Asus MX279H review

The MX279H provides different screen modes, including Scenery, Theater, Game and Night View. Scenery Mode enhances contrast, making images appear sharper, and Theater Mode makes colours look much richer. Game Mode, on the other hand, increases the brightness levels to eliminate shadows, while Night View Mode eases brightness slightly so it creates less strain on your eyes in lower light conditions. Each one is customisable too, so you can tweak each setting to your own liking.

Around the back, the MX279H has two HDMI inputs that are HDCP compatible and one VGA port for older PCs. At first we lamented the exclusion of a DVI-D input, but the MX279H comes with a HDMI-DVI-D adaptor cable. It also has a 3.5mm audio line input, a 3.5mm headphone jack and two built-in stereo speakers. The speakers are Bang & Olufsen branded, and although they’re certainly better than typical monitor speakers, they don’t produce a lot of bass. You’ll probably still want a set of dedicated speakers if you plan on listening to a lot of music, but they’re adequate if you’re not too concerned with sound quality.

The Asus MX279H isn’t the best 27in IPS screen we’ve ever seen, but you certainly won’t find one with a better design for under £300. It’s a shame it doesn’t have a larger resolution, as a screen this pretty certainly deserves one, but the Asus MX279H shows that a marriage of great design and decent image quality needn’t break the bank.