ASUS Strix XG27VQ Curved Gaming Monitor In-Depth Review: Oh, Look at that Sniper *dies*

PC monitors are one thing you cannot live with if you want a wholesome computing experience. It is sort of in the package really; every laptop comes with its own display, and if you have a desktop PC setup you definitely need to get one monitor. But then here is when the problem starts.

Plenty of times when you buy a desktop PC setup or even a laptop PC, you tend to overlook the sort of display you are getting; especially when you go for a desktop setup. You tend to spend all your money on the tower instead of budgeting for a decent display. That is okay, we understand that too for we made the same mistakes. We end up getting really cheap displays that are not even worthy of being plugged into the expensive GPU card we attached to our PC.

A good monitor though is essential when it comes to building your PC. Of course there are different types of displays you can get in the market to suit your needs. People from the creative background will appreciate something that would have better colour accuracy than anything else. To that extent, the display is everything.

When you talk about gaming, it should be every bit as important as the GPU you get for the PC. There are plenty of considerations too when it comes to a gaming monitor. It has to have a fast refresh rate, ultra quick response time, and it has to be of a certain resolution. That is all in the name of immersive gaming.

ASUS ROG should be a familiar name by now when it comes to gaming peripherals. The main brand, ASUS has also made plenty of monitors in the past. They are not what we would recommend before this, but ASUS have come a long way in improving the quality of their monitors to the best of standards.

Because the main brand have some expertise making monitors, it should come as no surprise then when ASUS ROG decided to make their own gaming monitors. Boy, did they deliver. The ROG monitors, when introduced, looked stunning with intricate ROG design cues. They can look intimidating but that is the whole point; maximum impact.

The ASUS ROG XG27VQ is ASUS’ 27-inch Full HD display made for the gaming community. It will set you back MYR1,999 and you have to prepare quite a space for it, because it is big, and heavy. But it is one of ASUS’ finest gaming monitors to date. While 27-inch may not sound much the monitor is plenty enough for most people. But is it really that good? Does its performance match its looks? Let us find out, shall we?

Design

The first thing you might want to say when you look at the ASUS ROG Strix XG27VQ display is it is big. Measuring in at 27-inch, it is not small. It is not designed to be thing and compact either; if that was the direction that ASUS wanted to go for, they failed at it. It is heavy too with its non-detachable pillar arm at the back that is supposed to be attached to a detachable three feet metal base. That metal base has a plastic cover in the bottom part of its core, which will make sense later.

Once you set it up, there is no hiding the size of it if you have a small-ish table. The 27-incher is as big as any regular 27-inch display if you look at the front, nothing to comment there. the height of it is also adjust table to as tall as the pillar behind it allows, or your table and shelf set-up’s height clearance. You can rotate it too to make a vertical display for you to use it as a monitoring display for other things if you want. That, or if you prefer looking at your PC in vertical mode.

So on the front of it, it looks like any other 27-incher that you might get in the current market. Save for the ASUS ROG branding at the center bottom part of the display, everything looks normal. Even the thin bezels that surrounds the 1080p Full HD display has become a normality these days.

As you move to the bottom part of the display though, there is more to see. The plastic cover that you put at the bottom core covers not only the single screw that you use to secure the base to the pillar, but it acts also as a sort of outline cover for the signature red LED lights housed in the pillar that points down. Now the three-legged base makes plenty of sense. The raised core creates and the LED now creates the signature ASUS ROG logo on your desk too; that raised it cool factor five-folds.

Then you move to the back of the display and there are even more ASUS ROG Strix flare here than the GL703GS that we reviewed very recently. There is all kinds of intricate lines that is put into the curved plastic back of the display. They look intricate, they look like they mean business. They look like a prop you would find in a space pirate movie. Then there is the LED center ring surrounding the joint between the support pillar and the display module itself. That adds drama, and flair, and some difference to your gaming desk actually.

In some sense we do like the look of the display from the back. The Strix design cue has some futuristic look to it and it always feels familiar. We do have to point out that it is not a good look in the office though. If you have a Star Trek office though, this becomes a matter of why not?

Display Quality

The ASUS ROG Strix XG27VQ’s 27-inch displays a Full HD 1,080 by 1,920 pixels at a maximum refresh rate of 144Hz. Response time is quoted at 4ms but you can bring that down to 1ms for extreme low motion blur mode. The 1800R curved display has 8 distinct viewing modes that you can choose from. Each of which gives you a different colour temperature and contrast profile that should suit different scenes.

Most of the time though we left it in FPS mode, Racing mode or Cinema mode because we think they look best like that. In the modes we chose, the colours look more natural and less forced. This is no AMOLED display so colour contrasts and blacks may not appear as deep as the AMOLEDs. It still looks good nevertheless.

In cinema mode though you get a slightly warmer tone on the display, that is quite normal for plenty of cinema optimised displays though. A good image looks good too with plenty of details. Colours still come out nice and crisp when you want it to be. The only issue is that the intensity of the colours is a little less.

The main point of this monitor though is gaming. That also explains the Strix design cue for the XG27VQ monitor. The different viewing modes are made also to enhance gaming performance anyway. That said, each of the 8 display profiles change the colour profile and temperature to suit the sort of games that you play.

As mentioned we play plenty of First Person Shooters (FPS). That usually require a sharper colour profile with detailed images on board for you to find your target. Of course, the display is toned down a little to protect your eyes. Even when you put it through MOBA mode though the display performs amicably.

We did not get to fully try the Adpative-Sync function on the display extensively though. None of our games in our library could be enough to test the Free Sync function. Then again when a technology like this works, we should not notice them anyway. With that being said, the only game that had screen tearing was Star Wars Battlefront II. We turned on the VSync in the options bar and it works like a charm. At 144Hz the display also looks stunning with super smooth graphics.

The only issue we had with the ASUS ROG Strix XG27VQ is that the colour reproduction may not be the best I have ever seen. Colours turn out to be more dull that they are in actual life. Some of the blues can be a little washed out as well.

When that happens though video and photo editing becomes a little bit of a pain. The colours reproduced on the display is not distorted in any way technically. The only issue is the dull colours makes colour correction and image tuning a little harder than usual. Despite that disadvantage though you still can do video editing on it without too much of an issue.

The 1800R curvature helps plenty with the 178-degree viewing angle. Immersion is also great when you play racing games with the curve. The curve helps you see more without you actually turning your heads that much in some sense. The same can be said with RTS games where you can see more without squinting your eyes while looking at the edges of the display.

Features

The ASUS ROG XG27VQ curved screen display’s body only comes in gun-metal grey colour scheme with some gold accents. There is no other colour choice for this monitor. Then again monitors never really come with extensive colour choices anyway. There is also an LED that is built into the main pillar that beams down to a plastic cover to make the iconic ASUS ROG logo on your desk. You cannot choose the colour of that too unfortunately. Then there is the ASUS Aura RGB lighting behind the monitor itself circling the joint from monitor to pillar. You cannot choose its colour or control it from the PC but then it looks cool and it changes colour on its own.

Obviously with a large pillar supporting the main monitor body it is height adjustable. You can even tilt it too if you need to use it in such a way. The only issue with that is the three weird legs of the monitor means that it has to sit on a large flat surface, no cage type surface here.

As mentioned earlier there are multiple viewing modes for the ASUS XG27VQ curved gaming monitor. They call it the GameVisual with eight different viewing modes. Each mode has different colour and temperature profiles to match whatever you wish to look at. Each also will create the best sort of viewing experience for the user. We also mentioned we only use FPS, Cinema, and Racing modes most of the time because we think these are the best in terms of the all around performance and viewing experience. Because we do a little bit of colour correction for our videos too we have to get something with the most neutral colour setting which is, in our opinion Racing or FPS mode.

The display supports FreeSync as well which eliminates screen tearing when you look at videos or even while playing games. While we do not have the right PC or GPU to test the function with, it works plenty like the G-Sync as well so it still works.

The ASUS ROG Strix XG27VQ has more game specific modes like their GamePlus modes with customisable crosshairs, FPS counters, game timer, and even display alignment. All those combined with the Extreme Low Motion Blur feature makes this a must have for gamers.

Yay or Nay?

Now, to answer the age-old question of whether or not you should get this monitor. Keep in mind that this is an MYR1,899 investment too. So should you get it?

You definitely cannot answer this question with the question of “do you need it”. In that argument, you do not really need it. It is more like; “do you want it?” with the short answer being “yes”. But why?

It is one of the heaviest monitors of its type out there with less design feature than KLCC. If you put it against the wall, like how we did it; you will not even see the Strix design at the back of the monitor. You cannot even wall mount it because the stand is fixed to the body of the monitor.

It is beautiful to look at though. The three-pronged feet is sturdy and looks good on a desk. That floating ASUS ROG logo adds that serious gaming flair to it too. Colours are not what you would call completely accurate. However it serves its purpose, and it serves it well. Games and films look good on the display itself.

For that kind of price, there are other monitors out there that might serve specific purposes well. There are plenty of other options with Full HD resolution that is way cheaper as well if you think about it. However if you are looking for something more multipurpose, something that you can enjoy at anytime, while having that curved screen comfort; this is the one for you.

So if you have MYR2k to spend on a monitor, and you want a gaming monitor that does everything; you should get this. Because, why not?

Originally published at techENT.