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Today we are looking at the latest 24 inch monitor from ASUS – the VG248QE, which sports a 1080p resolution, nVidia 3D Vision support and a 144hz refresh rate for super smooth 3D gaming. We weren't overly impressed with the VG278HE 27 inch 144hz screen when we reviewed it back in October last year so we hope the VG248QE can produce the goods.
Reviewing an ASUS monitor can be an bewildering experience because you never know quite what you will be getting as the quality can vary wildly from range to range. The company produce many inexpensive panels that quite often don't cut the mustard.
That said, I was impressed with their VN247H Super Narrow Bezel LED panel which I reviewed back on the 18th. While the image quality was far from perfect, at the modest asking price of £170 the pros far outweighed the cons. The tiny 9mm bezel was also a commendable selling point for multi screen configurations.
My own personal favourite ASUS monitors are their ProArt range, which has consistently ranked highly in our lab tests. The only downside is the high asking price which does alienate a huge portion of the enthusiast audience.
Asus VG248QE Overview:
- Ultra smooth action with 144Hz rapid refresh rate and 1ms (GTG) response time.
- With an 80,000,000:1 ASUS Smart Contrast Ratio (ASCR) and 350cd/m² of brightness, the ASUS VG248QE delivers life-like visuals in Full HD 1920 x 1080.
- A comfortable viewing with ergonomic design for swivel, tilt, pivot, and height adjustment.
- Featuring ASUS-exclusive GamePlus function hotkey for perfect gaming environment and experience.
- DisplayPort, Dual-link DVI-D, and HDMI ports ensure extensive connectivity and compatibility with multimedia devices or game consoles.
- Built-in 2W stereo speakers further add to an immersive home entertainment experience.
The ASUS VG248QE ships in a full colour box with an image of the screen top right – the product name is highlighted inside a red strip at the bottom. The 144hz refresh rate is given a lot of real estate with a mention of the 1ms refresh time and LED technology close by. The box weighs 5.5kg and measures 674mm x 413 mm x 221 mm (WxHxD).
The bundle includes Dual-link DVI cable an Audio cable, Power cord, Quick start guide, Support CD, Warranty Card.
The base of the stand looks very like the one found with the ASUS VG278HE 27 inch monitor, although the mounting mechanism is different. It is all finished in a high gloss paint which looks great but attracts fingerprints very easily.
The Asus VG248QE has a large rotating stand which is set to a sideways position for shipping. This can be rotated so the base of the stand can be screwed into place.
The stand supports-
Tilt : +15°~-5°
Swivel : Yes
Pivot : Yes
Height Adjustment : Yes
VESA Wall Mounting : 100x100mm
The Asus VG248QE is an attractive monitor with very little in the way of gimmicks visible from the front.
The Asus VG248QE isn't the thinnest screen and measures 569.4 mm x 340.4 mm x 57.3 mm (WxHxD) without the stand.
The stand has a red clip at the bottom which can be used to route the cables cleanly into the I/O panel.
The power connector plugs into the right side of the panel. At the left is an HDMI, Displayport and Dual Link DVI D connector. This DVI port is Dual link DVI-D so it can properly support the 144hz refresh rate (full NVIDIA 3D Vision support). There is also a 3.5 mm mini jack for PC Audio in (green), and an earphone jack for HDMI and DisplayPort (black).
It is good to see a Displayport included on the VG248QE, as ASUS did not include one on the larger VG278HE (It had a VGA port instead for some reason).
You can notice that the menu interface buttons are at the bottom of the lower bezel. They are traditional, physical buttons. We prefer these to touch sensors which can often cause issues.
On this page we present some super high resolution images of the product taken with the 24.5MP Nikon D3X camera and 24-70mm ED lens. These will take much longer to open due to the dimensions, especially on slower connections. If you use these pictures on another site or publication, please credit Kitguru.net as the owner/source.
The front panel is laid out in an easy to understand manner with buttons for the main menu system, movement up and down buttons and input/power buttons.
Furthermore, the VG248QE monitor features the ASUS-exclusive GamePlus hotkey with Aimpoint and Timer functions. Gamers can select four different Aimpoint types to suit their gaming environment for better aim in First Person Shooting (FPR) games; while the Timer keeps players aware of the elapsed time in Real-time Strategy (RTS) games. Its an interesting idea, but we never used it when gaming.
The color modes change the colour saturation to suit a variety of situations. The 6 preset video modes (Scenery, Theater, Game, Night View, sRGB and Standard) can be selected via a hotkey. As with the larger monitor the ‘game' mode did add some vibrancy with a little reduction in accuracy. Scenery mode is a mode I don't like with these screens as it boosts the saturation level past the point I would consider to be usable.
The Standard setting seems the most useful as you can configure brightness, contrast and colour settings. Some of these were locked out in other preset modes. I also liked the sRGB setting.
The onboard speakers are not the most capable, but perfectly usable in an office style environment when bass response and ultimate volume are not that important.
We tested the 2D elements of the ASUS VG248QE via a high end Core i7 Precision laptop featuring Quadro 4000M discrete graphics and a desktop system powered by a GTX670 graphics card. We then moved the ASUS VG278QE to a desktop powered GTX680 system for 3D testing results.
We measured Gamut out of the box in sRGB mode and the VG248QE returned a reading of 2.18 which is very good. After manually adjusting the gamma to 1.8, the panel returned a reading of 1.78.
Colour response across the panel was above average although not outstanding. We recorded a cast around 1.2% on the red channel. It measured 96.2% of the sRGB colour gamut after calibration which is quite strong. The image can be tweaked easily enough via the onscreen menu systems. Contrast levels are very impressive and unlike some other 3D screens we have tested in the last year there is detail evident in both shadow and highlight areas of the image.
Viewing angles are average, and a little less impressive than the VG278HE. This is an issue with most TN panels. We measured 167 degrees horizontally and 160 degrees vertically.
Black Definition is just above what we would class as average. There is shift close to all the corners, especially bottom left and right. This is noticeable to the naked eye if you are an observant user. The outer edges recorded up to 20% shift with it dropping to around 10% in the middle. I could see the shift with bluray discs such as SunShine and Alien V Predator.
The pooling is not that noticeable in general circumstances, but viewing high definition media with a lot of dark, night scenes will exacerbate the issue.
White purity delivered a below average result with a 10-15 percent shift across all of the panel. Several of the areas are slightly darker than we would like to see. This is not that detrimental when gaming, or viewing some high definition content. We could notice it with several discs, such as Pixar's ‘UP', which features a lot of bright outdoor scenes. There was also a distracting dark pooling in the middle of the screen, offset to the right. Overall I was disappointed with the ‘dirty screen effect'.
We tested a variety of games this week with the screen and 3D performance really is excellent. Games appear very smooth and by locking the vsync we could see no noticeable tearing. Sadly I could see no difference between 120hz and 144hz with any game that I tested, a similar experience to the larger VG278HE. That said, we have no complaints with this screen when it comes to 3D gaming.
2D gaming was less impressive and there are better screens around the £300 mark if this is a priority, especially if you have no interest in 3D gaming.
Power consumption of the Asus VG248QE is very good, demanding only 41 watts when calibrated.
The ASUS VG248QE 144hz monitor is an excellent screen for 3D gaming. In this regard it is a worthwhile purchase and will cost around £100 less than the bigger 27inch ASUS VG278HE 144hz which we reviewed back in October 2012.
While we can't find the VG248QE on sale yet in the United Kingdom, ASUS informed us that it will be priced around the £300-£320 mark, inc vat. At this price it does face stiff competition, especially from products already in the ASUS portfolio. The Asus VN247H Super Narrow Bezel monitor costs only £170 inc vat, so if 3D gaming isn't a primary concern then you could pick up two VN247H for almost the price of a single VG248QE. They feature the same quick refresh characteristics for gamers and exhibit similar image quality for 2D duties.
The VG248QE isn't the most technically proficient screen we have tested. The most commendable characteristic is the lightning quick refresh which ensures that artifacting/ghosting will never be a concern, but there are some image quality issues which reduce the overall score.
Viewing angles on this screen are slightly worse than the bigger 144hz VG278HE and colour degradation is noticeable if you aren't viewing the screen from close to perfect conditions, head on.
Black Definition is only slightly above average, with noticeable shift in the corners. If you don't have a critical eye then it will be fine, but in some situations pooling and less than stellar blacks could ruin the immersive experience when viewing high definition movies.
White purity is below average and when viewing bright outdoor scenes a ‘dirty screen effect' was noticeable, meaning that pure whites never looked the way they should. Again, if your don't have a critical eye, then this should not be an issue. We noticed similar DSE problems with the larger VG278HE last year.
If you only want to play 3D games then the VG248QE is a good buy. For everyone else however it is an expensive screen which delivers average image quality for 2D duties. There are much better 2D monitors available today for around the £300-£320 mark.
We award this a ‘WORTH CONSIDERING' award if you have a primary focus on 3D gaming.
Pros:
- Nice build quality.
- great stand system.
- 3D gaming is fantastic.
- 144hz refresh rate.
- Displayport connector.
- quick refresh eliminates ghosting and artifacting.
Cons:
- 2D image quality is only average at best.
- glossy finish gets dirty quickly.
- white purity and black definition.
Kitguru says: Not the best ASUS monitor we have tested. If you want to play 3D games all the time however, then it is worth considering.
Im going to order this as a secondary monitor, just f or 3D gaming. good enough price.
I like their pro art range, I bought one on the recommendation of Zardon last year and I absolutely love it. better than my older Dell.
I still want the 27 inch 2560×1440 Dell which is still dropping in price – seen it for just over £500 before christmas. I think by the end of the year, they will be £420 ish.
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=113&cp_id=11307&cs_id=1130703&p_id=9579&seq=1&format=4#feedback need a review on this
Hello.
Perhaps i’ve missed it but did you even test the reponse time of the monitor? There are several tools out there that you can use. I think tthere’s a lot of people wanting to know if it really is 1ms(usually it’s not)
This is like a newly father of two(twins) testing a sports car instead of a more family oriented car. The only real competitor to this is the Benq 2411T, comparing it to a non 120HZ monitor in 2D mode and “equaling” them just shows you don’t really care about gaming or the benefices of buying a 120+ HZ monitor and using it in 2D mode.
There aren’t that many gamers interested in 3D (stereoscopic) gaming, but they *are* interested in the 144Hz refresh rate and the almost-zero input lag that Asus is claiming.
The Asus VN247H has neither of those critical gaming features, so is not a fair comparison.
This new Asus VG248QE urgently needs a detailed comparison with the new BenQ XL2411T.
FPS games require the right software for a better game quality. I really wanted to buy these kinds of monitor. I’m glad that i have found the best gaming monitor reviews on the web!
This monitor is much better than expected for 2D gaming if you force-enable LightBoost during 2D mode:
http://www.blurbusters.com/zero-motion-blur/lightboost
The LightBoost is a strobe backlight that is able to eliminate all visible motion blur during 2D gaming. Motion is as clear as on a CRT. In PixPerAn tests, this was determined:
baseline – 60 Hz mode (16.7ms frame samples)
50% less motion blur (2x clearer) – 120 Hz normal (8.33ms frame samples)
60% less motion blur (2.4x clearer) – 144 Hz normal (6.94ms frame samples)
85% less motion blur (7x clearer) – 120 Hz LightBoost at 100% (2.4ms strobes)
92% less motion blur (12x clearer) – 120 Hz LightBoost at 10% (1.4ms strobes)
Good thing you have here is the diplayport which i really hope that its included. A lot of gaming monitor packages nowadays are very limited and expensive. Good one! Thanks!
Great choice for a gaming monitor. The 144hz speed is really awesome along with a high response rate. Looking forward to own and use a monitor like this one.
You are obviously not a gamer Zardon 😛
I don’t care what your lab tells you, this is one of the fastest monitors for gaming out there and has a fairly low price. Maybe it does not have great colors but we gamers don’t care about that. We just care about the 1ms response time and the insanely fast 144mhz refresh rate 😛 which at the time it cant be matched by almost no monitor out there for single monitor gaming. Cheers