Designer Review: ASUS ProArt PA27JCV 5K 27-inch display

Review unit on loan from ASUS Singapore

The ASUS ProArt PA27JCV is a 27-inch IPS LCD with 5K resolution (5120 x 2880) targeted at visual content creators.

I do not have the price at time of review but when I do, I'll update this review.

FYI here are the prices for other 5K 27-inch displays:

• Apple Studio Display sells for USD 1599 (now discounted on Amazon US)
• Samsung Viewfinity S9 is USD 1599 (now also discounted on Amazon US)
• The old LG Ultrafine 5K 27-inch (2016) was USD 1299

Apple Studio Displays works better with Mac than with Windows. Samsung Viewfinity S9 has coil whine. The 5K 27-inch LG Ultrafine has already been discontinued.

If you compare this ASUS display with those mentioned above, this ASUS actually checks many boxes, but pricing unfortunately is unknown at time of this review.

Video review

Bottom line

This is a beautiful display with solid build quality. I measured colour support for 100% sRGB, 100% P3 and 89% AdobeRGB, and a maximum brightness of 528 nits. The anti-glare works so well you may not need a shading hood.

5K on a 27-inch display is a great combination for Mac users since MacOS has problems with UI scaling for certain resolution and size combo, e.g. 4K 27-inch.

Port selection is good and the OSD menu is easy to use and has many features, including automatic KVM switching.

The downsides are more of limitations than downsides. The refresh rate is 60Hz, IPS LCD will not produce true HDR effect and brightness near the edges are around 50 nits lower than centre, not that it's that obvious in real life.

Key specifications

• Panel size: 27-inch
• Panel type: LED IPS LCD
• Resolution: 5120 x 1880, 218 PPI, 16:9 aspect ratio
• Refresh rate: 60Hz
• Display surface: Anti-Glare, Low-Reflection
• Typical brightness: 400 nits
• HDR brightness: 500 nits
• Contrast ratio (typical): 1500:1
• Response time: 5ms (GTG)
• Speaker: 2W x 2
• Warranty: 3 years
• Ports: HDMI v2.1, DisplayPort v1.4, USB 3.1 gen 1 Type C with video support and 96W power delivery, 2x USB 3.1 gen 1 Type C for data, 3x USB 3.1 gen 1 Type A, 3.5mm audio jack
• Power consumption: 31W
• Adjustment: Height, tilt, swivel, rotate
• VESA mount: 10 x 10cm
• Dimensions with stand: 61.22 x 53.81 x 21.50 cm (WHD)
• Dimensions without stand: 61.22 x 36.29 x 4.41 cm (WHD)
• Weight with stand: 5.91kg
• Weight without stand: 4.14kg

• Display
• Stand in three parts
• USB-C to USB-C cable (1m)
• Full-size HDMI to full-size HDMI (2m)
• Two power cables with different plugs
• Colour calibration report
• ProArt welcome card
• Setup guide
• Micro-fiber cleaning cloth

There's no DisplayPort cable, no power adapter.

Design

This is a beautiful display with simple and clean design. Bezels are thin except for the bottom.

The back is matte textured plastic which is quite susceptible to fingerprints but it doesn't matter since it's on the back.

The stand has plastic on the exterior and metal inside, and looks sleek. Self assembly of all the parts is straightforward and does not require any tools.

The display is actually thinner than I expected at 4.41cm.

Cable management looks good.

OSD menu buttons face forward and there's also a directional toggle.

Using and navigating through the OSD menu is extremely easy. The OSD menu has many useful features, such as KVM switching, Picture-in-Picture and Picture-by-Picture, colour settings, display mode settings, and more.

Beneath the display, you will find

• Kensington lock
• Power switch
• Power port
• Full-size HDMI v2.1
• DisplayPort v1.4
• USB 3.1 gen 1 Type C with video support, 96W power delivery, KVM switch #1
• USB 3.1 gen 1 Type C for data transfer, KVM switch #2
• 3x USB 3.1 gen 1 Type 1 (5V - 0.9A)
• USB 3.1 gen 1 Type C for data transfer, 1W charging

Port selection is good. The USB-C also has 96W charging to keep your laptop charged.

Display

One of the main selling points is definitely the 5K resolution with this 27-inch IPS LCD.

MacOS does not work well with certain monitor sizes and resolution, eg 4K 27-inch, and this 5K 27-inch combo fits in the sweet spot where you can get big looking UI elements with excellent sharpness. Windows is able to handle UI scaling better so Windows users actually won't have any problems with 4K 27-inch display, which many be more preferable simply because of the lower price point.

The ASUS ProArt software now supports more colour calibrators as mentioned here. Anyway, I just use my Spyder X2 software because I can run that on both Mac and Windows. ASUS actually provides calibration through the web browser too but I did not test that.

I measured colour support for 100% sRGB, 100% P3, 87% NTSC, 89% AdobeRGB and a maximum brightness of 528 nits. ASUS advertised 400 and 500 nits for typical and HDR brightness and they under promised and overdelivered.

Visual quality of this display is stunning and working on it is extremely satisfying.

Reviewing this monitor makes me feel bad having to go back to using my older monitor.

If you're upgrading from a lower resolution monitor, many of your older low res graphics will not look good on this 5K display due to having to upsample to zoom to fill the screen. Your wallpapers or scanned artworks (300 DPI) are either not going to look good or will just look small. FYI, 5K has 77% more resolution compared to 4K.

When I started reviewing 4K displays many years ago, I switching from scanning my artworks at 300 to 600 DPI and that's a great move. Now with 5K resolution, I'm considering scanning at 900 DPI.

27-inch is a great size to work with for print design. You can see an A3-size page on the screen at 100% zoom, and there's still space by the side for the palettes. Using the virtual ruler feature from the OSD menu, you can also have your graphic match displayed at the exact size on screen, 1cm for 1cm.

For graphic design work, the experience is amazing. There's plenty of canvas space to work with and all the visuals and UI look so sharp, and big.

As someone working with print, I would have preferred a display with 95% AdobeRGB or higher, but 89% is not too far off so it's not too bad, actually pretty good.

Needless to say, editing photos and videos is a joy too on this big and beautiful display.

The anti-glare anti-reflective surface is quite effective at cutting down glare. The display is also bright enough to go through diffused reflections. This is the first time I've seen anti-glare this good after reviewing so many monitors over the years.

The one thing I wasn't able to test was the ambient sensor and backlight sensor. According to ASUS marketing, the display can use the sensors to adjust the display colours according to ambient light conditions.

KVM switching

KVM switching works well.

You can attach a mouse and keyboard to the display. Then connect a computer to the 96W USB-C port, and the second computer to the other USB-C port beside and use either HDMI or DisplayPort. When you switch input sources, the keyboard and mouse will automatically switch the to active computer.

Downsides or limitations

Switching input sources take a while.

Display is 60Hz but it's not really an issue no having 120Hz because this monitor is targeted at visual content creators. We don't look at gaming monitors and expect 100% AdobeRGB.

Brightness is around 50 nits lower at the edges compared to centre. This is for maximum 528 nits brightness so the variance may be lower at lower brightness.

You don't get true HDR effect with IPS LCD due to the limited contrast ratio. We're talking about 1500:1 vs 1 million:1 contrast ratio difference if you compared IPS LCD to OLED.

Conclusion

As mentioned in the bottom line, this is a great monitor for visual content creators who have the budget. Image quality is almost excellent and it's extremely satisfying to work on a monitor that looks this good.

I prefer this monitor way more than the 5K 27-inch Samsung Viewfinity S9 that I reviewed last year. I don't need all the extra TV or smart features and this ASUS display does not have coil whine.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Beautiful design
+ Solid build quality
+ 5K resolution is exceeding sharp
+ 5K 27-inch is a great combo for Mac users
+ Matte display surface has amazing anti-glare and anti-reflection
+ Good colour support
+ 27-inch size is a good size for visual content work
+ 500 nits brightness
+ OSD menu is easy to use and navigate
+ OSD menu has many features
+ There's ambient and backlight sensor
+ KVM switch works well
+ Good selection of ports
+ 3 years warranty
- Brightness at edges are lower
- Switching input source takes time
- 60Hz refresh rate
- Not true HDR effect since it's not an OLED display

Availability

If you're in Singapore, you can get it from ASUS Singapore online store, Lazada SG and Shopee SG.