ASUS ROG Swift OLED PG27UCDM Monitor Review

The ASUS PG27UCDM has a gaming-oriented and premium design. It comes with a tripod stand that's typical for ROG Swift monitors, and it features down-facing lighting. There's more lighting on the back and the stand. The panel casing itself is thin metal, while the housing for the inputs and internal electronics is plastic. There are also vents in the back of the monitor.

The build quality is fantastic. There aren't any noticeable issues, and the materials feel premium, but there's still some very minor creaking when you press onto the plastic housing. It doesn't have much wobble when you knock it or when it's on an unstable desk, and there isn't any noticeable fan or coil whine noise either.

The ergonomics are excellent. You can adjust it in a number of ways, which is great if you often readjust your monitor. It moves on the stand smoothly and stays in place well. It also has a cutout in the stand for basic cable management.

The base of the stand is metal, and the pillar is plastic. Together, they hold the screen well. The tripod stand is big, though, so it takes up space on your desk.

There are two buttons and a joystick to control the on-screen display and turn the monitor on and off.

• DisplayPort 2.1 cable
• DisplayPort 1.4 cable
• HDMI cable
• USB-C cable
• USB-A to USB-B cable
• Power cable
• Covers for bottom-facing stand lighting
• Accessories bag
• VESA mounting adapter
• ROG stickers
• Cleaning cloth
• User documentation, including calibration report

The ASUS PG27UCDM has a near-infinite contrast ratio in a dark room. Blacks are deep and inky next to bright highlights. However, the black levels rise in a bright room, as they look purple. We used the methods from our new TV Test Bench 2.0 to measure the contrast at different luminance levels of a bright light directly facing the screen:

• Contrast at 100 lx: 736:1
• Contrast at 400 lx: 194:1
• Contrast at 1000 lx: 81:1

The ASUS PG27UCDM doesn't have a backlight, so it doesn't require a local dimming feature. However, with a near-infinite contrast ratio, there isn't any blooming around bright objects, and it's the equivalent of a perfect local dimming feature. We still film these videos on the monitor so you can see how the screen performs and compare it with a monitor that has local dimming.

Settings

• GameVisual: User Mode (after calibration)
• Display Color Space: Wide Gamut
• Uniform Brightness: Off
• Brightness: 100
• OLED Care: All settings off

The SDR brightness is good. It gets bright enough to fight glare as long as you don't enable Uniform Brightness. While there are some changes in brightness between different content, it isn't too aggressive. If it bothers you, then it's better to enable Uniform Brightness. However, that limits the Real Scene brightness to 255 cd/m² with most test windows at around 245 cd/m².

Settings

• HDR Setting: Console HDR
• HDR Format: HDR10
• Adjustable HDR: On
• Dynamic Brightness Boost: Off
• Uniform Brightness: Off
• Brightness: 100
• OLED Care: All settings off

The HDR brightness is okay. Like most OLEDs, it gets the brightest with small highlights, but it can't maintain this high brightness with larger highlights. That said, it still gets bright enough in content to fight glare in most well-lit rooms. It also has accurate PQ EOTF tracking, but because it has a slow roll-off before cutting off at its peak, it doesn't let all highlights get the brightest they could.

We also measured the brightness and EOTF with Dynamic Brightness Boost enabled, and again in the 'DisplayHDR 400 True Black' mode, with the results below.

The horizontal viewing angle is remarkable. Although it technically isn't perfect, you won't see any inconsistencies when viewing from the sides or if you sit close to the screen.

The vertical viewing angle is outstanding. The screen remains consistent no matter where you view it from.

The gray uniformity is remarkable. It maintains a uniform color throughout, which is fantastic for working with full-screen webpages or editing content. That said, like any OLED, there are thin gray vertical lines in dark scenes, but you won't notice them unless you look for them.

The black uniformity is perfect. Thanks to its OLED panel, it maintains a uniform black level across the screen.

The accuracy before calibration is incredible. The 'sRGB Cal Mode' GameVisual locks colors well to the sRGB color space and has minimal color accuracy and white balance issues, but it isn't perfect. It's also close to the target 6500K color temperature and has good gamma tracking, but most scenes are either slightly too dark or bright.

Using the 'sRGB Cal Mode' locks a few settings, which you can see below, but other modes with more configurable settings have worse accuracy.

• All Color settings
• Shadow Boost
• Uniform Brightness
• Contrast
• Blue Light Filter
• ELMB
• Aspect Control

The accuracy after calibration is excellent. The main benefit of calibrating it is if you want access to the settings that are locked out in the 'sRGB Cal Mode.' That said, by calibrating it in the 'User' GameVisual mode with Display Color Space on 'Wide Gamut,' colors are still oversaturated compared to the 'sRGB Cal Mode.' It may be better to use the sRGB mode if you work in that color space.

The ASUS PG27UCDM has a fantastic SDR color gamut. It displays a wide range of colors in the common sRGB and the wider Adobe RGB color spaces, but it's oversaturated in both.

The HDR color gamut is remarkable. It displays a wide range of colors in the common DCI-P3 color space, and even though some are oversaturated, there are minimal inaccuracies. Colors are accurate in the Rec. 2020 color space, too, but it doesn't display all the colors needed.

The ASUS PG27UCDM has an amazing HDR color volume. It displays bright and dark colors very well in the DCI-P3 color space, and while not all colors are vivid in the Rec. 2020 color space, it's still excellent. Keep in mind that colors desaturate with ambient light in a bright room.

The text clarity is fantastic. It's better than 32-inch, 4k QD-OLEDs, like the ASUS ROG Swift OLED PG32UCDM, and while it has typical issues for QD-OLEDs, like fringing, they're hard to see. Plus, using Windows ClearType (top photo) helps make text look sharper. These photos are in Windows 10, and you can also see them in Windows 11 with ClearType on and with ClearType off.

The reflection handling is outstanding. It reduces glare really well, as even reflections from strong light sources aren't distracting.

The gradient handling is remarkable. There's minimal banding between shades of similar colors.

You can reach the monitor's max refresh rate without any compression over DisplayPort if your graphics card also supports DisplayPort 2.1 bandwidth with UHBR20 speeds. However, you need to use DSC to reach the max refresh rate over HDMI. The monitor has a DSC Support setting, and with it off, the max refresh rate with a 4k signal over HDMI is 120Hz.

On top of supporting FreeSync VRR and G-SYNC compatibility, the ASUS ROG Swift PG27UCDM also supports HDMI Forum VRR.

The ASUS PG27UCDM has outstanding motion handling across its VRR range. CAD remains low throughout, and the only blur you see is persistence.

The refresh rate compliance is incredible. Its response time is fast enough to make full-color transitions before the monitor draws the next frame.

The CAD at the max refresh rate of 240Hz is remarkable. Motion looks extremely sharp, and there isn't any noticeable blur. Although it has some overshoot in certain transitions, it doesn't result in inverse ghosting.

The CAD at 120Hz is outstanding. Although there's a bit of persistence blur, motion still looks sharp.

The CAD at 60Hz is incredible. Any blur you see is persistence, and it doesn't have any noticeable inverse ghosting.

The ASUS ROG Swift PG27UCDM has a black frame insertion feature, and the setting for it is called ELMB. While it helps reduce persistence blur, it's limited in how you can use it, as it only works with fixed 120Hz signals.

Unfortunately, this monitor has distracting VRR flicker with changing frame rates. It's most noticeable in dark scenes, but it isn't as bad in bright scenes. While it has an OLED Anti-Flicker setting to try to fix this, it isn't effective at reducing flicker at all, as you can see below. Note that the flicker is so bad with OLED Anti-Flicker that it passes the limits of our charts.

The input lag is very low for a responsive feel. Although the input lag at 60Hz is slightly higher than expected, it still feels responsive.

There aren't any compatibility issues with an Xbox Series X|S, and Dolby Vision works, as long as you have it enabled in the monitor's OSD. Since the Xbox doesn't support HDR with 1080p or 1440p signals, this isn't a limitation of the monitor.

Besides HDR10, the ASUS ROG Swift PG27UCDM also supports Dolby Vision.

The USB-C port allows you to connect a laptop to display an image from it and charge it with one cable.

This monitor works well with macOS. If you're using a USB-C connection with an M2 or newer device, you need to set Type-C Bandwidth to 'USB 2.0' in the monitor's OSD to get the max 240Hz refresh rate, as it's limited to 120Hz on 'USB 3.2.' If you're using a MacBook, you can continue working on the screen after closing the lid when using a USB-C connection. However, over HDMI, the MacBook goes to sleep when you close the lid. Whether you use HDMI or USB-C, windows migrate to their original positions when reopening the lid.

The ASUS PG27UCDM has a bunch of features, some of which you can read about below:

• Aspect Ratio Control: You can use this setting to change the aspect ratio, including decreasing the image size to simulate a 24.5-inch size or 4:3 aspect ratio.
• Adjustable HDR: Allows you to customize more color settings in HDR.
• Blue Light Filter: Reduces blue light to help reduce eye strain.
• Dynamic Shadow Boost: Adjusts the black level so that you can see opponents better in dark scenes.
• GamePlus: Includes different gaming features like an FPS counter, crosshairs, sniper mode, stopwatch, and timer.
• Lighting Effect: Controls the RGB lighting on the back of the monitor and on the stand.
• Neo Proximity Sensor: Turns the display off if it detects you are away from the monitor.

Like most OLED displays, there are also a few settings to help reduce the risk of burn-in, which you can find in the OLED Care section of the OSD:

• Adjust Logo Brightness: Dims static elements that are on the screen, like taskbars or if you're watching TV. This includes options like Logo Detection, Taskbar Detection, and Boundary Detection.
• Pixel Cleaning: This feature helps fix any burn-in issues that may occur. It happens after you turn off the screen and takes about six minutes to finish. There's also a setting to remind you to turn off the monitor so it can perform the cycle.
• Screen Move: Moves the image by a few pixels to one side to help reduce the risk of burn-in. You can also turn it off altogether.
• Screen Saver: Includes other settings that dims parts of the screen to reduce the risk of burn-in, like Screen Dimming Control, Outer Dimming Control, and Global Dimming Control.

You can also control the monitor's settings through the downloadable DisplayWidget Center program. You can learn more about the available settings from the user manual.