Designer Review: ASUS ProArt PA279CRV 4K 27-inch display

Review unit on loan from ASUS Singapore

The ASUS ProArt PA279CRV was released in mid 2023 and can be seen as an upgrade for the ProArt PA279CV released in mid 2021.

Price of the display is USD 449 and here in Singapore it's SGD 760. 3 years warranty is included.

Bottom line

Design of the display looks good. Build quality could be better though as there are sqeaking sounds when adjusting the display. I measured colour support for 100% sRGB, 92% AdobeRGB, 96% P3 and a maximum brightness of 350 nits, and while pretty good but are not up to the advertised specs (e.g. 99% AdobeRGB). Anti-glare is quite aggressive so the diffused reflections can affect visual quality quite noticeably.

Specifications

• Display Size: 27-inch
• Resolution: 3840 x 2160 (4K UHD)
• Panel Type: IPS
• Color Space: 99% DCI-P3, 99% Adobe RGB
• Color Accuracy: Delta E 2 (Calman Verified)
• Brightness: 400 cd/m² (HDR Peak), 350 cd/m² (Typical)
• Contrast Ratio: 3000:1 (Max), 1000:1 (Typical)
• Refresh Rate: 60Hz
• HDR Support: HDR10
• Ports: 1x USB-C (DP Alt Mode, 96W Power Delivery), 2x DisplayPort 1.4 (Daisy Chain), 2x HDMI 2.0, 3x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1
• Stand: Ergonomic with tilt, swivel, pivot, and height adjustments
• VESA Mount: 100 x 100 mm
• Speakers: 2x 2W
• Weight: 5.78 kg (with stand), 4.07 kg (without stand)
• Dimensions: 61.22 x 53.81 x 21.50 cm (with stand), 61.22 x 36.29 x 4.41 cm (without stand)
• Additional Features: Flicker-free, Low Blue Light, QuickFit Plus, PIP/PBP Technology, TUV Flicker-free, TUV Low Blue Light (Hardware Solution)

Here are the upgrades from the PA279CV from 2021:

• There's one extra USB 3.2 gen 1 Type-C port, one extra DisplayPort and supports daisy-chaining
• USB-C video port supports 96W charging, up from 65W
• Design is slimmer and lighter
• Stand looks more sleek

Things included

• Monitor
• DisplayPort cable
• USB-C video cable
• HDMI cable
• Power cable
• Colour calibration report
• Warranty card and quick start guide
• Stand

Design

Design of the display looks clean and simple. Body is made with plastic and build quality solid enough, but there's this squeaky sound when the display is moved to adjust for height, tilt, swivel and rotation (for portrait orientation).

This display is thinner and lighter (just 4kg) than the previous model.

There's support for 10 x 10cm VESA mount

Bezels are thin at the top and sides, thicker at the bottom where the OSD menu buttons are.

The buttons and toggle makes it easy to navigate and use the OSD menu.

The stand looks beautiful with the exterior matte plastic and internal metal. There's also a hole for cable management.

The various display modes (e.g. sRGB, P3, AdobeRGB, etc) will affect colour calibration. When set to AdobeRGB colour space, I measured colour support for 99% sRGB, 92% AdobeRGB and 86% P3. When set to P3 colour space, I measured only 86% AdobeRGB but 96% P3.

Maximum brightness is 350 nits which is exactly as advertised. There's support for HDR10 but since this is LCD panel, there will be no true HDR due to the 1000:1 contrast ratio.

Colour accuracy of this display is quite good. But for those who have the intention of buying a true AdobeRGB display, they will be disappointed that the actual AdobeRGB coverage is lower than advertised.

ASUS list the bit depth as 10-bit but I wasn't able to find out exactly how true that is. Anyway, I'll just rely on the colour measurements from my Spyder X2 colour calibrator.

The display is bright, vibrant and sharp. and works great for visual content creation. The display is bigger than A3 size paper so it's possible to check your print work at 1:1 size.

By the way 4K 27-inch is not a good combo for MacOS users due to scaling issues. So MacOS users may need to use a third party app called BetterDisplay to handle UI scaling. Windows handles UI scaling perfectly so no issues there.

If you're a MacOS user, you may consider the 27-inch 5K ASUS ProArt PA27JCV display instead which has higher resolution and noticeably better anti-glare.

One downside of the display is the anti-glare from the matte surface is quite aggressive. Diffused reflection can become a white haze that affects visual quality. This display is best used in a room where you can control the lighting. The display does not work with shading hood, and this is actually the situation where a shading hood is actually useful.

Port selection is quite good.

There are two HDMI v2.0, two DisplayPort (one for daisy-chaining which I did not test), a host USB-C for video w ith 96W charging, three USB 3.2 gen 1 Type-A ports and one more USB 3.2 gen 1 Type-C port. Having charging capability when your laptop is connected is very convenient.

Conclusion

The ASUS ProArt PA279CRV is a beautiful, bright, vibrant and sharp display. Build quality could better due to the squeaky sounds with moved, but it's a small issue.

Colour accuracy is good but not as good as advertised so that can be considered misleading marketing. I don't have any issues with colour accuracy as long as you know the actual measured colour support.

One main downside for me is the aggressive anti-glare that causes diffused reflection to affect image quality. This monitor is best used in a room where you can control lighting so that you can get the best visual quality.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Beautiful clean simple design
+ Bright, vibrant and sharp display
+ OSD menu easy to navigate and use
+ Good selection of ports
+ Supports daisy-chaining
+ VESA mount support
+ Good colour accuracy
+ 27-inch 4K combo may cause UI scaling issues with MacOS
+ Adjustments for height, tilt, swivel and rotation
+ 96W USB-C charging is great for laptop users
- Plasticky body with squeaky sound
- Anti-glare is quite aggressive and diffused reflections affect visual quality
- Colour accuracy not as good as advertised

Availability

You can find the ASUS ProArt PA279CRV on ASUS Singapore online store and Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | ES | IT)