Review Asus ROG Swift PG27AQDM OLED Gaming Monitor Review: Can It Get Any Better?

[Admin]

Can it get any better than a monitor with infinite contrast? Asus’ ROG Swift PG27AQDM attempts to answer that question. It’s a 27-inch OLED QHD panel with 240 Hz, Adaptive-Sync, HDR and extended color.

Asus ROG Swift PG27AQDM OLED Gaming Monitor Review: Can It Get Any Better? : Read more

 

[oofdragon]

If I lived on USA and got paid in dollars, I wouldn't even consider this expensive, at all. People complaining about the 4070 being $600.. just imagine having to pay $800 for the cheapest ass 1440p IPS 144hz or $2400 for a 3060. In Brazil my friends that's what it cost. A 5K gaming rig here is really as good as a 144hz IPS monitor powered by a 3060, so really, if you live in USA (and EUR) stop complaining about price. If I can afford a 5k gaming rig in Brazil you surely can afford a 5k gaming rig in USA unless you are unemployed or you didn't figure how to make good use of your money. I work as a Uber driver, have two kids, live in front of the beach. If I can, bro you surely can as well, just plan ahead and save money 3 to 4 months, stop expending in unnecessary stuff and you'll get there.. with a OLED 240HZ and a RTX 4090 while we international fellas will wait another 6 or 10 years to have it accessible for us.

EDIT: the minimum wage here is R$1300 while in US is $1300 so I used "$" as "money", not dollars. A 3060 here is R$2400 (roughly $480 dollars)

 

[Sonik35143]

If I lived on USA and got paid in dollars, I wouldn't even consider this expensive, at all. People complaining about the 4070 being $600.. just imagine having to pay $800 for the cheapest ass 1440p IPS 144hz or $2400 for a 3060. In Brazil my friends that's what it cost. A 5K gaming rig here is really as good as a 144hz IPS monitor powered by a 3070, so really, if you live in USA stop complaining about price. If I can afford a 5k gaming rig on Brazil you surely can afford a 5kngaming rig on USA unless you are unemployed or you didn't figure how to make good use of your money. I work as a Uber driver, have two kids, live in front of the beach. If I can, bro you surely can as well, just plan ahead and save money 3 to 4 months, stop expending in unnecessary stuff and you'll get there.. with a OLED 240HZ and a RTX 4090 while we international fellas will wait another 5 or 10 years to have it accessible for us.

If you lived in the USA you would know that a 2 bedroom apartment can cost $1500-$2000 a month to rent in areas with decent pay. You would also know that going to the doctor can cots $150 for 15 minute visit or that a visit to the emergency room can cost thousands or dollars and bankrupt you or take away your life savings. Electronics can be cheap compared to the rest of the world but everything else is stacked against you.

 

[healthy Pro-teen]

If I lived on USA and got paid in dollars, I wouldn't even consider this expensive, at all. People complaining about the 4070 being $600.. just imagine having to pay $800 for the cheapest ass 1440p IPS 144hz or $2400 for a 3060. In Brazil my friends that's what it cost. A 5K gaming rig here is really as good as a 144hz IPS monitor powered by a 3070, so really, if you live in USA stop complaining about price. If I can afford a 5k gaming rig on Brazil you surely can afford a 5kngaming rig on USA unless you are unemployed or you didn't figure how to make good use of your money. I work as a Uber driver, have two kids, live in front of the beach. If I can, bro you surely can as well, just plan ahead and save money 3 to 4 months, stop expending in unnecessary stuff and you'll get there.. with a OLED 240HZ and a RTX 4090 while we international fellas will wait another 5 or 10 years to have it accessible for us.

$2400 for a 3060 is mental, I found a 3060Ti for $330 used and I am from Pakistan. Even the Xeneon flex ( spent $1849, Only 240Hz OLED that was available, atleast it's a bendable 45 inch UW) and Aorus 7900XTX I have were reasonable ($1219, cost $1100 something in US), only the 4090 is $2k used which is a bummer, but I shouldn't complain because that's still cheaper than that 3060 there. I am jobless ( under 17) and my parents decide my PC's budget, thankfully it's more on the generous side.

 

[oofdragon]

If you lived in the USA you would know that a 2 bedroom apartment can cost $1500-$2000 a month to rent in areas with decent pay. You would also know that going to the doctor can cots $150 for 15 minute visit or that a visit to the emergency room can cost thousands or dollars and bankrupt you or take away your life savings. Electronics can be cheap compared to the rest of the world but everything else is stacked against you.

But that's exactly my point.. my rent is $2000 and doctor here is $300 a single visit, it's not different at all. I spend no kidding $2500 a month with food, cleaning etc.. the only real difference is that the money that is left when all the bills are paid is simply not enough to buy a rtx 3060 which costs here S2400, but that I can afford if I save up for several months. If you live in the US you can buy this OLED, a 5800x3d and a RTX 4080 with the same "spare money" I can afford a measly 3060. And honestly here in Brazil, the average person earning 5 times less than someone born in US, we r still pretty good compared to other countries that are double poor. My reasoning is that anyone living in the US complaining about these prices is either unemployed or a cry baby, may sound harsh but my honest opinion.

Btw.. just to share a personal bill I had recently, while in Brazil you have free access to ER, I spent last month $8000 in medical bills because the service I needed with haste wasn't available for free.. so yeah, it's tough for everyone.

 

[oofdragon]

$2400 for a 3060 is mental, I found a 3060Ti for $330 used and I am from Pakistan. Even the Xeneon flex ( spent $1849, Only 240Hz OLED that was available, atleast it's a bendable 45 inch UW) and Aorus 7900XTX I have were reasonable ($1219, cost $1100 something in US), only the 4090 is $2k used which is a bummer, but I shouldn't complain because that's still cheaper than that 3060 there. I am jobless ( under 17) and my parents decide my PC's budget, thankfully it's more on the generous side.

Lol my bad.. I didn't make it clear that "$" equals "money" in the values I shared. I wrote like that because in Brazil the minimum wage is around R$1300 while in USA it's around $1300. The other guy answered his rent can cost as much as $2000.. while my rent also costs me R$2000.. but while $2400 can buy him a RTX 4080 plus the OLED and a CPU upgrade, everything new, here R$2400 (roughly $480) can buy me a second hand RTX 3060. And btw.. your gear, that's so much money here In Brazil it could buy you a wife

 

[oofdragon]

About the monitor.. someday in the future when I make the jump from 24"1080p, after so many years, I definitely won't be upgrading to a 27"1440p, that feels like way to little of a improvement, even if it's OLED and 240hz. I don't understand why someone would today choose this one over the 34"3440p 165hz when the prices almost match, rlly. While it seems I wouldnt miss those extra fps, the other way around giving up the extra screen immersion rlly feels like a compromise I wouldn't make. This Asus looks like the endgame monitor before we get to the 1000hz era, what I trully want as a upgrade is this exact performance here but 34" 3440p. That's my endgame, paired with a neo qled 65" 8K 120Hz (if I can't afford the OLED)

 

[helper800]

Lol my bad.. I didn't make it clear that "$" equals "money" in the values I shared. I wrote like that because in Brazil the minimum wage is around R$1300 while in USA it's around $1300. The other guy answered his rent can cost as much as $2000.. while my rent also costs me R$2000.. but while $2400 can buy him a RTX 4080 plus the OLED and a CPU upgrade, everything new, here R$2400 (roughly $480) can buy me a second hand RTX 3060. And btw.. your gear, that's so much money here In Brazil it could buy you a wife

You cannot compare like this, it does not make sense... Try this.

 

[drivinfast247]

27"?! Why so tiny?

 

[DavidLejdar]

If I got paid in dollars, ...

Myself, in Berlin, I have a bit of money left at the end of the month, which I can save up for e.g. hardware, or for going to a concert, etc. But e.g. in Texas, the minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, which applies to around 400,000 workers there. In most places there, more than half of that will go towards rent, which doesn't really leave much for saving up, in particular in places such as Dallas County, where it takes a living wage of nearly $18 per hour for a single adult to just support their basic needs.

Similarly in Brazil, if you'd be having minimum wage, you'd cover only half of what your current living costs are, wouldn't you? Which isn't to say that there aren't some with higher income, who are boozing it away, or some who may at least try to apply for a job, instead of hoping to get hardware for free. But to imply that everyone with a job surely can afford the highest-end rig there is, that's generalizing it too much, isn't it?

 

[GustavoVanni]

You cannot compare like this, it does not make sense... Try this.

Well, if you consider that today April 24th 2023 1USD equals 5,05BRL, your interpretation of how much it costs us to live here in Brazil is what does not make sense...

You have to take into consideration that you guys are payed in USD and us in BRL, but we don't get payed 5,05 times the value that you get. We actually are payed half or even less than what a minimum wage american gets.

The bare minimum wage in US is 7,50 USD per hour, some states pay a little more and some pay almost double of that.
Here in Brazil I get payed less than half of that 7,50USD per hour.
And my monthly salary is actually more than two brazilian minimum wage.

For every hour that a "lowest minimum wage american" works, I have to work more than double of that to get the same amount of money.
But if I was payed the brazilian minimum wage, I would have to work almost 5 times more than the "lowest minimum wage american" to get the same money... So now you start to get an idea of what oofdragon is trying to say.

Look at a "McMeal at McDonalds (or Equivalent Combo Meal)", it costs you "only" 10 bucks, that is about 1h20min of work at max for an american, but for us here in bananaland it costs 35BRL, which is almost 6 hours of work if you get payed minimum wage!!!
But I guess noone here in Brazil is eating McDonalds every day, so lets compare something that is more common in everyday life.

Milk (regular), (1 liter) costs you 8min14sec of work to buy, but costs us 59min48sec.
Rice (white), (1kg) costs you 20min, but to us it's 1h2sec.
Beef Round (1kg) (or Equivalent Back Leg Red Meat) costs you 1h48min43sec, to us it's 7h32min56sec.
Gasoline (1 liter) is 9min51sec for you, it's 1h5min22sec for us.
A Toyota Corolla Sedan 1.6l 97kW Comfort (Or Equivalent New Car) costs you 3,435h35min21sec, and to us it's 23,694h5min44sec, and we have to pay 5% of the value of the car per year in a tax until the car is 20 years old. Yeah, that's true. We pay a lot for the car itself, which already has a lot of taxes included in its pricetag, and then we still have to pay "another car" to the government in a stupid tax until the car is 20 years old!! Brasil-sil-sil!!!
And let's not forget the pride and jewelry of our beloved country, a Banana (1kg) costs you 13min7sec and 1h9min56sec to us plebs.

To sum it up, because I know nobody will read all this crap I just wrote, what oofdragon and I are trying to say is that we (and most people around the world to be honest...) have to work much more to buy the same things that someone in US or another rich country have to.

We don't mean to say that a 1,000,00 USD OLED Monitor is 'cheap' by any means, but is 'cheaper' to you guys than to the rest of the world.

 

[helper800]

Well, if you consider that today April 24th 2023 1USD equals 5,05BRL, your interpretation of how much it costs us to live here in Brazil is what does not make sense...

You have to take into consideration that you guys are payed in USD and us in BRL, but we don't get payed 5,05 times the value that you get. We actually are payed half or even less than what a minimum wage american gets.

The bare minimum wage in US is 7,50 USD per hour, some states pay a little more and some pay almost double of that.
Here in Brazil I get payed less than half of that 7,50USD per hour.
And my monthly salary is actually more than two brazilian minimum wage.

For every hour that a "lowest minimum wage american" works, I have to work more than double of that to get the same amount of money.
But if I was payed the brazilian minimum wage, I would have to work almost 5 times more than the "lowest minimum wage american" to get the same money... So now you start to get an idea of what oofdragon is trying to say.

Look at a "McMeal at McDonalds (or Equivalent Combo Meal)", it costs you "only" 10 bucks, that is about 1h20min of work at max for an american, but for us here in bananaland it costs 35BRL, which is almost 6 hours of work if you get payed minimum wage!!!
But I guess noone here in Brazil is eating McDonalds every day, so lets compare something that is more common in everyday life.

Milk (regular), (1 liter) costs you 8min14sec of work to buy, but costs us 59min48sec.
Rice (white), (1kg) costs you 20min, but to us it's 1h2sec.
Beef Round (1kg) (or Equivalent Back Leg Red Meat) costs you 1h48min43sec, to us it's 7h32min56sec.
Gasoline (1 liter) is 9min51sec for you, it's 1h5min22sec for us.
A Toyota Corolla Sedan 1.6l 97kW Comfort (Or Equivalent New Car) costs you 3,435h35min21sec, and to us it's 23,694h5min44sec, and we have to pay 5% of the value of the car per year in a tax until the car is 20 years old. Yeah, that's true. We pay a lot for the car itself, which already has a lot of taxes included in its pricetag, and then we still have to pay "another car" to the government in a stupid tax until the car is 20 years old!! Brasil-sil-sil!!!
And let's not forget the pride and jewelry of our beloved country, a Banana (1kg) costs you 13min7sec and 1h9min56sec to us plebs.

To sum it up, because I know nobody will read all this crap I just wrote, what oofdragon and I are trying to say is that we (and most people around the world to be honest...) have to work much more to buy the same things that someone in US or another rich country have to.

We don't mean to say that a 1,000,00 USD OLED Monitor is 'cheap' by any means, but is 'cheaper' to you guys than to the rest of the world.

One thing that was not compared was housing expenses, medical expenses, traveling expenses, and the amount you are expected to work vs the amount of time off work. If I make the median income in my area then it would take me longer than my entire career to save every bit of money I have to buy a house. In any given month 80-90% of that income goes into the basics of food, shelter, utilities, insurance, transportation and loans. I also live in California, so that means 1/3rd of my income goes to taxes. We also have to insure everything that exists here for hundreds of dollars a month. Do you have a car? Well that's a monthly expense of hundreds just for the gas, let alone the loan, registration, smog test, and oil change every 5k miles. My point was that it is not something that can, as you would say, be a bananas to bananas comparison.

 

[healthy Pro-teen]

Lol my bad.. I didn't make it clear that "$" equals "money" in the values I shared. I wrote like that because in Brazil the minimum wage is around R$1300 while in USA it's around $1300. The other guy answered his rent can cost as much as $2000.. while my rent also costs me R$2000.. but while $2400 can buy him a RTX 4080 plus the OLED and a CPU upgrade, everything new, here R$2400 (roughly $480) can buy me a second hand RTX 3060. And btw.. your gear, that's so much money here In Brazil it could buy you a wife

I was suspecting that lol, I would never make that mistake talking about my currency because 1 USD is PKR 280💀. I don't need a wife, but thanks for the suggestion lmao.

 

[Maebius]

I mean, 1K$ for a 1440p OLED monitor, hardly seems like acceptable progress.
More like they were holding back all this time to milk the "enthusiast" PC gamers.

I'm sure it's beautiful and all but smh

 

[npyrhone]

"Can it get any better?"

Yes. It could have the sub pixel layout fixed, either on the panel level hardware or through some software collaboration with Microsoft to have clear type support the off-standard layout.

As it stands, I cannot purchase this monitor. I will something exactly like this, and can even pay more, but I must be able to work with text on that monitor. I don't have the desktop real estate for two monitors, so as long as text looks blurry and colored around the edges, it's a deal breaker.

That's why I also disagree with the argument, also expressed in this review, that this monitor is good for general desktop use. It is not. And that is the single problem with this monitor.

For gaming only, it is not a problem. But for only gaming, I would probably buy a bigger oled, maybe for the living room, for about the same price.

 

[hotaru.hino]

These OLED monitors are fine an all, but until the manufacturers get together with Microsoft to fix subpixel rendering issues or conform to existing subpixel layouts, I'm not buying one.

I'm not buying a monitor only for gaming. It has to do everything else too.

 

[silkzim]

The lack of hdmi 2.1 and support for consoles like de LG model, is a draw back for me.

 

[helper800]

These OLED monitors are fine an all, but until the manufacturers get together with Microsoft to fix subpixel rendering issues or conform to existing subpixel layouts, I'm not buying one.

I'm not buying a monitor only for gaming. It has to do everything else too.

It does do everything else though. I stare at my 55 inch LG CX from about 4 and a half feet away and cannot notice the sub-pixel issue. I guess with the smaller, lower resolution screens the effect is front and center. Microsoft needs to stop sitting on their hands already and make a cleartype profile for wrgb. LG and any of the other wrgb oled manufacturers should not have to "collaborate" with Microsoft to get them to add basic support for their OS...

 

[GustavoVanni]

One thing that was not compared was housing expenses, medical expenses, traveling expenses, and the amount you are expected to work vs the amount of time off work. If I make the median income in my area then it would take me longer than my entire career to save every bit of money I have to buy a house. In any given month 80-90% of that income goes into the basics of food, shelter, utilities, insurance, transportation and loans. I also live in California, so that means 1/3rd of my income goes to taxes. We also have to insure everything that exists here for hundreds of dollars a month. Do you have a car? Well that's a monthly expense of hundreds just for the gas, let alone the loan, registration, smog test, and oil change every 5k miles. My point was that it is not something that can, as you would say, be a bananas to bananas comparison.

Yes, I agree with you actually.
Here in Brazil things aren't really different, and pratically everything related to technology is imported, so it has a lot of import taxes that come close to 100% or even more for some types of products.
The government think that by taxing things in this way would "incentivize" these multibilion multinational manufacturers of such things to make those products here in bananaland, opening factories that would employ lots of brazilian workers to manufacture their high tech stuff. But that kind of logic doesn't work, because no serious high tech manufacturers would be crazy enough to make things here just to be able to sell those same things a little cheaper without import taxes, where the same government still charges an unbelievable amount of taxes over everything else related to manufacturing and labour, etc... The price of the product "made in Brazil" probably wouldn't be any cheaper than the imported one anyway...

 

[M4t]

"Can it get any better?"

Yes. It could have the sub pixel layout fixed, either on the panel level hardware or through some software collaboration with Microsoft to have clear type support the off-standard layout.

As it stands, I cannot purchase this monitor. I will something exactly like this, and can even pay more, but I must be able to work with text on that monitor. I don't have the desktop real estate for two monitors, so as long as text looks blurry and colored around the edges, it's a deal breaker.

That's why I also disagree with the argument, also expressed in this review, that this monitor is good for general desktop use. It is not. And that is the single problem with this monitor.

For gaming only, it is not a problem. But for only gaming, I would probably buy a bigger oled, maybe for the living room, for about the same price.

100 % agree. I had this monitor for 2 days and tested it thoroughly. In games like DOTA its a really good picture quality you get, but as soon as I got back to browsing and documents the display suddenly felt so underwhelming. I cant imagine using this monitor for work at all and that is an absolute deal-breaker for me. I cant understand why some companies think they would get away with blurry fonts, since most people use PCs for a wide variety of tasks with a reason. Unexcusable.