh rate technology, as well as a 144 Hz maximum refresh rate. AOC has yet to disclose the FreeSync ranges of the displays and whether they're wide enough to support AMD’s Low Frame Rate (LFC) capability; however it would be rather odd to see a 144Hz display that couldn't meet the relaively modest 2x range requirement. Meanwhile, the company’s previous-gen entry-level gaming monitors, which launched last year, supported LFC and had a very decent FreeSync range from 30 to 144 Hz.

Meanwhile in order to bring in these gaming features to entry-level monitors, AOC did have to make some tradeoffs. In particular, they're using panels with relatively modest brightness ranges and pixel densities. For hardcore gamers after a fast monitor this isn't likely to be an issue, however someone with a more mixed gaming/productivity workload may find it's balanced towards the former and not the latter.

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