You might associate hardware manufacturer Gigabyte with motherboards and graphics cards, but the Taiwan-based maker also makes some pretty fine gaming monitors. The latest is the MO27Q28G ($599), a QHD (2,560-by-1,440-pixel) OLED monitor with a 280Hz refresh rate and ultra-thin bezels. It’s a wonderfully lithe monitor with a svelte base, a back panel packed with I/O ports, and a virtual KVM that makes it a dependable productivity tool as well as a gaming powerhouse. The OLED panel is the real scene-stealer, though, with impressive color range, contrast, and HDR brightness. Like the Editors' Choice-winning MSI MPG 271QR QD-OLED X50, the monitor comes with some ho-hum AI features, but you can just ignore 'em. It's a solid, cheaper alternative to that MSI panel, although pricing in the world of high-refresh-rate OLED monitors is dropping, so it won't be a standout value for long, unless Gigabyte tweaks the pricing.

Design: Thin Bezels Around an Ultra-Bright Panel

The MO27Q28G measures 20.7 by 23.7 by 7.3 inches (HWD) with its stand, and it weighs just 13.2 pounds. It’s lightweight for its size, weighing less than other 27-inch monitors, including the MPG 271QR. But the major differentiator between it and its competitors is just how slim it is. The metal base is less than 0.1 inch thick, and nearly matches the stunningly slim frame of the OLED panel. Looking from the side, the panel is so thin it nearly disappears. 

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

A housing that protrudes slightly on the back interrupts the sleek look, but it's necessary because it contains a heatsink that helps lower the monitor's temperature and reduce the real, but small, risk of OLED burn-in. In terms of aesthetics, Gigabyte keeps the monitor’s back panel simple, forgoing any RGB lighting. It does have colorful holographic lettering that reads "Gigabyte" or "Gaming" depending on your viewing angle. Overall, I think the monitor’s slim design gives it a clean, albeit simple, look.

You can adjust the monitor's height by up to 5.1 inches, pivot it 90 degrees (clockwise only), and tilt it between -5 and 21 degrees. While all of this is useful, it's not noteworthy, as these types of adjustments are available on most premium gaming monitors.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

Tucked away under a lip on the monitor's back, you’ll find an array of I/O ports, including two HDMI 2.1 connectors, a DisplayPort 1.4 port, an upstream USB Type-C port with power delivery up to 18 watts, a USB Type-B upstream port, and two USB Type-A ports. A headphone jack is also present, which is always a bonus in my book, though the monitor also comes equipped with two 5-watt speakers. They sound good, even if they’re a little hollow because of the lack of bass. You'll probably want to connect a good pair of speakers or a gaming headset.

Features: Built-In KVM, Anti-Glare Coating

The bezels (specifically, the near-abscence of them) maximize screen real estate, making this an ideal choice for multi-monitor users who want a completely distraction-free visual flow. And the monitor’s virtual KVM lets you control multiple devices with just one keyboard and mouse, giving the Gigabyte MO27Q28G a leg up as a productivity monitor, too.  

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

Speaking of distractions, Gigabyte claims the monitor’s anti-reflection coating cuts glare by up to 99%. I put this to the test in a few different scenarios. Gigabyte’s claim proved true against some harsh overhead LED lighting in one spot in PC Labs, as well as during a few sunny days spent beside some open blinds in another. While I did note some glare, it never got in the way of what I was playing.

The Gigabyte uses a relatively new variant of OLED technology, dubbed "white OLED" (WOLED), which, according to Gigabyte, reduces power consumption by 20% while improving brightness. This is what allows the monitor to reach a rated peak HDR brightness of 1,500 nits (a claim we’ll dig into in our testing section below). Other WOLED monitors we've tested recently include the Asus ROG Strix OLED XG27AQWMG, which we'll review soon.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

The underlying screen tech aside, the monitor comes equipped with features that aim to enhance your gameplay. The one that will be most interesting to hard-core gamers is what Gigabyte calls its "Tactical Switch 2.0" feature. It lets you cycle through several aspect-ratio and screen-size combinations with a single click. In esports, it’s not uncommon for athletes to prefer smaller screens, as less screen real estate means less time spent looking in their peripheral vision tracking targets. So, with Tactical Switch, you can take the default 16:9 27-inch display arrangement and switch it down to a smaller size with the same aspect ratio (say, 24-inch), or change the aspect ratio, which presents, as needed, with black bars on either side of the image (say, to 5:4).

A brief note about the AI features mentioned above: They essentially amount to an AI-based algorithm to minimize the risk of burn-in, called AI OLED Care. That's skimpy compared with the more robust suite of AI-powered features on the MPG 271QR, and even that monitor’s use of AI is a bit gimmicky. 

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

Panel Performance and Color Testing: Wide Gamuts, and Piercing HDR Brightness

We ran the MO27Q28G through our standard benchmark tests using Portrait Displays' Calman calibration software and a Klein K-10A colorimeter. We also ran it through a gauntlet of games to measure input lag and judge its real-world performance. We took these readings with Gigabyte's out-of-the-box settings, unless otherwise noted.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

In our first test, we benchmarked brightness using the MO27Q28G's default SDR profile. Under these conditions, we measured a maximum brightness of 312 nits at a 10% window size, in line with its SDR rating of 335 nits. That number improved when we switched over to HDR. We recorded 500 nits at a 1% window size, consistent with the HDR 500 rating. At a 10% window size, the HDR brightness reached 561 nits.

For the next test, I strayed from our out-of-the-box settings protocol, because I wanted to test Gigabyte's maximum HDR brightness claim. I toggled on the HDR 1500 preset, set the window size to 2%, and measured 1,311 nits. That's not quite the 1,500 nits of maximum peak HDR brightness that Gigabyte promises, but it's not so far off that you couldn’t hit it with a few tweaks to the settings.

With the monitor’s HDR 1500 mode on, you've got a few options to tweak HDR brightness, as well as Light Enhance, Color Enhance, and Dark Enhance. The Light and Color Enhance have three levels, while the Dark Enhance has only an on/off option. The Light Enhance was immediately noticeable, and is definitely something you’ll want to adjust, as I thought the base HDR was somewhat dim for my taste. But once I found the combination of settings I liked, I was impressed. You’ll definitely want to experiment with the settings when playing games designed for HDR, like Cyberpunk 2077.

The MO27Q28G has a rated contrast ratio of 1,500,000:1. This sky-high figure indicates the display's ability to produce deep blacks alongside bright whites, resulting in improved image quality in both light and dark scenes. With that in mind, contrast ratio ratings in the millions have little practical comparison value, since OLED contrast ratios are essentially infinite.

(Credit: Calman)

Finally, color gamut testing: I found that the MO27Q28G spans 98.5% of the Adobe RGB color space (see the chart above), 166% of the sRGB gamut (see the chart below), and 95.4% of the DCI-P3 gamut. That’s excellent color coverage, albeit what we’ve come to expect from OLED panels.

(Credit: Calman)

Gaming Performance Testing: Low Input Lag

With a 280Hz refresh rate, the MO27Q28G should be more than capable for both casual and competitive play. To see whether the MO27Q28G can compete with other esports-ready displays, I used the Leo Bodnar 4K Input Lag Tester to measure its performance across various refresh-rate and resolution combinations.

I started my input-lag tests at full HD (1080p). At 1080p/60Hz, I recorded 14.7ms of input lag, and at 1080p/120Hz, measured 6.6ms. At 1080p/240Hz, the measurement was a stellar 2.2ms.

Moving to QHD (1440p) resolution, the monitor recorded 7.9ms of input lag at 60Hz, and at 120Hz, it was 10.1ms. (My Bodnar device can't measure above 120Hz at 1440p, or above 240Hz at 1080p.)

The MO27Q28G reports ever-so-slightly higher input lag than the similarly priced Alienware 27 280Hz (AW2725D), which has 13.8ms of lag at 1080p/60Hz and 7.5ms at 1440p/60Hz. It's also higher than the AOC Q27G4ZD, which recorded 14.6ms at 1080p/60Hz and 7.5ms at 1440p/60Hz. But it easily clears the LG 27 UltraGear OLED (27GX790A)’s input lag of 26.7ms at 1080p/60Hz.

My real-world experiential game testing consisted of playing some intense rounds of Counter-Strike 2, Cyberpunk 2077, and Doom: The Dark Ages. The monitor delivers incredible visuals, even at 1440p. While I did notice some VRR flicker in rare instances, where the frame rate would fluctuate greatly, overall the experience was positive. The monitor is both Nvidia G-Sync compatible and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, so it should play nice with whatever GPU you've got.