AOC Agon AG352UCG 35-inch curved gaming monitor review
AOC Agon AG352UCG curved monitor
£612Pros
- All that screen!
- RGB LEDs nice touch
- Fast response time
- Colour reproduction
- It looks so damn cool
Cons
- Price
- You need plenty of desk
This is the first curved gaming monitor reviewed by GadgetyNews. We are proud to bring you our thoughts of the Agon AG352UCG 35-inch curved gaming display.
I’ve been waiting to get my hands on this monitor since we announced its arrival in January.
It’s very easy to forget to factor in a kick-ass monitor when building, or even buying, a gaming PC. It’s tantamount to forgetting you’ll need decent speakers when you have a great Hi-Fi.
There are many good gaming monitors and, if you have the funds, great ones out there. We’ve covered a number of them in our monitor reviews.
I will admit to being skeptical about curved televisions when they started hitting the market. You see, a screen designed for communal viewing with a very specific sweet-spot didn’t quite sit right with me.
Now, as a gaming monitor, on the other hand, that makes a bit more sense. You, the player, should feel as immersed as possible.
So, has the AOC Agon AG352UCG managed to achieve this?
AOC Agon AG352UCG design
If you are thinking that an ultra-wide 35-inch monitor is going to take up a lot of room you’d be correct.
This is no portable screen measuring, as it does, at a not inconsequential 847 x 587 x 266.45mm. Oh, and there’s the small matter of it weighing 11.8kg. Not one for the LAN 😉
Regarding its looks, like most gaming screens, the front is quite reserved. You don’t want a busy bezel to distract you from your game. Talking of bezels, they’re quite thick on the 352UCG. But at least you get 2W of speakers in there.
There is the Agon logo displayed front and centre. That would usually be it for any of the other Agon’s I’ve reviewed. But, this one is special.
Running along the bottom edge of the bezel are two long RGB (Red, Green, Blue) LED strips. These can be set by the user – Red, Green or Blue, obvs.
The brightness of these LEDs can also be changed using the on-screen menu too. Naturally, you can also turn them off if they’re not your thing.
There are a further four banks of LEDs around the rear. These are cut in to the silver section of the monitor’s back. The rest of which is a matte black.
I really like this design. The LEDs are a nice touch and compliments my white CM Stryker-based rig that I have set with blue LEDs. I’d much rather have a plain-ish monitor with optional highlights than one with a fixed ‘aggressive’ gamer design.
While we’re around the back of the monitor, we might as well check out the I/O options.
You get a HDMI port, a DisplayPort and four USB 3.0 ports, along with audio out. So, you’re not really inundated by choice here but I reckon it is all you really need. Let’s face it, if you’re looking to play games at 3440 x 1440, you only need the DisplayPort.
The heavyweight stand allows you to tilt the screen in the range of -5.5 to 29 degrees and swivel from -30 to 30 degrees. Plus, if you want to use your own choice of stand or raise you can utilise the 100 x 100mm VESA mount.
The stand also features a handle, just in case you need to move it.
The AOC Agon AG352UCG is impressive looking. Even when not switched on.
AOC Agon AG352UCG performance
The monitor dishes out a 2000:1 contrast ratio as well as 100% sRGB colour gamut support.
Response time is 4ms GTG (Grey to Grey).
You have access to a large range of settings via an on-screen menu. This is controlled by a toggle located on the underside of the bezel.
G-Sync
Yup, in with the impressive specs is G-Sync support. For many gamers, the inclusion of G-Sync is a must.
Combine this with the large size, high resolution and ultra-wide aspect ratio, the AOC Agon AG352UCG ticks many of the gaming monitor wish list.
The maximum refresh rate of the AOC Agon AG352UCG is 100hz – so not quite maxing out on the G-Sync. Saying that, it is the same as its closest curvy rival, from Acer.
Image quality
The Agon AG352UCG’s resolution is a stunning UWQHD (3,440 x 1,440). Its MVA panel allows the monitor to run natively at 100Hz.
Image quality is pretty good. In sRGB mode, the AG352UCG covers 99.3% (if you’re being picky) of the sRGB colour space.
This means colours are vibrant. That, coupled with its 1958:1 (again, for the pedants) contrast ratio, the monitor is capable of digging details from darkest depths.
For all that, the colours don’t really pop for me. They are easy on the eyes and not harsh at all, but I was expecting something more vivid and, well, almost false levels of wowness. So, I guess AOC know what they’re doing.
However, brightness is bang on. Well lit rooms, or strong sunlight are no match for this panel. The backlight was nice and even across the entire viewing surface.
Game on!
This is what the AG352UCG was built for, after all.
I was expecting great things thanks to the 100Hz refresh rate available at native resolution.
To get the benefits of G-Sync and the refresh rate, make sure you have an Nvidia GeForce card with DisplayPort 1.2.
I’m still running my Zotax GTX780 AMP! edition and it works fine.
My goto game, as you’ve no doubt worked out, is Project Cars.
When the game opened it recognised the expansive aspect ratio and filled the screen as expected.
Having the curved screen really made racing more immersive. I found myself moving closer to the screen so that I ‘left my room’ and was sat in a track-spec Aston Martin.
Tracks, advertising hordings and scenery all moved slickly. Ramping up the monitor’s overdrive did bring some inverse ghosting (added shadows around objects) but this was negligable.
A few rounds of CS:GO shows the AG352UCG to be pretty responsive. I think real competitive gamers might want something a little sharper. However, for me it was fine with my SteelSeries Rival 700 mouse and Corsair ‘board.
Overall viewing
The AOC Agon AG352UCG sports better viewing angles than I was expecting.
If you have friends watching you game, they’ll see plenty. This naturally also goes for watching movies. There was some discolouration at the most extreme angles. Other than that, all is well.
There was some discolouration at the most extreme angles. Other than that, all is well.
The anti-glare coating on the screen does a brilliant job of preventing reflections from appearing without compromising image quality.
Furthermore, there’s AOC’s low blue light setting that helps you work at night without straining your eyes or impacting your ability to get to sleep.
The high resolution and ultra-wide design also works for less entertainment-centric activities. Writing articles and reviews using this huge monitor is like having two or more screens. Multiple windows and programs open at once really helps with productivity.
The extra real estate really lends itself to video and audio editing. I did find photo editing a tad tricky. This was mostly down to getting images level on a curved screen.
AOC Agon AG352UCG review conclusion
If you’ve got the desk space, a compatible graphics card and plenty of coin, the AOC Agon AG352UCG is an excellent choice.
It really does make gaming more encompassing thanks to it filling your field of vision.
Working on a 3440 x 1440 res screen is equally awesome. I am dreading going back to smaller screens.
The AG352UCG is really in its element when gaming though. Great colour reproduction, a fast response time and smooth frame-rates with the help of G-Sync. All boxes ticked.
The price tag might be a tad eye-watering but, just class it as two and a bit gaming monitors. It’s practically a bargain then 😉
AOC Agon AG352UCG price and availability
You can buy this beast of a gaming monitor now for £612 on Amazon.co.uk.
