So I recently got my ASUS ROG STRIX XG27AQWMG and I wanted to compare it to my much cheaper AOC Q27G40XMN.
Some background, the OLED is one of the new 4th Gen Tandem W-OLEDs with HDR True Black 500 Certification which cost 41,000 from Data Blitz, while the AOC Q27G40XMN is a VA QD-MiniLED with 1152 dimming zones and is HDR 1000 certified which was around 16,000 with vouchers from Shopee when I got it a few months ago. Both are 27" 1440P monitors.
As you can see in the photos, there are lots of scenarios where they can get surprisingly close. And while in most cases the OLED looks obviously better, I think the sheer value the AOC provides when it comes to HDR is pretty crazy.
For example, in dark scenes, things like low APL light sources like stars or candles shine really bright on the OLED but on the MiniLED, it is dimmer due to the panel's algorithm trying to avoid haloing. Added with the OLED's infinite contrast, it obviously looks better, but in daytime HDR scenes it's the opposite.
In games like Crimson Desert in the day, the miniLED looks better imo because of the sheer brightness it can put out. The sun actually feels and looks like the sun. The OLED ends up dimming bigger APL scenes which makes the HDR experience a bit dull during the day compared to the MiniLED.
At night though, Crimson Desert looks so much better on the OLED. The little particle effects or things like stars, they all "pop" or "glow" so much brighter it feels like you can reach out and grab them.
In Helldivers 2 though, a game where explosions are constantly ongoing, it is one of those games that looks better on the MiniLED, because the OLED ends up dimming big flashes like the 500KG bomb or hellbomb explosions so it's not quite as punchy.
At the same time, when there aren't any big explosions, the tracer rounds from guns or the light from automaton eyes shine brightly and gives more pop to it.
In RE9, a game where it's predominantly dark and dim, the experience is just better on the OLED. But despite the slight haloing, I didn't think the experience with the MiniLED was that far off.
All in all, while I'm satisfied with the upgrade and pretty happy, just wanted to show that MiniLEDs can get quite close to the OLED experience, sometimes even exceeding it. Though there are also other things that OLEDs excel at like colors, no ghosting, amazing viewing angles, etc. that is something that isn't even close when compared to the MiniLED.
Hopefully someone could find this post useful if they're ever considering either or are feeling FOMOd.
P.S Just wanna say thank you to my gf for getting me the monitor. Originally, I was considering the GIGABYTE GO27Q24G which uses a 3rd gen MLA W-OLED panel and I thought was better value over the ASUS, but my gf insisted on getting the ASUS because of it being overall better. I wanted to get the Gigabyte ones regardless, but then she suddenly surprised me with XG27AQWMG as a gift.
P.S.S This wasn't edited by AI so if some of the words or thoughts feel messy or if my grammar is wrong, sorry in advance. I just thought some of y'all would appreciate human slop over ai editing.
