Asus PB287Q Review

Ultra HD monitors have become much cheaper in a very short space of time, and the £600 Asus PB287Q is sure to entice buyers with its price alone. The PB287Q comes hot on the heels of the AOC U2868PQU and the Dell P2815Q at £600, and both of these monitors had problems.

The Dell P2815Q could only output Ultra HD resolutions at 30Hz, which meant there was an unbearable amount of input lag and choppy movement, even we performed the most basic the most basic of tasks. This made it best suited to the watching of Ultra HD movies and viewing photos. The AOC U2868PQU’s screen was significantly better in this regard but we still noticed very slight input lag that made the monitor unsuitable for the playing of games that require fast reaction times. We awarded the AOC a 4-star rating because, apart from the input lag, image and build quality was impressive. Could the Asus PB287Q be the Ultra HD monitor to buy?

We were extremely pleased to find, through subjective testing, no trace of input lag on the Asus PB287Q, and we enjoyed using it for gaming.

The next challenge for it to pass was our screen calibration test. With factory default settings applied, our calibrator showed that the PB287Q was displaying 90 per cent of the sRGB colour gamut. This is respectable coverage, although a little short of the 94 per cent coverage we measured on the AOC U2868PQU. We improved this to 93 per cent coverage by calibrating the screen. Contrast ratio is reasonable, too, at 852:1. This is around what we expect from a TN panel; you can’t get much higher than that due to the limitations of the screen technology. Colours weren’t as vibrant in our test images as they are when viewed on high-end IPS panels, but we were impressed nonetheless.

There’s an array of different viewing modes available and these can be accessed through the clunky onscreen display, although we found most of them to be inferior to the Standard mode, which keeps colours more natural. Gaming mode might be useful for gamers looking to pick out details in darkened areas, but it’s far from a good setting for general use, as it blows out colours in a very unattractive way.

Happily, though, the PB287Q’s horizontal viewing angles are very wide. Many TN panels don’t cope well when viewed from a slight angle, but in this case colours remained largely uniform well past 45 degrees. Vertical viewing angles aren’t quite so wide, but the stand has enough tilt to mitigate this once you’ve set the monitor up for your seating position.

The only way to input Ultra HD pictures at 60Hz is via the DisplayPort connector; there’s no DVI input, and the two MHL-compatible HDMI ports can only handle Ultra HD images at 30Hz. There’s also no USB hub, which is slightly disappointing considering the monitor’s price, although you do get 3.5mm audio input and output jacks.

Ultimately, your buying decision should be influenced by the tasks for which you’ll be using the PB287Q. For all-out vibrant image quality, a Ultra HD TN panel can never compete with an IPS screen running at a lower resolution such as 2,560×1,440, so if you’re going to be using your monitor for image editing or other non-gaming activities, we’d recommend sticking with our best-buy winning AOC Q2770Pqu. If you simply must have an Ultra HD monitor for gaming, the Asus PB287Q is a great choice.