This one's purely for competitive gamers and hardcore PC builders itching for weapons-grade hardware. Asus has just unveiled its adorably named ROG Swift OLED PG27AQWP-W monitor, which manages 540-Hz frame rates at 2,560 x 1,440, and an immense 720 Hz when you turn it down to 1080p. That's about as nuts as it gets in the world of OLED screens today.
Asus says this is actually a 26.5-inch tandem OLED panel designed for higher HDR brightness, and it's also got a special coating for deeper blacks and reduced glare even in a brightly lit room. The panel tech – along with a Neo Proximity Sensor that notices when you step away from your desk and switches to a black screen – should help prevent burn-in and extend the life of this monitor a bit.
The company's also gone all out with the design of this thing. The back features a gorgeous translucent and silver rear panel that will make you want to get up close to admire its innards. It's paired with a propeller-like stand that's certainly eye-catching, but it will also take up a good bit of room.
I'm with you: 720 Hz sounds like total overkill. However, if you play multiplayer FPS titles competitively, every frame counts when you're trying to closely follow micro-movements to hit your target, and a higher refresh rate means you can expect smoother action on screen. That said, the difference will be hard to appreciate if you're simply leveling up from, say, 120 Hz, because you get diminishing returns in responsiveness. And you'll also need the rest of your gaming setup to be able to deliver on performance to actually achieve a high frame rate.
If you're keen on photo and video editing, you'll be happy to know this monitor manages 99.5% DCI-P3 gamut coverage, true 10-bit color, and Delta E<2 color difference for accurate imaging work.
If you've been keeping score, you probably know this isn't the absolute fastest monitor on the market today. There are slightly quicker models like Koorui's 750-Hz G7 which was announced in January, but they feature TN panels which won't match up to the color fidelity, brightness, and depth of an OLED display. LG also showed off a 27-inch OLED monitor that can do 720 Hz at 1080p earlier this month, the same as this monitor from Asus. However, none of those are remotely as pretty.
Asus' offering will come with a DisplayPort 2.1a input with 80-Gbps bandwidth support, as well as a HDMI 2.1 port. Pricing and availability haven't yet been announced. It'll be interesting to see if the company can bring it to the market under US$1,000, at which point it will be an especially compelling piece of kit for your next rig upgrade.
Source: Asus
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