Help picking a 1440p monitor!

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
K

krayziekid

Honorable
May 28, 2013
8
0
10,510
Hey guys. So I am currently in the market for a 27inch 1440p monitor, and after doing a lot of research, I have narrowed it down to a few choices. The problem is that I have no idea what I should pick, as all of them have their pros and cons.

The first choice in the Asus PB278Q. It is a fairly priced 1440p monitor that doesn't have a ton of bells and whistles. I have heard that it has nice rich blacks and that it performs well across the board, whether it be movies, gaming, or photo editing, which I will be doing all three.

The next option is the Dell u2713hm. It is commonly compared to the Asus one I mentioned above. This is the most expensive one of the group, but it comes with a USB 3.0 hub which is nice. In addition, I have heard that it performs very well in photo color accuracy and stuff due to factory pre-calibration, but that it is not as good as the Asus in gaming. Thoughts on this?

Finally, there are the 27in 1440ps on eBay from the likes of QNIX, Catleap etc etc etc. I have heard so many people recommend these, but I am unsure about getting one. Sure it is cheaper, but dead pixels kill me because I am like OCD and I have heard that color accuracy isnt always awesome.

As for additional info, I will be connecting this to a Mac and I will be using it for primarily photo/video editing, and then movies, and then gaming after that. Nothing too intensive on the gaming end though. What are your thoughts on these choices? Can any give me some advice? Also, I am not in a HUGE rush, so would it be worth waiting until Black Friday to pick up a panel (if I went with the Dell or Asus) or should I just go for it? Thanks!
 
Solution
senkasaw
Asus PB278Q hands down. For the price you will not beat it. My buddy has several of these in his office and they are great. I own several 27in. panels. Among them 3 dell ultra sharp models. And a couple obscure brands. The Dells are great, but imo not worth the premium (tho to be fair I do not have the exact model you are looking at, I have a u2711, u2712 and one other...dont remember the model number atm). The off brands have been complete hit or miss. I would stick with big brands personally. Also, my newer dell seems to have more blacklight bleeding issues than older models...of course this varies from unit to unit. My buddy's Asus panels dont seem to have this issue though.

So yeah...personally I would go with the Asus...
Sort by date Sort by votes
senkasaw

senkasaw

Distinguished
Aug 2, 2010
466
0
18,960
Asus PB278Q hands down. For the price you will not beat it. My buddy has several of these in his office and they are great. I own several 27in. panels. Among them 3 dell ultra sharp models. And a couple obscure brands. The Dells are great, but imo not worth the premium (tho to be fair I do not have the exact model you are looking at, I have a u2711, u2712 and one other...dont remember the model number atm). The off brands have been complete hit or miss. I would stick with big brands personally. Also, my newer dell seems to have more blacklight bleeding issues than older models...of course this varies from unit to unit. My buddy's Asus panels dont seem to have this issue though.

So yeah...personally I would go with the Asus PB278Q. That is the one I will be getting next :)

Edit: one other note...while the dell's have typically come with better factory calibration than the others (meaning they were somewhat acceptable out of box), they have ALL required further calibration to achieve their best performance. Still, the dell panels have great color accuracy. And as for gaming...I have gamed on the dell's I own as well as my buddy's asus panels. I would say the asus panels have slightly better input lag and less ghosting...but unless you are a competition fps gamer this probably wont make much of a difference.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
K

krayziekid

Honorable
May 28, 2013
8
0
10,510


What kind of calibration did you use? Did you use a more professional hardware calibration or did you just calibrate it by hand using the OSD and changeable settings? I am just curious. I have been leaning towards the P278Q and as my photo/video editing isnt professional-grade, it seems to be a more attractive option. Thanks for your input!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
J

jerrolds

Distinguished
Nov 11, 2011
6
0
18,510
QNIX/X-STAR by far $300 and OCable up to 120hz? Yup. I've ordered 3 korean monitors, all "non-pixel perfect" version - and none have come with dead/bright/stuck pixels (CrossOver, Tempest OC, QNIX).

But my last QNIX had horrible backlight bleed - which I was able to fix by opening it up :p So thats something you might want to chance - but for less than half the price...i think its worth the gamble.

You can also order QNIX from amazon if you really want protection, also Squaretrade is an option. (I live in Canada so Amazon.com was out of the picture)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
senkasaw

senkasaw

Distinguished
Aug 2, 2010
466
0
18,960


We have several different calibration tools at work...I have used the Datacolor spyder4 pro the most. It works well, tho I am no photoshop/video color expert...just a lowly developer :) I have no idea what the best equipment for this is... As for adjusting by hand...that would probably depend on your eyes...I do not trust mine so I use tools :) But honestly, for most purposes some basic manual adjustment will be sufficient, with some monitors you just get much more fine tuned control over the values with an ICC profile.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
toyftw

toyftw

Dignified
Jul 29, 2012
4,370
0
16,960


Hi - If photo editing is the foremost task then you should go with the U2713. True, it won't be ideal for gaming, but
it's not horrible either, if you want color accuracy and the wide color gamut that photo work requires,
then the U2713 is the way to go.

As for the low priced Korean's, be aware they are all bening mfgd from panels rejected by other brands,
primarily Apple. They are limited in connectivity, and if it's DOA or damaged, it goes back to Korea, a long turnaround.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
determinologyz

determinologyz

Honorable
Sep 21, 2012
1,436
0
11,460


I own the monitor as well and for what your looking for its a beast of its own trust me you wont regreat the pb278Q. The QNIX would be my second option but for the risks you may have to take im not to keen on it but thats just me but i think you should go for the asus hands down
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom