Washed out contrast and colors when attempting to calibrate AOC Q27G3XMN on macOS

[bverkron]

I have two monitors I'm attempting to calibrate. A Dell S2721DGF and AOC Q27G3XMN (new in my setup) connected to a Macbook Pro M1. The Dell calibrates fine. Everything looks good and natural to my eye afterwards and seems consistent with calibrations I've done on various monitors over the years.

However, the AOC ends up looking washed out in contrast and colors look off vs the Dell. I can't figure out why. I have tried Mode LCD White LED, PFS Phosphor WLED, and Generic and bet basically the same results each time. During each run I adjusted the RGB values on the monitor in the pre-steps as I always do (and did with the Dell too) to get the RGB values dead center on the bars.

Wondering if it's because it's a mini LED display vs the Dell's standard edge-lit backlight? I really have no idea the complexities of calibration are something I haven't had to do dig deep into learning and now sure where to start with troubleshooting this issue. I have never run into it before with DisplayCal on older Intel mac or other monitors so I'm really not sure what the problem lies in the chain.

Interestingly the default Apple profile (I think?) almost perfectly matches the calibrated Dell. The reds are ever so slightly elevated but it's almost bang on. As a fallback for now I've just dialled the red channel in be hand on the AOC to match the Dell visibly when viewing color charts, sample photos, etc)

OS: macOS Sonoma 14.7.1
Calibrator: SpyderX Pro (I know, not the best but it's what I have and has worked great for all other monitors / setups so far...)
DisplayCal: 3.9.14

[Adam-Color]

Mini-LEDs are a challenge for cheaper colorimeters like your Spyder, you likely need to upgrade it to something with a higher resolution sensor to properly calibrate. Watch this here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLl01EjHU3Q&list=PLPi5EvuN9N0uiK-BwhZzGkcQ0X9barFA1&index=2

It's on the macbook displays which use the same display tech. While with some tinkering you can get an ok calibration with a cheap meter, you simply don't have the resolution in your meter to read it 100% correctly.