ASUS PB278Q 1440p IPS (PLS Panel)

My panel is good enough but there seem to be better ones out there, will have to play the lottery to get one I really like. Things may also improve as newer batches arrive...
 
undertaker2k8 said:
My panel is good enough but there seem to be better ones out there, will have to play the lottery to get one I really like. Things may also improve as newer batches arrive...
Click to expand...

As always- the more I read here, the more confused I get.:D

Which panels are better in your opinion overall that have the semi-gloss coating, or even the standard heavier AG coating?

Seems to me if we polled users of the Dell 2713, The Asus PB278Q, and the Samsung S27A850 that we would get a pretty even split at this point.
The pro reviews for these three are really pretty good.

If the HP ZR2740w switch to a semi-glossy panel can be verified, that might be in the mix also.
 
I've settled on the PB278Q for sure, just need to return and exchange till I find one like tftcentral got with no tinting and blb, mine has a slight bit of both but nothing too severe. I already tried a second one but it had more BLB on the right side which was much more noticeable. Hopefully I'll hit the jackpot after a few more exchanges.

I would have stuck with the S27B970D if it were not an all glass glossy panel: I use my screens for working and the glare on a glass surface is really bothersome. Plus it had 2 stuck pixels.
 
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undertaker2k8 said:
I've settled on the PB278Q for sure, just need to return and exchange till I find one like tftcentral got with no tinting and blb, mine has a slight bit of both but nothing too anything severe. I already tried a second one but it more BLB on the right side which was much more noticeable. Hopefully I'll hit the jackpot after a few more exchanges.

I would have stuck with the S27B970D if it were not an glass glossy panel: I use my screens for working the glare on a glass surface is really bothersome. Plus it had 2 stuck pixels.
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You are likely much more well versed on what to look for than me (I presently have a S-PVA 24" Doublesight which is a Samsung panel and it has been pretty good for me).

The fact that you will be on your third one trying to get a good unit is honestly not a ringing endorsement. :p
 
Mine does not have any visible day time bleeding, and once I set the brightness to 25 it's pretty much perfect looking in the dark, except for the tinciest lighter spot on the top right corner. White is uniform and I haven't found any dead pixels when looking at a full white screen.

Default brightness (90) Only a tincy bit of leakage is visible in the top right corner once the brightness is set to 25. I haven't measured the preset colours yet or calibrated it, once calibrated to 120cdm/2 like the crossover on the right i'll take another picture.
pb278q021.jpg


This is over-exposed
pb278q023.jpg


Trace Free 20 eliminates all overshoot in favor of a tincy bit of streaking.

I would not even consider the Dell U2713 due to all the issues, like the weird AG lines and burn-in.

Samsung 850D for PWM sensitive people...
Asus 278Q for those who aren't sensitive
 
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NCX said:
Mine does not have any visible day time bleeding, and once I set the brightness to 25 it's pretty much perfect looking in the dark, except for the tinciest lighter spot on the top right corner. White is uniform and I haven't found any dead pixels when looking at a full white screen.
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Mine also has that BLB in the top right, which is the only backlight issue I've seen on this unit. Waiting on a replacement that hopefully doesn't have 3-5 dead pixels (as I've had on two units so far) to come next week. Thank god for retailers with good return policies as Asus deems up to 5 dead to be acceptable.
 
Alright so I purchased the PB278Q today to get a comparison with my S27A850D that I have purchased recently. Here are my observations. I will list them in point forms.

- They both use the exact same panel.
- Samsung has SLIGHTLY better white uniformity.
- Same colour characteristics with a very strong red emphasis.
- Very similar backlight bleed characteristics between the two. In other words, both are perfectly acceptable. Samsung one has slightly less noticeable bleed.
- Asus has better build quality. Tilt, pivot, and height adjustments are a lot smoother than Samsung.
- Asus has better bezel design as Samsung has plastic moulding lines on all 6 panels that I have seen. Asus one is smooth and flawless although it can introduce more fingerprints with the type of plastic used.
- Samsung has a slightly better looking stand. Samsung overall looks classier whereas Asus looks more like your typical office monitor.
- Asus has a more responsive OSD engine and more options to tweak, such as RGB colours.
- Samsung has more gimmick such as the ECO sensors. It does come in handy especially if you leave your monitor on as you can set it to automatically dim after a certain period of time. The auto brightness is useless and annoyingly inaccurate. I only use the ECO motion sensor dim.
- Asus uses PWM backlighting. While I don't notice the flicker, my eyes get more tired looking at the Asus compared to the Samsung one. That's a big minus for the Asus.
- Asus is slightly brighter than the Samsung.

Between the two, it is very hard to say which one to pick. The Asus one is slightly cheaper, but uses PWM backlighting and lack of USB 3 ports. Samsung one is slightly more expensive with USB 3, and sensors. Asus has better warranty policy than Samsung.

Honestly, I don't think one can go wrong with neither. They look exactly the same to me, and it comes as no surprise because they both use the exact same panel.

If you're wondering which one I am going to keep, I am keeping the Samsung mainly because 1) I found a dust inside the Asus, 2) I use the USB 3 ports, 3) the PWM backlighting makes my eyes strain more than the Samsung.

Let me know if you have any questions.

dL
 
dL. said:
.
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Great post.

I have an overview going up in a few hours on teh youtubes.

So I've measured all of the colour presets

7100k colour temperature out of the box (Standard Mode). Mine has a strong red tint
2.3 average gamma (stable)=slight oversaturation and some colours that look a bit too dark next to a calibrated display. This will not be an issue for the 99%.
950:1 contrast
sRGB coverage is very close to 100% as advertised, like TFT Central, the blue exceeds the sRGB colour space

I have not ICC profiled mine yet, but I calibrated it in the OSD which I have to say was a PITA.

Gamma remains around 2.3 after adjusting the RGB values, contrast also stays around 950:1

Settings for 120cdm/2 brightness & 6500k color temperature: Use the User Mode

Brightness: 27
Contrast: 80 (Default)
Saturation: 50 (Default)
Hue: 50 (Default)
Color Temp: 6500k
Gamma: 2.2

Go to the advanced settings and go to the Gain menu:

red: 47
green: 47
blue: 41

Under the Offset menu:

Red: 50
Green: 49
Blue: 57

Set the Trace Free to 20 if you don't want to see any over shoot, but there is a tincy bit of streaking. Trace Free 40 reduces the streaking a tincy bit, but there is light bright & dark overshoot on certain colours. Ghosting remains extremely minimal though.

I tried the gamma 1.8 setting, and it sky rockets the gamma to an average of around 3.8=extremely dark colours with extreme black crush. 1.8 Gamma=washed out colours

Mine has a red tint after calibration while my Samsung S27A850D is perfect. According to HCFR the red does not exceed 100%, so the red tint is likely just a panel flaw. My Asus VG23AH has the exact same issue, so I doubt it is fixable without destroying the gamma and contrast.

So while the Asus PB278Q does have more neutral out-of-the-box vs the 850D, I'd say Samsung did a better job of achieving over-saturation without making some colours too dark, but it does have slight black crush while the Asus does not. An ICC profile is required to get accurate gamma (2.2) on both the 850D & PB278Q. My 850D's out of the box red dominance was easily fixed by tweaking the RGB values, I doubt the PB278Q's is but I will try again.
 
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dL. said:
Alright so I purchased the PB278Q today to get a comparison with my S27A850D that I have purchased recently. Here are my observations. I will list them in point forms.

- They both use the exact same panel.
- Samsung has SLIGHTLY better white uniformity.
- Same colour characteristics with a very strong red emphasis.
- Very similar backlight bleed characteristics between the two. In other words, both are perfectly acceptable. Samsung one has slightly less noticeable bleed.
- Asus has better build quality. Tilt, pivot, and height adjustments are a lot smoother than Samsung.
- Asus has better bezel design as Samsung has plastic moulding lines on all 6 panels that I have seen. Asus one is smooth and flawless although it can introduce more fingerprints with the type of plastic used.
- Samsung has a slightly better looking stand. Samsung overall looks classier whereas Asus looks more like your typical office monitor.
- Asus has a more responsive OSD engine and more options to tweak, such as RGB colours.
- Samsung has more gimmick such as the ECO sensors. It does come in handy especially if you leave your monitor on as you can set it to automatically dim after a certain period of time. The auto brightness is useless and annoyingly inaccurate. I only use the ECO motion sensor dim.
- Asus uses PWM backlighting. While I don't notice the flicker, my eyes get more tired looking at the Asus compared to the Samsung one. That's a big minus for the Asus.
- Asus is slightly brighter than the Samsung.

Between the two, it is very hard to say which one to pick. The Asus one is slightly cheaper, but uses PWM backlighting and lack of USB 3 ports. Samsung one is slightly more expensive with USB 3, and sensors. Asus has better warranty policy than Samsung.

Honestly, I don't think one can go wrong with neither. They look exactly the same to me, and it comes as no surprise because they both use the exact same panel.

If you're wondering which one I am going to keep, I am keeping the Samsung mainly because 1) I found a dust inside the Asus, 2) I use the USB 3 ports, 3) the PWM backlighting makes my eyes strain more than the Samsung.

Let me know if you have any questions.

dL
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Great post... When you say your eyes get more tiring on Asus, it's a big difference or a just marginal one? How much time for day do you think it's necessary to start feeling the uncomfortable feelings of PWM, like eyes strain and headaches... Here were i live Asus is 615€ and Samsung 685€. I am trying to understand if the non-PWM it's worth the 70€ price difference...

Well to be honest, there's also the VG23AH which costs 268,00. I am balancing between those 3 devices... I dont know if the PWM is worth the 70€, but on the other hand i dont know if the 1440p (27'') is worth the 2.3 racios of prices difference.

Many thanks
 
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Just to clarify: Both the S27A850D and PB278Q use PWM. The modulation of the S27A850D backlight appears less than that of the Asus based on the one test photo I've seen here, which should make its flickering less visible. TFTCentral has posted their PB278Q review, which shows a backlight running at a rather low for comfort 240Hz.

TFTCentral's review of the S27B970D shows that that model does not use PWM.
 
Interesting. I thought there's no PWM for Samsung. TFTcentral did not mention PWM for the 850D.

Honestly for normal use, I don't really see a big difference. For some reason, I just find it a bit tiring looking at Asus compared to Samsung. Difference is not that big but it is definitely there. But you really have to put them side by side and try to surf the web to really see a difference. For most, they will think the Asus is fine.

Anyone find the uniformity pretty subpar? The sides are darker and middle is brighter. Kind of like adding a vignette to a white photo.

dL
 
Both the Samsungs use something that is not regular PWM nor direct current control either. You can see the irregularity it in the Prad reviews of the monitors:
http://www.prad.de/new/monitore/test/2012/test-samsung-s27a850d-led-teil7.html#Backlight
http://www.prad.de/new/monitore/test/2012/test-samsung-s27b970d-led-teil14.html#Backlight
Hard to tell if it helps PWM sensitive people or not like DC does. But it will probably have better color stability when you dim to low levels.
Comparison. DC and PWM graphs:
http://www.prad.de/new/monitore/test/2012/test-dell-u2713hm-teil9.html#Backlight
http://www.prad.de/new/monitore/test/2012/test-asus-pa248q-teil10.html#Backlight
 
pwrusr said:
Where are each of the monitors made?
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Anyone have a answer to this simple question? (the samsung 850 and asus) :confused:

Mr.Pixel said:
Just to clarify: Both the S27A850D and PB278Q use PWM. The modulation of the S27A850D backlight appears less than that of the Asus based on the one test photo I've seen here, which should make its flickering less visible. TFTCentral has posted their PB278Q review, which shows a backlight running at a rather low for comfort 240Hz.

TFTCentral's review of the S27B970D shows that that model does not use PWM.
Click to expand...
Ain't that a blip. I was really hoping to completely avoid PWM back lights since I'm pretty sensitive to screen flickering.
 
CrabJuice said:
Both the Samsungs use something that is not regular PWM nor direct current control either.
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Thanks for the links, I hadn't seen these plots before. Interesting how there's about 30% modulation at 50% brightness for the S27B970D. Given that it's frequency is about 150Hz (not sure where they got 180Hz from) the flickering is probably still visible to some people, though maybe not as bad as the Asus.
 
Mr.Pixel said:
Thanks for the links, I hadn't seen these plots before. Interesting how there's about 30% modulation at 50% brightness for the S27B970D. Given that it's frequency is about 150Hz (not sure where they got 180Hz from) the flickering is probably still visible to some people, though maybe not as bad as the Asus.
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Ah, yes. Forgot to discuss these with you. :) Though, plots are not detailed enough for proving nor disproving my assumptions anyway.

-----------

Want to point out that PWM sensitivity IMHO is tightly connected to light-sensitivity. If you have no problems with bright screens or you only work in blazing sunshine daylight, you probably have no problems with PWM either. If you're one of those that thinks screen is too bright and lowering the brightness just cause more or different problems then you're want to avoid PWM dimming or at the very least find a monitor that has as low max brightness as possible.
 
Picked mine up at NCIX yesterday. The wife is getting ticked off cause all I want to do is stare at it all day. I was torn between the Samsung and the Asus as well, I could have had the Sammy for an extra fifty bucks, but decided to go with Asus for a couple reasons. The black crush I've seen reported a few places on the Sammy scared me, there is nothing I hate worse than walking around in the dark and not being able to see detail in a game level. And the TFT review reported slightly better response/lag on the Asus. The USB hub is a great feature, but not a need for me, more of a want.

Early impressions are fabulous. Easy to put together. This is my first Asus monitor, and I am pleasantly surprised at the build quality. I'm coming from a Dell ST2401, and quality is night and day between the two. All the adjustments work smoothly and solidly. I love the height adjustment, for my setup it's riding as low as she'll go. That also keeps the monitor from wobbling when your mousing feverishly to run around buildings in BF3.

I have next to no BLB, only barely noticable on high brightness. I've been running it at both 35 and 55, alternately, which gets rid of it. I'm not sure which I like best yet. The lower setting is definately easier on the pupils, but the higher setting is just such a wow factor. And I mean WOW. BF3 at WQHD is stunning. Photos from my wife's large sensor Canon are truly lifelike. 1080P is so nice, we tee'd up a Planet Earth clip and it was just jaw dropping. I can find no dead pixels, I think it's time to check my lottery ticket! While at the lower brightness setting, I tried to keep a keen watch out for any flicker, and so far, it's not a visible issue for me. I am sure if I had to stare at this thing for 4-5 hours eye fatigue would rear it's head, but overall the PWM for me is a non-issue. I do notice the PLS glow, the sweet spot on this size is certainly about 3 feet away. If you are closer, your angles to the screen edges will seem to induce a little of that glow to become visible. It's not really noticable, unless you are staying on a dark screen (like this forum LOL). It will stay at out of the box color settings for a while, but eventually I will tweak it manually. The way it comes, someone said it perfectly, this thing is just right for the 98%.

I am LOVING this monitor. I am still in awe.
 
Had a momentary issue with Max Payne 3 last night. Seems that with all the graphics settings cranked up, and with the increased resolution, even my two GTX670's were running out of VRAM. I was experiencing some tearing and weird color artifacts when the I got into the game play. I had to tweek a couple settings back ever so slightly, I turned the FXAA down to normal and dialed back on AF one notch, and Bob's your uncle. Everything back to gorgeous normal.
 
CrabJuice said:
Ah, yes. Forgot to discuss these with you. :) Though, plots are not detailed enough for proving nor disproving my assumptions anyway.

-----------

Want to point out that PWM sensitivity IMHO is tightly connected to light-sensitivity. If you have no problems with bright screens or you only work in blazing sunshine daylight, you probably have no problems with PWM either. If you're one of those that thinks screen is too bright and lowering the brightness just cause more or different problems then you're want to avoid PWM dimming or at the very least find a monitor that has as low max brightness as possible.
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Does PWM have anything to flickering? I have an old SyncMaster 152v that goes up to 75hz. If use it on 60hz my eyes get easily tired, but on 75hz it's fine. Does the process similar or nothing to relate with? Thanks
 
I don't know how you guys can stand having the brightness so low. Though maybe because my room doesn't have any windows and I only use a single lamp for lighting off to the side.
 
tfouto said:
Does PWM have anything to flickering? I have an old SyncMaster 152v that goes up to 75hz. If use it on 60hz my eyes get easily tired, but on 75hz it's fine. Does the process similar or nothing to relate with? Thanks
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Well. Not exactly. 75hz is better for other reasons. Moving graphics and text will appear more smooth, since most people can see updates of 60hz but not 75hz. There's a chance of 'seasickness' (for lack of better term) with 60hz. With PWM problems its more like migrane eye-pain-brain kind of sensation.
 
Alright here are more observations I have found between the PB278Q and the S27A850D.

- The antiglare coating on the Asus is even lighter than the Samsung. I would say on a scale of 1 to 10 for AG, if Dell U2711 is 9, then Samsung is 5 and Asus is 4. If you look at a normal distance, you can't tell a difference between the two AG, until you start looking closely. The overall image looks slightly cleaner on the Asus.
- Asus has terrible QC. I exchanged an Asus hoping to see if I can land a perfect one, and this one has 3 noticeable dust inside the display. One is so big it takes up almost 2 pixels. Whoever slapped the "QC Passed" sticker on the box needs their eyes checked.
- Out of the 2 Asus monitors I have now observed, both have subpar uniformity. The left side (top left specifically) is significantly darker than the other regions of the display.
- Minor backlight bleed on top right region (where they slapped that marketing sticker) as mentioned by a few people here
- Asus has better contrast ratio. Images and websites seem to pop even more.
- Asus unfortunately has way too many blues in the dark region. Best example is Hardforum. Instead of dark gray backgrounds for threads and posts, Asus would render them dark navy blue. Fiddling around with the User mode doesn't yield any success because if I fixed the dark gray, then whites look off. Perhaps calibration will fix itself? I would give colour accuracy actually to Samsung on this one because Samsung only seems to have too of red whereas Asus has too of with red and blue.
- Black crush looks very similar to me. I can't give an edge to either one. Calibrate if that concerns you.
- Both Samsung and Asus are made in China.

This will be my final analysis as I am officially returning my Asus and keeping my Samsung for real.

dL
 
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Honestly have no idea why anyone would buy one of these based upon the user reports.
I guess if you are willing to keep swapping units you might get lucky.
Unfortunately- the other available semi-glossy non-Korean choices form Dell and Samsung are just as bad.
 
I'm holding off on these due to some of the issues people have raised. At the same time, I wouldn't pay $400-500 for a Pixel Perfect eBay monitor that might have a ton of other issues.

I'm hoping Dell US has a sale similar to Dell Australia (U2713hm for $559) sometime soon, and then I'd probably just bite the bullet.
 
steveotron said:
I'm holding off on these due to some of the issues people have raised. At the same time, I wouldn't pay $400-500 for a Pixel Perfect eBay monitor that might have a ton of other issues.

I'm hoping Dell US has a sale similar to Dell Australia (U2713hm for $559) sometime soon, and then I'd probably just bite the bullet.
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Apparently these have issues also with BLB and imgae retention.:confused:
I can get a u2713hm for $650 new. I was leaning toward it until the reports came in about it here.
The end users feedback here at least is not good.

On the other hand- the more I read here about any monitor - the more I realize that almost any monitor produced gets pretty much hammered here.
 
All screens have issues, just find one you can live with for the price/performance and issues :) and be happy.
 
Lkdog said:
Honestly have no idea why anyone would buy one of these based upon the user reports.
I guess if you are willing to keep swapping units you might get lucky.
Unfortunately- the other available semi-glossy non-Korean choices form Dell and Samsung are just as bad.
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There are lots of these, mine being one, that have no issues. You will almost always hear about the ones that people have issues with, and seldom hear when people have no troubles. That's just the nature of the consumer mindset, people are gonna complain loud, but praise softly. This is a gorgeous display.
 
Lkdog said:
Honestly have no idea why anyone would buy one of these based upon the user reports.
I guess if you are willing to keep swapping units you might get lucky.
Unfortunately- the other available semi-glossy non-Korean choices form Dell and Samsung are just as bad.
Click to expand...

You answered your own question. The others are just as bad, if not worse, and this has the benefit of at least being $50-$100 cheaper.
 
Lkdog said:
Honestly have no idea why anyone would buy one of these based upon the user reports.
I guess if you are willing to keep swapping units you might get lucky.
Unfortunately- the other available semi-glossy non-Korean choices form Dell and Samsung are just as bad.
Click to expand...
I am one of many that don't have any problems! I am also not OCD, waiting for the perfect monitor to fall out of heaven, guys. This is a beautiful monitor, my life has moved on and enjoying time with the family!
 
Backlight on upper right bleeds more than the other edges, but everything seems fine and dandy on this end also.
 
http://www.amazon.com/Series-PB278Q...e=UTF8&qid=1351030612&sr=8-5&keywords=u2713hm

Item under review by amazon:

While this item is available from other marketplace sellers on this page, it is not currently offered by Amazon.com because customers have told us there may be something wrong with our inventory of the item, the way we are shipping it, or the way it's described here. (Thanks for the tip!)

We're working to fix the problem as quickly as possible.

May be they will give a nice discount for keeping it :)
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Newegg has the promo for the Asus Active Noise Cancelling Vulcan headset with the monitor for today and tomorrow, so I decided to go for it. Hopefully I'm not sensitive to PWM, because everything else sounds pretty good (I'm not as picky about BLB as a lot of other people).
 
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