Designer Review: ASUS PA279CV ProArt Display (4K 100% sRGB)

Review unit is on loan from ASUS Singapore

The ASUS ProArt Display PA279CV is a 27-inch 4K display is targeted at visual content creators. The main selling points are the 4K UHD resolution, USB-C with 65W Power Delivery, 100% sRGB and Rec. 709 colour support. Price in US $499 or SGD 799.

Items included

These are the items included in the box:

• Colour calibration report
• 1.5m USB-C to USB-C cable
• 2m full-size DisplayPort to full-size DisplayPort cable
• Power cable

The monitor has two HDMI ports but no HDMI cable is included for some reason.

Design

This is a good looking display with 8mm bezels on the top and sides.

VESA mount dimensions are 10 x 10cm.

The exterior of the base and stand are textured plastic while the interior is metal. Build quality is solid and the base is heavy.

The display has adjustability for height, tilt, rotate and swivel.

It can go real low if you need it to be that low.

A ruler is etched onto on the bottom bezels. I've to nitpick here slightly because the ruler starts from the edge of the plastic frame rather than from the first pixel.

As someone who works with print, I find the ruler extremely useful despite the 0.5cm misalignment. I actually draw my own ruler on the bezel of my office computer with a pencil. When you resize the dimensions your art or graphics to the ruler, you can get a view of the actual size of your work as if they are on printed paper. This can help you check the legibility of font sizes to make sure text is not too small.

The ruler is more useful than the ASUS QuickFit Virtual Scale that can be accessed from the OSD.

All the visuals are sharp thanks to the 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) resolution. Pixel density is 163 PPI. Pixelation is not noticeable from one arm's length away.

This 4K display is slightly sharper than the 27-inch 1440P display that I've been using for years. If you're thinking of upgrading from 1440P to 4K, I don't think it's worth it unless your monitor is really old, faulty or you're near your next upgrade cycle.

The power and OSD buttons are at the bottom right side. Navigating through the OSD menu is easy. The colour settings you can change are brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, gamma, colour temperature and black levels. There are also different colour modes you can choose, e.g. sRGB, Rec 709, DCI-P3. Note that if you choose any of these colour settings, certain display attributes will be locked, e.g. brightness, contrast, etc.

One clue that this monitor is not targeted at print designers is the lack of AdobeRGB colour mode from the OSD.

Colours for on this display look great out of the box.

This display has already been colour calibrated from the factory. According to the colour calibration report, this unit I have has an average Delta E of 0.45. Delta E is the difference between the actual colours you see vs the colours you input. Anything below 1 for Delta E is great.

I've also colour calibrated the display using a Spyder5Pro colour calibrator and measured colour support for 100% sRGB, 83% AdobeRGB, 84% P3 and 77% NTSC. Backlight is LED and maximum brightness is rated at 350 nits. I measured 326 nits.

Having said that, this IPS panel is relatively colour accurate and bright. 100% sRGB colour support is more than sufficient for most work purposes. Viewing angles are good. There's minimal colour shift or drop in brightness when viewed from extreme angles.

That's how the anti-glare looks when there are reflections on the display.

This display has a good selection of ports, namely 2x HDMI v2, 1x DisplayPort v1.2, USB-C with 65W Power Delivery, and 2x USB 3 type-A downstream ports.

On the left are two more USB 3 type-A ports. You have to extend your hand quite far in to reach these ports. There's no SD card slot unfortunately.

Connection

Having USB-C with Power Delivery is convenient. You can get video, audio and data signal while you charge your laptop. Charging is 65W so if you use a laptop with higher power requirements, your laptop's battery will still continue to drain.

The laptop can still charge even when the display is on standby mode.

Workflow

As this is a 100% sRGB display, it's good for creating visual content, e.g. art, graphic design, photos and videos, for the web.

ASUS's product page listed this display as a 10-bit display but it's definitely not. This is likely a 8-bit + FRC display based on the colour measurements recorded.

So marketing this monitor as a 10-bit display is inaccurate. People buy 10-bit displays because they want 10-bit displays, and because they want better colour accuracy. 10-bit is not the same as 8-bit FRC. If you open a 16-bit gradient file (download link #1 | download link #2) in Photoshop, a 10-bit display will show a smoother gradient while an 8-bit display will show banding. Banding is more noticeable when creating graphic design than editing photos or videos.

If I had purchased this display thinking it's a 10-bit only to find out it's 8-bit with FRC, I would return the display instantly. Thankfully, Amazon lists this as 100% sRGB instead of 10-bit.

You can use this display for print design as well. You just have to note the limitations of sRGB compared to AdobeRGB. Anyway, if you're not going to compare printed proofs against your display, not having 100% AdobeRGB is not going to matter.

100% sRGB is still good, but it's more suitable for creating web content.

There are no issues with editing photos or videos. The visuals are really sharp.

Any computer from 2018 should be able to drive 4K resolution, but whether you can get smooth animation is another question. The laptop shown above is using Intel Iris Xe Graphics and it is able to run 4K smoothly.

Backlight

This is an IPS panel so it has the usual IPS glow. The amount of glow will depend on your viewing angle. If you're looking straight at the display, IPS glow from the corners is reduced.

Backlight seems fine to me. I did not notice any unusual wavering light pattern at the edges. There's also no straight colour cast when the display is dark or with normal use.

Conclusion

My only issue with this display is with the marketing of this monitor as a 10-bit display when it's actually 8-bit with FRC.

But otherwise, it's a good looking 100% sRGB display that performs well. Colours look good, visuals are sharp, it's bright, port selection is good with 65W Power Delivery via USB-C. And there's a ruler!

If you're looking for an 100% sRGB display, the ASUS PA279CV is one I can recommend easily.

Availability

You can find the ASUS PA279CV ProArt Display from ASUS Singapore online store, Shopee Singapore and Lazada Singapore.

If you want to get it from Amazon, here are the affiliate links:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.co.jp