ASUS Starts to Ship Its First Curved Ultra-Wide Display: ROG Swift PG348Q
by Anton Shilov on March 17, 2016 6:00 PM EST
ASUS this week began to ship its first gaming curved ultra-wide display, the ROG Swift PG348Q, which the company introduced back in September and showcased at CES. The monitor, which is the largest ROG display ever, is designed primarily for gamers, features up to 100 Hz refresh rate as well as Nvidia’s G-Sync technology.
The ASUS ROG Swift PG348Q display is based on an IPS panel with 3440×1440 resolution, 1000:1 contrast ratio and 300 cd/m2 brightness. The ultra-wide 34” monitor features 21:9 aspect ratio and 3800R screen curvature, which is larger than a number of 3000R panels that are currently on the market. The monitor can reproduce 1.07 billion colors and covers 100% of sRGB color space, which is not a bad result for a gaming solution. The ROG Swift PG348Q has default refresh rate of 60 Hz and everything between that and 100 Hz should be activated using a special turbo button. ASUS claims that G-Sync variable refresh-rate technology on this display actually works at up to 100 Hz, but to ensure high framerate (as well as refresh rate), a graphics card with sufficient processing performance (e.g., GeForce GTX 980 Ti and higher) is required with demanding titles.
| Specifications of ASUS' Curved Display | |||
| ASUS ROG Swift PG348Q | |||
| Panel | 34" IPS | ||
| Resolution | 3440 x 1440 | ||
| Refresh Rate | 50 Hz - 100 Hz | ||
| Response Time | 5 ms gray-to-gray | ||
| Brightness | 300 cd/m² | ||
| Contrast | 1000:1 | ||
| Viewing Angles | 178°/178° horizontal/vertical | ||
| PPI | 109 pixels per inch | ||
| Colors | 1.07 billion | ||
| Color Saturation | 100% sRGB | ||
| Curvature | 3800R | ||
The ROG Swift PG348Q is equipped with one DisplayPort 1.2 and one HDMI 1.4 inputs. The latter only supports 3440×1440 resolution with 50 Hz refresh rate, according to ASUS; for everything between 50 Hz and 100 Hz the DP input must be used. The display also features a 4-port USB 3.0 hub and two 2 W speakers.
The ROG Swift PG348Q will be ASUS’s largest display ever. It will also be the company’s flagship monitor for gamers for a while. Since the company does not offer non-curved gaming displays larger than 28”, one might expect to expect ASUS to introduce one or two non-gaming models in the future.
The new display uses the new ASUS ROG color scheme — plasma copper inlays on armor titanium casing as well as an LED effect on the bottom. The monitor also has an ultra-thin frame (which ASUS calls frameless design) as well as tilt, swivel, and height adjustments. Eventually, other ROG-branded displays will inherit similar design and color scheme.
ASUS did not reveal the official MSRP of its ROG Swift PG348Q display and at time to press, and the product should be available at major U.S. retail stores from May. Given the fact that the monitor is a pretty unique combination consisting of a curved IPS panel, high resolution, G-Sync technology and up to 100 Hz refresh rate, this product will be in the upper echelons of monitor pricing. TechReport caught the fact that this panel is being offered by iBuyPower as an add-on option to a prebuilt system for $1200, so we would expect the full retail price to be in that $900-$1200 region. Anyone still want VR?
Source: ASUS
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mrvco - Thursday, March 17, 2016 - link
Will there be a FreeSync version?Slaanesh - Thursday, March 17, 2016 - link
"Given the fact that the monitor is a pretty unique combination consisting of a curved IPS panel, high resolution, G-Sync technology and up to 100 Hz refresh rate"Shipping 5 months after the Acer X34, which has the exact same specs (and about the same price), I wonder what took them so long.
kpxgq - Thursday, March 17, 2016 - link
They were probably waiting to see how well the Acer sold (and also the QC yields) before investing in the panels.jasonelmore - Friday, March 18, 2016 - link
The acer x34 only does 60hzthreeclaws - Friday, March 18, 2016 - link
It does 100hz, they even advertise it as such "Boost your refresh rate up to 100Hz with built-in overclocking. Minimize motion blur and enjoy more frames per second." Of course they don't guarantee 100hz which is why so many get returned and can then be picked up for 30%+ off from their outlet store.bunnyfubbles - Thursday, March 17, 2016 - link
not a fan of bezels that aren't uniform all around, the bottom is needlessly thick so as to provide space for branding, and of course the branding is necessary there because of the absurd "l33t g4m3r" stand designalthough I won't argue too much about aesthetics if the performance is there
Grooveriding - Friday, March 18, 2016 - link
Not a fan either, but, I own the 1440p 271hu from Acer and it has a 'blingy' lower bezel and stand with red accents.I would wait for user accounts of this monitor's quality control standards. The Asus PG279Q has been plagued with horrible quality control; backlight bleed, dead pixels, bright pixels. The reason I went with the Acer model, the aesthetics of whitch I did not like at all compared to the Asus, is - because while some samples have issues - overall they have done much better with QC for what they've put on shelves.
Asus has a poor track record with quality control on these screens, the original ROG swift had issues, the PG279Q has had issues as well. Both reviewed well, and reviewers obviously got cherry picked samples, but end-users had notably high bad experiences with QC.
Grooveriding - Friday, March 18, 2016 - link
of which*MrSpadge - Friday, March 18, 2016 - link
Is it needlessly thick? They've got to mount the backlight at some edge, and given the screen area they better not skimp on this part.threeclaws - Friday, March 18, 2016 - link
To be fair the extra thick lower bezel is most likely accommodating the down firing speakers, I'm sure the extra space for branding doesn't hurt.