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Today we are looking at the latest 27 inch monitor from ASUS, the VG278HE – which sports a 1080p resolution, nVidia 3D Vision support and a whopping 144hz refresh rate for super smooth 3D gaming. This is an expensive screen, but can it deliver the goods?
We have reviewed many ASUS monitors in the last couple of years and I have found the quality of their screens can vary significantly. Their ProArt range has consistently scored well in our tests, but I haven't been impressed with many of their less expensive panels that we have reviewed.
The VG278HE 27” inch screen is primarily designed for gamers and features an LED backlit LCD panel capable of a 144hz refresh rate, which adds 24 frames per second to the 120hz display output. While many purists will immediately be put off by this additional processing, ASUS claim it will make 3D gaming look smoother.
The VG278HE 27” uses a TN film panel with a 1920×1080 resolution and boasts a 2ms (GTG) response time. It has full support for Nvidia 3D Vision 2. Display inputs include a dual link DVI, which is needed for this high refresh rate, even at the modest 1080p resolution. The monitor also includes 6W stereo speakers.
Product Features
- Response Time:2 ms
- Vertical Viewing Angle:160
- Brightness:300 cd/m2
- Features:HDCP, ASUS Splendid Video Intelligence Technology, Skin-Tone Selection, Trace Free Technology, ASUS Smart Contrast Ratio (ASCR), ASUS Splendid Video Preset Mode, NVIDIA 3D LightBoost technology, Advanced Dual-Side LCD Driving Technology
- Flicker-free 3D Images with NVIDIA 3D Vision 2
- NVIDIA 3D LightBoost Technology
- 144Hz Rapid Refresh Rate with 2ms Response Time
- Advanced Dual-Side LCD Driving Technology
- Splendid Video Intelligence Technology
The ASUS VG278HE 27” 144hz monitor arrives in a colourful box featuring an image of the product and key selling points. The box is quite heavy, weighing 11.6kg. It measures 732 mm x 560 mm x 176 mm (WxHxD).
The bundle includes the heavy base, a dual link DVI and VGA cable, power cable, audio cable, quick start guide and warranty card.
The base has the letters ‘3D' emblazoned on the surface, and underneath it is attached to the main stand via two large thumbscrews.
These thumbscrews are totally tool-less and can be laid flat so the base can rotate on its axis.
The ASUS VG278HE is a TN, rather than IPS LCD panel. There are very few IPS based 120hz+ screens available right now. It is an expensive looking screen. We like the glossy bezel and base, although they both easily attract finger prints. The monitor weighs around 8kg. It measures 643 mm x 438 mm x 250 mm (WxHxD) when assembled.
There are two 3W speakers installed in the VG278HE which will be useful for basic tasks, although they won't be replacing a dedicated set of speakers.
When assembled, the panel can tilt between +15°~-5° and it can also swivel.
There is a height adjustment on the stand and ASUS have included a VESA wall mounting 100mm x 100mm location in the central area of the rear of the panel, shown above.
The ASUS logo takes pride of position centrally at the bottom of the panel, as shown above.
On the left of the screen is an ‘HDMI' logo. Along the right of the screen are a series of indicators for the buttons underneath. These adjust the onscreen menu, turn the screen off/on, and change the input connector.
We like the fact that ASUS have adopted physical buttons on this screen, rather than touch sensors which can often fail to work intuitively. The power button is larger than the others, so it is easy to ‘feel' the difference with a finger tip.
There is a power connector on the left side of the screen, and a DVI, HDMI (1.4), VGA and PC Audio input via a 3.5mm Mini Jack. This DVI port is a Dual link DVI-D version so it can properly support the 144hz refresh rate (full NVIDIA 3D Vision support). There is no DisplayPort on the VG278HE.
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.
As we mentioned earlier in the review, the menu interface is available from the panel bottom right. The main Menu button is centralised between three buttons on either side and requires a physical press underneath.
The colour modes cover a wide range of settings to suit a variety of environments and demands. Game mode did add a little vibrancy to the colours, albeit with a little loss of accuracy. Scenery mode seemed almost unusable to me as the colours became incredibly intense. 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.
The main menu screen is cleanly laid out with 5 main menu options available on the left. Sub menus and settings appear in the white section on the right.
The ‘Color' panel allows for adjustment over Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Temperature, Skin Tone, Smart View and Nvidia LightBoost. Some of these settings will be greyed out, depending on the preset you are using at the time.
The ‘Image' menu allows for adjustment to Sharpness, Trace Free, Aspect Control, ASCR, Position and Focus. Again some of these will be greyed out, depending on the preset.
The ‘Input Select' panel allows for selection between the input connectors at the back of the screen. There is also an input select button which can be used for speed, outside this menu interface.
The final ‘System Setup' panel has a demo mode available, ideal for a retail store environment. There is also an ECO mode to adjust power saving, volume controls and On Screen Setup (OSD). You can also reset all the settings at the bottom of this menu, if you have made a mess of things.
I found the menu system to be very responsive and well laid out, much like the other ASUS onscreen menu systems I have used this year.
We tested the 2D elements of the ASUS VG278HE 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 VG278HE to a desktop powered GTX680 system for 3D testing results.
We measured the Gamut out of the box in sRGB mode and the VG278HE returned a reading of 2.18 which is very good. We manually adjusted the gamma to 1.8 and the panel returned a reading of 1.79.
Colour response across the panel was above average, with a 1.2% red cast across the image area. We wouldn't class the screen to exhibit outstanding image quality. It measured 95.9% of the sRGB colour gamut after it was calibrated which is again, very good. The image can be tweaked easily via the onscreen menu systems and the contrast levels are particularly noteworthy. Unlike some other 3D screens we have tested, there is detail in both the highlight and shadow areas of the images.
Viewing angles are above average, although not outstanding, a potential issue with most TN panels. We measured around 169 degrees horizontally and 161 degrees vertically.
Black Definition is much better than the VG23AH monitor which we reviewed in August. There is shift in the corners, particularly on the left side with our review sample. This will be noticeable to the naked eye if you are an observant user. The outer edges registered around 18 percent shift with around 8 percent in the center area of the screen. I did notice this with my bluray copy of Alien and SunShine. We also recorded a distracting patch just below mid way point, offset to the right.
This pooling is not easily noticeable to the naked eye, although if you are the kind of person who spots ‘clouding' on an LCD television then you might find this slightly distracting.
White purity delivered a below average result and there is a a 10-15 percent shift across most of the panel, with several areas darker than we would like to see. Again this may not be detrimental under specific conditions, although we did notice it in several bright outdoor scenes with bluray content and even when playing some games. The corners varied up to around 25%, particularly the top left area. There are several darker patches in the center of the screen, just above and below the mid way point.
Uniformity is also below average and bleeding is apparent in the corners of the panel.
We tested a handful of games with this monitor and 3D performance was superb. Games looked really smooth and by locking the vsync there was little to no tearing visible. I would love to say I noticed an improved gaming experience switching between 120hz and 144hz, but sadly this was not noticeable to my eyes. I could see absolutely no difference between 120hz and 144hz with any game that I tested. That said, for 3D gaming and looking past the 144hz claims, this is a top notch screen and one that worked tremendously well.
When playing games in 2D, I was unfortunately less impressed. There are many better quality screens for this price, particularly if you have no interest in 3D gaming. The black definition is far from the best in this price sector and I noticed some ‘clouding' with specific engines.
Power consumption of the VG278HE is relatively good, demanding around 60 watts when calibrated.
The ASUS VG278HE 27” has been designed primarily for 3D gaming, and in this regard it can be considered a success. If you have a new high powered graphics card and want to play the majority of your games in full 3D at 1080p then the VG278HE is certainly worth serious consideration.
It is an expensive monitor however and we need to look at the complete package before making a recommendation.
The 144hz refresh delivers a great gaming experience, although if I was being perfectly honest I was unable to tell the difference between this and a 120hz setting. Regardless, the end result is noteworthy, the high refresh rate ensures super smooth motion performance with a wide range of material and in the right situation it is extremely impressive.
I lost track of time when playing some of my favourite first person shooters for instance.
Unfortunately when we move outside the confines of 3D gaming, I find the ASUS VG278HE less impressive.
There are some inconsistencies that I find difficult to ignore, particularly the rather dirty appearance of a pure white image. Screen uniformity is also less than stellar and I could think of better options if I wanted to use a screen for more than just 3D gaming.
This ‘Dirty Screen Effect' (DSE) is rather prominent on the VG278HE and caused issues when editing images in Adobe Photoshop. I could also notice some blotching on paler images and when moving some Windows 7 panels horizontally I could actually notice the panel shift.
ASUS could argue that the VG278HE is just designed for 3D gaming, but I would imagine it would be a very small audience who only want to purchase a new monitor just to play games in 3D. For similar money you could purchase a screen with a cleaner overall image, improved colour accuracy, more consistent backlighting and wider viewing angles.
Right now in the United Kingdom, the ASUS VG278HE 27” 144Hz Gaming Monitor sells for around the £440 inc vat mark, although we found it cheaper on ARIA for £399.95 inc vat.
If this was my own money I would rather save the extra £100-£130 and buy the Dell U2711 Ultrasharp 27 inch screen which is recently available for just over £500 inc vat. Not only is the DELL IPS panel vastly superior in every area to the ASUS VG278HE, but it offers a higher 2560×1440 resolution with the same physical footprint. Obviously you can't play 3D games on the Dell panel so the decision is very much in the hands of the end user.
Pros:
- 144hz refresh rate.
- fantastic for 3D gaming.
- Good stand design.
- need to spend extra for the 3D kit.
Cons:
- expensive.
- White purity is poor.
- keep a cloth handy, glossy finish attracts fingerprints.
- uniformity could be much better.
- 120hz and 144hz difference is negligible in the real world.
Kitguru says: A great looking screen which excels with 3D gaming, but little else.
Ive never been impressed with a 3D gaming monitor outside of 3D gaming. they always seem to have poor backlighting consistenty
3d monitors suck, I have yet to see one I would use for everything, not just gaming.
Yeah im not a big fan of 3D monitors either, waste of cash.
I wouldnt say they were a waste of cash, they just have to make a lot of compromises at times to get the 3D working well. Even the high end 3D televisions have many weaknesses, unless you opt for a full backlit version, rather than edge lit, but they cost twice as much. OLED will transform this industry when the price comes down.
OLED is still some time away in the mainstream – still expensive. I agree it would make the whole industry wake up to better quality screens.
A bit of confusion here. The “extra” processing is in the video card. 72 fps is easy to do and requires 144 Hz input to do 3D. GPUs can easily do over 60 fps in 2D and dropping down to 60 fps to sync with a limited refresh rate of 120 Hz is a bit of a trade off. The additional frames are not the extra 24 Hz of refresh bandwidth but the 16 frames that match the magic number for motion fusion. Hope this helps.
I’ve yet to see a reviewer (or gamer) apart from me and my friends that actually notice why else you would be a 120hz or 144hz monitor….. SMOOTHNESS.
I don’t use and I actually hate 3D but 120+ hz is smooth as silk, you notice the jerkyness of a 60hz monitor after using a 120hz monitor in 2d mode wow…. I would never go back. EVERYONE seems to miss that point?
First off, the monitor is not intended for Photo Editing. This is made obvious by all reviewers except for this one. 2nd, the audience for gaming is much bigger than you think. And most people buying this monitor are not going to use the 3d function. We are more interested in the FPS and lack of tracers when firing your weapon etc which is why it is a gaming Monitor. If you are doing photo editing then this is not the monitor for you. I love mine and it was worth the upgrade. I was using a 60hz 24″ Dell ultrasharp so i definitely saw an improvement since my Dell Monitor is about 8 years old.
for heavy gamers like myself and many others, this is a essential peace in improving your gameplay, because with a powerfull pc, and this monitor, you can turn V-sync on and be locked at 120FPS or 144FPS and for ppl that don’t know what that brings, its an incredible smooth/fluid movement tracking, and that means you can aim ALOT better, and all small movements will be more noticeable simply because, there will be no lost frames and no screen tear. if thats not apealing to you, then well, don’t buy this monitor, but I can leave without it.