ASUS ROG Swift PG278Q G-SYNC Monitor Review
by Chris Heinonen & Jarred Walton on February 13, 2015 10:00 AM ESTsRGB Data and Bench Tests
Before calibration, the ASUS ROG monitor displays a blue tint to the grayscale but it keeps the overall grayscale errors below the visible error level of 3.0 dE2000. The gamma tracks low, at closer to 2.0 than 2.2, which will give the image a bit more of a washed-out look than the proper gamma will. The larger errors exist in the color gamut, where there is an oversaturation to reds, yellows, oranges, and especially blues. Blue has both a tint and saturation issues, and the errors there grow steadily as the saturation ramps from 0% to 100%. Unfortunately, since the ASUS ROG has no internal LUT, like most displays, these color errors probably cannot be fixed.
For calibration, we use SpectraCal CalMAN 5.3.5 with our own custom workflow. We target 200 cd/m2 of light output with a gamma of 2.2 and the sRGB color gamut, which corresponds to a general real-world use case. The meters used are an i1Pro2 provided by X-Rite and a SpectraCal C6. All measurements use APL 50% patterns except for uniformity testing, which uses full field.
| Pre-Calibration | Post-Calibration, 200 cd/m2 |
Post-Calibration, 80 cd/m2 |
|
| White Level ( cd/m2) | 198.7 | 200.9 | 81.8 |
| Black Level ( cd/m2) | 0.2253 | 0.2246 | 0.0952 |
| Contrast Ratio | 882:1 | 895:1 | 859:1 |
| Gamma (Average) | 2.02 | 1.97 | 2.07 |
| Color Temperature | 6659K | 6515K | 6557K |
| Grayscale dE2000 | 2.48 | 2.47 | 0.76 |
| Color Checker dE2000 | 3.64 | 2.16 | 2.74 |
| Saturations dE2000 | 2.85 |
Post-calibration the gamma and RGB balance are almost perfect. The average grayscale dE2000 falls to below 0.6 which is invisible to the naked eye. The only issue is the contrast ratio, but I believe that is a bad reading at 0% since it is coming out much higher than our black reading at maximum backlight earlier. The contrast ratio should be closer to 850:1 based on the amount of fixing needed for the RGB balance. The 80 cd/m2 measurements will back this up, so this number is just a bad read.
Colors are better, because the luminance values have improved, but the overall errors are still high due to over-saturation of certain colors. Blue continues to be the worst, followed by yellow, with all skin tones on the color checker showing errors close to 3.0. On photos of people they look a bit sunburnt, as the saturation of reds and oranges is too high, compared to a proper display. It isn’t awful, but it isn’t a monitor I would use for photo editing either. Since ASUS positions the ROG for gamers I don’t think this is a big deal as the numbers are close enough. The pre-calibration numbers are really more important here, and those indicate a bit more of this red push than after calibration.
Changing our targets to 80 cd/m2 and the sRGB gamma curve, we see similar results on another calibration. The contrast ratio here is 859:1, indicating there was a bad read earlier on the 200 cd/m2 data. The RGB balance is again perfect though the gamma curve not as much. sRGB is harder to get right, and it is dimmer providing less room for adjustment, so this isn’t surprising.
Colors show the exact same issues as with 200 cd/m2 since adjusting the backlight level doesn’t affect the saturation of the colors. People look like they have gotten a bit too much sun compared to what they should look like. For gaming, where the colors are just imaginary to begin with, I don’t think this is a big problem but it just means it can’t serve double-duty as a display for editing photos or other things. Movies will also look a bit off on it, but no worse than a regular TV will before a calibration.
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Zak - Tuesday, March 17, 2015 - link
I paid the nVidia tax too and I love it too but haters will hate. I only spent one evening with it but I gotta say GSync is the best thing that happened to gaming since the SSD. You have to see it to believe it. No tearing, no lag, no sync issues. Perfectly smooth. I was sitting there looking at the Unigine Valley demo for minutes running buttery smooth at around 100fps with my jaw on the floor. Then I fired up Skyrim and OMFG!!! Gaming heaven!But... Yes, the color quality leaves something to be desired, though I'm picking up a used iMac for my photo editing and will strip this PC down to gaming only. You wouldn't want to use this display for photo editing. But for gaming this is huge. I want to play all my games all over again.
Calista - Friday, February 13, 2015 - link
I'm still stunned how hard it seems for the manufacturers to get the USB ports right, especially since Dell was spot on more than ten years ago. Two or more in the back for static equipment, be it a webcam or similar, two along one of the sides for easy access when using a USB memory stick, attaching a camera or what not. http://www.anandtech.com/show/1193/2 Its larger siblings like the 3007WFP made it even better by adding a sd- and cf-reader.Sivar - Friday, February 13, 2015 - link
I've wondered this as well.My Dell 2001FP, which is still in use today despite being 14 years old, was their first to get this right. It's as if other manufacturers don't recognize the value enough to even copy Dell's design, let alone design something as nice themselves.
tential - Friday, February 13, 2015 - link
My dad wanted a new monitor and this was the HARDEST requirement to fill for him. The amount of monitors with 4 USB ports, positioned correctly, is terribly low.Zak - Tuesday, March 17, 2015 - link
Buy a tiny USB hub and attach it under the edge of the monitor with dual-sided sticky tape. I've done on many monitors. Not perfectly pretty but works.bebimbap - Friday, February 13, 2015 - link
The issue with having those kinds of things on the side of the monitor, is you require a thick bezel or one with more depth or both. currently most monitors are going with a thin bezel design both on the edge and in depth. I own the dell 3007 3011 and 2005fpw and they are about 3x as thick around the edge and 2x the depth of the pg278q. The asus "feels" much smaller than other 27" that i have experienced just because of the bezel size. also the screen part of it is much shallower than any other monitor i have used. usually from the edge of the Bezel to the surface of the screen is about 2-7mm depending on the size of the screen but, on the asus i would say 1mm.you can always get a usb hub on your desk, or strapped to the back of the monitor.
as monitors get thinner you'll have a much harder time finding ports in the future.
sf101 - Wednesday, February 18, 2015 - link
This ^^^^^^^^^^Things manufactures are trying to get away from are.
-Side mounted USB's
-Side Mounted Buttons
why?
Thin /slim bezel's for Multi monitor use.
piroroadkill - Saturday, February 14, 2015 - link
The 24" have had an SD reader on the side for a while too. Got a U2410.Dell has always nailed inputs and layout for buttons and so on.
Wardrop - Saturday, February 14, 2015 - link
I wouldn't rave too much about dells button layouts, especially on the U2410. Having a button form the corner of the bezem (or any edge) can cause frustrations. At work I use three of these monitors, and anytime they got bumped, one of them gets switched off because the corner button is inadvertantly pressed in the process.Rolphus - Friday, February 13, 2015 - link
I've got one of these, as part of a big gaming machine update I've been doing. I'd say the assessment is spot on.Colour quality and especially consistency are clearly not in the same league as any halfway reasonable IPS display, but the smoothness you get from a high-refresh panel is lovely, and fast-paced games feel superbly solid. G-Sync is something I'm completely sold on, and having a ULMB 120Hz option for 3D Vision is also really handy for stable images. Sadly you can't mix the two - I'd love for "3D Vision 3" / "G-Sync 2" to be able to vary frame rates and store left and right eye frames on-display so lower frame rates can be doubled up properly, but that's probably wishful thinking, and a niche atop a niche. That's to say nothing of my theory that 3D Vision will probably die a death once there's a consumer desktop VR solution out there.
I also agree that it's a high-priced (perhaps overpriced), niche item - but it doesn't really have any competition at the moment.