The ASUS ROG Swift 360Hz PG259QN is an excellent gaming monitor with exceptional motion handling. It has an outstanding response time, a Black Frame Insertion feature, and a 360Hz refresh rate, resulting in clear and smooth motion in fast-moving scenes. It has G-SYNC support and FreeSync compatibility to deliver a nearly tear-free gaming experience. It has good ergonomics and wide viewing angles, making it a great option for co-op gaming and sharing content. Unfortunately, while it gets bright enough to fight glare easily, it isn't enough to deliver a satisfying HDR experience. Also, the screen size might be too small for some, and its IPS panel's low contrast ratio makes it less ideal for gaming in the dark.
The ASUS ROG PG259QN is a great monitor overall. Although it's primarily designed for gaming, it's suitable for a wide range of uses. It has good ergonomics, wide viewing angles, and overcomes glare easily, making it ideal for work and media consumption. It's excellent for gaming due to its exceptional motion handling, low input lag, and VRR support. Sadly, it can't deliver a good HDR experience, as it lacks local dimming, a wide color gamut, and doesn't get bright enough to make highlights stand out.
The ASUS PG259QN is good for office use. You can easily adjust the screen to your optimal viewing position thanks to its good ergonomics, and its IPS panel has wide viewing angles, making it ideal for sharing your work with coworkers. The screen might be too small for some, especially for multitasking, and the pixel density is a bit low, so text doesn't look as sharp.
The ASUS ROG Swift PG259QN is excellent for gaming. It has a remarkably low input lag, outstanding response time, and a 360Hz refresh rate, resulting in an incredibly smooth and responsive experience. It has native G-SYNC support and FreeSync compatibility to reduce screen tearing. It isn't well-suited for gaming in the dark, though, as its IPS panel has a low contrast ratio that makes blacks look grayish.
The ASUS PG259QN is good for media consumption. It has wide viewing angles and good ergonomics, so you can easily share your screen with others. It provides good visibility in bright environments because it handles reflections well and gets bright enough to fight glare, but it has a low contrast ratio that makes it less ideal for dark rooms. Also, some may find the screen too small.
The ASUS PG259QN is good for media creation. It has near-full coverage of the sRGB color space, superb gradient handling, and its out-of-the-box accuracy is exceptional, so you might not need to calibrate it to get accurate color reproduction. However, the resolution and screen size may be disappointing for some, and its low contrast ratio makes blacks look grayish.
The ASUS PG259QN is decent for gaming in HDR. It delivers an incredibly smooth and responsive gaming experience due to its exceptional motion handling and low input lag. However, it can't display a wide color gamut, lacks local dimming, and doesn't get bright enough to make highlights pop in HDR content.
The ASUS ROG Swift 360Hz PG259QN's design is very similar to the ASUS ROG Strix XG279Q, but the stand's feet now sit flat on the table. It has thin borders on three sides and a thicker bottom bezel. The back has an etched design and a Republic of Gamers (ROG) logo that lights up.
The back of the monitor has a fairly heavy gamer design. The ROG logo lights up, and you can control it through the on-screen menu or the Aura Sync software. There's a cutout at the bottom of the stand that allows cables to pass through for cable management. It can be VESA-mounted, but there's no quick-release feature to remove the stand.
The ASUS ROG Swift PG259QN's build quality is great. The display is made of plastic, but it feels sturdy, and there are no loose parts. The stand has a solid metal base and supports the monitor well. All the hinges feel well-made, and it feels stable when rotating the screen. It doesn't have the most premium materials, but you shouldn't have any issues with it.
As is expected of most IPS panels, the ASUS PG259QN has a mediocre contrast ratio, resulting in blacks that look grayish when viewed in a dark environment. It's slightly higher than the advertised 1000:1 contrast; however, this can vary between units.
Update 02/22/2021: Some users have asked whether the Variable Backlight feature is a local dimming feature. It is not. We verified it using the test on the Lagom website. It seems to act more like a dynamic contrast feature, because the 253 white pattern is visible when it's off, but not when it's on, which means that it's affecting the contrast.
The ASUS ROG Swift PG259QN doesn't have a local dimming feature. The video above is provided for reference only.
Great SDR peak brightness. It's very consistent across different content, and it's more than enough to overcome glare in bright environments.
We measured the SDR peak brightness after calibration in the 'Racing' Picture Mode, with Brightness set to max.
The ASUS PG259QN's HDR peak brightness is okay. It's again very consistent when displaying different scenes, but it isn't enough to make highlights stand out in HDR content.
We measured the HDR peak brightness in the 'HDR' Picture Mode. The screen's brightness isn't adjustable in this picture mode.
The ASUS ROG Swift PG259QN has good horizontal viewing angles. Images remain accurate when viewed from the side, great for sharing content on the screen or playing co-op games.
The vertical viewing angles are decent. This only affects image accuracy if you have the screen mounted far above or below eye level.
Before calibration, the ASUS ROG Swift PG259QN has exceptional accuracy; however, this can vary between units. White balance is nearly perfect, and the minor color inaccuracies aren't noticeable without the aid of a colorimeter. Gamma follows the sRGB curve relatively well, but both dark and bright scenes are slightly over-brightened. The color temperature is just slightly warmer than our 6500K. There's a dedicated 'sRGB' Picture Mode, and its accuracy is also exceptional, but not quite as good as the 'Racing' Picture Mode.
After calibration, accuracy is only slightly better since it was already exceptional out-of-the-box. White balance is closer to our 6500K target. Gamma is a little better, but dark scenes are still slightly too bright and bright scenes are too dark.
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.
Unfortunately, although the ASUS ROG Swift PG259QN supports HDR, it can't display a wide color gamut. Its DCI P3 coverage is only decent, and it has poor coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 color space. If you'd like a gaming monitor with a wide HDR color gamut, check out the Dell Alienware AW2721D.
Due to the way we measure the DCI P3 coverage, our measurement is likely lower than most other reviewers. 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 ROG Swift PG259QN doesn't exhibit any signs of image retention; however, this can vary between individual units.
The ASUS ROG Swift PG259QN has great reflection handling. The matte anti-reflective does a good job of reducing the intensity of reflected lights. Combined with the monitor's high peak brightness, you shouldn't have any visibility issues in bright settings.
Overdrive Setting | Response Time Chart | Response Time Tables | Motion Blur Photo |
Off | Chart | Table | Photo |
Normal | Chart | Table | Photo |
Extreme | Chart | Table | Photo |
The ASUS ROG Swift PG259QN has outstanding response time at its maximum refresh rate, resulting in clear images in fast-moving scenes. The recommended overdrive setting is 'Normal', as it provides the best performance without adding an overwhelming amount of overshoot like the 'Extreme' option. The 'Off' option has virtually no overshoot, but it's slower. If you want a 360Hz monitor with less overshoot, then check out the Dell Alienware AW2521H.
Overdrive Setting | Response Time Chart | Response Time Tables | Motion Blur Photo |
Off | Chart | Table | Photo |
Normal | Chart | Table | Photo |
Extreme | Chart | Table | Photo |
The ASUS ROG PG259QN's response time at 60Hz is excellent, although noticeably blurrier than at its max refresh rate. The best overdrive setting is also 'Normal' because the 'Extreme' option adds a lot more overshoot.
The ASUS ROG Swift PG259QN has an optional Black Frame Insertion feature to improve motion clarity. However, unlike other ASUS monitors, it's called Ultra Low Motion Blur (ULMB) and is advertised as NVIDIA's implementation of this technology. It only works at fixed refresh rates, 144Hz or 240Hz. It can't be used simultaneously with VRR and enabling it disables the overdrive settings menu. Also, it causes slight image duplication due to strobe crosstalk.
The ASUS ROG Swift PG259QN has a superb maximum refresh rate to deliver a smooth and responsive gaming experience. It has native G-SYNC support and is compatible with Adaptive Sync, so it works with AMD graphics cards, too. The 360Hz is only achievable over a DisplayPort connection, and it caps out at 300Hz with 10-bit HDR. Over HDMI, the maximum refresh rate is 240Hz and 120Hz with 10-bit HDR. G-SYNC works over HDMI and DisplayPort.