Review Verdict: The ASUS ProArt PA278QV is a modestly priced monitor in the Philippines that’s geared towards artists that are fairly accurate color-wise out of the box, though it shines better if professionally calibrated. It’s suitable for a wide array of tasks that require a color-accurate monitor.

Pros: 

• Relatively affordable, color-accurate display for artists
• Comes color-calibrated out of the box
• Has plenty of artist-centric features to help with layouts

Cons:

• Not so great contrast ratio
• So-so black uniformity

Artists looking for an accurate monitor for serious work usually have to fork over exorbitant amounts of money to get one of decent quality. There’s a big market for relatively affordable options, and ASUS is cashing in on that with their ProArt PA278QV. Their 27-inch offering has a lot of great features that artists and photographers look for, and while it does have its own share of negatives, the value here is undeniable.

ASUS ProArt PA278QV Review Philippines: Design

The ProArt series of monitors are a far cry from ASUS’ other, flashier models in their ROG range as it targets a way different demographic. The ProArt PA278QV, therefore, looks relatively corporate thanks to its plastic black bezels and grey stand, as well as its fairly nondescript appearance.

The stand that the monitor ships with is fairly high quality, and allows it to rotate, tilt and pivot depending on your needs.

The bezel of the monitor also has marks on the bezel in centimeters that allow you to quickly measure documents when you’re editing.

There are three main connection ports at the rear: HDMI, DisplayPort, and surprisingly, a DVI port, along with four regular USB ports, a USB 3 upstream port, and connections for 3.5mm audio (both input and output).

There are also built-in speakers on the monitor as well, but they’re fairly weak at just 2W output and are next to useless in our opinion.

Despite ASUS’ other gaming-centric monitors utilizing easier to use joystick-type OSD navigation, the ProArt PA278QV still uses individual buttons for navigation. This is a little annoying when you’re trying to calibrate the display since you’ll be switching between values back and forth during the entire process.

ASUS ProArt PA278QV Review Philippines: Display and Performance

The ProArt PA278QV uses a 27-inch IPS panel with a resolution of 2560 x 1440, which ASUS advertises as being 100% sRGB and Rec. 709 color gamut.

They also say that the PA278QV is calibrated from the factory and is Calman Verified to deliver superb color accuracy of ?E < 2, and includes a calibration report out of the box that you can see for yourself upon purchase.

Results from our Spyder5 Elite show that the PA278QV is close to ASUS’ claimed sRGB values, with the tool reporting around 95% sRGB coverage. You can check our full report here.

What’s good about the ProArt PA278QV is that its OSD allows for serious color tweaking if necessary, and should yield excellent results in terms of color accuracy when professionally calibrated.

If you don’t have the cash for a color-calibration tool yet (or can’t afford the service done by others) then default, color-calibrated sRGB mode is close enough for semi-pro work, which isn’t the case for competing monitors in the same price range.

Another nice to have feature is QuickFit, which places a virtual grid on your screen that allows you to see the dimensions of different documents from A4 to B5, to see how your work will fit in with where you plan to put it.

The maximum refresh rate for the monitor is 60Hz, though it can be pushed to 75Hz via Overdrive. It also has Adaptive-Sync technology as well, which should help out a little bit when you’re gaming. This is a good feature especially when you consider that monitors in its class aren’t supposed to be gamed on at all.

Other nice-to-have gaming features include 5ms GtG pixel response, which is surprising given the non-gaming nature of the display.

ASUS ProArt PA278QV Review Philippines: Wrap-up and verdict

The ASUS ProArt PA278QV is a great choice for artists looking for a relatively inexpensive monitor to use for serious work.

The fact that it comes pre-calibrated from the factory is a big plus if users don’t already own a color calibrator or have money to have their monitor calibrated for them at the beginning.

For people who do have the hardware, it’s can easily be tuned to deliver accurate colors. The added features like measurements on the bezel, granular color controls in the OSD as well as good gaming performance are just icing on the cake.

Price

The ASUS ProArt PA278QV is priced at Php 21,830. That’s a good price considering ASUS’ other ProArt monitors usually go for much higher. This goes the same for the competition as well.