Review: Porsche Design | AOC Agon Pro PD27S – Speed and Style Unite

Gamers!  This exciting collaboration between Porsche and AOC delivers a premium 27-inch gaming monitor which takes its design cues from the beautiful bodywork and timeless quality of sleek and dynamic elements of Porsche sports cars, delivering both style and substance for gamers and digital desk jockeys alike. Let’s see how hard we can accelerate your gaming experience to enjoy the handling of the Porsche Design AOC Agon Pro PD27s.

Porsche Design makes the difference

I have to say I have never bought or used anything with a Porsche logo so I was like a new car owner excitedly waiting to take delivery of my new speedster, the Porsche Design AOC Agon Pro PD27s. When the doorbell rang, I rushed down and was confronted with the largest box I’d seen for a while and wondered if they had indeed delivered car parts instead of a screen!

Of course, I ripped the tape off, opened the top flaps, and inside was an ever so safely packed black box with Porsche branding. First impression – GOOD!

The PD27s is delivered packed tightly in secure foam with all its constituent parts perfectly protected. Whipping everything out I was pleasantly surprised that fitting the stand to the screen was nothing more than a snap fit to securely position it in place. I grabbed the sturdy unit and placed it in my specially cleared space for a closer inspection.

Design matters

Maintaining the Porsche tradition of impeccable design, the PD27S certainly looks the part. Obviously, the first thing one will notice is the 3-sided frameless design of the screen. The fourth bezel sits at the foot of the monitor and proudly displays the Porsche Design logo.

But what truly gives the Porsche heritage away is the design of the stunning stand. Looking like it belongs in a showroom, the sandblasted aluminum structure gives off an air of sturdiness, strength and quality. Its unique shape fettled to look like a steering wheel or racing wheel components, adds a classy touch of automotive design inspiration. But it’s not just for show. In use, the stand certainly has proven itself to be super practical and ergonomic, allowing for handy pivot orientation, useful 150mm of height adjustment, as well as tilt and swivel options. This provides necessary comfort during long gaming sessions, not to mention hours of staring at Photoshop files.

It’s not all about the stand.

The Porsche Design AOC Agon Pro PD27s is a classic, clean and streamlined design, which will look great on any desk. It featuring smooth curves and tapered surfaces, which form a pleasant shape at the rear of the device. On either side you’ll find metal mesh panels designed to look like air intakes on a sports car which house a pair of 5-watt speakers enhanced with DTS technology for delivering crystal-clear, immersive sound. These speakers/vents are backlit with customizable RGB lighting (Light FX) which fit right in with the current trends of LED-lit devices and allow you to work or game in low light with a pleasant glow.

But don’t just take my word for it. (though you should) The PD27s  has received prestigious awards, including the 2022 “iF Design Award” and the “Red Dot Award: Product Design 2022”.

Colour me impressed

Though the PD27S shows off Porsche Design’s visual engineering, once switched on and connected to the GPU, you won’t be looking at the design. AGON by AOC’s outstanding display expertise comes to the fore, resulting in a visually stunning 1.07 billion colour display. The PS27s’s vibrant 10-bit IPS (AAS) panel delivers high color accuracy and a wide color gamut reaching 95 percent of the DCI-P3 gamut and an impressive 99 percent of the sRGB gamut, making it your perfect partner for tasks that demand precise color representation. Though marketed as a gaming monitor, the PD27s is a color-correct dream for designers and photographers working in Photoshop or Lightroom.

Perfect Porsche Pixels

Featuring a crisp QHD resolution (2560×1440) on its 27-inch display, the PD27S boasts a high pixel density of 109 ppi and a 1,000:1 contrast ratio, perfect for daily driving, image and video editing, as well as high rez gaming sessions (as long as your GPU is up to the task).

This is a speed racer, not an SUV!

With a 165 Hz refresh rate that can be overclocked to a limit of 170 Hz and a lightning-fast 1 ms Grey-to-Grey (GtG) response time, the PD27S ensures smooth gameplay in fast-paced action, eliminating ghosting issues. The Adaptive-Sync technology further enhances the experience by supporting variable refresh rates, meaning you’ll have no problems with ghosting or tearing. The PD27S will give you up to 350 nits of peak brightness for SDR visuals and is VESA DisplayHDR 400 certified. meaning you’ll get 400 nits of brightness when displaying HDR content.

Every port in a storm

But this ain’t your ordinary screen. In their infinite wisdom, AOC obviously decided you need as much connectivity as possible with as little cable clutter as possible so around the back you’ll find a 4-port USB 3.2 5 gigabit hub for connecting external devices like keyboards, and mice. Even external drives are eminently practical.

Of course, you’re going to need to connect the PD27S to a device of some sort and there’s a load of choice here too. You’ll find 2x  HDMI 2.0 ports and 2x Displayport 1.4. And in case you need to game without waking the rest of the house there’s also a 3.5mm headphone jack. And in case you want a totally clear desk, there are two push-out arms (one on either side) of the monitor to hang your headphones.

Driven to perfection

As pretty as the design of the screen is, I was even more impressed by the device when I had it as my daily driver. Now I’m not a gamer or a gaming purist that needs super High-rez visuals to be satisfied, but running games at high settings was a visual feast on the PD27s. I loaded up Asetto Corsa and drove around the Nurburgring in a Porsche without a hitch and it looked and moved superbly. FIFA23 looked perfect without any artifacts and in fact, everything I played looked exactly as I imagined it should.

But more importantly for me was the accurate colour representation as I live in image editing and design apps pretty much every day – Everything looked clean, sharp and calibrated. I very much appreciated the USB hub as I always seem to have a ton of gear around my desk that needs to be plugged in. I also begrudgingly loved the LCD colour panels but don’t tell anyone…

All in all the Porsche Design AOC Agon Pro PD27S is a superb choice for gamers and digital workers alike, and let’s face it, haven’t you always wanted to own a Porsche?

You can find out more information or you can purchase the Porsche Design AOC Agon Pro PD27S from the Porsche Design site here.