When it comes to gaming hardware, 2024 is likely to be remembered as the year that OLED gaming monitors finally came into their own. Multiple generations on, we’ve largely moved past issues with text clarity and major brightness swings, and now have access to multiple burn-in prevention features and multi-year warranties for peace of mind to supplement their next-level picture quality. The amount of options to choose from has skyrocketed, raising the heat on competition. In short, the Asus ROG Strix XG27AQDMG has something to prove.
Hitting the market with a competitive $699 price, the ROG Strix XG27AQDM has the distinction of being the world’s first WOLED gaming monitor with a glossy panel. It’s a make or break feature for some gamers, but that’s not the only trick it has up its sleeve. Asus clearly made some concessions to drive the price down, but there’s no mistaking that it’s one of the best OLED gaming monitors for the price.
Asus ROG Strix XG27AQDMG – Design and Features
While undoubtedly premium, the ROG Strix XG27AQDMG stakes out the middle ground. At 27 inches, it’s large enough to feel spacious without seeming too large, like 32-inch monitors tend to at first. Its 1440p (2560 x 1440) resolution is a perfect match for its size, offering a pixel density of 110 PPI, so games and text look sharp without incurring the high performance demands of 4K (UHD).
There’s a case to be made that a 4K native resolution would have been a better fit for an expensive monitor like this, but with gaming monitors now extending to $1,300 or more, the XG27 is on the bottom-end of pricing for the premium category. It’s not a given that you’ll have top of the line, a $1,000+ graphics card to push triple digit frame rates at 4K. In comparison, 1440p is much easier to run and won’t force you to turn down graphics settings nearly as much. You don’t need an RTX 4090 to hit triple digit FPS when an RTX 4070 or Radeon RX 7800 XT is enough for it to thrive.
You’ll definitely want to have something in that neighborhood to make the most of it, though. It sports a 240Hz refresh rate that noticeably improves motion clarity in competitive games. You’ll need to use its single DisplayPort 1.4 input to use it, however, because its dual HDMI 2.0 ports are bandwidth capped at 144Hz. That may be a downside if you’re already set up with an HDMI cable, but it’s worth the switch. The combination of ultra-fast refresh rate and the ridiculously low latency of its OLED panel render motion blur almost a complete non-issue.
The XG27AQDMG shares strengths and weaknesses with other OLED panels of its type. Since each of its pixels is independently controlled, it’s able to deliver infinite contrast for true, inky blacks without the blooming typical of LCD monitors. Instead, it turns each of its 3.7 million pixels into a local dimming zone, right to the point of completely turning off. This makes blacks well and truly black, colors to pop off the screen, and HDR truly next level. Asus seems to want to keep expectations in check and lists a maximum brightness of only 450 nits, but rest assured that the monitor is capable of greater than 1,000 nits in peak highlights when using HDR.
The downside is that its SDR brightness is lacking in comparison to similarly positioned LCD monitors. Its average luminance is rated at only 275 nits, which is in keeping with other OLED monitors even well above this price. In situations where light sunlight is shining directly on the monitor, it can look dim, but it’s not an issue with indirect lighting typical of homes and offices. If your home office is anything like mine with a corner lamp or two and maybe a set of key lights, it’s less of a noticeable shortcoming, but it’s a fact: OLEDs can’t get as bright as LCDs for SDR content.
The XG27AQDMG stands apart from most of the OLED monitors that have been released this year (second-gen or third-gen depending on who you ask) in the type of panel it uses. The majority of what we’ve seen so far have been QD-OLED, traditional OLED panels enhanced with Quantum Dots to improve their luminance and vividness. In contrast, the XG27AQDMG, like the ultrawide ROG Swift PG34WCDM, is a “White OLED” or WOLED panel.
The difference between the two comes down to how they produce white light and what that means for power consumption and, ultimately, burn-in. QD-OLEDs create white light by combining the light from three micro LEDs in red, blue, and green simultaneously. WOLEDs instead have a dedicated white LED, allowing the panel to use less energy and generate less heat, extending the life of each pixel as a result. Both types offer the same advantages as other OLEDs, but WOLEDs typically trade some of their brightness and color in exchange for longevity.
This is where things get interesting – because the XG27 has a glossy panel, its contrast tends to be better than competing matte-finished QD-OLEDs and WOLEDs. Its brightness, while measurably lower by a small degree, isn’t something you’re likely to notice without measurement tools (and it still peaks above 1,000 nits). Its colors look plenty vivid and justify the added cost of an OLED monitor over a traditional LCD. Between the mitigating effects of the glossy coating and the effective implementation of its panel technology, you have a WOLED monitor that offers best-in-class picture quality. I won’t pretend that QD-OLEDs don’t have advantages, but the trade-offs are small and worthwhile if you’re concerned about burn-in and want every protection possible — with a few caveats I’ll get to soon.
The build quality and design are right up there with the best gaming monitors you can buy today. The panel is ridiculously thin and has narrow bezels that make the most of its display size. Around the back, the electronics are housed in a large back panel that’s adorned with a dot matrix ROG logo that looks quite nice. It gets bonus points for actually being bright enough to subtly light up the wall behind it in a dark room.
The stand is also quite nice. It’s easy to assemble and attaches to the monitor with a quick release mechanism. It offers the usual range of height (0-120mm), tilt (-5 to +20 degrees), and pivot adjustment (+/- 90 degrees) and can also be rotated into portrait orientation. The base is flat instead of legged and doesn’t have any fancy custom projection gimmicks like the PG32UCDM, but it’s functional and allows you to place peripherals like a soundbar or Elgato Stream Deck under the display. There’s even a ¼-20 insert on the very top so you can mount a camera or ring light directly to the stand. If you’d rather get rid of it entirely, the panel includes threads for standard 100 x 100 VESA mounting, but there’s not much point unless you’re moving to a monitor arm.
Along the underside of the display, you’ll find its selection of I/O and it’s pretty limited for a monitor at this price. In addition to its DisplayPort 1.4 and dual HDMI 2.0 ports, there are two USB 3.2 Type-A ports and a USB Type-B for upstream to your PC, and a headphone jack. There’s no USB Type-C for peripherals, fast charging devices, or as a video input. The monitor also lacks the KVM functionality found in Asus’s more expensive monitors.
Everything is controlled with a joystick with two buttons on either side. Shortcuts can be assigned to each of the joystick’s four directions and to the left button. The right button is locked to power. By default, these map to input selection, picture presets, raising the OSD, gaming features, and pixel cleaning. They can all be reassigned, so if you’d rather have a one-click shortcut to activate Shadow Boost, which allows you to see better in dark areas, it’s certainly possible.
Like nearly all of the OLED gaming monitors released so far this year, it also comes with a full suite of OLED protection features as well as a three-year warranty covering burn-in. These protections include pixel shifting, pixel cleaning, automatic screen dimming, focus windows (your current window is full brightness while background content is dimmed), uniform brightness, and logo protection. These are all very reassuring and unobtrusive, with the exception of pixel cleaning which takes over your system every eight hours for a six minute refresh. Avoiding static content like desktop icons, setting the taskbar to automatically hide itself, and using animated wallpapers are also good steps you can take to protect your panel. The combination of protective features and best practices really makes burn-in less of a concern than it’s ever been. Yes, it can happen, but it’s mostly preventable.
Asus ROG Strix XG27AQDMG – OSD and Gaming Features
The XG27AQDMG offers you the option of controlling its settings using its on-screen display or Asus’s DisplayWidget Center software for a limited selection of most-used features. The full assortment of picture modes and gaming features are all locked to the OSD, including Sniper Mode, ELMB, and OLED Anti-Flicker. Other key features, like changing the color space for creative work and Clear Pixel Edge are also only found in the built-in menu.
Thankfully, all of the basic OSD functions that you’ll be engaging with most frequently are available within the software. You can choose from an array of picture presets based on content type or customize your own with brightness, contrast, saturation, and color temperature setting. On the GamePlus tab, you can enable and customize an on-screen reticle for games that lack one or enable on-screen overlays that show your current frame rate or a timer that extends from 30 to 90 minutes. Should you want two of these monitors side by side, there’s also an alignment option for that.
One neat aspect of the software is that it allows you to map some of its functions to keybinds, although it doesn’t go far enough. Mapping a feature like Shadow Boost to a hotkey is genuinely useful but I’m curious as to why options like Sniper Mode or the reticle aren’t bindable – and neither are options for quickly changing picture presets. Most of what’s available simply isn’t the type of thing you would adjust frequently enough where a hotkey would be helpful.
The actual on-screen display offers more customization as you can adjust gamma, color calibrate with a six-axis color mixer, access a night vision picture preset, toggle VRR, and more. The FPS counter can be toggled between a simple number and a graph. The timer functionality is supplemented by a stopwatch toggle to count up instead of down. You can adjust the RGB lighting on the back of the monitor, change power settings for its USB hub, and more besides, though there are no options for picture-in-picture.
Of all of its varying options, Sniper Mode and Sniper Night Vision are the most controversial. While on-screen reticles are commonplace even on cheap gaming monitors, Sniper Mode takes it to the next level by magnifying the area around the square up to twice its normal size. Paired with ADS zoom or an actual sniper rifle in game, it offers a genuine advantage that is unable to be detected by game software. Put another way, it’s a cheating tool. Be a kind gamer and only use this in single-player shooters, we beg you.
Asus ROG Strix XG27AQDMG – Performance
Simply put, the XG27AQDMG is excellent for gaming. Asus quotes it as having a 0.03ms response time, a full 70% faster than the 1ms touted by most gaming monitors. Its speed was demonstrated fully in the BlurBusters’ Test UFO Ghosting Test, pictured above. Captured with a high speed camera, there is no capturable ghosting or image trails whatsoever. In actual gameplay, this is also true. While it’s not unique to the display, it’s still a high point choosing an OLED monitor and you won’t be sacrificing responsiveness just because it’s a WOLED panel.
Using my Calibrite Display Plus colorimeter, I set about testing brightness. In SDR, I measured a peak of 258 nits, which was about what I expected based on my testing of other OLED monitors. In HDR, however, I measured a whopping 1098 nits in a 2% window. While the window is small, in real world use, that same percentage can be spread across the display as highlights within a large scene. Moonlight on waves, sparkling glass, muzzle flashes all sear with lifelike brilliance.
Sustained brightness, on the other hand, is a different story. In a 10% window, I measured 748 nits and a full white screen at 261 nits. Given that what’s being displayed in a game changes in real time, you can count on dynamic brightness that brings scenes to life.
Surprisingly, these measurements are higher than the much more expensive Asus ROG Swift PG32UCDM that uses a QD-OLED panel. (So much for limited brightness!) There is an important caveat, however. These measurements were taken in the Gaming HDR mode with adjustable brightness set to 100% to unlock its full potential. Out of the box, this preset is set to 90%, which puts brightness measurements close to or behind the PG32UCDM.
When it comes to calibration and color accuracy, the situation is reversed. While it covers an admirable 98% of the DCI-P3 color space and 100% of sRGB, the out of box calibration in its default picture preset was significantly worse than its more expensive sibling and, indeed, any of the handful of QD-OLEDs I’ve tested this year. The gamma curve was off by around a step, the color temperature was too cold, and the color accuracy was closer to a Delta E < 6 than Delta E <2, leaning a bit too heavily into saturated colors. Turning the monitor to sRGB mode helps the latter but only at the expense of the vividness of its colors.
For gaming, these accuracy issues aren’t that important. Games, pictures, and videos all look good. If you’re a content creator or work in a creative field where accuracy matters, however, you’ll want to pick up a colorimeter to calibrate it for yourself. Doing so, I was able to get those Delta values closer to two and step down its gamma for an accurate image.
There are other issues with some of its gaming features. ELMB, or Extreme Low Motion Blur, is a feature that aims to reduce motion blur by inserting black frames into the picture. This occurs so fast that you don’t see it but it introduces some major limitations. The feature is only available at 120Hz and locks you out of features like HDR and Variable Refresh Rate while also noticeably dropping SDR brightness. Worse, there’s virtually no benefit at all in using it. In fact, clarity seems better at native 240Hz. On top of that, enabling it caused frequent screen glitches even when viewing static content.
OLED Anti-Flicker is also flawed. Our colleagues at Monitors Unboxed discovered that turning on this feature limits its VRR range and disables Low Framerate Compensation (LFC). Turning it on its lowest setting, Middle, compresses the VRR range to 160 to 240Hz. High squeezes it to 200 to 240Hz. Depending on your graphics card and the performance of the game you’re playing, this may not be an issue. But if you’re getting less than 160 FPS, it’s frankly better just to leave this feature disabled.
It’s not all doom and gloom, and in fact, far from it. With those considerations out of the way, the monitor is remarkably good overall. OLED gaming monitors have come a long way and the XG27AQDMG is a great example of just how competitive they can be for both gaming and productivity.
Older generations of OLED suffered from major brightness swings depending on what was being displayed on the screen. That is much less noticeable here, to the point where you stop noticing it entirely. They also suffered from major issues with text clarity due to their subpixel layout. Again, that issue is all but resolved. At a normal viewing distance, text fringing is imperceptible. Even blown up to 500% size, it’s barely perceptible. Asus provides a Clear Pixel Edge option that blurs the edges of text to mask fringing but it’s already good enough that enabling it just makes text look worse.
For gaming, it performs just as well as you would hope. I usually test fast monitors like this with first-person shooters but I decided to change things up with Still Wakes the Deep, a Lovecraftian horror walking-sim. It looked fantastic. The high dynamic range absolutely shone in the haunted halls and sparsely lit chambers of its oil rig setting. Paired with its ultra-realistic Unreal Engine 5 graphics, I couldn’t help but get lost in it. Lighting, detail in the shadows, and the way its environments contrasted dark and light made the game more immersive than ever, showing what a good WOLED is capable of.
When I turned it over to Battlefield 2042, I was equally as impressed. Not only was the picture vibrant and crisp, but even in fast motion, I had a better grasp on what I was flicking past. With this level of responsiveness, you would need to be a top-level pro player to approach the limits of what it can do. I’m a casual competitive gamer, albeit one that has persisted with first-person shooters since the early days of Doom. This display raises the ceiling on what you should expect from a competitive gaming monitor.
But, so far, the same could be said about most of the OLED gaming monitors released this year. But there are fewer trade-offs to opting for this monitor in particular than competing WOLEDs, which makes it especially interesting, even without effective ELMB or OLED Anti-Flicker. What sets this display apart is its glossy panel and impressive brightness, and these are strengths that matter most.
