Buzz
First Impressions of Gigabyte G27FC
Despite being a gaming monitor, the Gigabyte G27FC looks remarkably simple, clean, and lacks any RGB lighting. It comes with a stand, allowing height adjustment by sliding up and down and tilt adjustment for preferred viewing angles. Honestly, the monitor is well-constructed. It features a slim branding strip at the top corner and a coarser finish on the rest of the screen.
The control panel on the G27FC is curved, and it has a suitable curvature – 1500R curvature to provide users with an immersive experience and a good field of view in an instant, which is the entire idea of a curved monitor.
Moving on to the specifications, the Gigabyte G27FC is quite solid – with a 27” VA Panel at 1500R curvature and it uses Edge type backlighting. The monitor has a matte coating for an anti-glare experience and it covers 90% DCI-P3 color space. As a gaming monitor, it supports a refresh rate of up to 165Hz with a response time of 1ms.
For the ports on the monitor – it comes with 2x HDMI 1.4 and 1x Display Port 1.2, headphone jack, 2x USB 3.0 ports integrated right there. What I like most about this monitor is the power supply is built-in – meaning you don't have to deal with any external power bricks taking up space on the floor and you can manage cables much cleaner.
Experience
Setting up the G27FC is very simple and straightforward as there's no need to assemble the monitor back from scratch. That being said, all you have to do is simply take it out of the box, place it on the desk, connect your cable wires, and then you're good to go. As it has 2 HDMI and 1 DisplayPort, we connected our laptop – ASUS ROG Strix Scar Edition 17” via DisplayPort and switch between another Strix Scar (2021) 17”. Since it's DisplayPort 1.2, it will do what it needs to do – delivering high refresh rates with good consistency. No need for DP 1.4 on this monitor as the panel is rated at 1080p with a refresh rate of 165Hz. For HDMI, we connected our smartphone to use Samsung Dex thereafter and there.
The fact that the power supply is integrated right into the monitor, you don't have to face any external power bricks whatsoever. Just a simple power cord connecting to the monitor and the socket. Considering there are so many monitors out there, you'd be surprised how few brands achieve this.
Now onto what's left, the monitor has 2x2W speakers built-in. They have decent and clear sound, it's hard to expect better sound from monitor speakers as it's pretty much akin to the situation you encounter with TVs. But mostly, I'm sure you can connect your own speakers to the monitor as a way to manage related audio.
Now let's move on to the real star – the display and the experience behind it. Coming from a Flat 27” monitor, it took me a while to adapt to a curved monitor as it significantly changes the viewing mode. Once you get used to it, the curved monitor will provide an immersive feeling. The FHD panel in 27” shows that when a larger Full HD panel, pixels will stand out – that's why switching to QHD is a better option but remember, not everyone will pixel peep on their screen and for the tasks this G27FC will be assigned to, you won't really need a QHD panel.
In general, a curved monitor holds significance for an ultrawide display as it needs to cover a much larger area and ensure it doesn't strain the eyes. Using a curved 16:9 screen might seem somewhat unnecessary, but once you delve into gaming, you'll realize that the G27FC has elevated it to a whole new level in experience. We've played games like Doom: Eternal, Devil May Cry, NFS: Heat using the G27FC as the main screen, and we've had a great experience. The colors are quite beautiful, and in hack-and-slash games, it offers an immersive depth as if you're a character in the game.
Because it's a VA Panel, I personally would call it a Fusion because it combines the best of both TN and IPS and blends them together—it's not an excellent choice for editing and content creation, but the panel has been calibrated to produce a good Gamut DCI-P3 color range. But what bothers me is if you plan on intricate editing like cropping to ensure it's centered and want to ensure lines are straight, you really can't do that with this as it alters the view and curvature of the screen affecting content creation. During my time using it for Lightroom work, where I want to crop and ensure it's in the right place, I made mistakes twice, and I had to use the small preview window in the top left corner as it's the least curved area to ensure any changes I made to the image are the way I want.
OSD control on the screen is extremely easy and straightforward, instead of using multiple buttons, Gigabyte has utilized joystick-based control which is easier to use even when you're not looking. Pressing the middle button brings up the main control panel of the screen and has quick access controls in all directions. The control panel creates a murky black and you can use the black equalizer to enhance brightness, but it gives a hazy look about the types, but this is normal as ultimately it's its VA panel.
Conclusion
For its value, the Gigabyte G27FC Gaming Monitor is a good curved screen that you can buy with its price tag—if your sole purpose is for gaming and entertainment. I still wouldn't use it for editing work as I prefer doing better work on a flat 27” screen but for gaming, all you need is a monitor, this is a good choice to go with.
