Another beautiful gaming monitor

A gaming platform is only as powerful as its weakest component. Think about it: does it really make sense to spend thousands of dollars on a cutting-edge graphics card, a processor powerful enough not to get in the way, and insane amount of storage, like 2TB SSD and 128GB RAM, for turn around and plug into a 21.5-inch monitor taken from a Best Buy clearance bin? (And no, it’s not better if you plug it in many customs clearance bin monitors.)

There is probably some sort of intermediate monitor between “found in clearance bin” and the Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ. But since I just spent two weeks playing video games instead of finishing this review because every time I turned around to test something on the PG27UQ I got sucked in beautiful everything was… Well, why bother with mediocrity when you can get a monitor so pretty it will destroy your productivity?

Maybe because the ROG Swift PG27UQ is more from 1000 USD (price ranges from 1200 USD to 1500 USD online). That’s right: this monitor isn’t just more expensive, it can cost more than your entire computer. But my god, it’s so pretty.

It’s hard to justify a $ 1200 price tag, but listen to me. The Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ is a stylish yet rugged 27-inch gaming monitor with a 4K UHD quantum dot IPS display with full backlighting and DCI-3P color gamut. It supports Nvidia’s G-Sync HDR technology and also has at least three different ways to display the ROG (Republic of Gamers) eye logo in lights. Oh, and the lights are compatible with Asus’ Aura Sync technology, so you can sync the monitor lights with whatever other ROG peripherals you have lying around.

Here’s the thing, though: it’s not a new monitor. The PG27UQ was released in June 2018 – that’s right, it’s over two years old. And while it’s held up against the competition pretty well – it’s a gorgeous monitor even by today’s standards – it’s starting to show its age, especially now that next-gen consoles have dropped. The PG27UQ has two digital display inputs, 1x DisplayPort 1.4 and 1x HDMI 2.0 (it also has 2x USB 3.0 downstream, 1x USB 3.0 upstream, and 1x 3.5mm audio jack; all ports are hidden under a removable plastic back panel). But the Microsoft Xbox 5 and the Sony PlayStation 5 have HDMI 2.1 ports.

These days, there are generally two types of digital display inputs: DisplayPort and HDMI. Both of these inputs have undergone several revisions since their debut – the current revisions are DisplayPort 2.0 and HDMI 2.1 – and each new standard brings increased transmission bandwidth. This is important because to take full Thanks to the PG27UQ’s 4K UHD resolution and overclocked 144Hz refresh rate, you need a lot of bandwidth – more bandwidth than an HDMI 2.0 standard gives you. With HDMI 2.0 you can get a maximum data rate of around 14.4 Gbps, but with HDMI 2.1 you can get a maximum data rate of around 42.6 Gbps – that’s a difference quite important. DisplayPort 1.4 gives you a maximum data rate of around 25.92 Gbps, not quite as much as HDMI 2.1, but still a little more than HDMI 2.0.

If you are a PC gamer and only a PC gamer, this might not seem like a big deal. DisplayPort 1.4 shouldn’t be too much of a problem when trying to crank up that 144Hz refresh rate. However, if you’re a console gamer, especially a next-gen console gamer, this could be a deciding factor. You will still be able to play your Xbox 5 or PS5 on this monitor, but I’m not sure it makes sense to drop two large on the monitor to terminate all monitors if you fail to get both ultra picture High definition and super fast refresh rate when playing the latest console games. It’s just something to keep in mind. This monitor was a good buy a few years ago, but it has at least depreciated a bit since then.

Digital input drama aside, this screen is gorgeous. I’m not talking about the physical aesthetics – it’s a sleek screen, but I’ll get to that – I’m talking about the image.

The Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ is a 4K UHD display with an aspect ratio of 16: 9 and a resolution of 3840 x 2160. The screen measures 27 inches diagonally, which is a good size for a monitor (over 27 inches is starting to get unwieldy). Windows 10’s interface looks well scaled up to 125%, and if you’re not as easily distracted by attractive screens as I am, this would make a great working monitor.

The PG27UQ has full backlighting, which means there are LEDs all over the screen that light it up, rather than just around the edges. It means several things. First, the screen can get very bright. The PG27UQ can hit 1000 nits, which is… well, very bright. For reference, the iPhone 12 Pro has a “typical” maximum brightness level of 800 nits and an HDR maximum brightness level of 1,200 nits. Phones are designed to be used outdoors in direct sunlight, while gigantic gaming monitors usually are not, so 1000 nits are very bright.

The second benefit of full array backlighting is the way it affects HDR (high dynamic range) and contrast. Full backlighting allows for more precise control of local dimming, and the PG27UQ has 384 LED zones that can be independently controlled (dimmed or lit). This means that the screen can produce images with excellent contrast ratios – very dark blacks, inky blacks, and vivid, vibrant colors without compromising image quality. This is ideal for darker, crankier games with HDR support, such as Shadow of the Tomb Raider. There is a lot of depth and detail, no confusion. It is also good for brighter and more dynamic games, like No Man’s Sky. Even games without HDR support, like Subnautica, are spellbinding on this monitor.

Calibrating the PG27UQ is a snap. On the back of the screen, in the lower right corner, there are four buttons and a mini joystick for navigating the monitor’s on-screen menus. The main menu, which you can navigate only with the joystick, is where you’ll find options like overclocking, blue light filtering, and screen calibration, as well as options to control the many lights on the monitor and stand (and Aura Sync).

The PG27UQ looks pretty good out of the box. He didn’t need a lot calibration, but it wasn’t perfect, so it still helped. The monitor also has several preset visual modes (scenery, racing, cinema, RPG, FPS, sRGB) as well as a GamePlus menu, which contains gamer-friendly tools such as timers, an FPS counter and a tool to align. multiple screens.

The Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ is built like a tank: a sleek and sleek tank, but a tank nonetheless. It comes in a box bigger than my TV (which admittedly isn’t that big at just 32 inches) and includes several accessories: a stand, input cables (HDMI, DisplayPort, USB), a pack of lenses for the integrated logo of the light holder and instructions.

I absolutely loved the tripod style mount. It looks neat, with blade-shaped legs, a downward-facing light that projects the ROG logo on your desktop, and a rear-facing light that projects the ROG logo on the wall behind. But it’s not that bad that it could only be used as a gaming monitor, and you can turn off ROG projection lights from the onscreen menu. It is also incredibly sturdy and well built, both adjustable. and ergonomic. It’s easy to adjust the monitor’s height, swivel it side to side, tilt it, and even rotate it 90 degrees for vertical viewing.

The stand takes up a bit more room than I initially expected, but it’s a pretty thick monitor. It has its own built-in ventilation / cooling system, after all. Together, the monitor and stand weigh just over 20 pounds, which is about twice as much as my other 27-inch monitor (a modest, budget BenQ that I actually picked up from a clearance bin at Fry’s a few years ago. years.).

The monitor itself is a good mix of clean, classic styling up front and more aggressive player-focused styling at the rear. From the front, the screen is almost unremarkable: just a 27-inch display with an anti-reflective coating and a matte black mid-size bezel. You can tell it’s a high-end monitor, but it doesn’t look like a futuristic alien thing (see: Acer Predator x27 and its display cover), which means it would blend easily into a desktop or a home office.

The back of the monitor is where it starts to be more gamer-focused, although it’s not as aggressive as some ROG products. The back of the monitor features a giant ROG eye logo that lights up and syncs with Asus’ Aura Sync technology. While I don’t necessarily think I would use the logo light facing the rear of the stand, I do like that this monitor has lights for both user and viewer. It’s a bit of a disappointment to buy a cool gaming peripheral and never get to admire the lights yourself.

And it’s definitely a monitor for a very specific type of gamer, especially one with a decently powerful Nvidia graphics card, as you’ll need at least an Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti for the PG27UQ. The monitor supports Nvidia G-Sync HDR but not FreeSync, so if you have an AMD graphics card… go ahead. You also need to connect through DisplayPort if you want that overclocked refresh rate, as the HDMI achieves a 60Hz refresh rate.

The Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ Monitor is impressive, even after a few years on the market, but it all says: is it worth $ 1,200?

Well, if you’re an Nvidia fan who hates the console with a full platform, this is still a great monitor. You can often find it on sale – I’ve seen it drop to almost 50% sometimes – which would make it an even more compelling buy. It has a beautiful screen, large color gamut, fast refresh rate (via DisplayPort), and it’s definitely built to last. It’s just not as impressive or as future-proof as it once was, now that the future is really here.

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• Absolutely stunning.
• Absolutely expensive.