Design & Features
Like most monitors out there, the XC27HD’s chassis is made of polycarbonate material, i.e. plastic, with metal spine and V-shaped base to go with it. Standard stuff. On the back, you’ll the ports that are available to you – DisplayPort, DVI, and HDMI inputs, along with a 3.5mm audio jack for your speakers need. In case you don’t have a speaker, the monitor does come with inbuilt stereo speakers. They sound decent enough and will work in a pinch, but I do recommend getting external speakers down the line. On the back, you’ll also find the On/Off switch and the analog stick that opens up the settings for the monitor. 
Assembly is pretty straight forward – attach the spine to the base, then attach that to the chassis, and you’re done! Other than connecting to power and your device, the menu navigation is intuitive enough that you’ll dial in your preferred settings in no time.
The display uses a Vertical Alignment (VA) type panel which is 27 inches with R1800 curvature, supporting up to 1080p Full HD resolution and a whopping 165 Hz refresh rate and impressive 2 ms response time. The display also has an Infinity Frame, meaning the image goes edge-to-edge with minimal bezels except the bottom side with the Armageddon logo.
Performance – For Gaming ONLY
The XC27HD is meant to be a gaming monitor and that is exactly what it excels at. The 165-Hz experience is something you have to try out for yourselves because the smoothness during gaming is just unbelievable. Pairing that with the 2 ms response time really brings gaming to a whole new level. You also get a bonus if you’re AMD hardware because the XC27HD also supports AMD FreeSync.
That said, you won’t feel like the monitor is lagging behind your actions. However, I would advise that you make sure your PC setup is able to push out those frame rates before considering this monitor.
Curved monitors are supposedly increases user immersion because they cover more of your peripheral vision than their flat counterparts. So, what better way to test than with the most immersive genre in gaming – first-person (shooter) games. In this case, I tested it out with Borderlands 3. Although immersion is somewhat subjective, I can say in my personal experience that gaming with this curved monitor felt more natural and less straining than on my usual flat monitor.
This is especially so when checking the UI in-game, like the minimap my health status, ammo count etc. which are mostly exclusively placed in the peripherals of the screen.
The one major shortcoming I’ve encountered with this monitor is the colour accuracy. Although the monitor supports up to 16.7 million colors and is good enough for gaming, that amount is dwarfed in comparison to truly colour accurate monitors that could support up to trillions of colours. So if your day-to-day is working on projects that require colour accuracy, like photo/video editing or illustrations and design, you might want to consider other options.
Another downside of the monitor that was not advertised was that the monitor only supports that 165 Hz refresh rate when connected with the DisplayPort, thus rendering it redundant to most laptop users. So, ideally, you do have a rig with a DisplayPort output for this monitor.
Final Thoughts
If you’re a desktop gamer that’s looking to improve your overall gaming experience, this monitor comes highly recommended for its high refresh rate and low response time. Even though the XC27HD isn’t all that great in the colour accuracy department, you shouldn’t expect it to be at the retail price of RM1,599 which is a reasonable price for how well the monitor performs.
By Jian Wei Khor
