ASUS VG278Q Review | A High-performance Budget Gaming Monitor

Over the years, ASUS has been a stand out manufacturer when it comes to gaming monitors – supplying the market with a whole host of high-performance options. So, when we decided to purchase their competitively priced 144hz 1ms gaming monitor – the ASUS VG278Q – I was more than excited to see what it could bring to the ever-growing marketplace.

Throughout the following review, we’ll be taking a closer look at build quality, picture quality, color accuracy, motion response, and gaming to see how it stacks up against similarly priced alternatives. We’ll also be looking at panel uniformity, luminance, and black depth to see how accurate its color profile is.

So, with that in mind, let’s dive straight into it!

Specifications

• Screen size – 27″
• Aspect ratio – 16:9
• Panel type – TN
• Resolution – 1920 x 1080
• Brightness – 400cd/m²
• Contrast ratio – 1000:1 (100,000,000:1)
• Response Time – 1ms GTG
• Refresh Rate – FreeSync 30-144Hz (VRR)
• Viewing angle – 170°(H)/160°(V)
• Color Depth – 8-bit
• Color Gamut – sRGB N/A, Adobe RGB N/A, NTSC 72%
• Backlight technology – W-LED
• Dynamic Range – SDR
• Panel Coating – Anti-Glare with 3H Hardness (Matte)
• Inputs – 1 X HDMI 1.4, Dual-link DVI-D 1 x DisplayPort 1.2, 1 x 3.5mm Audio Jack
• Dimensions (WxHxD) –
  619 x 363 x 50mm (without stand)
  619 x 500 x 211mm (Stand at max height)
  619 xm 373 x 211mm (Stand at lowest height)
• Curvature – Flat Panel
• VESA – 100 x 100mm
• Weight – 5.6KG (12.35lbs)

What's In The Box

The ASUS VG278Q arrived in a fairly subtle box that showcased the monitor and most of the key specifications and features on the outside. Inside, the monitor sits amongst two fairly robust styrofoam pads that house the monitor with part of the stand pre-attached.

The base of the stand needs to be manually attached but is extremely easy to assemble. The VG278Q also comes with 1 x HDMI 1.4 cable, 1 x DisplayPort 1.2, power cables, a warranty manual, and a start-up guide.

Design And Features

The following section will be a closer look at the overall design, build quality, and features this monitor comes equipped with. Seeing as though this monitor resides in the lower end of the price spectrum, it’ll be interesting to see how it stacks up in some of these important areas.

Design

As far as subtle 27-inch gaming monitors go, the VG278Q ticks a lot of the right boxes when it comes to raw design aesthetics. Whilst it doesn’t flaunt the gaming vibe too much, upon closer inspection, the VG278Q definitely offers that gaming feels a lot of consumers crave.

The base plate is square in design but does offer a little excitement thanks to some nicely-designed engravings and a red ring that are fairly customary on this range of ASUS monitors. The stand is pretty basic in design, as is the back of the monitor – providing very little to the already bleak aesthetic vibe. The 27-inch display is framed by an 11mm bezel, showcasing the ASUS logo on the bottom of the frame.

All in all, a nice little monitor that doesn’t cater itself to any one style. You could easily use this monitor in an office or gaming environment.

Build Quality

Over the years, I’ve always been impressed by ASUS when it comes to the build quality of their monitors. They just seem to provide that little bit of extra attention to detail that goes a long way.

With that in mind, the ASUS VG278Q is another fine example of how ASUS prioritizes the build quality of their monitors. This sub-$300 gaming monitor may be made primarily of plastic, however, it still feels absolutely rock solid. The stand is robust and provides excellent stability for this 27-inch frame. All the adjustment mechanisms feel well built, as does the back of the panel – providing very little creaking or off sounds during testing.

My only concern is that there is a slight bit of wobble when you move your desk with this particular panel. That being said, it isn’t painfully obvious and would only become problematic if you’re one of those super-aggressive rager type gamers.

Panel Coating

Like other monitors of this price point, the ASUS VG278Q comes equipped with an anti-glare coating with 3H hardness in matte. This particular type of panel coating is extremely efficient when it comes to mitigating direct light. I had no issue what so ever when gaming on this monitor during daylight hours, with sunlight posing no real threat to my gaming experience.

Bezels

The bezels on the ASUS VG278Q are fairly noticeable but don’t really affect gameplay to a great extent. There isn’t a great deal of difference when comparing the size of the bezels, however, the bottom bezel (which houses the ASUS logo) is slightly larger. The top and side bezels measure in at 11mm, with the bottom offering a slightly increased depth of 14mm.

Stand

The stand is probably one of my favorite features this monitor comes equipped with. It’s almost flawless in terms of functionality and design, providing height, tilt, swivel, and rotational adjustments. The base of the stand has a large square footprint that provides excellent stability – no matter what position you decide to use it in.

Regarding physical adjustments, the stand offers 130mm of height adjustment which is more than most at this particular price point. The ASUS VG278Q also provides 5 degrees of forward tilt, 33 degrees of backward tilt, and 180 degrees of pivot and swivel functionality as well – catering itself to a much broader user demographic – including Twitch streamers and social professionals.

Lastly, halfway down the stand, users can cable manageme any loose cables by placing them through a small cutout in the center of the stand itself. This can be covered by a plastic cover once finished and looks extremely neat – if used properly.

Inputs

All inputs are found at the rear of the monitor, with cables being attached in a verticle fashion. The VG278Q comes with 1 x HDMI 1.4, 1 x DisplayPort 1.2, audio input jacks, and a power connector.

Despite the inputs being directly behind the fairly wide stand, access is still very easy to achieve. Users can simply rotate the monitor and gain access to the input much easier.

OSD

The OSD on ASUS monitors never fails to impress me. The VG278Q is no different, providing easy navigation and a bunch of cool features other monitors of this price point simply don’t offer.

The menu button has a mini joystick design, which makes navigating the various menus extremely easy to do. To access the menu, users can simply press the joystick in. To navigate through the menus, you’ll have to move the joystick in the relevant direction – all entry-level stuff.

ASUS has equipped this monitor with a whole host of gaming features, including gaming color presets such as; scenery mode, racing mode, cinema mode, RTS/RPG mode, FPS mode, sRGB mode, and MOBA mode. You can easily toggle these presets within the menu to find whichever best suits your specific needs.

Users can also alter the blue light levels, color settings, image settings, and sound settings – all of which can be saved to the monitor itself via three allocated “favorite” profiles.

Underneath the menu joystick, we find a “cancel” button, a Game plus button (allowing you to add a crosshair, timer, FPS counter, and display alignment), and a game visual button for quickly toggling different preset setups.

Overall, the OSD has to be considered a big positive as far as this monitor is concerned.

Picture Quality & Color Accuracy

With any monitor tailored towards gaming, the picture quality and color accuracy are some of the most important features it comes equipped with. At this price point, competition in this specific area is quite fierce, so it’ll be interesting to see how the ASUS stacks up.

The following results have been collated using a number of different tests and specialized equipment.

Preset	White Point	Black Depth	Contrast Ratio	Average ΔE*00	Gamma
IDEAL	6500K	0.000 cd/m²	Infinite	0.00	2.20
Racing Mode	6262K	0.1232 cd/m²	965.9:1	2.59	2.39
sRGB	6296K	0.2365 cd/m²	994.6:1	2.69	2.4
Cinema Mode	8950K	0.1492 cd/m²	808.4:1	4.42	2.57

F0r the purposes of this test we decided to use three of the monitor’s gaming presets; Racing mode, Cinema Mode, and sRGB.

It’s safe to say that, out of the box, the ASUS VG278Q displayed a fairly good account of itself. As you can see, whilst the results weren’t perfect, the VG278Q still showcased fairly decent color – staying within (what we consider) an acceptable threshold. Out of the three presets we tested, two (Racing mode and sRGB) showcased acceptable average ΔE*00 and white points. However, like all TN panels, the black depth wasn’t the greatest, but that’s to be expected from a panel utilizing the TN technology.

The worst of the three presets tested was Cinema mode, offering a terrible white point, contrast ratio, and an average ΔE*00 of 4.42. It seemed as though the VG278Q was targetting a gamma level of 2.4 which still seems fairly peculiar for a gaming monitor of this caliber.

Preset	White Point	Black Depth	Contrast Ratio	Average ΔE*00	maximum ΔE*00	Gamma
Racing Mode In-depth	6330K	0.1254 cd/m²	971.4:1	2.78	7.52	2.36
Calibrated	6574K	0.1376 cd/m²	877.4:1	0.7	1.66	2.14

For calibrated results, we set the RGB to 93/100/97 and tuned the brightness down to 25 brightness – or 120cd/m². As the results show, we saw dramatic improvements for almost every measure. The white point became almost perfect and the average ΔE*00 dropped to an impressive 0.7. We saw the gamma come down to 2.14 which was still low, but more in line with our ideal settings of 2.2. The contrast ratio did take a hit after calibrating the monitor, but I suppose that’s the area you need to sacrifice on this particular panel.

Panel Uniformity

Panel uniformity is a test we run to check how uniform the luminance and color is across the entirety of the screen. During this test, the center square is used as the reference space. Every other square is then tested to see how far it differentiates from the reference. In an ideal world, we want every square to be green, meaning it hasn’t broken the differential threshold – something we can set at the start of the test.

Note: results will differ from panel to panel.

After finalizing the uniformity test it was clear that the least uniform area of this particular panel was the top right-hand corner. As you can see from the graphic above, this area exceeded the acceptable threshold by the greatest amount. Whilst other areas of the monitor didn’t differ quite as badly, the corners were still affected in some shape or form. This is usually the case with most monitors though, so I wouldn’t worry too much if you are considering this specific panel.

All being said, I was fairly impressed by the standard of the panel uniformity. At this price range, I have seen much worse alternatives.

Viewing Angles

Like all TN panels (or certainly the older, lesser expensive TN Panels), the viewing angles left a lot to be desired if truth be told. At around 45 degrees (looking side on), the colors start to wash out and darken pretty aggressively. After 60 degrees the screen is almost completely dark and usage becomes extremely problematic.

Looking at the monitor from the top-down, once again, at around 45 degrees, colors start to invert and dark colors begin to accumulate a white halo. Overall, viewing angles are extremely poor. However, considering this is a gamer-specific monitor, it isn’t a huge issue.

Color Gamut

Once the calibration process is complete, DisplayCal measures the available color gamut and the coverage it provides.

The ASUS VG278Q showed a 97.2% sRGB gamut Volume with a total coverage of 89.4%. Adobe RGB and DCI-P3 were both measured at under 70% coverage which, when you consider the monitor specs don’t offer any value for these fields, comes as no surprise.

Whilst this isn’t the worst color gamut coverage/volume we’ve seen, it still makes it extremely hard to recommend this monitor for anyone looking to edit in the sRGB color spectrum.

Gaming On The ASUS VG278Q

Picture quality and color accuracy out the way, it’s now time to see how this monitor performs in a gaming scenario. Up to now, the VG278Q has performed to an OK standard – better if you consider the price tag. That said, with this monitor being tailored specifically towards gamers, the next section is by far the most important.

I started off by playing my favorite fast-paced FPS shooter, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. For me, this is one of the best titles to test gaming-specific monitors on, putting most panels to the test when it comes to visual artifacts such as screen tear and ghosting. The first thing I noticed when loading up the monitor was how granulated things seemed. Whilst many may not perceive this image characteristic; for me (someone who reviews a wide range of monitors on a day-to-day basis) the difference was fairly obvious. This can be attributed to the 1080p screen resolution this particular monitor comes equipped with – better suited to a 24-inch monitor.

That said, once you get used to the 1080p screen resolution, your gaming experience starts to become a whole lot better. Thanks to the lightning-quick 144hz refresh rate, games like CS feel buttery smooth. Pair that with this monitor’s variable refresh rate technology and you’ll be enjoying a smooth experience from 40hz – 144hz, respectively. Furthermore, the 1ms GTG response time makes individual pixel color transfers extremely fast, leaving no room for annoying ghosting.

During games testing, we cycled through the available presets with varied results. Most provided an eye-watering burst of color to the display which, in most cases, looked far too saturated and unnatural. Alongside presets, users do have the option to enable ASUS’s extreme low motion blur feature – a feature that utilizes backlight strobing to further remove ghosting and trails. This feature can only be used when manually cranking the refresh rate down to 120hz.

You can also utilize the TraceFree (overdrive) feature to increase/decrease the response time of the panel. Whilst this can be considered a useful feature, for the most part, it can damage your visual experience if cranked up too high – creating inverse ghosting.

Final Thoughts

So, there you have it, our complete round-up of the ASUS VG278Q gaming monitor. Ultimately, what we have here is an extremely well-priced gaming monitor that ticks a lot of the right boxes. Whilst it may not offer the best colors in the world, it provides you (as a gamer) with all the response you could want to take your gaming to the next level.

With its rapid 144hz refresh rate paired alongside a low 1ms (GTG) response time, the VG278Q is an excellent choice for gamers who like to play fast-paced shooters – including esports titles. The image quality isn’t the best in the world, however, the 1080p resolution allows users with less powerful PCs to reach the FPS required to get the most out of this 144hz monitor.