ASUS 42" ROG Swift PG42UQ

As far as I have read, there's no firm ETA but I would imagine (and hope) it's going to be pretty soon!

I've been rocking a 27" Asus PG279Q since 2015 (bought from OCUK) and no monitor has yet tempted me to leave. However, this one might get me pulling the trigger!

I just don't know if 42" is going to be too big
 
The only reason to get this over the C2 is the uniform brightness function, i would love to see how that passive heatsink is implemented though.
 
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Seems like this monitor just got it's first proper review by chinese reviewer "Little Snowman" (the video it's in bilibili.com AKA chinese youtube). Here's some of the most interesting things the reviewer mentioned in the video as well as some of the things I spotted (wall of text incoming):
  • In terms of IO, we got 1 DP 1.4 (With DSC), 2 HDMI 2.1 (48Gbps bandwidth) and 2 HDMI 2.0. It also features 4 USB 3.0 downstream ports.
  • The OSD can be controlled either with the usual monitor joystick or with the included remote controller. The OSD increases its size when using the remote controller.
  • The reviewer was rather impressed by the integrated speakers of this monitor. When tearing the monitor down, he found two 12W speakers as well as a 20W subwoofer. The sound of the monitor should be quite good!
  • According to the reviewer, both the DP 1.4 and the HDMI 2.1 connections can both achieve the maximum 138Hz refresh rate of the screen.
  • As expected, both the PS5 and the Series X can achieve a 4K 120Hz HDR10 connection with VRR (no Dolby Vision though). I also noticed that the screen can also output a 4K 24Hz signal according to the Xbox TV details screen.
  • With a 2021 Macbook Pro, the reviewer only managed to get a 4K HDR 60Hz signal with HiDPI through HDMI. With displayport, he managed to reach 138Hz with VRR, but no HiDPI support.
  • It features an sRGB and DCI-P3 mode, both with an avg. dE2000 of less than 2.0 (just as advertised. Pretty good performance if you ask me)
  • Excellent screen uniformity and great viewing angles. Also the usual OLED goodness like fast response times, per pixel dimming, etc.
  • The monitor has some DC Dimming. The reviewer says that it's "Almost invisible to the naked eye" though.
  • The input lag of the screen at 1080p@120Hz was 4ms. For some reason, when testing at 4K@60Hz, the input was at 22ms.
  • The reviewer claims that this monitor is using a WBE "Evo" OLED Panel. For comparison, the 42 inch LG C2 featured a WBC panel (according to HDTVTest)
  • Unfortunately, there's some rather obvious ABL at play in SDR Mode (From 367 nits at 1% to 25% windows sizes all the way down to 107 nits at 100% window size). There's a special mode in the OSD that caps the maximum brightness at 200 nits so that the ABL is not as distracting.
  • The HDR performance is rather "intriguing":
    • The reviewer originally measured a peak brightness of 522 nits, with 479 nits@10% Window Size and 106 nits@100% Window Size. Way below the advertised peak brightness of 900 nits.
    • When he changed the color temperature to 10000K, the peak brightness climbed to 871 nits, with 707 nits@10% Window and 137 nits@100% Window.
    • The reviewer told ASUS about this discrepancy, and 2 weeks after he received a new monitor firmware.
    • With the new firmware at 6500K, the peak brightness was now 751 nits, with 738 nits@10% and 111 nits@100%.
    • With the new firmware at 10000K, the peak brightness reached a whopping 968 nits (at a 10% window size nonetheless!) and 141 nits@100%.
    • When dealing with an HDR highlight in a "Real scene", the monitor reached 549 nits with the old firmware and 865 nits with the new one. One thing to note though is that this measurements were done at 10000K.
    • At 10000K, the PG42UQ has a better HDR brightness than the Alienware AW3423DW (a QD-OLED monitor). However, I noticed that the results at 6500K are not that different from the HDR performance of the LG 42C2 (the ASUS is just slightly brighter), so keep that in mind.
  • For the OLED anti-burn software measures, the reviewer mentioned a Screen Saver, "Static Logo brightness adjustment" and Pixel Shift. The Pixel Shift feature slightly cuts off the borders of the screen, unlike a monitor like the AW3423DW, which "reserves" some pixels around the image in order to not cut off the image. You can also turn on or off any of these features independently.
  • When the reviewer teared down the monitor, I didn't saw any FPGAs or cooling fans whatsoever. Seems like the monitor is using a fully passive heat dissipation layer in order to cool down the display.
So yeah, the monitor seems rather interesting from what the reviewer mentioned. I don't know if I'm willing to use the screen at 10000K though; I don't really want to strain my eyes with all that blue light. A few key things that the reviewer failed to mentioned were:
  • How does the matte screen coating compares to the 42C2? And how about text clarity?
  • Does this monitor features a pixel refresher tool like OLED TVs or monitors like the AW3423DW?
  • How accurate is the EOTF curve of this monitor (especially with the new firmware)?
  • How well does this monitor deals with image retention compared to the 42C2 and the AW3423DW
Luckily, HDTVTest and TFTCentral will be receiving some review samples from ASUS very soon, so let's hope that the monitor performs just as well as what "Little Snowman" mentioned in his review.
 
The only reason to get this over the C2 is the uniform brightness function, i would love to see how that passive heatsink is implemented though.

It behaves like a monitor which is a bit better for PC use.

I think more importantly text clarity will be the focus.

For now, I'm still patiently waiting for a 38" OLED monitor. The 34" Alienware isn't a big enough change for me from my current 34" UW, and text clarity issues are a big no-no.
 

With auto translate subtitles you can get most of what he is saying.

Still, think I'll be waiting for a @Baddass full review before I order one :)

Edit:
Ah it's the same as @JustSomeDude posted above, sorry for repost!
 

With auto translate subtitles you can get most of what he is saying.

Still, think I'll be waiting for a @Baddass full review before I order one :)

Edit:
Ah it's the same as @JustSomeDude posted above, sorry for repost!
The screen is now with me and being tested don’t worry :)
 
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