Asus PB278Q review

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Verdict:

Fewer extras than the competition, but excellent high-resolution images out of the box

Review Date: 17 Oct 2012

Price when reviewed: £500

Buy it now for: £459
(see more store prices)

Supplier: http://www.scan.co.uk

Reviewed By: Chris Finnamore

Our Rating 5 stars out of 5

User Rating

We were impressed with the monitor's image quality right out of the box. Our Dispcalgui calibration software and Spyder4Express colorimeter reported the screen as displaying 98.4% of the sRGB colour gamut at its default settings, and once we’d calibrated the monitor it was within 99.1% of sRGB. Even if you don't calibrate the screen, you can be confident that you'll be getting good colour accuracy; by contrast, we feel you need to use a calibrator on Viewsonic's screen to get the most out of it.

Asus PB278Q pre-calibration gamut

Asus PB278Q post-calibration gamut

The figures were borne out in our subjective image tests, where we could find little, if anything to complain about. In our solid colour tests colours were saturated and even across the monitor's surface and blacks were deep with no leakage from the backlight. In our image tests we saw plenty of detail in both light and dark areas, showing off the monitor's impressive contrast.

Asus's PB278Q has superb colour accuracy even at its default settings, so, while we'd still recommend using a calibrator to get the most out of a monitor this expensive, you can still be sure of getting a decent picture even without any specialist equipment. It doesn't have as much physical adjustment as the Viewsonic VP2770-LED and there's no built-in USB hub, but is a useful £50 cheaper. If you want pivot adjustment, a USB3 hub and a very high stand, then Viewsonic's screen is the one to go for, but if you can do without the fancy extras Asus's screen is the one to buy.

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User comments

No USB!

What a shame - I use two of them on my LaCie for camera and a desktop back-up drive.
Otherwise this sounds a good monitor for the price in comparison - as long as it doesn't have a glossy screen which wouldn't be good for photo editing.

By trishahardwick on 23 Oct 2012