ASUS ProArt Display PA248CRV monitor review

The ProArt series in the ASUS product line consists of devices intended for professionals, mainly content creators. It includes laptops, desktops, motherboards — and, of course, monitors. We have already reviewed one such model at the beginning of this year, today we have a more compact monitor under review – 24-inch ASUS ProArt Display PA248CRV.

ASUS ProArt Display PA248CRV specifications

Design

The monitor looks restrained and refined: a thin body, a very small stand, and practical matte plastic in gray and black colors. The screen is made in a traditional already frameless design: in the off state, it is surrounded only by the line of the case on the sides and top and a thin panel with a barely noticeable texture.

After switching on, an additional frame around the image becomes visible, which is hidden under the protective “glass”. Together with the plastic of the case, the screen is surrounded by a 6 mm wide frame on the sides and top.

The stand is fully functional and allows you to turn the screen left-right (+30°~-30°), tilt forward-backward (+23°~-5°), adjust the height (0-130 mm) and switch the monitor to portrait mode. In the lower part of the leg, there is a cutout for organizing the connected cables.

All video connectors are located in a small niche next to the stand mount: these are two DisplayPort 1.4, two more HDMI 1.4, and one USB Type-C. You can also find a USB hub with two USB 3.2 ports and a headphone jack here. Another USB 3.2 and USB Type-C are located on the lower side face – it is more convenient for the regular connection of USB devices.

Menu

The ASUS ProArt Display PA248CRV is controlled using a joystick and five physical buttons on the right side of the bottom panel. Pressing any button brings up the “quick menu”, which contains several “hot” functions and launches the main menu.

In it, the first item is Preset — a selection of video mode templates for various tasks and emulation of color spaces, followed by Palette, which combines traditional image settings: brightness, contrast, color saturation, color temperature, gamma, black level, etc.

Sharpness, panel overdrive, image proportions, and input range deserve a separate item — they are located in the Image item.

In QuickFit Plus, the user can optionally display different types of rulers on the screen to simplify work with graphics, and in Signal – manually select the source of the video signal.

The Settings section contains all other system settings that did not find a place in the previous items: on-screen menu options, operation indicator behavior, monitor information, factory reset, etc. And in the last item, Key combination, the user can assign their own functions to two “hot keys”. Finally, we note that, as in all the latest models of ASUS monitors, the PA248CRV’s on-screen menu also has Ukrainian localization.

Functionality

ASUS ProArt Display PA248CRV uses a 10-bit IPS panel with a diagonal of 24.1″ with an aspect ratio of 16:10 and a resolution of 1920×1200 pixels. Such proportions are usually better for work than “multimedia” 16:9 due to the slightly higher image height on the same diagonal.

The pixel density is 94 PPI (pixel size – 0.2704 mm): this is, so to speak, the minimum comfortable resolution for such a diagonal. From a typical distance to the monitor, users with good eyesight can see individual pixels, but this does not cause discomfort at work.

The maximum refresh rate is 75 Hz – not much compared to modern gaming models, but as a monitor for work, anything above the standard 60 Hz is good.

The brightness in this monitor is regulated by changing the current strength, PWM is not used over the entire brightness range, so there is no screen flickering.

The USB-C connector can be used not only for video signal transmission – it also supports charging connected devices (96 W), so it is very convenient to use it in a pair with a laptop. And the presence of a USB hub allows you to connect any peripheral to the monitor’s three full-size USB ports and use it with a laptop — without occupying its ports.

The DisplayPort connector supports a serial connection (up to 4 monitors), which allows you to create a multi-monitor system that receives a video signal from a single source.

ASUS ProArt Display PA248CRV image quality

The screen coating is “semi-matte”, which has almost imperceptible parasitic reflections on a dark background if you look at it from a typical position of a PC user. When tilted to the side, the screen gradually becomes more “glossy”, but it does not interfere with the work behind it.

The declared reaction time is typical for an IPS panel in a non-gaming monitor: 5 ms (GtG). Despite the fact that the monitor is designed for work, not games, it has a typical gaming function — matrix overdrive (the corresponding settings are located in the Image section, the Trace Free item).

The degree of overclocking is adjustable from 0 (overclocking is off) to 100 (maximum) in steps of 20. There is practically no difference between the values “0” and “20”, at “40” the blurring of the image in the dynamics becomes a little less, at higher degrees of overclocking it also gradually decreases, but starting with “60” the so-called “overdrive artifacts” appear in the form of dark plumes behind objects moving on the screen. So we would recommend not setting this parameter higher than “40”.

Trace Free “0 / 40 / 60 / 80 / 100”:

The uniformity of black is not bad, but a few light spots on the edges of the screen on a black background can still be noticed at maximum brightness in a completely dark room; it does not interfere with normal work.

The glow effect is typical for IPS technology: if you look at the screen from the side and from above, a moderate gray glow with a barely perceptible cold shade appears against a black background.

Viewing angles are traditionally large for IPS: when viewed from the side, the screen loses some brightness, but the colors remain almost as saturated, and in general, the quality of the image practically does not deteriorate.

In the monitor settings, the Preset section offers various video modes that emulate the main color spaces: sRGB, Adobe RGB, Rec. 2020, DCI-P3, Rec. 709, etc. By default, the Native mode is set. It should offer the maximum capabilities of the panel in terms of color coverage, not limited to any color space. Let’s start with it.

So, the color coverage completely covers the sRGB space and is 93% DCI-P3 (87% Adobe RGB). The brightness is adjustable in the range of 35-330 cd/m² – at the lowest value, you can comfortably work with this monitor even in the dark, the highest is quite enough even for a very brightly lit office space. The maximum static contrast in this mode is slightly lower than the official specifications, 940:1.

The ASUS ProArt Display PA248CRV has gamma control — the user can choose one of five values, from 1.8 to 2.6 in 0.2 steps. In all cases, the real gamma value perfectly corresponds to the declared value.

There are four options for color temperature, the actual value of this parameter in all of them is slightly overestimated: for example, the temperature “6500K” set by default is actually 7300K, and the warmest “5000K” is 5600K.

In the Image menu there is a blue filter in the backlight, it has 10 levels of intensity and allows you to further reduce the color temperature: if the 7400K that the user receives by default seems too cold to him, then at the maximum value of this parameter the temperature is 5400K, and at the average — 6300K.

Color temperature uniformity is mediocre: the maximum deviation in different areas of the screen ΔE is 7.2. But the uniformity of the white field is very good: the brightest zone is the center of the screen, the darkest is the lower left corner, and the difference in brightness between them is 10%; the rest of the screen has a deviation of only 4-8%.

ASUS ProArt Display PA248CRV undergoes factory calibration of sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3 modes, as evidenced by the corresponding report that comes with the monitor. But even in Native the accuracy of color reproduction is very high – the maximum value of ΔE (with the exception of one color, which stands out from the overall picture due to the peculiarities of the test colorimeter) is only 1.03, and the average is about 0.5. As a reminder, it is considered that the average user is unable to notice the difference between the reference color and the one displayed by the monitor if ΔE does not exceed two.

The sRGB mode limits the color coverage to 97% of this space (73% Adobe RGB, 73% DCI-P3), the accuracy of color reproduction is also very good, but slightly worse than in Native – the average value of ΔE at the level of one. In this mode, almost all image settings are blocked, including the brightness – it is set at 88 cd/m², which is a comfortable value for working in semi-darkness, but in bright light, the screen will appear too dim.

In the DCI-P3 mode, the color coverage is slightly less than in the Native: more than 100% sRGB, 87% Adobe RGB, and 91% DCI-P3. The brightness is adjustable in almost the same range: 33-310 cd/m², for gamma available only two options – 2.2 and 2.6, in both cases the real value of it perfectly matches the set one. Color temperature also has only two values – 6500K (real 7400K) and P3-Theater (real – 7000K). Color accuracy is better than in sRGB: the maximum value of ΔE = 1.79, and the average is 0.9.

And finally, in Adobe RGB mode, the color space is limited to 99% sRGB, 85% Adobe RGB, and 84% DCI-P3. The gamma is set to 2.2 and cannot be changed, the brightness is adjustable in the range of 30-285 cd/m², and the color temperature is also not adjustable and is 7300K. It is a bit surprising, but the accuracy of color reproduction in this mode is the worst: the average value of ΔE = 1.83.