ASUS 27" 1440P Eye Care Monitor (PB278Q) - QHD (2560 x 1440), IPS, DisplayPort, HDMI, DVI

Great monitor, it does what it's supposed to do. Images look sharp and great. It runs at 2560x1440 resolution, exactly matching the maximum possible resolution of dual-link DVI. That's what I use, and it looks beautiful. I standardized on DVI because that's what all of my devices can produce natively (including my trusty early-2008 MacBook Pro, which maxes out at precisely this resolution).There's a major usability quirk, though. Whenever your video signal is interrupted for any reason, even if it's for a small fraction of a second, the monitor automatically switches to a different video input!This is frustrating, because I use a DVI switchbox, and every time I switch sources, the monitor flipped to VGA! The only workaround is to standardize on only one input source. Don't ever plug more than one input into this monitor at the same time.I eventually used a second monitor for VGA, to work around this problem. I used Asus tech support and they said there was no way to turn off this "feature", unfortunately.This monitor also forces you to wait through an ASUS "splash screen" every time you turn the monitor on. That gets rather old. I don't need to sit through an "Inspiring Innovation - Persistent Perfection" mini-commercial every time! It gets annoying having to wait. There's also no way to turn off this "feature".If the video input is interrupted for a slightly longer period of time (assuming you have only one video connection plugged in), the monitor will turn itself off. Guess what, no way to turn this "feature" off either! How frustrating. Whenever my computer goes into low-power mode from being left unattended for a while, I have to manually turn the monitor on again, by pressing the power button, it won't just come back on again when the video signal is resumed. And then there's the mini-commercial again!I wish the thing would just sit on the video source that I had selected, permanently, and never change, and never turn itself off. Would it be too hard for Asus to do this? Evidently so.The monitor does have a really good stand, with just enough friction and weight to hold it nicely into place, while still allowing it to be set to a variety of angles and rotations to suit your needs. I can rotate it 90 degrees, in order to use it in vertical mode, which is great for coding. Unfortunately, it only rotates in one direction, to the right. It's exactly the wrong direction from what would be needed in order to lift the video cables to a nice easy angle for access! I wish they had chosen to make the monitor rotate in the opposite direction instead, or better yet, allow it to rotate 180 degrees to allow choice of direction.Although this monitor is nice and big, the cables connect at a surprisingly tight angle. It would have been nice if Asus would have positioned the connectors at a more friendly angle, perhaps with a shield at the back to cover them up. Instead, Asus tries to hide the cables from sight by making them cram in at an awkward 90 degree angle behind another bend. This is not the greatest design, and it's probably bad for the cables over time, because they have to be bent in order to fit.Asus does include cables, though. In addition to the power cord, you get 1 video cord of each type: VGA, DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort. The included DVI cable is dual-link, so it will work at the maximum resolution of this monitor.Also, the description said that it came with speakers built-in. I don't see any holes in the monitor where the speakers would be. Maybe they're sealed up entirely in the plastic? I don't use any video cables with audio (I use only DVI and VGA video), so can't test this.I wouldn't use this monitor for sound. There's no convenient volume control, you have to go through the menus just to access the volume control, so using it every day for sound would be a pain. There's no headphone jack on the front, either, which would have been nice to have.Another nice thing would have been a built-in USB hub in the monitor, as many monitors have. Considering Asus is known for throwing in all sorts of silly features and gimmicks, in order to distinguish themselves, this is a rather surprising omission.Don't let the negative tone of this review get you the wrong idea. I'm still rather happy with this monitor, it's a great step up from what I used to have. I'm just pointing out its quirks, in hopes that somebody at Asus will read this and make the next monitor even better.Josh

I'm posting this review particularly for someone who wants to know how this monitor compares to Apple's 27" monitor or a 27" iMac for editing photographs.So, first some qualification: I'm comparing my late 2009 iMac's monitor panel to this ASUS PB278Q. And, I'm making my comparison based on calibrating both of them using Coloreyes Display Pro calibration kit purchased within the last six months.My purpose for this monitor is to rotate it into portrait mode so that I can work on my vertical photographs in Photoshop, Lightroom, Capture One, etc, at the same display size that my 27" iMac provides for horizontal photographs. (roughly 2/3 of my shots are vertical) So, it was important to me to get a close match in performance and behavior between them. And, happily, I feel I was able to do this.Leaving the ASUS in "Standard" view mode with no user adjustments and calibrating with the Coloreyes app and Spyder, I got a reasonable match, but noticed that the iMac color gradations were smoother, and not surprisingly, the ASUS looked a little sharper. I could have almost lived with this, but I decided to persevere.I won't bore you with how many approaches I took to resolving this difference, but my bottom line was that I got a decent comparison when I lowered the ASUS contrast down to 30 and then re-profiled it. Coloreyes' profile validation graph looked best at this setting and the monitors looked very close to each other -- close enough that I'm content to get back to work. ;-)This was actually a very good learning experience in that I got a better sense of what I would demand of a higher level (much more expensive) monitoring solution. But, there comes a point of diminishing returns and I'm going to settle for the performance that a 27" iMac and this ASUS monitor provides for now.I haven't tried pairing two Apple 27" displays, but I wonder if I tried pairing Apple's newer 27" display with my 2009 iMac if I'd get any better matching. I wouldn't be surprised if I found a similar nuance of difference there as well.So, after calibration, with ASUS at Contrast: 30, three differences I see between the 2009 27" iMac display and the ASUS PB278Q:(1) Slight difference in smoothness of very gradual color gradation in light and dark areas.(2) The iMac's blacks are blacker. But, when comparing actual photographs, this seems to be a non-issue.(3) Even after calibration, the two monitors do not display colors exactly the same. Here, the ASUS actually looks a little more "right" to me based on neutral grays and pure whites. The iMac looks just a tiny bit shifted to green. It IS going on 4 years old . . .Conclusions:Experience has taught me the value of calibrating your monitor. For someone who wants a good cost-effective solution, I recommend Coloreyes Display Pro. And, my conclusions are based on the assumption that you will calibrate your monitor.If you are trying to decide between Apple's $1000 display and this under-$600 alternative, you can safely save yourself $400-plus by going with this ASUS display. Use some of the $400 to get what you need to keep it in calibration and you'll be better off since you would need to calibrate the Apple display as well.If you are worried about pairing this display with your Apple 27" display, I think you will likely be satisfied with how close you can get them. *OF COURSE* it won't be a *perfect* match. I'm not convinced that a new Apple would match perfectly either. At least in my case, it's a very workable pairing.My 27" iMac does not have an anti-glare screen like the newer models. This ASUS does, and it's a welcome improvement.***I remember the first time I view my photographs on the iMac. I was previously using an EIZO ColorEdge CE210, which is a decent color calibrated monitor. The iMac just blew it away. And, once correctly calibrated, has served me very well. So, for me to say that I could be just as happy working with this ASUS as I have been with my iMac 27" is saying something.Hope this is helpful to someone looking for this particular comparison like I was when trying to decide whether or not to buy the ASUS.If anything changes with use of the ASUS monitor, I will be sure to update my post.*** 12-11-2013 - OK, so here's an update. Everything is just fine with the ASUS monitor and I have very much enjoyed using it for Photoshop work. Today, I picked up an Apple "Refurbished" late-2012 design 27" i7 iMac (barely any different from what they are selling today). So, now I can compare the look of the current 27" iMac monitor to the ASUS instead of my almost 4-year-old one. Remarkably, the color balance is now much closer between the two. Just thought you might find that helpful. ***