Asus MX279H review

The Asus MX279H is a very attractive monitor. Its frameless 27in AH-IPS display is just 18mm thick, and it has a touch-sensitive menu bar running along the bottom of the screen. Sadly, its stand is fixed, but there’s plenty of screen tilt to help you find the perfect working angle.

Unlike some more expensive monitors, such as the Asus PB278Q and Viewsonic VP2770-LED, the Asus MX279H has a 1,920×1,080 resolution rather than a higher resolution of 2,560×1,440. This helps keep the price down, but text looks a little jagged on a screen this large.

Its matt finish diffuses reflections brilliantly, and we had no trouble looking at it in direct sunlight or with bright overhead lights. The only disadvantage is that it makes colours looks slightly less vibrant. Its reds, greens and blues were all very bright, but they didn’t leap out of the screen at you. Whites also appeared just a little grey, and blacks showed a very small amount of backlight bleeding in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen. Even so, you’d be hard pushed to notice this on a day-to-day basis, unless you were looking at a particularly dark image.

Its contrast levels were better, with lots of visible detail in both the light and dark areas of our test photos. The MX279H’s good contrast is possibly a result of its AH-IPS (advanced high-performance IPS) panel, which is supposed to provide better brightness and contrast than a standard IPS panel. In testing, the MX279H’s AH-IPS panel didn’t provide significantly better image quality than other high-quality IPS panels we’ve reviewed.

Our colour calibrator showed it was displaying 97.1% of the sRGB colour gamut at its default settings. This is quite average by IPS standards, but it’s still a respectable score and exactly what we’d expect to see given the price. Its horizontal and vertical viewing angles were also good, although its viewing angles fell a little short of the claimed 178 degrees.

The MX279H provides different screen modes, including Scenery, Theater, Game and Night View. Scenery Mode enhances contrast, making images appear sharper, and Theater Mode makes colours look much richer. Game Mode, on the other hand, increases the brightness levels to eliminate shadows, while Night View Mode eases brightness slightly so it creates less strain on your eyes in lower light conditions. Each one is customisable too, so you can tweak each setting to your own liking.

Around the back, the MX279H has two HDMI inputs that are HDCP compatible and one VGA port for older PCs. At first we lamented the exclusion of a DVI-D input, but the MX279H comes with a HDMI-DVI-D adaptor cable. It also has a 3.5mm audio line input, a 3.5mm headphone jack and two built-in stereo speakers. The speakers are Bang & Olufsen branded, and although they’re certainly better than typical monitor speakers, they don’t produce a lot of bass. You’ll probably still want a set of dedicated speakers if you plan on listening to a lot of music, but they’re adequate if you’re not too concerned with sound quality.

The Asus MX279H isn’t the best 27in IPS screen we’ve ever seen, but you certainly won’t find one with a better design for under £300. It’s a shame it doesn’t have a larger resolution, as a screen this pretty certainly deserves one, but the Asus MX279H shows that a marriage of great design and decent image quality needn’t break the bank.