The ASUS ROG Strix XG27UQ is an excellent 4k gaming monitor. Its large 27 inch screen displays razor-sharp images and text, and it has good ergonomics and decent viewing angles, making it suitable for a wide range of uses. It has a fast response time, low input lag, and a 144Hz refresh rate, resulting in smooth motion and incredible responsiveness. However, it requires a graphics card with Display Stream Compression and a DisplayPort connection to achieve such a high refresh rate since it lacks an HDMI 2.1 port. It supports Adaptive Sync and is compatible with FreeSync and G-SYNC. Its IPS panel has decent reflection handling and gets bright enough to combat intense glare. It isn't as well-suited for dark rooms, though, as its low contrast ratio makes blacks look grayish. It has a good wide color gamut and gets decently bright in HDR, but the local dimming is terrible and can be quite distracting.
The ASUS ROG Strix XG27UQ is a great monitor overall. It has a large 4k screen that makes it suitable for work, gaming, or media consumption. Gaming feels responsive due to its low input lag and high refresh rate, and it has a fast response time and a Black Frame Insertion feature to deliver clear images. It has an outstanding SDR color gamut for viewing and creating content, but the contrast ratio is low, resulting in blacks that look gray in the dark.
The ASUS ROG Strix XG27UQ is great for office use. It has a large screen for multitasking, and its high pixel density results in outstanding text clarity. Its decent viewing angles make it easier to share your work with colleagues, but the image looks a bit washed out from the side and might not be ideal if image accuracy is a must. Luckily, it has good ergonomics. It handles reflections decently well and gets more than bright enough to overcome glare.
The ASUS ROG Strix XG27UQ is an excellent gaming monitor. It has a low input lag, fast response time, and a 144Hz refresh rate, resulting in smooth and responsive gameplay. It has a Black Frame Insertion feature to improve motion clarity, which you can use simultaneously with variable refresh rate. Its large high-resolution screen provides incredible immersion, making it a great choice for playing atmospheric games like RPGs. Sadly, it isn't the best option for gaming in the dark due to its low contrast and mediocre black uniformity.
The ASUS ROG Strix XG27UQ is great for media consumption. It has a large high-resolution screen that delivers stunning picture quality. It allows for a good amount of ergonomic adjustments so that you can place the screen at your optimal viewing position, and its decent viewing angles make it easier to share content with others. It isn't the best option for dark room viewing as its low contrast ratio makes blacks look gray.
The ASUS ROG Strix XG27UQ is great for media creation. It has a large 4k screen that allows you to see all the fine details in your work with amazing clarity. It has an outstanding SDR color gamut with full sRGB coverage, making it suitable for color work. Unfortunately, it doesn't display dark colors well due to its low contrast ratio, and even though it has decent viewing angles, images look washed out from the side.
The ASUS ROG Strix XG27UQ is good for gaming in HDR. It provides a smooth and responsive gaming experience thanks to its low input lag, fast response time, and high refresh rate. It has a good HDR color gamut and decent peak brightness, but its low contrast ratio makes blacks look gray, and the local dimming feature is terrible.
The ASUS ROG Strix XG27UQ's design is almost identical to the ASUS ROG Strix XG279Q but with thick borders on all four sides. It has a tripod-style stand with an LED light that shines onto the desk, which you can customize with the included acrylic covers to show the ROG logo. There's a larger ROG logo on the back that also lights up. You can control the color and lighting effects of both lighting zones with ASUS' Aura Sync software.
The back looks exactly like the ASUS ROG Strix XG279Q as it has the same etchings and ROG logo. There's a small cutout at the bottom of the stand for cable management. There's no quick-release feature to remove the stand for VESA-mounting.
The ASUS XG27UQ's build quality is great. The stand's feet are metal while the column is plastic. It's very heavy and doesn't wobble. The back is also made of sturdy plastic, and the adjustment hinges are of good quality, although the plastic covering them feels a bit flimsy. There aren't any loose parts or obvious gaps in the construction, and most people shouldn't have any issues with it.
The ASUS XG27UQ has a mediocre contrast ratio, resulting in blacks that look grayish when viewed in a dark room. It's slightly higher than the advertised 1000:1; however, contrast can vary between individual units. The local dimming feature doesn't improve the black level at all, and enabling it locks the screen's brightness to max automatically.
The ASUS ROG Strix XG27UQ has a terrible local dimming feature. It's called Dynamic Dimming in the on-screen settings menu. It's edge-lit, and there are eight vertical lighting zones. Zone transition is relatively fast but not smooth, so it's very visible. However, it isn't noticeable with small objects, as it seems like it requires an object of a certain size to trigger the local dimming. There's no black crush because the black level is raised when a zone lights up. There's a lot of blooming due to the large vertical zones, but blooming around subtitles isn't really noticeable in regular content since most of the zones are on all the time. It can be distracting in dark scenes when only a few zones are lit, as the difference in contrast between the zones that are on and those that are off is very drastic.
The ASUS XG27UQ has great SDR peak brightness. It's remarkably consistent across different content, and it's more than enough to overcome glare.
We measured the SDR peak brightness after calibration in the 'User' Picture Mode, with Brightness set to max.
Decent HDR peak brightness. It's higher than the advertised 400 cd/m² and meets its DisplayHDR 400 certification requirement. It's very consistent when displaying different content, but unlike in SDR, there's a bit of dimming in the 2% window, so small highlights in dark scenes don't pop as much. It can make some highlights stand out, although it's more noticeable in a dark room than in a bright one.
We measured the HDR peak brightness in the 'ASUS Gaming HDR' Picture Mode.
Although the ASUS ROG Strix XG27UQ has an IPS panel, its horizontal viewing angles are only decent. Colors look washed out fairly early as you move off-center, followed by gamma shift. It should be fine for sharing content casually or co-op gaming, but not if you require image accuracy.
The vertical viewing angles are decent. Images look a bit washed out if you mount the monitor above eye level.
Our ASUS ROG Strix XG27UQ has excellent gray uniformity; however, this can vary between units. The sides appear darker, especially at the top corners, but there's almost no dirty screen effect. Uniformity is much better in dark scenes.
The ASUS ROG Strix XG27UQ has great accuracy out of the box. Most color inaccuracies shouldn't be visible to the naked eye, but white balance is a bit off. The color temperature is very close to our 6500k, and gamma follows the sRGB curve well, although dark and bright scenes are slightly over-brightened. Note that accuracy can vary between individual units.
The ASUS ROG Strix XG27UQ's accuracy is exceptional after calibration. White balance is much improved, and color accuracy is also slightly better. The color temperature is still within the same ballpark. Gamma hasn't changed much, except that bright scenes are brighter than before calibration.
You can download our ICC profile calibration here. This is provided for reference only and shouldn't be used, as the calibration values vary per individual unit due to manufacturing tolerances, even for the same model.
The ASUS ROG Strix XG27UQ has a good HDR color gamut. It has excellent coverage of the DCI P3 color space used in most content and decent coverage of the wider Rec. 2020.
Our measurement of the DCI P3 coverage is slightly lower than the advertised 90% coverage due to how we measure it. We measure it by sending a Rec. 2020 signal, but unlike most reviewers, we limit the colors to the DCI P3 primaries. This results in a lower but arguably more accurate measurement.
The ASUS XG27UQ has decent reflection handling. The reflections can be a bit distracting in well-lit rooms, but you shouldn't have any visibility issues due to the monitor's high peak brightness.
Overdrive Setting | Response Time Chart | Response Time Tables | Motion Blur Photo |
Level 0 | Chart | Table | Photo |
Level 1 | Chart | Table | Photo |
Level 2 | Chart | Table | Photo |
Level 3 | Chart | Table | Photo |
Level 4 | Chart | Table | Photo |
Level 5 | Chart | Table | Photo |
The ASUS ROG Strix XG27UQ has outstanding response time at its max refresh rate, resulting in only a short blur trail behind fast-moving objects. The best overdrive setting is 'Level 3' as it provides the best performance without causing too much overshoot like the 'Level 4' and 'Level 5' options.
Overdrive Setting | Response Time Chart | Response Time Tables | Motion Blur Photo |
Level 0 | Chart | Table | Photo |
Level 1 | Chart | Table | Photo |
Level 2 | Chart | Table | Photo |
Level 3 | Chart | Table | Photo |
Level 4 | Chart | Table | Photo |
Level 5 | Chart | Table | Photo |
The ASUS XG27UQ's response time at 60Hz is great. The best overdrive setting is 'Level 1' because the higher settings have worse response times and add a lot of overshoot. This means you may have to change the overdrive setting if your game's frame rate drops to 60fps.
The ASUS XG27UQ has an optional Black Frame Insertion feature to help improve image clarity called ELMB. It can be enabled while VRR is active, and it locks the Brightness setting to max to compensate, as BFI tends to dim the image noticeably. Unfortunately, it also causes visible image duplication.
The ASUS ROG Strix XG27UQ has a high refresh rate that results in a more fluid and responsive gaming experience. However, you can only achieve the full 144Hz with a graphics card that supports Display Stream Compression and over a DisplayPort connection since it lacks an HDMI 2.1 port. It supports Adaptive Sync to reduce screen tearing, and it's compatible with both FreeSync and G-SYNC. G-SYNC only works over a DisplayPort connection, and FreeSync's range is 20-120Hz over DisplayPort and 20-60Hz over HDMI.