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Our HDR benchmarking uses Portrait Displays’ Calman software. To learn about our HDR testing, see our breakdown of how we test PC monitors.
The FO27Q2 supports HDR10 content with an automatic switch and four additional picture modes. It isn’t the brightest OLED I’ve seen but it hangs with the competition and for my office environment, is more than bright enough.
HDR Brightness and Contrast
OLED brightness is a bit variable because when APL Stabilize or Variable Brightness is engaged, the pattern window size makes a difference. I always use 25% to keep tests consistent. The FO27Q2 hits 461 nits and Aorus claims 1,000 nits for a 3% window. My experience leads me not to doubt this. There is a lot of dynamic punch here with bright highlights and deep shadows rich with detail. Another nice bit is that you can control the APL Stabilize in all the HDR modes to find your preferred look. Three of the modes also enable brightness, contrast and level controls if you want to tweak your HDR further. Few monitors offer this level of flexibility.
Grayscale, EOTF and Color
The default HDR mode, called appropriately “HDR”, is the most accurate of the four. It has visually perfect grayscale tracking and an EOTF that rides close to the reference. Shadows and lower steps are a tad dark but not enough to hide fine detail. There is a slight rise above reference in the mid-tones up to the tone-map transition at 65% brightness. This is the correct value given the measured white level.
In the HDR color tests, the FO27Q2 takes advantage of its large gamut to punch up the vivid factor for all three primaries. Red is especially bold with linear tracking that keeps it from going too far astray of its targets. It’s great to see more than full coverage of green which is a color most LCDs can’t fully render in the DCI-P3 color space. In the BT.2020 test, we see the same slight but linear oversaturation with red covering just over 90%, green at 80% and a little off hue, and blue just over 95%.
Test Takeaway: The FO27Q2 defines the genre for HDR monitors. Though there are brighter models available, there are few that also offer this level of accuracy. It also adds flexibility with three variable brightness options and three modes that allow further adjustment. It truly doesn’t get better than this.
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