Gigabyte Aorus FO27Q5P Review (500Hz QD-OLED)

1. Introduction2. Design3. On-screen Display (OSD)4. Panel Analysis: SDR5. Panel Analysis: HDR6. Response Times & Motion Clarity7. Input Latency8. Closing Thoughts9. View All Pages

Having put Gigabyte's Aorus FO27Q5P through its paces over the last week, there's no doubt this is an impressive monitor. With its 500Hz refresh rate, it will certainly appeal to the competitive gamer who wants to break away from LCD panels and enjoy the increased image quality that OLED can offer.

Since this panel debuted last year, Nvidia's Pulsar tech has also launched, so it's been particularly interesting to see how the two compare. While Pulsar can offer slightly better motion clarity at a lower maximum refresh rate, I still think a 500Hz OLED like the FO27Q5P will have plenty of appeal. After all, it still looks fantastic in motion, plus you get even lower latency due to the higher refresh rate. We also can't ignore all the other benefits of OLED, like infinite contrast, near-instant response times, proper HDR and more – all things that don't necessarily apply to LCDs.

However, the FO27Q5P isn't perfect, and my main criticism comes down to the factory calibration – specifically, the warm white balance. This isn't a dealbreaker as you can use a manual colour balance instead, but it has the knock-on effect for the sRGB emulation mode, which cannot use a manual colour balance. That means anyone who would have been hoping to use the sRGB mode to view or work with any sRGB content won't quite be getting the best possible experience.

For some people that may be a complete non-issue, but it's certainly an area that Gigabyte could improve. I'd also like to have seen USB-C Power Delivery above 18W, as that's not particularly useful for a laptop, but again it's a more minor point.

Still, if you're in the market for a high refresh-rate QD-OLED, this one is worth buying. You certainly pay a premium over slower 240Hz or 360Hz models, but if you know you want all the speed that 500Hz has to offer and aren't bothered about the warm colour balance, it's a feature-rich screen at a reasonable price.

We found the FO27Q5P for £599 on Box HERE.

Pros

• Very wide gamut.
• Effectively infinite contrast ratio.
• Very fast response times.
• Blisteringly fast at 500Hz, with incredible motion clarity.
• Games just look so good.
• HDR hits 1000 nits with a good choice of modes.
• Jam-packed I/O.
• User-upgradable firmware.

Cons

• Warm colour balance out of the box.
• sRGB mode is OK but not great.
• USB-C charging limited to just 18W.

KitGuru says: It's a very fast and fluid QD-OLED monitor. The default colour balance holds this back from a higher award, but if you can look past that, there is a lot to like here.

Become a Patron!