Apart from a wonderfully curvaceous 30th anniversary RTX 5090, the product that I saw get probably the most attention at Asus ROG’s event earlier was the ROG Swift OLED PG27AQWP-W. Asus is calling this the “fastest OLED monitor in the market”, and for good reason.
We’ve seen plenty of fast monitors over the past few months, but I’ve not seen anything come close to this for OLED. It’s 540 Hz at 1440p QHD, but if that’s not quite enough for your lightning-quick eyes, you can drop it down to 720p to crank out 720 Hz. That’s one Hz per vertical pixel, as long as you don’t mind dropping down to sub-1080p.
Even considering ‘just’ the 540 Hz, what strikes me is that we’re getting an ultra-fast refresh rate with very little compromise. Usually these refresh rates require a TFT panel with little vibrancy.
Here, though, not only do we have an OLED monitor, but one that comes with the new fandangled-sounding tandem OLED tech that the company’s also just announced for another, presumably cheaper, monitor. At least on paper, this promises 15% higher peak brightness, 25% wider colour volume, and 60% longer lifespan. In other words, if the claims bear out, wave goodbye to dim and burnt-in OLEDs.
It also has Asus’ new, and again pretty fandangled (I’m not stopping) Neo Proximity Sensor, which turns the monitor off when you step away and on again when you step back. That’s to help with the whole lifespan thing.
In addition to the tandem tech, proximity sensor, and more refresh cycles than you can count, it also showcases Asus’ new Glossy TrueBlack surface. The image above (which is a comparison using a different monitor) shows the difference, with a TrueBlack Glossy coating on the left.
The idea is meant to be that you have glare suppression similar to a matte coating, but with deep blacks. From what I’ve seen in person, it’s not perfect at this, but every little helps.
The icing on the cake is that transparent backside styling. There’s just nothing quite like seeing the guts of your hardware, is there? Well, maybe a blistering fast refresh rate.