Review on ASUS XG27AQ: DisplayPort DisplayHDR 2560X1440 at 170Hz with Height Adjustment, Blue Light Filter, IPS, and HDMI by Aaron Wilson

Basic Review: I'm primarily a PC gamer, but I loved the idea of connecting an Xbox Series X to the same monitor as a companion device for original Xbox games, 360 games, multi-platform, and games I don't may have to. lots of horsepower for. My current monitor is an Asus PG279Q which has served me well for many years, but it is HDMI 1.4 and maxes out at 1440p/60Hz. With both the Xbox Series S and X supporting 120Hz over HDMI, I figured it was time to look for a new HDMI 2.0 capable monitor. My previous monitor. It supports 1440p at 120 hours and has VRR, HDR and low latency modes. The Xbox Series X can support all of these. So far so good. Visually, it is very similar to the PG279, but the colors appear a bit stronger. The black is black and the image uniformity is very good. I also have no dead pixels out of the box. From a structural point of view, this is a great monitor. I was a little concerned that the stand would take up too much space or be uncomfortable, but it's great. Strong, sturdy and, although a bit oddly shaped, it looks very nice on my desk. The monitor as a whole looks and feels high quality, well made and with great attention to detail. I will note that the frame is gray rather than black, but I think it looks nice and goes well with my other components. With the Xbox Series X, she immediately noticed that my monitor supported VRR and low-latency modes and asked me to turn them on. . However, I noticed that HDR is not supported for gaming. I had to go into Xbox settings and enable YCbCr mode, then HDR was detected. What's interesting is that you have multiple display options. You can run an Xbox at 4K 60Hz and while the monitor is 1440p it will pick up the signal and let you run it that way. It just scales down to 1440p and looks great. You can also set it to 1440p and 60Hz, or what we're here for, 120Hz. I've seen some people mention that HDR is tied to 4K, but that's not the case. I was able to set it to 1440p, 120Hz and get HDR. I tested Assassin's Creed Valhalla running at 60 fps and everything worked and looked great with HDR enabled. Speaking of HDR, since it's only an HDR400 it won't surprise anyone and it won't look as good as a high-end TV, I've honestly been good. impressed. HDR is fairly bright and made Valhalla noticeably richer and more detailed in lighting, which seemed preferable to turning off. HDR on Windows is a slightly different story. There's really no reason to run HDR on desktop. You need apps, games or movies to use HDR, otherwise it's pointless. I recommend turning it off for normal use, and then you can turn it on in-game if the game supports it. And finally, a couple of minor quirks to watch out for: - I wish Asus had provided a button to change input. If you want to change the inputs, you need to go to the monitor menu and look through several sections. A good thing, unlike my previous monitor, it automatically recognizes input. So if I play on Xbox and turn off the system, if you wait a few seconds it switches back to DisplayPort for my PC. I just wish there was a button on the back of the monitor to switch inputs. Especially since you have 2 HDMI and DisplayPort connections. It's not a huge issue and certainly better than my previous monitor, but still bulkier than it should be. The entrances are close together. There is a bar on the back of the monitor under the inputs, and if you have an HDMI or DisplayPort cable with a large connector, it can be difficult to connect. Luckily, Asus has cables, but if you use your own and they're oddly shaped, you could be in trouble. I am very happy with my purchase. If you're looking for a new 1440p 120Hz monitor for the Xbox Series S or X, I'll definitely add it to your list of options. Or if you're looking for a great PC gaming monitor and want to upgrade the classic PG279, this is a worthy successor. Xbox Update: If you're buying it specifically for Xbox, there are a few updates and things to look out for. Both Xbox Series S/Xs output at 1440p natively, so everything looks sharp and great on the monitor. Even though it's a 1440p monitor, it accepts a 4K/60Hz signal, so technically select 4K as the resolution on the Xbox and it will just be downscaled to 1440p. However, there is one problem - 120 fps and HDR. In order for 120 fps to work, you need to turn off "Allow 4K" in your Xbox settings. All the games I've tested at 120fps assume you're playing on a 4K TV, so it broadcasts a 4K/120fps signal. As this is a 1440p monitor and cannot accept a 4K/120Hz signal (which requires HDMI 2.1) it will be converted to 4K/60Hz which the monitor can accept. To get 120 fps, you need to uncheck the "Allow 4K" box in your Xbox settings. This results in 1440p/120fps. One problem is that for some reason Microsoft doesn't allow HDR with any resolution other than 4K. If you turn off "Allow 4K," you lose HDR. So in summary, it's not perfect, but it's basically a Microsoft issue. There's support for 1440p, but it seems late. What should happen is more games will support 1440p/120fps natively instead of sending a 4K/120fps signal, and Microsoft should allow HDR at other resolutions in a hopeful firmware update.