The Asus ProArt PA27UCGE is a 27-inch 4K display with a few tricks up its sleeve that set it apart from a crowded monitor market. It begins with its high frame rate support, up to 160Hz, which is great for fluid web browsing, gaming, and video editing. It also features an optional monitor hood to help mitigate ambient light, and a built-in motorized colorimeter for scheduled calibration.

We previously reviewed Asus’ 5K ProArt (review) and 6K ProArt Displays (review) and found both to be excellent options for Mac users looking for an affordable third-party option. Can we say the same about the ProArt Display, with lots of bells and whistles but lower resolution? Watch our hands-on video review for the details.

The Asus ProArt monitor lineup is traditionally geared toward photo editing and video work, and the 27-inch 4K PA27UCGE is no exception. While it won’t yield the rich, deep blacks associated with OLED technology, I found this 600-nit IPS panel provided respectable high contrast levels and sustained brightness for working in environments that can’t always be perfectly controlled.

Video: Asus 4K 160Hz Display – Is it worth it?

The PA27UCGE supports a variable refresh rate up to 160Hz at 4K. Not only does this make scrolling text smoother, but it’s also ideal for high-frame-rate video work and gaming. I tested it alongside my 16-inch MacBook Pro with 120Hz ProMotion, and it was nice to have the same refresh rate on both displays. And even with just a single display connected to an M4 Mac mini, I liked having 120Hz support, or 144Hz, or even 160Hz, if desired.

While I’ll always prefer a glossy display over a matte coating, the anti-glare, low-reflection “LuxPixel” coating on this display does a good job of maintaining sharp text while rejecting reflections. It does so without the blurry text side effect you normally associate with matte displays. To be clear, the text is still affected to a degree, but it’s the best I’ve seen in a matte display that isn’t nano-etched like Apple’s matte option.

The PA27UCGE also comes with an optional monitor hood to help block ambient light reflections. I found the monitor hood installation a little finicky, and the design and build clunky, but once installed, it did a good job of blocking ambient light from hitting the display surface.

macOS Scaling

One downside of running a 4K display with macOS is that it won’t support perfect native 1:1 scaling at HiDPI 2880×1440, which most users want on a screen this size. Like all 4K displays in macOS, if you set the display settings to 2560×1440, it will first render 5120×2880 to a virtual canvas, before fractional downscaling it to the pixel-doubled 1440p “retina” HiDPI resolution. While this provides a look that’s close to what you’ll get with a true 5K panel, you’ll notice a slight degradation in text sharpness due to it not being a perfect 1:1 scale.

If running at the native pixel-doubled resolution of 1920×1080, you’ll get true 1:1 scaling with tack-sharp text, but that comes at the cost of real estate. For most people, it’s an easy decision to take the minor clarity hit from macOS scaling, but it’s worth being aware of. I used to care more about this issue when my eyesight was much better, but as I get older, I find it’s much easier to tolerate and thus less of an issue.

Calibration measurements

The display includes a built-in motorized colorimeter beneath the logo on the bottom bezel, allowing the ProArt 4K to self-calibrate and deliver more accurate color without finagling with external color calibration tools or software. That said, I still prefer external tools like the Calibrite Display Pro HL for the flexibility they provide.

Calibration can be performed via the OSD using the built-in motorized colorimeter, but if you want to see actual figures, you’ll need to install the Asus ProArt Calibration tool. The built-in colorimeter is limited by its fixed location, but one of its main benefits is its ability to automatically schedule calibrations when the display is not in use. Since calibration can easily take 30 minutes or more, I can see this being super-handy over the course of ownership.

According to the included calibration report, this particular unit shipped with a Delta-E sRGB average of 0.78 and a DCI-P3 average of 1.12, both good values. This rating measures the difference between the original input color content and the color that’s actually displayed on screen. Thus, a lower delta rating indicates better color accuracy, and in my experience, anything under 2 is considered good.

Asus says the PA27UCGE provides 98% DCI-P3 coverage, ideal for color grading and video editing in Final Cut Pro or DaVinci Resolve. To put Asus’ claims to the test, I used both the built-in colorimeter and my Calibrate the Display Pro HL alongside Calibrate’s Profiler software and ASUS’s own ProArt calibration tools.

My measurements revealed a DCI-P3 Delta E average of < 1.2, which is right in the ballpark of Asus’ claims. DCI-P3 coverage was spot on as well. I found colors to be largely accurate when editing and grading Canon Log 2 footage shot on my Canon R5 Mark II in Final Cut Pro.

Perhaps more importantly, the monitor’s color and luminance uniformity across the panel was good, with brightness tolerances staying within < 5 threshold across almost all tests on Calibrite Profiler. Brightness-wise, the display is rated up to 600 nits, but it maxed out north of 700 nits during my testing.

Design, Build Quality, and Ergonomics

The ASUS ProArt Display 4K features traditional Asus design aesthetic, and, like the previous Asus ProArt Display 5K and 6K models, it won’t take home any awards due to its build quality. That’s not to say Asus’ build quality is bad, but Apple puts a lot of emphasis on this area, and for that reason, Apple’s in-house monitors are almost always built to a higher standard.

Third-party display manufacturers typically don’t compete with Apple in this area. Instead, third-party displays usually offer a much better bang for the buck by providing more value in a cheaper, mostly plastic, chassis that’s easier to mass-produce.

That’s a long way of saying that, yes, of course, I wish Asus displays shipped in a unibody aluminum chassis with smooth adjustments and counterbalance, but the reality is that you’re not going to find a third-party display maker willing to go toe-to-toe with Apple in this area. Asus makes up for that by providing significantly more overall value, higher refresh rates, more I/O options, etc.

Ergonomics

Ergonomically speaking, the Asus ProArt 4K offers a lot. The display can tilt +23 or -5 degrees, pivot 90 degrees in either direction, swivel ±30 degrees, and features 120mm of height adjustment. The movement isn’t as smooth or as counterbalanced as what you’ll find on Apple’s Studio Displays. Apple offers tilt adjustment as standard on the base Studio Display and charges a $200 premium for a tilt- and height-adjustable stand, but outright lacks pivoting and swiveling options.

My overall impression of the Asus PA27UCGE’s design, build quality, and ergonomics is that it prioritizes function over aesthetics. And sure, I’d love a front bezel design as clean as the Studio Display’s, devoid of logos and buttons, but the value proposition with Asus’s $800 4K display is undeniable.

Connectivity

Although Apple improved the I/O on its new Studio Display by adding Thunderbolt 5 connectivity with daisy-chaining, third-party displays like the PA27UCGE offer much more variety.

The USB 3.2 Gen 1 upstream port is the port most Mac users will use to connect to a MacBook or Mac mini. For laptop users, the USB upstream port delivers up to 96W of power, allowing you to charge a 14-inch MacBook Pro at full speed. The PA27UCGE also offers dual HDMI 2.1 ports and a DisplayPort 1.4 connection, making it well-suited for connecting to a PC, gaming console, or set-top box like an Apple TV.

  • Digital Inputs:- 1 x DisplayPort v1.4
  • 2 x HDMI 2.1

  • 1 x DisplayPort over USB Type-C

  • USB Ports:- 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 upstream Type-C (data only)

  • 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 downstream Type-C

  • 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 downstream Type-A

  • Audio:- Earphone jack

  • Built-in speakers (2 W x 2)

Alongside a built-in USB hub, the display also features an auto-KVM, letting you easily connect two computers at once and share a single mouse and keyboard.

9to5Mac’s Take

The Asus ProArt Display PA27UCGE offers a ton of value for its asking price. You get good DCI-P3 color support, making it ideal for phone and video editing, and high frame-rate support for a display experience that complements a ProMotion-enabled MacBook Pro.

The LuxPixel matte display does a good job of rejecting reflections without overly affecting text sharpness, while the included monitor hood, while not the most elegant design, does a solid job of blocking ambient light.

And let’s not forget that this monitor provides a wide array of input support, including dual HDMI connections, DisplayPort, and USB-C, and features hub functionality and KVM support to boot.

Like most third-party displays on the market, build quality pales in comparison to Apple’s own displays, but nearly every other third-party option does as well. To help compensate, you get way more built-in ergonomic adjustments.

Asus also includes a 3-year warranty with its ProArt monitors, such as the PA27UCGE, but it offers a free 2-year extension when the monitor is registered, for a total of 5 years. When you consider that most displays on the market, including Apple displays, come with a 1-year warranty, five years is a pretty sweet deal.

It’s not perfect, of course, but at its $800 asking price, the Asus ProArt 4K display punches well above its weight, and I can outright recommend it for video editors or gamers looking for a well-appointed high-frame-rate external monitor.

What do you think? Sound off in the comments below.