 Three things I really liked about the ROG PG-27A QDM, one modern specs. There are a lot of specs to consider in buying a monitor but the PG-27A QDM makes it easy by having all of the sweet spots for gamers in one package. That's 2K, 244Hz, 27 inch OLED, no spec missing, no spec lacking. Two, this is not a screen, it's a window. Out of the box color calibration is so enticing and the screen quality is so gorgeous. You're not looking at a display, you're looking through a window to whatever game settings you're on and it is truly immersive. Three, the outside counts too. This is a cutting edge monitor and you know that even from the exterior. Triangular legs support a central stem with a red stamp emanating from the base. Sleek arrow surrounding the base with the word swift emblazoned in the middle. The PG-27A QDM has a dangerous look, a sleek look. And I'm as good looking as a sports car and just as fast look. What's up internet? For a long time, the middle ground for gaming monitors hadn't changed much so it was easy to recommend specs. That has been upended though with a lot of graphics cards nowadays allowing higher refresh rates, higher resolutions and better graphic quality. So the specs for a modern gaming monitor have changed and the ROG PG-27A QDM fits right in the sweet spot of all of the specs that you would need in a gaming monitor. One is resolution. Before 1080p was fine but that just doesn't cut it nowadays. With some modern GPUs even going slower or rendering slower in 1080p with 2K being their preferred resolution. With GPUs chomping at the bit to go to 2K, your monitor needs to keep up and 2K or 1440p is the resolution of the PG-27A QDM. Two speaking of keeping up that extends in the refresh rates as well. Before 140Hz was already very good but we've tried ROG monitors that go up to 360Hz. Now those bonkers super high refresh rate monitors are mostly for pro gamers and for pro streamers. But even for mainstream gamers, there's been a push to go beyond 140Hz. So again the PG-27A QDM is at a sweet spot with a max refresh rate of 240Hz which is really more than enough for most games and most gamers. Third type of panel. Before my go-to recommendation would be an IPS because of its image quality over that of a VA or a TN and in general there were less problems with an IPS compared to those other two type of display types. But now with OLED and once you've seen OLED it's very hard to go back to any other kind of panel because OLED panels, the image quality is just superb. And believe me, I'm going to gush more in detail in this video about the particular image quality of this monitor but suffice to say text is much clearer making work and surfing a lot more enjoyable and the image quality in games and video is phenomenal. There are some standard spec recommendations though for monitors which are still applicable now. Number one being size. A lot of people prefer 27 inches. Now I personally don't agree with this. For me, the larger the better but I do acknowledge that I'm in the minority on this one. 27 inches is the sweet spot for the majority of users large enough to appreciate the graphic quality of the game but still compact enough to fit on most desks. In case the name didn't give it away the PG-27A QDM is 27 inches or 26.5 inches for the nitpickers but it is in that sweet spot. Another go-to recommendation which is still applicable is to get some kind of sync. Most gaming monitors do have either G-Sync or Free-Sync or both. In this case, the PG-27A QDM does have both. G-Sync or Free-Sync is still important to ensure that all of those fast frames don't just become a jagged series of images smashing into your display jarring your gameplay experience. I personally tried this monitor on a 3080 so that's an Nvidia card so it uses G-Sync and I had no problems with it at all. No screen tearing, no jagadness, just smooth gameplay. So on paper, this monitor has all of the ingredients for greatness and is exactly the specs a modern gamer is looking for but how does it actually perform? I'll tell you a story. I played a lot of Death Stranding and I've spent hours going up the mountains logging through the forest deandering my way through the snow so much time that you'd think I'd be bored of it by now. But when I was playing the game on the PG-27A QDM there were moments in that game where it was like I was looking at it for the first time. The images were stunning. So much so that I just had to stop the character and swivel the camera around just to take in the new details of the crevasse, the mountains, the steam pouring out of the fossilized remains of dinosaurs and tar and whatnot. Everything just looks so darn good. One, that's because of the OLED panel which really provides better color, better contrast, really superior brightness. Basically, everything you've come to expect from a good monitor amped up by like 50. And second, that's also because of the out-of-the-box excellent color calibration by ASUS and we've been looking at ASUS monitors for a long time and really the out-of-the-box color calibration is always on point for me. Some people find it a little too vivid. They have an issue on the saturation levels or how the colors pop out. But personally, I really like that look and it's apt for a lot of the settings whether video or games. And so even on the ASUS monitors that aren't OLED, I've really come to appreciate their out-of-the-box color calibration. But for me, the ultimate question that any gaming monitors would answer is does it suck you into the game? And the PG-27AQDM sucks. It sucks hard. So yes, this monitor has excellent image quality. To stress it out a bit more, I also tried it on Overwatch 2 and Valorant. Both games have a very colorful palette and the colors just really pop. Both games not known for the graphic fidelity, but certainly the art direction is very distinctive and the monitor reflects all of those gorgeous colors. Also, these are first-person shooters, Twitch action games and they do pump out higher FPS, so I wanted to try them to see if I could stress out the monitor at higher refresh rates. But the PG-27AQDM handled both games and the higher refresh rates just fine. No indication at all of stuttering, jagadness or anything that would break you out of the immersion and smoothness of the gameplay. Now, I've said that these are the specs for modern gaming monitors, but is that really the case? And to be honest, when this monitor first came to me, I was a bit confused about the target market because it has two different things which are usually on different ends of the spectrum. On one hand, you have very high refresh rate. 240Hz is quite fast. Usually the people who want that are the pro gamers and the pro streamers who don't really care about image quality. In fact, they dial down the graphic settings just so that they can get faster FPS. Because for them, in their profession, speed is literally life. On the other end of the spectrum, you have people who care about the graphic quality of the game and that's why you buy OLED because the image quality is just superb. So two opposites. One, we like speed, we can do away with image quality. On the other end of the spectrum, speed would be good, but we prefer image quality over speed. And the PG-27AQDM gives you both. But my question on that is do those two opposite ends of the market really want to come together? And actually, I was very wrong. When we posted that we were reviewing this, we got a ton of inquiries. More so than what we usually get when we post about a new product. People are excited about this OLED monitor. They appreciate that the specs are really in that sweet spot that a lot of people apparently are looking for. And I'm happy to be wrong because this is a monitor that deserves to be lusted after. Just a word on the glossy versus matte debate. If you're not up-to-date with the nitty-gritty details of monitors, most monitors come with a matte finish which is supposed to reduce glare. It enables you to see the monitor clearly even in bright light. You have lights above you or behind you. The majority of users don't think about this much but there is a vocal minority that is very adamant that matte is not the way to go and we should all insist on a glossy finish. Glossy finishes are what you have on your cell phone and TVs. Supposedly, they make for a better viewing and gaming experience because the colors are clearer. There is less impediment between the actual screen and your eyes. So the screen is brighter. The colors contrast better. Personally, though, I found the people who bring up glossy are the kind of hardcore, hardware guys that like to attach themselves to any obscure detail and then proceed to brownbeat you so that you don't know that detail. Ah, di mo alam yung glossy versus matte, di ka hardcore kagaya ko. You know that kind of guy, don't be that kind of guy. Personally, all my monitors have been matte so that's what I have experience with but I don't think the matte finish has detracted from that experience. In particular, the PG-278QDM ASUS claims that its finish is anti-glare which is basically matte and actually it came out pretty handy because I had the monitor right beside the window where the sun streams through constantly. I was able to use the monitor without any impediment. The screen was just as bright just as I catching during the day as it was at night. So at least in my experience, matte hasn't degraded or deteriorated the screen quality for me and that's actually proven to be useful. Last two points on minor details. One, the screen is ridiculously thin. It is amazing that they're able to get this kind of quality, this kind of resolution from something that you can literally pinch. The slight bump in the back isn't actually technically part of the display anymore. It's part of the custom cooling solution of ASUS to prevent OLED burn-in which is a problem. Overtime, these OLEDs do have a shorter lifespan or the individual pixels tend to develop problems as compared to more established technologies like IPS, PN, or VA. Impossible to say now where I've only used this monitor for a week if this custom cooling solution does do its job but it should provide some peace of mind some comfort for users who are thinking in the long term especially because this monitor does come with a hefty price tag. Here in the Philippines, the PG278 QDM is slated for a price of 61,999 pesos and it's supposed to be available mid-April 2023. That is a bit pricey here I think than if you get it abroad pero gano naman talaga sa atin mas mahal yung premium items dito compared to if we get them abroad. And yes, 62,000 pesos is a lot of money. That's a gaming rig already for a lot of people. Although to put it into context if you're even thinking of getting an OLED 2K 240Hz monitor then you probably have enough budget for a very high-end rig and at the same time ayaw mo masayang yung rig na yun because all of those fancy specs if you don't have a monitor which can display all of the nice graphics at a fast setting at a high resolution that your high-end PC is capable of. So yes, 62,000 pesos is a lot but you're getting what you pay for. It can't overstate just how much I like looking at OLED monitors. Particularly the ones from ASOS the quality is just awesome. And just a short note on the video we tried a lot of different videos on it. We have Frozen running and Frozen is actually pretty good because it has a lot of darks and the darks there are true dark. Not the hazy kind of gray which you see on other monitors. But it's dark that you can still see detail in and the colors the sway of the dress the pan to the mountain beautiful and OLED monitor. We tried it on Star Wars Andor we tried it on Cyberpunk Edge Runners we tried it on so many different videos everything looked great. Sorry na distract naman ako talking about the excellent image quality of this thing. I was gonna say that our score for this is 4.5 out of 5 stars excellent monitor pricey but you get what you're paying for and the image quality will really stun you. Docking it just 0.5 stars because well in a ideal world it would be a bit cheaper but again if you want quality you have to pay for it. This review is all praises for the ROG PG-278QDM and so I just want to remind the reviewer that ASO sent us his item for review but had no say in what we had to say about it. Also I put my money where my mouth is. Last year ASO sent over the ROG PG-48Q another OLED monitor for review. I liked it so much that after the review period and I gave them back their unit I couldn't go back to my IPS display so I ponied up my own money to buy the ROG PG-48Q which you can see behind me. So it's from personal experience and personal expense that I can look you in the camera and tell you that once you gamed on these ROG OLED monitors your eyes have seen the glory and there's no going back. Paminsan may nagtatanong kumikilala ba kami ng computer shop na trusted yung hindi ka-lolo ko hin? Actually meron kami. Full service PC store ang hardware sugar. Nagbabenta kami ng PC components. Nagbabenta rin kami ng fully assembled rigs. We clean computers. Kasama na rin yung excellent cable management namin and CPU cooler repasting sa cleaning. We also clean and repaste GPUs. Na sa makati yung physical store namin and you can also buy from our site www.hwsugar.ph na 100% palaging up to date yung inventory dun. Kung instock yung item sa amin available yun sa site. We also ship nationwide. Thanks for watching and maybe one of these days maghita tayo sa shop.