Review on ASUS ProArt Display Monitor PA278CV: High Performance 75Hz 🖥️ IPS LED Display with Adjustable Height, Pivot, Tilt, and Flicker-Free Technology by Nathan Kaewchay

This is a fairly expensive monitor for the features it offers. On the one hand, the picture is excellent. On the other hand, if you're like me, you're going to run into more trouble than it's worth trying to get this image to work. I had to connect three devices, a new M1 Mac Mini, a new Windows 11 PC and a computer. Nintendo Switch. In order for the M1 Mac Mini to work over USB, I realized I needed to install new firmware - the firmware that came with the monitor wasn't the latest. I've never had that with any monitor I've ever bought. The process wasn't intuitive, and even with the update, the USB hub feature didn't work. I realized there was another firmware update that needed to be installed through a Windows computer, but decided the reward wasn't worth the extra effort. A more serious problem with the monitor has to do with poor menus, settings, and the ability to toggle. The monitor is a low power monitor, which is what I'm talking about, but apparently this comes at the expense of the monitor recognizing input from devices when they start up. This is important for things like Mac recovery and PC BIOS screens. Despite my many attempts to get the monitor working to recognize these screens for some OS and hardware updates on my other devices, I ended up having to use the old monitor elsewhere in my house. I haven't had any luck with the monitor auto-detecting displays. Given the problems with early device detection mentioned above, this is perhaps not surprising. The menu seems to have a whole range of options for setting the monitor's capabilities, which is great in theory. What I found particularly interesting is that there are picture-in-picture and side-by-side modes, which I've tried to some extent and with some success. However, the problem lies in the effort and time required to turn this mode on or off or switch between these different modes. The menus aren't intuitive and the buttons are laggy, so switching isn't a quick process. The same applies to switching between different inputs. Another minus I would note are the speakers. They're bad, so I wouldn't plan on using them. Even the Mac Mini's internal speakers were better than the monitor's. Finally, I would like to point out the poor or non-existent support for these above issues. There are forums where you can find your problem. Not me. Ultimately I decided to give up and return the monitor. It's a shame because the picture is great. It's just not worth the effort. I'm a patient person when it comes to tech products and I rarely leave negative reviews, but this monitor deserves it. I would advise people to look elsewhere.