Asus Pg348q Review: Best Curved Gaming Monitor 2016
Asus Pg348q Review
- PCmag
- MonitorNerds
- Newegg Customers
Bottom Line
Pros
- Excellent color production
- 100 Hz Refresh Rate with Turbo key (High-performance FPS gaming)
- NVIDIA G-Sync support with 5ms Response time (Stutter free, Tear free, Flicker free gaming)
- Height, tilt, swivel adjustability and VESA mount
- Excellent connectivity (Display Port 1.2, HDMI 1.4, USB 3 ports)
- Fast OSD
- 3 Year warranty
Cons
- Pricey (costs around $1299)
- This monitor is a bit awkward to physically set up on a desk
- The positioning of ports is not the best we have seen in a monitor
- The monitor features only 2 video inputs
- The overall Luminance uniformity of the display could have been better
Overall, the Asus Pg348q offers smooth, swift gaming and as much comfort as it can give you. The only drawback here, however, is the price. To be honest, some competitors might have the edge over this display when we compare the gaming output to money ratio. But I guess Asus compensates with that factor by using as much adjustability that it can with a lot of add-ons and an attractive, futuristic physical design. This is a curved monitor that has it all, should you be willing to invest in it.
Review of Asus Pg348q: The curve that has it all!
Asus has proven a lot of its competitors to be inferior in the market with the 34-inch curved Asus Pg348q display. And while the monitor can be a bit too expensive for some people, believe me when I say, it’s worth it.
In this review, we will be deep diving into the features of this display and analyze the technical components that make it tick. We will be having a quick look at the gaming, build, comfort and connectivity of the gaming monitor that is the Asus Pg348q, to find out the pros and cons of owning one.
What’s in the box
Along with the Pg348q display which has been perfectly packaged to avoid any issues during transportation, the box also has a Power cord, a Power adapter, one Display Port and USB 3.0 cable, a Quick start guide, one HDMI cable, a Support CD and the Warranty Card (for Limited period warranty of 3 years for both parts and labor).
Quick Specs
- Panel Type: IPS
- Screen size: 34 inches
- Resolution: 3,440 x 1,440p
- Refresh Rate: 100 Hz
- Response time: 5 ms
- Contrast Ratio: 1,000:1
- Brightness: 300cd/m2
- Viewing angles: 178(H), 178(V)
- Input/output: HDMI, Display Port, USB (3.0×4, 1 x upstream)
- Mounting: 100mm x 100mm (VESA)
Gaming Performance
First of all, let’s talk about the gaming capabilities of the Pg348q, as this is above everything else, a gaming machine. And in gaming, two things are of the utmost importance – the quality of the graphics and the ability of the monitor to sustain that quality in heavy work load conditions.
The Pg348q features an IPS panel that is 34 inches and has a slight curve to it to make the gaming experience seem more ‘real’ by covering more peripheral on the user’s side. It is also ideal for multi-monitor setups because of this curve. Having an IPS panel also means having wider viewing angles. So, even with the curve, the quality of the content remains the same while viewing this from angles up to 178 degrees (both horizontal and vertical). The panel is designed to be an ultra-wide QHD panel with a pixel density of 109 PPI (pixels per inch). This ensures a great detail in the content in games and movies. The ultra-wide 21:9 aspect ratio gives us a 35% more onscreen desktop space than WQHD does, which helps in an ‘immersive’ gaming experience.
When it comes to the content’s output quality, a 3,440 x 1,440p native resolution combined with a 1000:1 contrast ratio and a subtle 300cd/m2 brightness (instead of 350cd/m2, which is used by most monitors out there) takes care of the pixel quality and image building. The IPS Panel on this screen displays a full sRGB gamut for a ‘life-like color generation’ in games, movies, and design. The response time of the monitor is also great, standing at 5ms gray to gray – not only does it ensure an awesome quality at a steady rate, but it also helps in eliminating flickering on the screen, hence proving to be very useful when it comes to gaming in high resolutions.
Now with all that said, you might be wondering – what about gaming on high FPS? Well, we have a 100Hz refresh rate and NVIDIA G-SYNC support for that, which ensure that the gaming experience is as lucid and hassle-free as it can be, even at maximum capacity of the built-in tech.
Gaming add-ons
Having little add-ons do make a lot of difference when we are talking about a machine that already has all the major gaming prospects covered well. The Asus Pg348q happens to offer a couple of good ones; that enhance the gaming experience by paying attention to the little things. The one that is most relevant to gaming here is the Turbo key. With the help of this feature, we can toggle between refresh rates on the go (during gaming), seamlessly switching from 60Hz to 100Hz for a smooth and ‘tearing-free’ game play. Since tearing is nothing but a visual artifact that can occur in video outputs as a result of the video feed to the device not being in sync with the display’s refresh, having a good refresh rate incorporated with this ‘Turbo Key’ on the top of having adaptive sync here takes care of that problem effortlessly.
Three other add-ons help improve the gaming on this ‘flicker-free’ screen. The ‘Crosshair’ lets you choose from 4 different overlays. You can fine tune the position of these ‘crosshair overlays’, ensuring a pinpoint accuracy. This is a feature that works well in first-person shooter games. However, you also have the ability to simply set it to ‘no-scope’ though, just like a pro gamer.
The second one is an on-screen timer that can be utilized for anything from receiving a pizza to thinking about strategies, or to take a short break.
The last one in a series of add-ons is the FPS (frame per second) counter that simply displays the rate at which frames are being drawn on the monitor screen. You can use this data to evaluate the performance impact of different graphics settings.
Build
Now, let’s dig into the panel and the overall build of the Asus Pg348q. The IPS panel is, of course, a brilliant choice and the panel’s quality is reliable. Also, the curve is as subtle as they can make it, which does not make it annoying in any sense. You need a circle with a radius of 380cm to match the curve of this panel. 4.9 million pixels are used in this Asus panel which makes it suitable for 4k gaming as well.
The overall design of the monitor is just outlandish and versatile at the same time. It has three wide legs and a broad, circular stand that are all finished in a futuristic, gunmetal gray with burnt orange accents running on them. The base has LED lights that cleverly project the ROG(Republic of Gamers) logo downwards on the desk. Though Asus does include a button to alter the brightness of the light or to switch it off, so it’s not annoying. Two 2 Watt speakers are also built into the design for people who don’t like gaming with big headphones on.
Comfort
The biggest testament to comfort here is mashing up a brilliant IPS panel that has 178×178 degree viewing angles with a subtle curve and incorporating ASUS EyeCare Technology on the top of it. The ASUS EyeCare Technology is a blue light control mechanism that controls the harmful spectrum of the blue radiation coming out of the monitor. Since that spectrum of light has a wavelength that is very close to that of the UV rays, they are harmful as all hell to the eyes. But with this feature, these rays are stopped, and a similar color of blue is produced in its place so that the user is not affected, yet seeing the same shades in the same quality.
This reduces the risk of so many eye-related issues, especially while viewing content at night or in long sittings.
On top of these features reducing the eye fatigue, you have 115mm of height adjustment and 25 degrees of tilt, and the panel can swivel from side to side as well. The Asus Pg348q also has 100mm VESA mount compatibility, which means that you can mount it on a wall if you find ditching the table setup most comfortable. So when it comes to comfort, this monitor does not disappoint.
Connectivity
Loaded with both Display Port 1.2 and HDMI 1.4 connections, and four USB 3 ports, the Pg348q also comes with the cables you need to take care of the business. It covers all of the connectivity issues, as there is at least one port for each kind of gaming connection. However, accessing these ports can be a bit tricky sometimes as they all face downwards.
The second thing that matters a lot in comfort and connectivity is the OSD (on screen display). In the case of the Asus Pg348q, the OSD is pretty neat and can be commanded by a joystick on the rear of the screen. The layout of the menus is very sensible, and this is probably one of the fastest OSD’s you will ever see on a gaming monitor. It is that good, almost on the verge of being a little twitchy.
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