ASUS ROG Swift PG279QZ 27" WQHD 1440P IPS 165Hz DP HDMI Ergonomic Eye Care G-Sync Gaming Monitor

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I purchased this after having gone through 4 PG279Q models, and it’s already on its way back. One may wonder why still even bother with Asus at this point? Well, its pretty much for the same reason everyone else does: the allure of a monitor with a refresh rate of 165 Hz, a resolution of 2560x1440, an IPS-type panel (AU Optronics calls it AHVA or Advanced Hyper-Viewing Angle), and G-Sync (which has since become less of a selling point due to Nvidias decision to support FreeSync). The monitor I received had backlight bleed similar to the fourth and last PG279Q I purchased. Its usually the worse in the top right corner, followed by the bottom right corner, with a very minimal amount in the bottom left corner and the least amount in the top left corner. It all has to do with where the bezels place pressure on the screen. One can press on certain points of the bezel and watch the bleed fade resulting in a more even spread of that cool blue/white sheen, known as IPS glow, that weve all come to know and love on IPS-type displays. Upon releasing pressure, the bleed creeps back in making the root of the problem quite evident. For the uninitiated, IPS glow is a compromise one accepts when using an IPS-type display while backlight bleed is a defect resultant from loose manufacturer tolerances related to quality control back at the factory. To make matters worse, the color temperature in the upper left quadrant of the screen was much warmer in comparison to the rest of the screen. There was an orange tint present that irked me to no end when I was in file explorer, word processors, or anything that had a white background. My sample failed to accurately portray light content in addition to dark content. I have a Dell U2410 that I keep having to take back out because so far, at least for me, nothing has been able to beat it as far as overall quality goes. Quite often I see the argument made that one wouldnt stare at a black screen during regular usage. Although I agree with this statement, I’d also like to point out that it’s nearly impossible to not encounter dark content whilst browsing web pages, watching videos, viewing pictures, or perhaps most relevantly, playing video games. Ive tried to cut Asus some slack in that I understand that these panels support a technology that took AU Optronics some time to achieve; however, the problem now lies not only in the bezels but the panel itself. I do hope that LG gets their take on this market right with their LM270WQA panel. I would advise staying away from this monitor because the story is a familiar one.

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To start, I did not own the previous model (PG279Q) but this current monitor has no dead pixels. There is lightbleed in the upper left corner, but is barely noticeable. I have to confess, I would have never thouight to "test" this unless I had read these reviews first. Dang, I know its $599 and expensive, but some of you all are even more picky than my near OCD self about perfect technology. Owning my own tech firm, I wanted a nice new monitor since I just updated my current PC 8700K w/1080. Im not a huge "gamer" but enjoy PUBG once in a while. All I have to say, coming from a 60HZ 1440p beautiful ACER monitor that works just fine, this is a flat out luxury monitor with the best IPS display I have seen. I have seen over 500 monitors owning a tech firm (most to be fair a lot cheaper) but damn this is beautiful. The refresh is buttery smooth. Oh, one point: YOU MUST MANUALLY CHANGE THE REFRESH RATE. OUT OF THE BOX IT IS 60HZ. Possibly Im a "noob" or whatever it is called, but I did not know this and was frustrated for a good 5 minutes. The 165HZ refresh is something I truly enjoy and will never go back on 60HZ. As for the backlight bleed, I can ONLY see it when the monitor is pure black in a pitch dark room, and then it is barely seen. Ill take this extremely trivial payoff for an IPS vs blurry TN coloring. Some TN panels are near IPS quality, but at the time none can match the best like this monitor. Cannot recommend this enough. Shocked it was only $599 instead of the normal $799. This panel is gorgeous, I use the portrait mode a lot also for work productivity. Lastly, I hated the base design and "republic of gamers" logo since I am not a huge "gamer" but you can turn off the lights and logo. I think it personally looks a lot better with the lights off, but to each their own. Highly recommend, the LUXURY 165HZ 1440p Monitor.

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This is the newer model to the old model (pg279q) which you had to play the lottery to find a good one. The pg279qz Panel is perfect. No dead pixels. No ips glow. Amazing colors and they were spot on. Gsync is awesome. The specs are the same as the older model but the panel is much nicer quality.

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I did upload pictures, but it looks way better in person. I ordered this on December 9th. Ive been waiting for the sale price of the PG279Q, but the model was just too expensive for me, and complaints about the BLB (backlight bleeding). Checking Amazon again, I saw this, (PG279QZ), Never seen this one before, but it was showing $599, "whats this model?" I did my research and it is the IPS panel with Gsync, 2560x1440, 144hz and can be overclocked to 165hz in the panel option (easy to use), which is exactly what I needed! Its also official on the ASUS website so not a knockoff. The truth is, there is still BLB, but its very minimal compared to the previous PG279Q model. All IPS panels have a slight bleed, which is normal. But I spent some time messing with the color settings and it looks beautiful. NOTE: the stock settings has the brightness at 100% so make sure to lower it and play the color settings and youll be happy. Anyway, the monitor is amazing! I came from a 1920x1080p 60hz monitor and didnt think much of it being different to 2560x1440, but HELL YEAH IT IS! (Wanted to take advantage of my 1070 Ti and i7-8700k) Especially for gaming. Nothing seems blurry anymore and I noticed a HUGE the difference with the reticle/cursor/gameplay picture moving very smooth when I aim fast. YOU WILL notice the difference - gaming and just normal daily PC use. Colors are beautiful and vibrant. The quality of the build and stand itself is supurb, you can tell its not cheap and worth the money, heavy and sturdy. I love the fact that you the ROG logo and stand ring lights up red. Keep in mind you can turn this off in the physical panel settings. Overall guys, I know most of you are worried about the BLB, dont be. Its honestly not bad compared to the PG279Q. Tweak the color settings a bit and youll be fine. I wouldnt say this is a huge upgrade from the previous model, but if you dont already have an IPS/Gsync monitor yet and have been contemplating on purchasing one like me, BUY IT. Its worth the money if youre a PC gamer, especially at $599! Get it before it goes on high demand and the price will increase. Thanks for reading.

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I did decent research before pressing the "proceed to checkout" button and decided I would give Asus a chance since many blogs/webpages stated the QZ must had some QC improvements over its predecessor (the PG279Q), particularly over the backlight bleeding. The display is very nicely designed and it looks very sturdy, regretfully, I turned it on and my dark wallpaper allowed me to see an uneven black background right away, more pronounced over the right side. I usually play games that tend to be on the darker side (i.e. space themed, diablo, etc.). Even if you are not focusing on the edge of the screen, why would you have to play for something that was not QCed properly? I decided I may wait until Asus comes out with a newer panel or announces their QC issues have been resolved. I am not sure if I will attempt to buy another display (despite Amazons awesome return policy). Despite the backlight bleeding distraction (which may be more relevant to some customers), the colors reproduce very nicely (as you would expect from an pseudo IPS monitor). So, it will up to you if you are ok with the bleed; or you may get lucky and receive a flawless display, the odds were not in my favor in this case.

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Okay, so let me start this off by saying that I originally ordered the PG278QR, which is basically the same thing as the PG279QZ but with a TN panel. You can check out that review on the PG278QR product page. Anyway, I ended up very displeased with the PG278QR and then placed an order for the PG279QZ. So it gets delivered, I set it up, and it’s absolutely astounding. The colors are vibrant, it had zero dead pixels, no BLB(Backlight Bleed), no IPS glow, everything exceeded my expectations. More often than not, the factory settings are pretty terrible, but this monitor only required minor tweaking. I strongly urge you to purchase this monitor, as I have never been more pleased with a gaming monitor. Asus really did a great job. I don’t think I’ll ever purchase a monitor with a TN panel ever again. VA or IPS panels are the way to go.

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After returning two of these at a local store, I tried again on Amazon and I got a perfect panel but a bad bezel. The panel - normal IPS glow, no backlight bleed at all, and so far no stuck or dead pixels. The frame - here is where the one issue with this monitor shows up. The bottom left corner of the bezel has a tiny spot (1mm or less) gap that if looked at a certain angle you can see light from the panel. Even with the monitor set to max brightness, and all lights off you cant see any light unless looking from said angle. Overall - Yes I would like a perfect monitor, but after playing the panel lottery with Asus I will keep this one since the screen is flawless. I will just live with the defect of the bezel, but I shouldnt have too. Asus you need to step up your QA on all of your IPS panels. A customer should never have to settle for a defect because of the chance of returning a monitor and getting a worse panel is so high. UPDATE - After a total use time of two hours, I got a cluster of dead pixels in the bottom left corner. So much for a perfect screen... waiting on replacement. UPDATE - Replacement arrived this morning and it has backlight bleed everywhere. I am officially done with ASUS monitors. Five total tries to get a good monitor and none of them worked correctly. Changed review to one star because of ASUS horrible QA. Thanks to amazon for being great as always with the replacement and return process.

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Pros: - Stand and overall look of the monitor. - 165Hz and GSYNC work flawlessly. - Speakers. Ive used the speakers for: Acer XB271HU, Acer G257HU, Benq RL2455HM and the ones on this Asus are much better. Sufficient for light Youtube/Twitch, stuff like that. - Acceptable IPS Glow. - Monitor comes pre-assembled out of the box. Cons: - Panel I got had low gamma and it made the colors seem washed out. You can lower gamma by using Windowss built in Calibration tool or in the Nvidia Control Panel, but this will result in crushed blacks and increased banding. To get a proper 2.2 gamma you need a colorimeter. Thats an additional $130+. - Small but noticeable backlight-bleed on bottom left corner. - Bad Uniformity...this is what made me return it. The top 1/3 of the monitor is warmer than the rest. Its not very noticeable during games because everything is moving so fast. Outside of gaming, however, it is the most distracting thing ever. I could see it on any light colored applications. I bought the monitor to use for everything, not just gaming. This 1 issue ruined it all. This is also mentioned on a couple other reviews, and Ive found many people on Reddit also have this issue. If for whatever reason you are buying this monitor solely for gaming, its great for that. But if you do a lot of web browsing or any sort of work, especially on light applications/websites, the poor uniformity can be really distracting.

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Pros: Coming from 1080P monitor, I noticed a huge difference in terms of image quality. It looks sharper, cleaner, less jaggy, and I can read the text very clearly. Running at 165Hz was really amazing. Game feels smooth, fluid, and responsive. Yes, running with G-Sync is also awesome experience too. No tearing, no stutter, and less input lag. For color accuracy, the color was vibrant and more accurate thanks to its true 8-bit AHVA/IPS panel, compared to most 1080P monitor with 6-bit + FRC (Frame Rate Control) which causes color depth dithering in order to achieve 8-bit bpp. Cons: Not much an issue in terms of backlight bleed, IPS yellow tint glow, flickering. Only complaint was that OST multi-directional button feels small to move with my large hands. I wish the multi-directional button is slightly bigger to easily play with the OSD menu such as brightness, blue light filter, contrast, etc. Other thoughts: Since Ive been gaming on 1080P monitor for over a decade, upgrading from 1080P to 1440P resolution truly makes a huge difference when it comes to CPU/GPU bottleneck. For instance, running at 1920 x 1080P resolution significantly causes CPU bottleneck which will therefore lead to less GPU utilization. 1440P, however, seems to solve CPU/GPU bottleneck since raising more pixels means GPU have to do more work while CPU does less which is important to have consistent frame time variance. The aesthetics, build quality, and quality control is excellent, though PG279QZ is basically a revised version of PG279Q which originally came out since 2015. But thankfully, the IPS panel itself has been improved which should alleviate backlight bleed and/or IPS glow. Perhaps, I may have won panel lottery. All in all, Im happy with my purchase and I highly recommend PG279QZ if you want more resolution, decent color depth, and G-Sync capability. Spec: System Spec: Intel Core i9-9900k OC@ 5.1Ghz w/ 1.2V -0.075V Adaptive DVID/LLC: Medium GIGABYTE Aorus Xtreme Z390 Motherboard Noctua NH-D15 MSI Gaming X Trio GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11GB GDDR6 Video Card 115Mhz+Core/800Mhz+Memory G.Skill TridentZ RGB 64GB 3733Mhz CAS 17-19-19-39 DDR4 SDRAM VCCSA 1.03V/VCCIO 1.01V Logitech G910 Orion Spark RGB Romer-G Mechanical Keyboard Logitech G Pro Lightspeed Wireless Mouse Logitech Z333 2.1 Speaker Logitech Powerplay Wireless Charging Mouse Pad Logitech G Pro Headset Logitech XL G840 Cloth Mouse Pad Creative Sound BlasterX AE-5 32-Bit DAC PCIe Sound Card ASUS RoG Rapture GT-AC5300 Router Netgear CM500 DOCSIS 3.0 Modem 삼성 960 PRO 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD 삼성 850 EVO 2TB AHCI SATA SSD 삼성 960 PRO 2TB NVMe M.2 SSD 삼성 960 Pro 2TB NVMe M.2 SSD Cooler Master H500M Mid Tower Case Seasonic Prime Ultra 1000W 80 Plus Titanium PSU ASUS RoG Swift PG279QZ 165Hz 27" 2560 x 1440 8-bit AHVA/IPS G-Sync Panel Windows 10 Pro 64-Bit Operating System Xbox Elite Controller

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I had previously returned a PG279Q due to backlight bleed. I bought this newer model specifically because I hoped ASUS had fixed this issue. Well they haven’t. I fired it up for the first time and their was a nice yellowish tab of backlight bleed about the size of a quarter so bright it was noticeable in a fully lit room. I had heard people were getting better luck with this model over the original 9Q so i’ll Give it a second chance, but if it’s not perfect next time I’m just gonna give up on IPS panels for now.

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