ASUS ROG Swift PG279QM Monitor Review

The ASUS ROG Swift PG279QM has a very gamer-oriented design. The gamer aesthetic continues on the back, with lines etched in the back panel and a large ROG logo that doubles as RGB bias-lighting.

The ASUS ROG Swift PG279QM has great build quality. The stand is very sturdy, with metal feet that support the monitor well and don't allow for much wobble. The main body is mainly plastic, and there's a bit of flex in the back panel near the RGB logo, but there are no other noticeable issues.

The ergonomics are impressive. It's easy to place the screen in an ideal position or to adjust it for someone else.

The back has a large ROG logo that doubles as an RGB light. There's a cutout in the stand for cable management , and there's an included cover that hides the inputs.

The stand has a large footprint, but it supports the screen well, allowing for very minimal wobble, even at the maximum height extension.

• DisplayPort cable
• HDMI cable
• USB-B upstream cable
• Power supply and cable
• User manuals, including calibration report
• Stickers

The ASUS ROG Swift PG279QM has mediocre contrast, so blacks look gray if you're in a dark room. Unfortunately, because the local dimming feature can only illuminate entire columns of light at once, it's ineffective at boosting contrast with the checkerboard test pattern. It's most effective at boosting contrast in scenes with larger dark areas.

The contrast photo shows a reddish tint. This is from an interaction between the backlight and the camera sensor and it isn't noticeable in person.

The local dimming feature is bad and ineffective at improving dark scene performance. It's edge-lit with 32 dimming zones, so it only illuminates entire columns of light at once, resulting in terrible blooming with most content. It's especially noticeable in dark scenes with subtitles. In scenes that are dark enough for zones to turn off, it's very effective at reducing black levels, but there's a noticeable difference between zones that are on and off.

As fast-moving objects transition between zones, it reacts quickly, but this is distracting in dark scenes as zones flicker on and off. The 'Level 3' Variable Backlight setting offers the best performance overall. Zone transitions are a bit slower with the 'Level 2' setting, and there's less flicker overall, but it also raises the black levels in zones that are off.

The SDR brightness is great. It's bright enough to overcome glare in bright rooms, and there's very little variation in brightness with different content, which is great.

These results are from after calibration, in the 'Racing Mode' Picture Mode, with the backlight at max and Variable Backlight set to 'Level 3'.

The HDR brightness is decent. Despite having a local dimming feature, small highlights don't pop against the rest of the image, and it fails to deliver a satisfying HDR experience. Luckily, it has good PQ EOTF tracking, meaning it displays most content at their correct brightness, and with a sharp cut-off at the peak brightness, it lets highlights get the brightest they could.

These results are with HDR enabled, Brightness at '100', and Variable Backlight set to 'Level 3'.

The ASUS PG279QM has an impressive horizontal viewing angle. The image remains consistent from the sides, ideal for sharing your screen with others.

The vertical viewing angle is okay. While it washes out from wide angles, it's still fine if you're standing up and looking down on the monitor.

This monitor has great gray uniformity. The sides of the screen are a bit darker than the center, and there's a bit of dirty screen effect in the center, but it isn't very noticeable.

The gray uniformity photo shows a reddish tint. This is caused by an interaction between the backlight and the camera sensor and it isn't noticeable in person.

The black uniformity is disappointing. The screen appears cloudy without local dimming. Due to the limited number of dimming zones, local dimming results in worse black uniformity, with significant blooming around bright objects.

The accuracy before calibration in the sRGB mode is excellent. It locks colors well to the sRGB color space, and most colors are accurate, but white balance is a bit off. Gamma follows the sRGB curve very closely, but most scenes are slightly darker than they should be.

This monitor has two separate options that allow you to limit the color gamut to the 'sRGB' color space. Setting GameVisual to 'sRGB' locks the gamut, but it also severely limits the picture settings that you can change. Setting Display SDR Input to 'sRGB' also locks the color gamut to the sRGB color space but leaves all picture settings unlocked, which is useful for customization. Both sRGB modes achieve roughly the same accuracy, but 'Racing Mode' with the separate sRGB clamp delivers the best results overall without any limitations, which is what we used for testing.

The accuracy after calibration is fantastic Any remaining issues with the white balance and color accuracy aren't noticeable, and gamma follows the sRGB target curve nearly perfectly. The color temperature is extremely close to the calibration target.

The SDR color gamut is fantastic. It has complete coverage of both the sRGB and the Adobe RGB color spaces, but it oversaturates colors in Adobe RGB.

The HDR color gamut is fantastic. It has nearly complete coverage of the DCI-P3 color space used by most current HDR content. It also has great coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 color space, and there are minimal tone mapping issues with each color space.

The HDR color volume is great. Although it displays a wide range of colors, it doesn't make them look very vivid.

The ASUS PG279QM has good text clarity. Running the Windows ClearType wizard helps improve text clarity (top photo), especially on diagonal or curved lines.

The reflection handling is good The matte coating helps reduce the intensity of direct reflections but also adds a slightly hazy look.

The reflection photos show a reddish tint. This isn't a calibration artifact, as the monitor has a near-perfect white balance and color temperature after calibration. It isn't noticeable in person, and it's an interaction between the backlight and the camera sensor.

This monitor has remarkable gradient handling, with almost no noticeable banding in areas of similar color.

Due to bandwidth limitations over HDMI, you can only reach the max refresh rate over DisplayPort. If you want a 1440p monitor with an even higher 360Hz refresh rate, check out the ASUS ROG Swift 360Hz PG27AQN.

On top of supporting native G-SYNC and working with FreeSync, this monitor also supports HDMI Forum VRR.

The motion handling is great across the VRR range. Motion looks sharp with the 'Esports' overdrive setting, and while it's consistent across the VRR range, there's more inverse ghosting and blur at lower refresh rates.

The refresh rate compliance is good. It performs best at 60Hz, as its response time isn't fast enough to make full color transitions before the monitor draws the next frame at high refresh rates.

The CAD at the max refresh rate is great. Motion looks sharp with the recommended overdrive of 'Esports', as it has less blur than 'Normal' and less inverse ghosting than 'Extreme'.

The CAD at 120Hz is very good. Like at the max refresh rate, the recommended overdrive is 'Esports', but it has a bit more inverse ghosting. If that bothers you, 'Normal' is better to use, but it has slightly more blur.

The CAD at 60Hz. Once again, the 'Esports' overdrive provides the best performance as there isn't distracting inverse ghosting, but 'Normal' performs similarly.

The ASUS PG279QM doesn't have an optional backlight strobing feature, commonly known as black frame insertion.

This monitor doesn't have any noticeable VRR flicker with changing frame rates, which is fantastic for gaming.

This monitor has a completely flicker-free backlight at all brightness levels, which is great as it can help reduce eye strain if you're sensitive to it.

The input lag is very low for a responsive feel. While it increases a bit more than expected at 60Hz, it's still fine for gaming.

You need to use the console's HDMI override settings for 1440p @ 60Hz to work, which disables VRR. However, because the console only supports HDR with 4k signals, you can't get any HDR from the Xbox on this monitor.

There are no serious issues with macOS. VRR and HDR work properly in game and on the desktop. There's a slight issue with sleep, as window positions are shifted around when waking up from sleep.

The ASUS ROG Swift PG279QM has a few additional features available. Some of them include:

• Crosshair: There are six virtual crosshairs to choose from. Unlike software virtual crosshairs, these can't be detected by your games.
• FPS Counter: Displays the frame rate received from the source in real time. It can also display a graph of the frame rate over time.
• Dark Boost: Adjusts gamma to make it easier to spot other players/enemies in shadows.
• NVIDIA Reflex Latency Analyzer: By connecting a compatible mouse to the red USB port at the back of the monitor, this system allows you to analyze the total input latency of your computer.