Asus Tease ROG Swift PG27AQDM with 27″ 1440p OLED Panel and 240Hz

December 9, 2022January 3, 2023 Simon Baker

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Asus have this week teased their forthcoming ROG Swift PG27AQDM monitor, expected to be showcased at CES 2023 in January. This is their first OLED gaming monitor and is 26.5″ in size (27″ class), offering a 2560 x 1440 resolution and a 240Hz refresh rate. The company have released very little information about this screen so far, although we can draw some conclusions based on LG’s recently announced equivalent screen, their 27GR95QE which was announced fairly quietly a couple of weeks ago. Everything we know so far, as well as everything we expect or that remains to be answered is discussed below.

Here’s the promotional video from Asus:

What we know so far

Confirmed in the short promotional video posted to their social channels, we know so far:

It’s 26.5″ in size (promoted as 27″ as LG did for their model too)
It’s based on an OLED technology panel, bringing the typical benefits you’d expect from this technology including per-pixel dimming for HDR, near instant response times and amazing near-infinite contrast ratios.
It has a 2560 x 1440 resolution (1440p)
This gives it a 0.2292mm pixel pitch, very close to the 0.2393mm of their 42″ (really 41.5″) OLED PG42UQ
It’s a 16:9 aspect ratio
It has a flat format, not curved
There’s a 0.03ms G2G response time spec (this is getting a little silly already with OLED panels, but we suppose they do have to reflect the better response times than <1ms G2G rated LCD panels now available)
It has a 240Hz native refresh rate
The screen has a new ROG design, something that we commented on recently and are pleased to see get a bit of a refresh
There is some RGB lighting on the back of the screen as you can see in the video as well as some ‘Swift’ lighting on the back of the stand, and a logo projection from the base.

What remains to be confirmed (and expectations)

While not promoted on the Asus video, this is based on a WRGB sub-pixel layout OLED panel from LG.Display. This will be the same panel as the LG model. This may present some text rendering concerns to some people given the unusual pixel layout.
It’s not yet clear whether this screen will have an additional heatsink added like Asus did for their 42″ OLED. If it does, that could help longer term with image retention, and also potentially allow Asus to drive peak brightness higher than models without it (like the LG equivalent)
We don’t know for sure whether this will have a matte or glossy panel coating, but given they’ve used matte AG on their PG42UQ, we would expect this to be featured here too. It’s likely the most appropriate for a desktop monitor in our opinion. More discussion on matte vs glossy OLED in our comparison video here.
Brightness capabilities are not yet listed. LG list their screen as having a 200 nit brightness for SDR (25% APL) so that might give us an indication. We’d expect HDR peak brightness in the realms of 1000 nits here (TBC)
We would hope for the screen to feature Asus’ ‘Uniform Brightness’ mode like the PG42UQ, to help avoid ABL usage in desktop applications and provide a consistent screen brightness
Variable refresh rate support is not listed in the short video, but this will use adaptive-sync for VRR and we would expect it to carry the NVIDIA ‘G-sync Compatible’ and AMD ‘FreeSync Premium Pro’ certifications. Possibly also the new VESA ‘Adaptive-Sync’ certification if they’ve bothered with that too.
Colour gamut and colour depth is not supported but given this is the same panel as the LG model, that means it will have a 98.5% DCI-P3 gamut and a 10-bit colour depth.
We would not expect this to feature hardware calibration support like LG’s model unfortunately, given this is part of the ROG gaming line-up
A usual range of gaming extras like crosshairs, FPS counters, timers etc are a given
We know this is going to offer excellent motion clarity, with a 240Hz OLED being equivalent (or a bit better) to a good 360Hz LCD in practice. You can see some testing we did on a 240Hz ultrawide screen here for more info.
Connections are not yet listed but we’d expect to see DisplayPort 1.4 (with DSC) as the primary connection. Hopefully Asus will also include proper HDMI 2.1 ports which could offer the bandwidth to run at 1440p @ 240Hz from a PC, while also including features like HDMI-VRR and ALLM for consoles. Although with this being a 1440p screen, they may settle for HDMI 2.0 instead which can support 1440p @ 120Hz fine for consoles. USB type-C may be included, although we would probably expect not given the gaming market for this screen and Asus’ other modern products.
USB ports and a headphone jack are almost certainly going to be included
The stand will almost certainly include tilt, height and swivel adjustments – rotate possibly
Warranty and burn-in cover is not yet confirmed but hopefully Asus will include something decent here

Is this the “endgame”?

Asus for some reason have chosen to promote this screen as the “1440p endgame monitor”. We understand this is marketing speak, but it seems a bit of an odd claim to us. No doubt this is a great spec and we’re really pleased to see something like this announced. But at the same time, it’s not unique in the market, and looks like it won’t even be the first to be released. Asus expect to show this off at CES in January, while LG are expecting to release their 27GR95QE before then to market!

Calling it an “endgame” also leaves you nowhere to go in the future. What about when 360Hz OLED appears? Or 480Hz? Or when a new brighter panel arrives? There’s never truly an “endgame” with tech like this, and it feels to us a bit premature to promote something new like this as “endgame” when really there’s a lot of room left to grow in to.

Pricing and Availability

No word on pricing and availability yet, but Asus say they will be telling more at CES 2023 in January. LG are expecting to start shipping their 27GR95QE from 28th Dec in the US at a price of $999.99, so let’s hope that this Asus screen isn’t too far behind, and isn’t too much of a price premium.

We will provide updates when we get any more information.

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