Asus ProArt PA278QGV review: Color accurate, well connected, and affordable

If color accuracy is high up your list of priorities, then the Asus ProArt PA278QGV serves up a Calman Verified panel for a little less than you might expect.

This is the second generation of the brand's popular PA278QV model, and while it retains the 27in 2,560 x 1,440 canvas of its predecessor, it introduces an upgraded IPS panel that promises 95% DCI-P3 coverage, a 120Hz refresh rate, and a guaranteed average Delta E of less than 2.

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On paper, that all sounds like pretty impressive stuff, but the clincher here is that it's actually quite affordable, too. For around £250 at the time of writing, the PA278QGV looks like a potentially perfect fit for creative desks – both at home and in the office – which demand good color accuracy without spending the earth.

ASUS ProArt PA278QGV: Design and Features

First impressions are good – and setup is quick. The PA278QGV's panel clicks into the adjustable stand thanks to a quick-release mechanism. There are no bolts to screw in here. Admittedly, the overall construction does feel a little light and plasticky, but it's not bad for the money at all. There's a bit of a hollow feel to the monitor's curved rear panel and the stand is a touch wobblier than pricier models, but there's nothing here which impedes the function. In fact, the stand is fully adjustable, even with a single hand – there's 130mm of height adjustment, plenty of side-to-side swivel, ample amounts of tilt, and it rotates into portrait mode in either direction.

Let's get the bad news out of the way here: there's no USB-C. Asus attempts to make amends by providing a high-speed USB 3.2 Gen 1 hub, though. The single upstream USB-B port powers up two 5Gbps USB-A ports at the rear and a further two under the panel's lower left-hand bezel. There are DisplayPort and HDMI inputs, too, albeit only one of each – and the latter only supports up to 100Hz. You'll need to use a DisplayPort cable to get the monitor's full 120Hz. A 3.5mm headphone output is present, too.

You do also get a few useful cables in the box. There's the usual IEC power cable for the built-in power supply, and you'll find DisplayPort and HDMI cables in addition to the USB-B to USB-A cable for the hub.

The PA278QGV's on-screen display and controls are pretty good overall. Unlike many monitors which position the four-way joystick controls behind the monitor, Asus has mounted it up front here. What's more, the joystick is flanked by five buttons. Tap the joystick and a little on-screen legend tells you which button to press to bring up specific quick adjustments, or you can click the joystick again to bring up the full menu. The controls are responsive, and the menus are markedly more legible than some I've seen in recent years – all of the options are simply laid out and easy to navigate.

Given the PA278QGV's focus on color accuracy, it's good to find a wide range of factory-calibrated picture modes. You can leave the panel in its Native mode if you prefer to perform a software calibration with a suitable colorimeter (naturally, there's no hardware calibration support here), or you can cycle between the sRGB, BT.709, Adobe RGB, P3, BT.2020 and DICOM modes. Some of these – sRGB, for one – lock down the various gamma and color temperature settings, but others provide at least some level of control over gamma curves or color temperature, which is welcome.

There are some odd decisions here and there, though. For instance, it's good to find an automatic brightness sensor, but this is either on or off – you can't customise how aggressively it'll lower or raise the brightness. And similarly, the automatic color temperature is a toggle switch. Turn it on during daylight hours, and it tints white backgrounds with a very warm orangey glow. It's also a shame that the automatic adjustments are so visible – it's not a smooth shift in brightness or color temperature. Instead, the brightness and color temperature move up and down with clunky steps.

Saying that, I did find the automatic brightness sensor quite useful – I work under bright office lighting during the day and dim everything right down past sunset – but it's a shame Asus hasn't made more effort to allow users to adjust it to their preferences. I would have liked it to be a touch brighter during daylight hours, for instance, and there's no way to do that apart from resorting to manual adjustments.

If menus are the bane of your existence, then Asus also gives you the option of installing its DisplayWidget Center software. This is available for both Windows and MacOS and gives you quick control of the monitor's image settings. You can switch preset picture modes and adjust all the relevant settings, and you don't have to have the USB-B cable connected – the software communicates via either of the DisplayPort or HDMI inputs.

If you're wondering about audio, then the PA278QGV does have a basic pair of 2-watt per channel speakers. As ever, these are best ignored – the sound quality is tinny and only useful as an emergency fallback. My advice is to take advantage of the 3.5mm output at the monitor's rear.

ASUS ProArt PA278QGV: Display quality

Asus' claims for the PA278QGV are pretty bold for a £250 monitor – and the good news here is that it lives up to most of its claims. The big attraction here for many buyers is the promise of color-accurate modes for all the key color spaces: sRGB, DCI-P3, Display P3 and Adobe RGB. Asus claims an average Delta E of less than 2 for the sRGB and P3 modes, but it also achieved that for the Adobe RGB color space in my tests.

Subjectively speaking, it produces a bright, vivacious image straight out of the box. The matte anti-glare coating is quite aggressive and introduces a noticeable grain to white backgrounds, but the flipside of this is that it does a good job of controlling bright light sources. For most sensibly lit offices and homes, that's probably a price worth paying.

The image quality is really very good for the money. For instance, the sRGB mode gets the panel off to a great start. The average Delta E of 1.29 and maximum of 2.33 is very good for the price class, and every aspect of the calibration is impressive. The white point hits an almost perfect 6,475k and RGB tracking is top class. Gamma is very slightly higher than it should be, but it's marginal.

Switching the monitor to its DCI-P3 colour space reveals some welcome customisation – you can choose from a strict greenish DCI-P3 white point, or switch it to a more useful everyday 6,500k setting which equates to a Display P3 profile. Interestingly, you can also select an M Mode setting which more closely mimics the slightly cooler white point of a MacBook display.

Tested against a Display P3 target, the PA278QGV retains an average Delta E of 1.52. The maximum slides up to 3.78, but this is no surprise – according to my measurements, the panel only covers around 89% of the P3 color space, so it simply can't produce some of the required colors. That said, the rest of the performance here is as close to Display P3 as you could hope for given the asking price. The white point again is almost perfect at 6,553k and gamma and RGB track very well, with only gamma tracking a little higher than intended. To all intents and purposes, the PA278QGV presents a really good-looking, nicely saturated image.

It's only once you stretch to Adobe RGB that the wheels start to fall off. The monitor only reproduces 82% of the colour space, so it simply can't reproduce certain colors. The average Delta E remains under 2 at an impressive 1.4, but the limited color palette means that the maximum deviations rise to a Delta E of 6.44. That isn't good enough for critical usage.

That said, it's no surprise to find that there are some limitations to what you can expect from a £250 monitor. Contrast is another limitation: the PA278QGV didn't achieve anything higher than 1,311:1 in my tests. Blacks do look rather greyish as a result, and especially so once you dim the lights down.

Similarly, while there is more than sufficient brightness for SDR content – the maximum brightness of 357cd/m2 is excessive for most lighting conditions – the panel doesn't get bright enough to make the HDR mode worthwhile. The low contrast and limited brightness rob HDR content of all its depth, punch, and vibrancy.

Motion clarity doesn't challenge similarly priced gaming displays, but push the panel to its maximum 120Hz refresh rate, and it's more than usable for casual gaming. You will need to push the TraceFree overdrive control to its maximum to clean up blur on moving objects, though – at default settings, fine detail looks fuzzy.

ASUS ProArt PA278QGV review: Is it worth it?

The ASUS ProArt PA278QGV is a really good all-rounder for the money. The overall image quality is refined, and the design is sensible: the adjustable stand and four-port USB hub are genuinely useful. Granted, it is a shame that USB-C didn't make it into the specification list, but it's not a deal breaker.

If you're looking for a monitor that'll suffice for color-critical work on a relatively tight budget, the PA278QGV is a good addition to any desk.

ASUS PA278QGV specifications