Asus ROG Strix XG27AQDMG review: an incredible, glossy OLED monitor

Asus ROG Strix XG27AQDMG

MSRP $750.00

Score Details

“The Asus ROG Strix XG27AQDMG is a revelation. It's a proper next-generation OLED gaming monitor while somehow staying surprisingly affordable.”

Pros

• The brightest OLED monitor we've reviewed
• Much cheaper than the competition
• Three-year warranty
• Glossy panel
• Beautiful HDR and color accuracy

Cons

• Slightly cheaper stand
• No KVM switch or USB-C

Computex

This story is part of our coverage of Computex, the world's biggest computing conference.

Last year, the Asus ROG Swift PG27AQDM was one of the best gaming monitors I reviewed, and Asus is giving it a makeover for 2024. The XG27AQDMG comes with a slew of updates, including the first glossy panel we’ve seen from LG Display, additional features, and “notable and measurable improvements” to brightness, according to Asus. Most importantly, the monitor comes at a new price of $750, making it one of the cheapest OLED monitors you can buy.

Cheaper, brighter, and with a glossy panel? Those are all the things PC gamers have been asking for out of an OLED display. And I’m happy to say that the XG27AQDMG isn’t just full of hot air. It manages to improve on the PG27AQDM while slashing the price, and it’s the perfect introduction for those PC gamers that have been on the fence about adopting OLED.

Asus ROG Strix XG27AQDMG specs

Trimming back the design

Asus’ ROG monitors always look sleek, but the XG27AQDMG definitely has a design to match its lower price. That comes down to the stand. You don’t get the massive tri-point stand that monitors like the PG34WCDM are known for, which is normally accompanied by a signature ROG underglow. Instead, Asus settled for a flat metal stand wrapped in a plastic shell. It looks notably cheaper than the stand you get on other ROG monitors, but I actually prefer it.

It’s smaller on your desk, and it offers a wide range of adjustments. You get 25 degrees of tilt, 90 degrees of swivel, and 180 degrees of pivot, allowing you to turn the display vertical in either direction. You also get close to 5 inches of height adjustment. Asus manages to pack in the same cable-routing channel on the stand as well, and you get a notch in the base of the stand that can hold your phone. If you don’t care for the stand, you can always take advantage of the 100-by-100 VESA mount, as well.

Although the stand cuts a few corners, even if it ends up more versatile as a result, the monitor itself feels very familiar. The panel is remarkably thin and it features a passive cooling design. Asus also uses an external power brick to keep the monitor looking fit. Asus houses the guts of the monitor on a back panel that juts out of the display. It’s totally hidden behind the back of the monitor, and Asus packs this housing with an ROG logo that illuminates with RGB light to provide some bias lighting.

The ROG Strix XG27AQDMG looks great, just as all ROG monitors do. However, it doesn’t feel quite as premium as the crop of OLED displays from Asus that we’ve seen over $1,000. Trimming back on the extensive lighting and hefty stand available on premium options makes sense given the lower price of this display, but it’s something you need to keep in mind nonetheless.

New features at the ready

Although the XG27AQDMG is mostly an update of last year’s model, it comes with some unique features. Most importantly, it includes Asus’ Extreme Low Motion Blur (ELMB) feature, which we’ve only see on a couple of monitors like the Asus ROG Swift 32 QD-OLED. This adds Black Frame Insertion, or BFI, to the monitor, allowing you to achieve the motion clarity of a higher refresh rate even if you aren’t driving the panel at 240Hz.

BFI simulates the flicker you get on a CRT display, inserting black frames for better motion clarity. When you’re running a console game at 60 frames per second (fps), for example, you can get the motion clarity of 120 fps with BFI. The game doesn’t look smoother, but there’s less blur on objects in motion. In normal situations, monitors use a sample and hold technique, hanging onto a frame for two refreshes. BFI gets rid of that.

You’re limited to 120Hz with ELMB, and with vastly reduced brightness. But it’s still a nice feature to have if you need to run the monitor at a lower refresh rate, or, in particular, you’re using the display with a console.

Otherwise, the features are fairly familiar. You get access to dual USB 3.2 Gen-1 Type-A ports, but no USB-C or power delivery. Unfortunately, there isn’t a KVM switch, either. Externally, however, Asus packs in a quarter-inch mount for a tripod head, light, or other accessory, as well as a notch in the stand that can hold your phone while you’re sitting at your desk.

Everything you need

There’s nothing too surprising about the ports here. You’re getting a single DisplayPort 1.4 connection and dual HDMI 2.0 ports. There will no doubt be some folks up in arms about the lack of HDMI 2.1, but you don’t need the newer standard to run the monitor at its full resolution and refresh rate.

Controlling the monitor is simple. The XG27AQDMG includes a notch under the front of the display where you’ll find a four-way joystick, as well as two additional buttons. Asus uses a large, high-resolution on-screen display (OSD), so you shouldn’t have any problems getting around. You get a lot of options, too. Asus includes nine picture profiles, six-axis color adjustment, multiple gamma points, and settings to clamp the color space to sRGB or DCI-P3.

You don’t need to use the OSD, though. With the included USB-B cable, you can control the monitor with your mouse through Asus’ DisplayWidget Center. This desktop utility gives you access to all of the settings available in the OSD, including your color adjustment and burn-in mitigation features.

Stunning brightness

The XG27AQDMG isn’t just a rebranded version of the monitor we saw last year. Asus, along with LG Display, made some clear improvements to the panel that’s driving this monitor. Let’s start with the glossy aspect. This isn’t the first monitor using one of LG’s WOLED panels that comes with a glossy coating, but Asus says it worked directly with LG Display to make the first glossy panel. I know that’s a big difference for a lot of potential OLED buyers.

It’s more than just the glossy panel, though. Asus claims a 20% improvement in brightness, and sure enough, this panel is around 20% brighter. For 1% of the screen, I measured peak brightness of 1,176 nits in HDR. That’s the brightest result I’ve ever recorded for an OLED monitor. Last year’s model reached 931 nits, which is impressive, but the XG27AQDMG shatters the 1,000-nit barrier with ease.

The improvements go beyond HDR, as well. In SDR, last year’s model peaked just below 350 nits, while the XG model we have now reaches up to 405 nits up to a 5% window. That’s a massive increase in brightness, and it’s not surprising. Asus says this is using LG’s MLA+ tech, utilizing micro lenses in the panel to enhance the brightness.

Color is fantastic, as well. I measured 100% coverage of sRGB, 97% of DCI-P3, and 89% of AdobeRGB, and the panel is very accurate. In SDR, the color error was just 0.92. We’ve seen slightly better results on a monitor like the Alienware 32 QD-OLED, but “slight” is the key word. With an error of less than 1, it’s hard to complain.

You have a lot of options to adjust the color, too, from clamping the monitor to different color spaces to the six-axis color adjustment. I’d be happy if Asus were able to match what the PG27AQDM offered to gamers last year, but the XG27AQDMG blows past it in brightness and color.

Monstrous gaming

The XG27AQDMG is a great gaming monitor. It’s hard for it to fall short when the monitor supports Adaptive Sync, AMD FreeSync Premium, Nvidia G-Sync, and packs a 240Hz refresh rate. As we saw with monitors like the LG UltraGear OLED 27 last year, this size and resolution offers the perfect balance between cinematic and competitive gaming. Now, however, you’re getting better brightness and color than ever before, and for a lower price.

Although 4K remains the destination for high-end PC gaming, it’s hard to argue with a 1440p resolution on a 27-inch display. You’re still getting great pixel density, helping cinematic titles like Alan Wake 2 and Cyberpunk 2077 look sharp, and you have some of the best HDR money can buy backing it up.

You don’t need the highest-end PC to justify this monitor, and you can easily reach triple-digit frame rates in games if you have a powerful PC to drive the display. It’s not as sharp as a monitor like the HP Omen 27k, but you also have a much better chance of saturating the 240Hz refresh rate the monitor is capable of.

And that refresh rate makes a big difference. Although we’ve seen more monitors with a 240Hz refresh rate over the past few years, it’s hard to overstate how smooth it looks when combined with the ultra-low response times of OLED. In esports titles where you can run at a full 240Hz, such as Valorant and Rainbow Six Siege, the XG27AQDMG provides motion clarity that’s on another level.

I understand the drive for a 4K display, especially if you have a high-end gaming PC and a console like the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X. The XG27AQDMG makes a strong argument for 1440p, though. You get faster refresh rates and a sweet spot of pixel density that looks fantastic.

Burn-in and warranty

Asus has joined the ranks of displays like the Alienware 27 QD-OLED in that it offers a three-year warranty that covers burn-in. Although burn-in is a risk, it’s not something you should worry about unless you continually use your display with static elements over the course of multiple years. The three-year warranty is great to have, but the XG27AQDMG shouldn’t develop burn-in within that time frame.

A big reason for that is that Asus includes a suite of burn-in prevention features. You have a pixel-cleaning feature, which will prompt you every few hours — you can adjust this in the settings — along with a pixel-shifting feature. Asus also packs in a brightness limiter, which will pick up on static elements on the screen and slightly dim them to reduce the strain on the panel.

Although the suite of prevention features isn’t as comprehensive as what we saw on the MSI MPG321URX, you still have plenty of options to maintain the panel. It’s easy to take for granted the three-year warranty and suite of prevention features now that all of the major monitor brands have jumped on board, but things were different just a year ago. It’s great that the XG27AQDMG carries forward the premium support despite coming in at a lower price.

Should you buy the Asus ROG Strix XG27AQDMG?

Asus addressed specific pain points of OLED monitors with the ROG Strix XG27AQDMG. You get a glossy panel that’s brighter than what we’ve seen before, and at a lower price. It’s an answer to the deluge of OLED displays we saw last year, and a strong start for what feels like a new generation of OLED monitors.

The price is doing a lot here, too. We’ve seen the crop of 27-inch OLED displays released last year drop in price, and Asus is catching up with the XG27AQDMG. The LG UltraGear OLED 27 is still the cheapest at $660, but both the PG27AQDM and Corsair’s Xeneon 27QHD240 go for over $800. Asus nailed the price here, and with some significant improvements to brightness in tow.