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Asus PB287Q 28-Inch 4K Monitor Review: Ultra HD For £600

Asus PB287Q 28-Inch 4K Monitor Review: Ultra HD For £600
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We've seen plenty of buzz about the beauty of gaming at 3840x2160. Up until now, though, that meant spending several grand on a 4K monitor. Asus drives the price down to £600 with its 28-inch PB287Q. But are there sacrifices made in the process?

We kicked off our 4K display coverage at the start of this year with Asus PQ321Q 4K Monitor Review: Top-Shelf Ultra HD For £2800. That was followed by Dell UltraSharp 32 Ultra HD Monitor Review: UP3214Q At £2000. See the pattern so far? At least in the first half of 2014, 4K was a very, very pricey proposition. And it gets worse if you're a gamer trying to push more than 8 million pixels at 60 frames per second. That's a lot of potent graphics hardware.

To be fair, both of the displays we reviewed offered stunning image quality. But they were also saddled with a handful of usability issues that you'd expect from a first-gen, cutting-edge product. In fact, it took AMD and Nvidia some time to optimize their drivers for a more pleasant user experience with Radeon and GeForce cards hooked up to tiled 4K screens. Of course, paying thousands of pounds didn't help make the idiosyncrasies any easier to swallow.

Those displays cost quite a bit less today, though they'll still run you more than £1500 or so. Fortunately, as the second generation of Ultra HD monitors slowly materializes, we expect significantly lower prices. Earlier this year we heard about a 28-inch panel that Samsung, Dell, and Asus were planning to sell at a surprisingly low price point around £600. We're already on the sample list for Samsung's UD590 and Dell's P2815Q. But Asus surprised us with a brand-new PB287Q, just in time for a pre-Computex review.

Brand
Asus
Model
PB287Q
MSRP
£599
Panel Type
TN Film
Backlight
W-LED, edge array
Screen Size
28-inch
Max Resolution
3840x2160
Max Refresh Rate
60 Hz
Aspect Ratio
16:9
Native Colour Depth
10-bit
Native Gamut
sRGB
Response Time (GTG)
1 ms
Brightness
330 cd/m2
Speakers
2 x 2 W
VGA
-
DVI
-
DisplayPort v1.2
1
HDMI 1.4
2 w/MHL
Audio In
1
Headphone
1
USB
-
Media Card Reader
-
Panel Dimensions
W x H x D w/base
26 x 16.3 x 8.7 in
660 x 414 x 220 mm
Panel Thickness
2.5 in / 64 mm
Bezel Width
.75 in / 19 mm
Weight
17.4 lbs / 7.9 kg
Warranty
One year, Zero Bright Dot; Three years. monitor

A couple of specifications leap out to tell you how Asus got its price so low. Principally, the PB287Q uses TN technology, rather than one of the many flavours of IPS. If you recall our reviews of the 32-inch Ultra HD screens, they are based on an exotic IGZO panel manufactured by Sharp.

The core component here is made by Chi Mei Optoelectronics, sporting a pixel density of 157 ppi. Even though the PB287Q's underlying technology is something of a throwback, Asus doesn't skimp on the remaining features. This is a true 10-bit panel; no frame rate conversion or interpolation is used to increase the bit depth. Even though the vast majority of users will probably use an 8-bit signal chain with this monitor, it accepts 10-bit formats too. And all incoming 8-bit content is upconverted by the PB287Q. The end result is a palette of 1.07 billion colours.

Will that make images any more colourful? Not exactly. What the extra bit depth will do is smooth the gradients in subtle colour transitions. The best examples are blue sky, clouds, or fire. Where an 8-bit panel might exhibit subtle banding or macro-blocking, a 10-bit display can reduce or eliminate those artifacts.

Another feature not mentioned in the spec table is the non-PWM backlight. We have a couple of upcoming reviews of BenQ displays that discuss this in more detail. Essentially, though, pulse-width modulation can result in flicker and eye fatigue for some users. By applying constant current to the backlight and varying brightness at the pixel level, overall intensity can be reduced without introducing flicker. Asus calls its version of the technology EyeCare.

Since the PB287Q is an sRGB display, it’s not specifically aimed at professionals. In fact, the feature set and low price make this more of an enthusiast-oriented monitor. Asus includes some tantalizing features like VividPixel, QuickFit, and GamePlus. Along with the fast response and low input lag endemic to TN panels, it ends up looking best-suited to gamers. Let's take a closer look.

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  • 0 Hide
    Plusthinking Iq , 27 May 2014 16:05
    too high inputlag for gamers, to bad colors for color work.
    anyone want to buy this must give a shit about work and play.....lol
  • 0 Hide
    13thmonkey , 27 May 2014 19:04
    how does it cope with gaming at 1080p. i.e. what normal people can game at, but might want more windows real estate.
  • 0 Hide
    13thmonkey , 27 May 2014 19:21
    how does it cope with gaming at 1080p. i.e. what normal people can game at, but might want more windows real estate.
  • 0 Hide
    grahmbargh , 28 May 2014 16:11
    Why this push for 4k.... I still hope to see some nice 27-28'' 1440p gaming monitors (or similarly sized 1600p). Is my memory right that some reviews of such products are coming soon?
  • 0 Hide
    jldevoy , 29 May 2014 04:52
    These monitors don't really suit anyone. The people most likely to want 4k res are pros who need better than TN.