ASUS ROG Strix XG27UCG 4K gaming monitor Review

In gaming monitors, 4K resolution is not often found even on large, over 30-inch diagonals - even smaller ones. But there are such models - for example, the 27-inch ASUS ROG Strix XG27UCG with a 4K panel and a refresh rate of 160 Hz.

Specifications of ASUS ROG Strix XG27UCG

Design

The monitor has a look familiar from other models in the ROG Strix line: a matte case in a pleasant graphite color with a recognizable pattern on the back panel.

However, unlike, say, the XG259CMS or XG27ACS, this model has RGB lighting of the Republic of Gamers logo, which the manufacturer has recently made into a simple embossed pattern. If the lighting is "too much" for you, when turned off, the logo is simply silver and almost mirror-like.

There is a thin "invisible" frame around the screen, hidden under the protective glass - together with the thin line of the side edge of the case, the image is framed by a 9 mm wide frame on the top and sides.

The stand is compact, no widely spaced "paws" in the shape of the letter V. Under the screen, there is a recess for the smartphone - if it supports the horizontal Always-On Display mode, this can be convenient.

The stand has all the necessary degrees of freedom — screen height adjustment (120 mm travel), left-right rotation (+45° ~ -45°), forward-backward tilt (+20° ~ -5°), and portrait mode (both clockwise and counterclockwise). You can see a tripod socket on top — streamers should appreciate this solution.

All video connectors are located in a small niche under the stand mount: these are DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.1 and USB Type -C - the latter also supports charging the connected device (unfortunately, only 15 W, so this is a solution for connecting a smartphone, not a laptop).

You can also find a connector for wired headphones here, but the ASUS ROG Strix XG27UCG lacks a USB hub. To hide the connected cables, the niche can be closed with a decorative cover.

The power supply for this model is external.

Menu

ASUS ROG Strix XG27UCG is controlled using three hardware buttons and a 5-way joystick located in the lower right corner on the rear panel. Two buttons can be assigned custom functions in the system menu (by default, this is the GamePlus game menu and the GameVisual video mode menu), pressing or tilting the joystick calls up the main menu - this model does not have a "quick" menu with the main functions.

The first item is the gaming section - in it you can adjust the degree of overdrive, activate variable refresh rate, select video mode in the GameVisual menu, access gaming settings in GamePlus (for example, enable frame rate display and even a graph of its change over time), and configure ELMB (Extreme Low Motion Blur).

The Image menu contains traditional image settings — brightness, contrast, blue filter in the backlight, dynamic contrast, etc. In the next menu, Color, you can change the color temperature, gamma, color saturation, and choose one of three color space options.

The Input Select menu allows you to manually switch to a different video input, and Lighting Effect allows you to adjust the backlight behavior. MyFavorite allows you to change the functions of "hot keys", and System Setup contains system settings - the language and behavior of the on-screen menu (Ukrainian localization is available), the headphone volume level (the monitor does not have its own speakers), resetting all settings to factory settings, etc.

Functionality

Like some other ROG Strix models we reviewed, the ASUS ROG Strix XG27UCG uses a panel made using Fast IPS technology. It has a much lower response time than regular IPS, and in this parameter it is already approaching gaming TN panels - yes, the manufacturer states a response time of 1 ms (GtG).

Again, we note that the name Fast IPS is more of a marketing term, and at least according to the official description, it does not differ from similar panels from other manufacturers called Rapid IPS.

The screen diagonal is 27 inches, the resolution is 3840×2160 pixels. The pixel density is 163 PPI , the dot size is only 0.155 mm. The image looks dense, individual pixels are almost impossible to see from a typical distance from the monitor, even for users with very sharp vision.

Regarding the refresh rate, the ASUS ROG Strix XG27UCG has two operating modes: 160 Hz at 4K resolution and increased to 320 Hz in Full HD mode. The monitor supports AMD FreeSync Premium adaptive frequency technology and is compatible with NVIDIA G-Sync.

The brightness in this monitor is adjusted by changing the current strength, PWM is not used across the entire brightness range, so there is no screen flickering in normal mode.

As with some other gaming models, there is an option to improve clarity in dynamic scenes by disabling the backlight "through the frame" (the ELMB item in the game settings). This significantly reduces the maximum brightness and leads to screen flickering (barely noticeable at high refresh rates), but completely eliminates image blur in dynamics and trails behind fast-moving objects.

ELMB is not compatible with adaptive frequency technologies and can only be used at fixed refresh rates - but this monitor also has another proprietary ASUS technology - ELMB SYNC, which can be activated simultaneously with AMD FreeSync Premium or NVIDIA G-Sync.

If connected via USB-C, you can control the monitor using the DisplayWidget Center utility - it duplicates all the basic settings of the on-screen menu, while it may be more convenient to use.

Image quality of ASUS ROG Strix XG27UCG

The screen coating is semi-matte - it looks matte when viewed directly, and almost glossy when viewed from the side. This solution allows you to almost completely get rid of parasitic reflections of objects behind the user and at the same time not get the "crystal effect" - barely noticeable graininess in solid areas of the image.

The manufacturer states that the panel's response time is 1 ms (GtG). This is a very good indicator and the main advantage of Fast IPS technology, which is significantly faster than traditional IPS panels (which usually have an official response time of no less than 4 ms).

In the settings, there is a possibility of overclocking the panel via OSD - the Variable OD item in the game menu. This parameter has 20 intensity levels and the ability to completely turn it off. It should be noted that even without overdrive, the image clarity in dynamics is very high - the blurring of fast-moving objects is almost imperceptible both at 160 Hz in 4K and at 320 Hz in Full HD (activation of the increased refresh rate - the Frame Rate Boost item in the game section).

Overdrive has minimal impact – its work becomes somewhat noticeable only after the tenth level of overclocking, but the difference even between maximum overclocking and its complete absence is insignificant. Overclocking artifacts in the form of dark trails behind objects moving quickly on the screen appear only at maximum overdrive, so this parameter can be safely set to values up to 19 inclusive.

In general, as with another model with a Fast IPS panel - XG259CMS, the speed performance of the ASUS ROG Strix XG27UCG is simply excellent, in this parameter the monitor is practically not inferior to gaming TN models.

The uniformity of black is almost perfect: in a dark room, it is impossible to see lighter spots on a black background, even at maximum brightness.

The glow effect is traditionally quite strong for IPS: if you look at the screen from the side and from above, a noticeable glow appears on the black background, and the overall image becomes grayer.

Regarding viewing angles, they are also typical for IPS panels. When viewed from the side, the brightness decreases quite a lot, and the image noticeably "warms up"; when viewed vertically, there is no change in color temperature, and the brightness remains almost the same. Contrast and saturation almost do not decrease when viewed from any side.

When you first turn it on, the eco mode is set, if you turn it off, the system turns on the GameVisual — Racing mode. Let's start with that.

Like the XG259CMS of its time, the ASUS ROG Strix XG27UCG officially claims an expanded color gamut and offers a choice of three color spaces – sRGB, DCI-P3, or the full color gamut of the panel (Wide Gamut). But unlike the previous model, here we see that the coverage is indeed wider than the standard sRGB space.

So, in Wide Gamut mode, the color gamut is 94% DCI-P3 (88% Adobe RGB), in DCI-P3 it is minimally reduced in the "red zone" - to 93% DCI-P3, and in sRGB it is quite accurately limited to the dimensions of this space: 98% sRGB, 79% DCI-P3.

Color gamut, Wide Gamut - DCI-P3 - sRGB:

The color reproduction accuracy, surprisingly, is best in Wide Gamut mode – here it is almost perfect, the maximum value ΔE = 1.63, the average is only 0.69.

In the sRGB and DCI-P3 modes, the result is slightly worse, but not at all fundamentally - they have an average ΔE value of around one. Recall that it is believed that an average user can notice the difference between the reference color and how the monitor displays it if this parameter exceeds 3 for him.

The lowest brightness is quite high – 72 cd/m². At this brightness, you can comfortably play or work in even low-light conditions, but in the dark the screen will seem too bright even at “zero”. The maximum brightness is 440 cd/m², the maximum static contrast is 930:1 – overall, not bad indicators for an IPS panel, which quite accurately correspond to the declared characteristics.

The color temperature in the ASUS ROG Strix XG27UCG is regulated as in a professional model – by selecting one of seven modes, the names of which indicate the value of this parameter. Moreover, unlike other monitors not focused on working with graphics, in which the real values are higher than the declared ones, in this model everything is surprisingly very accurate: minimal deviations are observed literally at two values of this parameter.

The monitor has gamma settings, and as with temperature, there are many more options available than usual in gaming models. The user can choose from as many as 5 gamma templates, from 1.8 to 2.6: in the first two it perfectly matches the declared value, starting from 2.2, the real gamma is minimally higher than the selected mode.

The uniformity of the color temperature is acceptable: the maximum deviation of ΔE in different areas of the screen is 4. But the uniformity of the white field is very good: the difference between the brightest area (center) and the darkest (top) is only 8% - for a gaming model not designed for working with graphics, this is almost ideal.

In sRGB mode, most manual settings are disabled, but fortunately, brightness is not – it is set to 65%, i.e. 135 cd/m² - a typical value for working in office lighting conditions. Contrast is reduced to 730:1, color temperature is exactly the standard value of 6500K, and the gamma value is 2.3.

The color gamut, of course, is set to sRGB, and the color accuracy is minimally different from the above-mentioned combination of the GameVisual Racing mode and the sRGB option selected in the Display Color Space item: the maximum ΔE value is 1.53, the average is 0.9.

Other GameVisual video modes differ in basic settings for brightness, contrast, color saturation, gamma, etc. A little aside here is the MOBA mode, in which only green and red colors remain from the entire color gamut, and the Night Vision mode, in which the image in a night vision device is simulated. In general, we would recommend using Racing as the main mode as it offers the highest quality image, and switching to others for specific tasks.

You can visually compare the GameVisual modes in the following gallery.