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AOC Agon AG254FG Review: Blinding Speed, Accurate Color

A 24.5-inch IPS gaming monitor with 360 Hz, Adaptive-Sync, HDR and Nvidia’s Latency Analyzer

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Uncalibrated – Maximum Backlight Level

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AOC Agon AG254FG
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

The AG254FG is rated for 400 nits and my sample beat that with a 446.4176-nit peak value. That’s very bright, more than enough for any indoor setting. With a minimum measured value of 37 nits, there’s plenty of range for any user to find their ideal level. The brightness slider is ticked in nit values from 40 to 450 and measures close to those numbers. In my case, I had to set it to 192 for 200 nits.

The black level is very good relative to other IPS panels, good enough to push contrast to 1,252.7:1. That puts the AG254FG among the very best IPS monitors for dynamic range.

After Calibration to 200 nits

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AOC Agon AG254FG
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

I calibrated the AG254FG with its RGB sliders and set output to 200 nits with no visual change in contrast. This is one of the best IPS monitors I’ve measured of any size or resolution. With best-in-class black levels, it delivers a textured image with nicely saturated color and sharp detail.

The AOC also wins the ANSI test over the next-best Asus. Though I noted a hotspot in my sample’s lower left corner, it still looks fantastic when viewing real-world content. This is excellent performance.

Christian Eberle
Christian Eberle
Contributing Editor

Christian Eberle is a Contributing Editor for Tom's Hardware US. He's a veteran reviewer of A/V equipment, specializing in monitors. Christian began his obsession with tech when he built his first PC in 1991, a 286 running DOS 3.0 at a blazing 12MHz. In 2006, he undertook training from the Imaging Science Foundation in video calibration and testing and thus started a passion for precise imaging that persists to this day. He is also a professional musician with a degree from the New England Conservatory as a classical bassoonist which he used to good effect as a performer with the West Point Army Band from 1987 to 2013. He enjoys watching movies and listening to high-end audio in his custom-built home theater and can be seen riding trails near his home on a race-ready ICE VTX recumbent trike. Christian enjoys the endless summer in Florida where he lives with his wife and Chihuahua and plays with orchestras around the state.

3 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Sleepy_Hollowed
    Wow, thank you for the review, what an impressive monitor.

    I'd say it's almost perfect, I'd prefer it to be ultra-wide 1080p, but 1080p works just fine for high refresh rate gaming/rendering.

    I don't think I can play anything at max resolution at that refresh rate without DLSS or FSR and some tweaking even at 1080p, but it'd be interesting revisiting games at that refresh rate.
    Reply
  • Kridian
    $750!?
    bwaaaaahahahahaaaaaaa!
    nope
    Reply
  • DougMcC
    Not going to be buying another monitor without 4k+. Where's my 4k240+ at?
    Reply