Conclusion

Final Words & Verdict

The ASUS ROG Swift PG348Q Gaming monitor is just a fantastic monitor to look at, I assume some of you even wanna lick it :) The aesthetics are just terrific (if you like the design). The curvature works really well for monitors, forget about Eyefinity and Surround view, a 3440x1440 monitor with its cinematic aspect ratio offers just the right amount of coolness, and you won't need graphics cards set up in SLI opposed to using three monitors either. The curved design certainly has a lot of appeal and hits a soft spot for many. The screen itself is pretty cool, I do prefer IPS over TN by a mile to be honest, even though TN is faster in response times. But with IPS things start to pop off your screen. So sure, they will be a bit slower but for me personally, it doesn't bother me even the slightest bit. But hey, the hardcore gamers out there spit at anything slower than 4ms and anything lower than 144 Hz. Luckily the market has answers for all of us. I have not included test results on latency just yet as I need to figure out a proper, but most of all objective way to test this. The screen that ASUS uses in this ROG Swift PG348Q is good. The static contrast ratio at 100% brightness we measured was however lower opposed to advertised, at around the 650:1 marker. We did retest with several Hz ranges from 60 to 100, all remained roughly the same. No biggy, I doubt you'd use more than 500:1 in any given situation but it definitely is a little off. Color accuracy is decent at defaults, after calibration close to perfect. AdobeRGB however is stuck at 78% accuracy where we expected to reach 80%. sRGB is at 100% so honestly overall the colors jump off your screen. I have not included test results on latency just yet as I still need to figure out a proper objective way to test this. Obviously you can run 60 Hz and up-to 100 Hz overclocked. 100 Hz did not result in massive gains of power consumption for the monitor, it added almost 5 watts at maximum. On the topic of G-Sync, it works well and with your screen at 100Hz you'll be in for a real treat to be honest. 

The Monitor Overall

ASUS really is offering something unique with the ROG Swift PG348Q. Typically there are gamers that demand and choose a TN panel purely for speed. They accept the lack of contrast, color precision and viewing angles for granted in return for the extremely fast speeds these monitors can achieve. Then there is the kind of end-user that purchases a monitor for better image quality, nice black-levels, contrast, display quality and color precision. It is for that last group that this monitor would be an excellent choice. I am among that last group personally as I prefer quality and color reproduction anytime. The PG348Q is built right, looks very nice and offers great image quality. Next to all that there's the 3440x1440 resolution; play a RTS game like Anno and you'll immediately understand the benefit, you are looking at a far bigger area and get a better overview of your surroundings (in Anno, the island you build onto).

 

Color precision is good after calibration, you can also just as easily configure the screen to a color preference of your own, a couple of modes have already been inserted for you. The color reproduction of a calibrated monitor is not for everybody, it is however a reference point we can use to compare with. In terms of color space you will reach 78% of the AdobeRGB and 100% of sRGB color space. Gamma is spot on at 2.2, even when uncalibrated it's at 2.1. The black levels are great as hey, it is an IPS, there is little to no visible clouding. Brightness uniformity did show offsets reaching 17%, but that is well within acceptable margins as the visible threshold would be over 25%. The screen, once tweaked to your preference, will absolutely impress. G-SYNC really is a nice improvement over the overall gaming experience. Power consumption then; we tested at full brightness and you will sit in the 60 Watt range there. We however doubt you'll want 365 nits fired off at you at such a close range. Likely you'll settle inbetween the 25% to 50% brightness range, and at such levels your power consumption will once again go down towards just over 40 Watts. In standby mode the monitor uses close to nothing at 0.3 Watts and, with the full LED ROG projection thingy activated, 1.5 Watts.

The Verdict

For me the PG348Q ticks the right boxes; the looks, the curvature, an IPS screen and 34" at a proper resolution where you really can't see pixel density. The 3440x1440 resolution might be the perfect balance inbetween WQHD (2560x1440) and Ultra HD (3840x2160). It will also save you investing in multiple graphics cards, albeit at 3840x1440 you will need a bit of a stallion inside that PC of yours. Next to the basics, the quality screen and overall functionality there's also G-SYNC and support for refresh rates up-to 100 Hz. Gaming feels fast at 100 Hz with little perceivable lag. Color reproduction is pretty good, screen uniformity well within margins. It has Displayport 1.2 and HDMI 1.4 (HDMI 2.0 would have been nice) and then some extras like small speakers and the USB 3.0 HUB with four ports. The location of the four USB 3.0 ports is crap though, you just cannot reach them unless you flip around the monitor. It would be nice for future models for ASUS to look into that. From an aesthetics point of view the screen looks lovely and matches the ASUS ROG theme and feel, the bezels are nicely on the thin side however the panel itself has bretty big borders at the top/bottom/left/right of the panel screen, I call it a bezel inside a bezel... which kind of blows. It would have been much nicer to have the edge of the panel close to the bezel. This all remains nitpicking though. The screen quality overall is very good though, the viewing angles rock, contrast is good (albeit we could not go higher than a static 670:1) as well as a maximum brightness level that reaches close to 365 nits. At default settings the color temperature is a bit off, set it to 'Warm' and you'll be fairly spot on at a 6500 Kelvin color temperature (if you prefer that color temperature). The display is really good in the sense that you can tweak colors in every way possible. This is a LED IPS panel, it is a notch slower than TN yet offers better display quality. Then again, at 100 Hz with acceptable latency, we cannot complain at all. The big conundrum obviously will be the price level, this monitor will etail for a pretty steep 1200 EURO. It is a complete, and good quality monitor which you will like, maybe even love. It comes recommended by Guru3D.com.

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