ASUS ROG Strix XG27AQ Review (2024)

Curved

Curve Radius

The ASUS XG27AQ is gamer-oriented with an RGB lighting zone on the back where the ROG logo is. It has a flat screen and a sleek but simple design. Overall, it feels well-built and has some heft to it. Aside from the stand, it looks very similar to the ASUS ROG Strix XG279Q.

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Uniformity Pictures N/A

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The ASUS XG27AQ feels well-built. Its heavier weight gives it a sturdy feel, and there's almost no flex at all. It feels great overall, and there aren't any obvious gaps or issues in build quality.

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Height Adjustment

Tilt Range

Rotate Portrait/Landscape

Swivel Range

Wall Mount

The ASUS XG27AQ has excellent ergonomics. You can adjust the height and rotate the screen clockwise into portrait mode. The swivel range isn't the widest, but the monitor has a broad tilt range, so you shouldn't have trouble finding a suitable viewing position. The back is solid plastic with an etched pattern covering half of the back panel. The ROG logo lights up, and there's a cutout in the stand for cable management.

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Base Width

Base Depth

Thickness (With Display)

Weight (With Display)

The stand's feet are made of metal and feel very solid, so the monitor feels well-supported. It has a fairly wide footprint but still leaves some desk space in front. It differs from the ASUS ROG Strix XG279Q, which has a unique tripod stand.

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Size

Housing Width

Housing Height

Thickness (Without Stand)

Weight (Without Stand)

Borders Size (Bezels)

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The controls are on the back of the monitor and include a joystick and four buttons to navigate the on-screen display.

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Power Supply

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Native Contrast

Contrast With Local Dimming

The contrast ratio on the ASUS XG27AQ is not bad. It's a touch higher than the advertised 1000:1 ratio, but since it uses an IPS panel, it's still not that high, so blacks appear more grayish in the dark. It's important to remember that contrast can vary between units. The backlight is edge-lit, so the local dimming doesn't have much effect on our checkerboard test pattern because it senses the brighter areas of the checkerboard and turns all the dimming zones on.

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Local Dimming

Backlight

Like most monitors with local dimming, the local dimming feature on the ASUS XG27AQ is bad, producing a lot of blooming and uniformity issues. The zones are large and edge-lit, so the transitions between them are very slow and obvious. Because the zones are so large, they don't light up on small bright objects, as seen with the small squares in our test video. As you can see, some of the zones in the middle don't light up if an object is moving too fast. There isn't much black crush because it simply raises the black level overall, but the zones themselves light up and make the image look worse. The local dimming feature is enabled by turning on Dynamic Dimming.

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Real Scene

Peak 2% Window

Peak 10% Window

Peak 25% Window

Peak 50% Window

Peak 100% Window

Sustained 2% Window

Sustained 10% Window

Sustained 25% Window

Sustained 50% Window

Sustained 100% Window

Automatic Brightness Limiting (ABL)

Minimum Brightness

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VESA DisplayHDR Certification

Real Scene

Peak 2% Window

Peak 10% Window

Peak 25% Window

Peak 50% Window

Peak 100% Window

Sustained 2% Window

Sustained 10% Window

Sustained 25% Window

Sustained 50% Window

Sustained 100% Window

Automatic Brightness Limiting (ABL)

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Color Washout From Left

Color Washout From Right

Color Shift From Left

Color Shift From Right

Brightness Loss From Left

Brightness Loss From Right

Black Level Raise From Left

Black Level Raise From Right

Gamma Shift From Left

Gamma Shift From Right

The ASUS XG27AQ has excellent horizontal viewing angles, among the widest viewing angles we've tested on a monitor. The image remains accurate even when viewed at an angle.

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Color Washout From Below

Color Washout From Above

Color Shift From Below

Color Shift From Above

Brightness Loss From Below

Brightness Loss From Above

Black Level Raise From Below

Black Level Raise From Above

Gamma Shift From Below

Gamma Shift From Above

The vertical viewing angles are okay, but there's some color shift and overall loss of accuracy when viewing from above or below.

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50% Std. Dev.

50% DSE

The ASUS XG27AQ has great gray uniformity. The corners and edges appear slightly darker, but overall, it's very uniform, and there's very little dirty screen effect.

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Native Std. Dev.

Std. Dev. w/ L.D.

Black uniformity on the ASUS XG27AQ is okay. There's a bit of backlight bleed near the edges and clouding in the center, as well as some blooming around bright objects, but overall it's not bad. With local dimming enabled, the sides of the screen are darker, but the lighting zones make it look less even.

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Picture Mode

sRGB Gamut Area xy

White Balance dE (Avg.)

Color Temperature (Avg.)

Gamma (Avg.)

Color dE (Avg.)

Contrast Setting

RGB Settings

Gamma Setting

Brightness Setting

Measured Brightness

Brightness Locked

The accuracy before calibration in the sRGB mode is excellent. It locks colors to the sRGB color space well, the color temperature is close to the 6500K target, and it follows the gamma curve well. However, the white balance is a bit off, particularly with brighter whites. Unfortunately, though, the sRGB mode locks many settings, including the brightness, so if you want to adjust those settings, you'd have to use another mode with more oversaturated colors, as you can see here.

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Picture Mode

sRGB Gamut Area xy

White Balance dE (Avg.)

Color Temperature (Avg.)

Gamma (Avg.)

Color dE (Avg.)

Contrast Setting

RGB Settings

Gamma Setting

Brightness Setting

Measured Brightness

The accuracy after calibration is fantastic, and you won't notice any issues. Although the accuracy is already excellent in the sRGB picture mode, the main advantage of calibrating it is to get accurate colors while also being able to adjust the brightness.

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sRGB Coverage xy

sRGB Picture Mode

Adobe RGB Coverage xy

Adobe RGB Picture Mode

The ASUS XG27AQ has an incredible SDR color gamut, with nearly full coverage of the commonly used sRGB color space and great coverage of the Adobe RGB color space used in photo editing.

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sRGB In ICtCp

sRGB Picture Mode

Adobe RGB In ICtCp

Adobe RGB Picture Mode

The ASUS ROG XG27AQ has incredible color volume. It can display a wide range of colors at various luminance levels, although it can struggle a bit with very dark, saturated colors due to its mediocre contrast ratio. It fills out more colors at lower luminance levels than the ASUS ROG Strix XG279Q, likely because of its less aggressive local dimming.

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Wide Color Gamut

DCI-P3 Coverage xy

DCI-P3 Picture Mode

Rec. 2020 Coverage xy

Rec. 2020 Picture Mode

The ASUS XG27AQ has an excellent HDR color gamut. It's considered wide for HDR content, but it only has decent coverage of both the DCI-P3 color space and the wider Rec. 2020 color space. If you want a monitor with a wider HDR color gamut, check out the Acer Predator XB273U GXbmiipruzx.

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DCI-P3 In ICtCp

DCI-P3 Picture Mode

Rec. 2020 In ICtCp

Rec. 2020 Picture Mode

HDR color volume is good. As with SDR, it has some trouble displaying dark, saturated colors.

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Screen Finish

Total Reflections

Indirect Reflections

Calculated Direct Reflections

The ASUS XG27AQ has good reflection handling. It diffuses direct light well and is decent at diffusing indirect light, but it's best suited to moderately lit environments.

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Pixel Type

Subpixel Layout

The ASUS XG27AQ has good text clarity. With ClearType enabled (top photo), the appearance of diagonal and curved lines is improved, as seen in the R, N, G, and S.

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Color Depth

Gradient handling is superb and banding is hardly noticeable.

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Native Refresh Rate

Max Refresh Rate

Max Refresh Rate Over DP

Max Refresh Rate Over HDMI

Max Refresh Rate Over DP @ 10-bit

Max Refresh Rate Over HDMI @ 10-Bit

With a slider in the monitor's settings, you can overclock the refresh rate between 155Hz and 170Hz, but this only works over DisplayPort.

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FreeSync

G-SYNC

VRR Maximum

VRR Minimum

VRR Supported Connectors

Variable Refresh Rate

The monitor has Adaptive Sync VRR, so it's compatible with FreeSync and is certified G-SYNC compatible. G-SYNC only works over a DisplayPort connection.

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Recommended Overdrive Setting

Rise / Fall Time

Total Response Time

Overshoot Error

Worst 3 Rise / Fall Time

Worst 3 Total Response Time

Worst 3 Overshoot Error

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Recommended Overdrive Setting

Rise / Fall Time

Total Response Time

Overshoot Error

Worst 3 Rise / Fall Time

Worst 3 Total Response Time

Worst 3 Overshoot Error

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Recommended Overdrive Setting

Rise / Fall Time

Total Response Time

Overshoot Error

Worst 3 Rise / Fall Time

Worst 3 Total Response Time

Worst 3 Overshoot Error

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Backlight Strobing (BFI)

Maximum Frequency

Minimum Frequency

Longest Pulse Width Brightness

Shortest Pulse Width Brightness

Pulse Width Control

Pulse Phase Control

Pulse Amplitude Control

VRR At The Same Time

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Flicker-Free

PWM Dimming Frequency

The ASUS XG27AQ has a flicker-free backlight, which helps to reduce eye strain.

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Native Resolution @ Max Hz

Native Resolution @ 120Hz

Native Resolution @ 60Hz

Backlight Strobing (BFI)

The ASUS XG27AQ has an incredibly low input lag for a responsive feel.

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Native Resolution

Aspect Ratio

Megapixels

Pixel Density

Measured Screen Diagonal

Screen Area

The ASUS XG27AQ is a 27-inch monitor with a great 1440p resolution, resulting in a high pixel density. That means you can open multiple windows side-by-side, and the image looks sharp and clear. If you want a 4k resolution and higher pixel density, check out the ASUS ROG Strix XG27UQR.

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4k @ 120Hz

4k @ 60Hz

1440p @ 120Hz

1440p @ 60Hz

1080p @ 120Hz

1080p @ 60Hz

HDR

VRR

This monitor works well with the PS5, but without HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, it can't take full advantage of it. That said, there aren't any compatibility issues, and it supports 4k @ 60Hz signals by downscaling a 4k signal to 1440p, which is more detailed than native 1440p.

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4k @ 120Hz

4k @ 60Hz

1440p @ 120Hz

1440p @ 60Hz

1080p @ 120Hz

1080p @ 60Hz

HDR

VRR

This monitor works well with the Xbox Series X|S, but without HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, it can't take full advantage of it. That said, there aren't any compatibility issues, and it supports 4k @ 60Hz signals by downscaling a 4k signal to 1440p, which is more detailed than native 1440p.

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DisplayPort

Mini DisplayPort

HDMI

HDMI 2.1 Rated Speed

DVI

VGA

Daisy Chaining

3.5mm Audio Out

HDR10

3.5mm Audio In

3.5mm Microphone In

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USB-A Ports

USB-A Rated Speed

USB-B Upstream Port

USB-C Ports

USB-C Upstream

USB-C Rated Speed

USB-C Power Delivery

USB-C DisplayPort Alt Mode

Thunderbolt

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There are a few minor issues when using this monitor with a recent MacBook Pro, but it works well overall. The variable refresh rate feature works, but only in-game, as it constantly flickers when you're on the desktop. HDR is also a bit dimmer than usual, but it works. It recovers properly from sleep mode, but windows sometimes won't go back to their original position.

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Speakers

RGB Illumination

Multiple Input Display

KVM Switch

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