Asus ROG Swift PG27AQWP-W 27-inch 540 Hz QHD QD-OLED gaming monitor review: Every piece of performance tech in a single display

When Asus releases a new ROG Swift display, you can expect it to feature the latest technology and maximum performance. These flagship models are the hypercars of computer monitors with price-no-object design and engineering.

If you follow my display reviews, you know that I recommend the best OLED gaming monitors as the tech of choice when budgets allow. There is no LCD variant as smooth, nor one that boasts OLED’s perfect black levels and infinite contrast.

The ROG Swift PG27AQWP-W is the latest in a long line of firsts for Asus. It is the first 540 Hz OLED I’ve encountered, and the first monitor to boast a 720 Hz refresh rate at HD resolution. More on that below. It also has a Quantum Dot layer for wider gamut coverage along with Adaptive-Sync, HDR10, DisplayHDR 500 True Black, ELMB, and more features than just about anything else short of Asus’ other ROG Swift models. Let’s take a look.

Asus ROG Swift PG27AQWP-W Specs

OK, first up is that 720 Hz refresh rate. I put that there to pique your interest, and it is not a typo. You can run the PG27AQWP-W at 720 Hz if you are willing to reduce the resolution to HD. That’s 1280x720, which is the minimum vertical pixel count that qualifies for the HD label. More often, you’ll see the term FHD or Full HD, meaning 1920x1080. How does this translate into reality? Keep reading, and you’ll see.

Asus pairs these dizzying speeds with Adaptive-Sync, G-Sync, FreeSync, and console VRR is supported. It also supports ELMB, which is a strobing feature designed to reduce motion blur. Note that ELMB Sync is not present here. That’s where you can run ELMB and Adaptive-Sync at the same time. ELMB is limited to 120 Hz, so it’s there when you can’t run a higher frame rate.

The OLED panel is a Quantum Dot variant with wide-gamut color coverage of around 109% of DCI-P3. That’s the class average, and it’s about the most color you can get in a gaming monitor. Accuracy is assured by a factory calibration, and you get a full complement of calibration controls, which include a pro-level sRGB mode. Brightness is very high, with over 540 nits for SDR content and 1,500 nits in HDR mode, as measured in a 1% window. You can also engage a Uniform Brightness option to keep eye fatigue at bay.

Asus has left nothing out of the gaming and convenience feature list. You get GamePlus with its large selection of aiming points and sniper modes, along with timers, a stopwatch, and multiple frame counters. There are nine game-specific picture modes and a shadow booster with a dynamic option to make dark detail more visible. HDR gets another four modes and a toggle to turn on adjustable bits like brightness and contrast.

Control is via joystick, or you can download Asus’ DisplayWidget Center app and do everything from the Windows desktop. To extend panel life, the PG27AQWP-W has a huge number of protection routines like pixel orbiter, perimeter dimming, pixel clean, and logo sensing. A user proximity sensor can dim or blank the screen when you leave your desk.

The PG27AQWP-W also looks the part, with slick LED lighting behind a large ROG logo in the back. And part of the chassis is transparent to show off the internal bits. The base also has lighting and a logo projector for the desktop. A silver finish stands out in a sea of black monitors, and there’s plenty of real metal to further cement its flagship status.

This is a true everything-and-the-kitchen-sink product that retails for $1,099 at this writing. There is no compromise or corner cutting here, so with that consideration, it seems like a reasonable sum for a flagship display. Does it measure up to the specs? That’s what we’re here to see.

Assembly and Accessories

Asus has gone full recyclable with the PG27AQWP-W’s package by enclosing the contents in molded pulp forms. The substantial metal base, thick upright, and mostly-metal panel assemble without tools. The logo projector lens snaps underneath with magnets. A zippered pouch contains an IEC power cord, USB, DisplayPort, and HDMI cables. You also get extra projector lenses, a cleaning cloth, and a collection of ROG stickers.

Product 360

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The PG27AQWP-W stands out visually in multiple ways. Silver monitors are rare, so that’s a strong signal this is a special product. The base is cast aluminum with a large footprint. You can be sure that it isn’t going anywhere. It could support two or three times its own weight. The panel has a thin metal backing with a prominent component bulge finished in silver and clear plastic. Half of the back shows the internal components, which is something I haven’t seen before. The other half has a large ROG logo made of backlit dots like a Lite Brite. The OSD offers plenty of effects and color choices to create a personal light show.

The front is all screen with a barely visible bezel surrounding the image. A tiny protrusion at the bottom center houses the ROG logo, backlit, with a joystick and two buttons behind it. One toggles power, and the other switches between refresh modes. Once set up, you can switch rates with one press.

The stand has full ergonomics that include 5/20 degrees tilt, 30 degrees swivel and a 4.4-inch height adjustment. You also get a 90-degree portrait mode. Movements are firm and smooth with no wobble or play. The logo projector underneath comes with clear lenses if you prefer just a circle of colored light on the desk. You can turn the LEDs off if you prefer. At the top of the stand is a threaded tripod mount for things like webcams or headphone hooks.

The input panel is up and under and includes two HDMI 2.1 and a DisplayPort 2.1. All are full bandwidth, 540 Hz at QHD resolution with 10-bit color, HDR and VRR. There are also USB 3.2 ports, one upstream and three down. No internal speakers are included, but you do get a 3.5mm headphone jack.

OSD Features

The PG27AQWP-W’s OSD is very well organized into eight sub-menus. Every imaginable option for video processing and image control is included along with OLED care, port versions and more

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Gaming has all the PG27AQWP-W’s video processing options, and there are many. Frame Rate Boost refers to the refresh rate switch, and when activated, the monitor runs at 720 Hz in HD (1280x720) mode. You can still have HDR and VRR if you wish. ELMB is a black frame insertion routine that reduces blur at low frame rates. It runs at 120 Hz at QHD and 270 Hz at HD resolutions and does not allow Adaptive-Sync. This menu also has GamePlus options, which include FPS counters, crosshairs, sniper modes, timers, and a stopwatch.

There are nine picture modes in total, with Racing as the default and best mode for all uses. It runs slightly warm in tone, so I recommend calibration, which can easily be done with a few tweaks to the RGB sliders in the user color temp memory. There are also fixed color temps and gamma presets. You can select from three gamuts, and the sRGB option is spot-on. There are four HDR modes, and if you turn on Adjustable HDR at the bottom, it enables the brightness and contrast sliders along with the Uniform Brightness toggle.

Though I have yet to see burn-in on any OLED panel, Asus has included many options to prevent it. There are dimming switches for logos, perimeter, and full screen. You can run pixel clean routines with a reminder. A pixel orbiter moves the picture imperceptibly to reduce the effects of static images. And a user proximity sensor blanks the screen when you leave your desk.

Aura RGB and Light in Motion are the PG27AQWP-W’s light show options. Aura sets different effects or static colors while LiM syncs with on-screen action using Asus’ Display Widget Center and a USB connection. Lighting extends to the logo on the back, the stand base, its accents, and the logo projector.

The user can program the four joystick directionals and you can save settings to two memories for later recall. The DisplayPort includes version control for backward compatibility. I set my sample to 1.4 to maintain smooth operation with a GeForce RTX 4090, which doesn’t support DP 2.1. You can also toggle DSC (Display Stream Compression). Asus Power Sync is a feature that turns on a connected Asus PC when you click the PG27AQWP-W’s power button.

Asus ROG Swift PG27AWQP-W Calibration Settings

The PG27AQWP-W’s Racing mode is reasonably accurate, but looked a bit warm to me, so I went for the user color temp and its RGB sliders. A few clicks brought grayscale tracking to a point where it was free of visible errors. Gamma tracks very straight in either case. The default color gamut covers almost 109% of DCI-P3, which is great for HDR but might look too saturated for SDR. If you want sRGB, I recommend selecting it from the color space menu rather than using the sRGB Cal mode, which grays out calibration controls. My settings are below. I noted that brightness values were nearly the same whether Uniform Brightness was on or off.

Gaming and Hands-on

I started my hands-on evaluation by experimenting with the dual refresh mode feature called Frame Rate Boost. I had to set up each resolution in the Nvidia Control panel once, then I could toggle back and forth using one of the control keys. Like all other monitors with this feature, you can’t make the switch in a game because it becomes unstable or simply crashes. Make the change on the Windows Desktop before loading your title.

Playing in QHD, frame rates hovered between 380 and 540fps in Doom Eternal with detail maxed. Motion was perfectly smooth with no blur or hesitation. Though I noted lower-than-expected input lag in tests, it did not impact my play experience in the slightest. The PG27AQWP-W is incredibly responsive and quick with instant results from every control input. 180-degree turns with the mouse were completed almost before I thought of them. Competition gamers will want one of these once they’ve tried it.

The 720 Hz mode is certainly cool. My PC had no problem locking the frame rate at 720fps, which is impressive indeed. But the softness of 1280x720 pixels cannot be unseen. I cannot think of a use for this mode unless you have a less-than-fast PC. And then I would not expect that user to be spending $1,100 on a monitor. But it is something unique to be sure.

The picture, when compared to other OLEDs, is impressive. Though the differences are slight, I could see the PG27AQWP-W’s extra brightness once I had maxed the slider in Adjustable HDR mode. Make sure to turn this toggle on if you want the highest possible peaks. You’ll see later in my tests that you can get to over 650 nits, which is where I measured a 25% window. Asus’ claim of 1,500 nits for a 1% window is undeniable. And that brightness is well matched by color saturation. The Quantum Dot layer is on full display with rich hues and vivid textures throughout.

For the day-to-day, the PG27AQWP-W is well-suited for any kind of work. Documents display cleanly and clearly with more than enough pixel density. 109 ppi is enough to hide the dot structure when you sit 2 to 3 feet away. Photo editing is made more flexible by an accurate sRGB mode. And it was nice to have a Uniform Brightness toggle. Many OLED monitors are either constant or variable in this regard, so it’s nice to have the option here. I had to calibrate for the best possible color accuracy; my sample started a bit warm in tone.

I noted the convenience of three USB ports and the handy Display Widget Center app, which can be used to control all monitor functions from the Windows Desktop. The lighting feature was also fun, with not only the ROG logo in back glowing but also the base trim and logo projector. I also enjoyed the PG27AQWP-W silver finish and clear panel in the back showing some of the internal components.

Takeaway: The PG27AQWP-W is a flagship display in every way. It delivers premium game performance and speed, along with unique features like its 720 Hz mode and ELMB, which almost no OLEDs have. The dual refresh option won’t be helpful to owners of fast PCs, but if you have a slower system, it’s an easy way to increase frame rates. The star here, though, is the image, which is incredibly bright and colorful. However, I could say that about any OLED; the PG27AQWP-W has just a little more impact than others, thanks to its high brightness and large Quantum Dot-enhanced color gamut.

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