The Asus ROG Strix OLED XG27AQDMG is a gaming monitor that ditches the traditional VA or IPS panels and uses an OLED display instead. However this ain’t your average OLED display panel since it’s in reality a “WOLED” with the W in front meaning “White”.

What does this mean exactly? For starters, it ensures a lot brighter and clearer white colours since there’s a dedicated pixel for white lighting ensuring brighter illumination when compared to traditional red, green and blue sub-pixel layouts seen in normal OLED screens.





Before getting into the more in-depth aspects of the monitor, let’s take a look at the technical specifications below:

Display

Panel Size (inch) : 26.5
Aspect Ratio : 16:9
Color Space (DCI-P3) : 99%
Color Space (sRGB) : 135%
Panel Type : WOLED
True Resolution : 2560x1440
Display Viewing Area (HxV) : 590.42 x 333.72 mm
Display Surface : Glossy
Pixel Pitch : 0.229mm
Brightness (Max) : 450cd/㎡
Brightness (100% APL) : 275cd/㎡
Contrast Ratio (Typ.) : 1,500,000:1
Viewing Angle (CR≧10) : 178°/ 178°
Response Time : 0.03ms(GTG)
Display Colors : 1073.7M (10 bit)
Flicker free : Yes
HDR (High Dynamic Range) Support : HDR10
Refresh Rate (max) : 240Hz
ASUS OLED Care : Yes

Video Feature

Trace Free Technology : Yes
Color Accuracy : △E< 2
GamePlus : Yes
Low Blue Light : Yes
HDCP Support : Yes, 2.2
Game Visual : Yes
VRR Technology : FreeSync™ Premium & G-SYNC® Compatible
Extreme Low Motion Blur : Yes
Shadow Boost : Yes
Display Widget : Yes, DisplayWidget Center
Aspect Control : Yes

I/O Ports

DisplayPort 1.4 DSC x 1
HDMI (v2.0) x 2
Earphone jack : Yes
USB Hub : 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A
Signal Frequency
Digital Signal Frequency : DP:30KHz to 390KHz(H)/40Hz to 240Hz(V)
HDMI:30KHz to 295KHz(H)/40Hz to144Hz(V)

Power Consumption

Power Consumption : <25W
Power Saving Mode : <0.5W
Power Off Mode : <0.3W
Voltage : 100-240V, 50/60Hz
Mechanical Design
1/4" Tripod Socket : Yes
Tilt : Yes (+20° ~ -5°)
Swivel : Yes (+45° ~ -45°)
Pivot : Yes (+90° ~ -90°)
Height Adjustment : 0~120mm
VESA Wall Mounting : 100x100mm
Lighting effect (Aura) : Aura Sync
Kensington Lock : Yes

Dimensions (Esti.)

Phys. Dimension with stand (W x H x D) : 60.50 x 50.8 x 21.90 cm (23.82" x 20.00" x 8.62")
Phys. Dimension without Stand (W x H x D) : 60.50 x 36.80 x 5.00 cm (23.82" x 14.49" x 1.97")
Box Dimension (W x H x D) : 67.30 x 44.00 x 22.00 cm (26.50" x 17.32" x 8.66")

Weight (Esti.)

Net Weight with Stand : 6.7 kg (14.77 lbs)
Net Weight without Stand : 4.2 kg (9.26 lbs)
Gross Weight : 9.5 kg (20.94 lbs)

Accessories (vary by regions)

DisplayPort cable
HDMI cable
Microfiber cloth
Power adapter
Power cord
Quick start guide
ROG pouch
ROG sticker
USB 3.2 cable
VESA mount kit
Warranty Card

Certificate

TÜV Flicker-free
TÜV Low Blue Light (Hardware Solution)
VESA AdaptiveSync Display 240Hz
VESA DisplayHDR 400 True Black
AMD FreeSync Premium
G-SYNC Compatible

Warranty

3 years (including panel burn-in)



With all of that out the way, the Asus ROG Strix OLED XG27AQDMG is a gaming monitor first and foremost. It makes this extremely clear to you with a design that prominently features the Asus Republic of Gamers logo both on the front of the monitor with an LED and at the back with an illuminated RGB logo that can be synced with your system’s lighting using Asus Aura Sync (or set manually with the monitor’s user interface). The monitor has 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports and unfortunately there’s no Type C port here for charging laptops or other devices through the monitor.

The monitor is quite heavy coming in at 9.5kg and feels extremely sturdy and premium. The monitor stand and arm in particular are hefty and gone is the 2-pronged stand base design of old. Instead Asus have a square-ish stand base this time around and I tend to prefer these lately because they feel a lot more stable. Tastes and opinions on this may vary from person to person though. The monitor stand arm itself allows you to tilt (+20° ~ -5°), swivel (+45° ~ -45°) and pivot (+90° ~ -90°) as well as adjust the monitor’s height with ease. The monitor is VESA wall mount compatible which is always a plus point.



A stand out feature of the monitor’s design lies with the fact that this doesn’t just have a normal OLED panel. It’s a glossy coated “WOLED” and the white sub-pixel integrated into the design really does make a world of difference when it comes to displaying white on screen. This is a bright screen at 450 cd/㎡ max and the glossy finish enhances the clarity of the display. You might have some issues with the glossy finish if you’re using the monitor in an open office with lots of sunlight but for gamers who have this in their typically dark bedrooms or studies, it won’t cause too many problems.

A stand out feature of the monitor’s design lies with the fact that this doesn’t just have a normal OLED panel. It’s a glossy coated “WOLED” and the white sub-pixel integrated into the design really does make a world of difference...

The main downside of having a glossy finish on the display lies with the fact that it can have a lot of glare or reflection if hit by sunlight when displaying darker colours. Similar to how tablets and phones behave in direct lighting outside. Personally, I didn’t find the glossy finish to be distracting in my office and preferred it to the traditional matte finish.



Navigating the monitor’s user interface is pretty straightforward with a Joystick and 2 buttons being located right behind the Asus ROG logo on the front on a protruding section attached to the bezel. The monitor’s bezel itself is quite thin. Using the joystick, you’ll have access to a range of options including the colour settings, which I’ll get to in a bit. Overall navigating the user interface is extremely user friendly and Asus deserves praise for this since everything is presented in a non-complicated manner that’s easy to understand.

With a 2560 x 1440 resolution and 240hz refresh rate, this is a monitor that esports gamers will definitely love. Valorant, Fornite, Apex Legends or CS:GO 2 players will love the higher refresh rate and the monitor lives up to its 240hz claims with the UFO Test confirming this below.



Circling back to the monitor’s colour settings, the Asus ROG Strix OLED XG27AQDMG looks great straight out of the box but for you to extract full value from this monitor, you have to dive into the settings and do some extensive customization to make sure that it’s up to standard for your specific tastes. There’s a lot of customization here and you will have to tweak settings to get it looking just right for the particular type of game you’re playing.

For example, Elden Ring with HDR enabled looked quite strange to me personally with colours that seemed a bit washed out and toned down instead of looking as crisp and saturated as they should. From some quick research though this seems to be a known issue with Windows 10 and 11 and requires users to do some extensive troubleshooting to try to resolve so once again, your experience may vary depending on the type of system you’re running and what games you’re playing. The monitor itself is not at fault and Monster Hunter Rise with HDR enabled on the other hand looked fantastic!



The monitor’s presets are also great to cycle through if you don’t want to get into the real nitty gritty of changing contrast and saturation values one by one. The modes on offer here are “Scenery”, “Racing”, “Cinema”, “RTS/RPG”, “FPS”, “sRGB”, “MOBA”, “Night Vision” and “User Mode”. “Racing” mode felt the best to me with all the colours being displayed in crisp, beautiful visual clarity. “sRBG” mode is great if you’re doing design work on the monitor that requires the sRGB colour space and this monitor also has 99% DCI-P3 coverage too for colour accuracy.



Being an OLED monitor, VRR flicker with games can be a problem but thankfully Asus have an “OLED anti-flicker” option built into the monitor which helps alleviate some of these issues. Shockingly, the monitor does not support HDMI 2.1 so if you want the buttery smooth 240hz, you’ll have to use the DisplayPort connection instead. Also do keep in mind that you need a powerful gaming system to be able to make full use of the 240hz refresh rate at 2K resolution.

Asus have also really put in some effort here with a “Clear Pixel Edge” option too which depending on your tastes can either be amazing or lacklustre. Prefer more defined edges? Enable this option. If you don’t, leave it off. You’ll have to do some trial and error to see which option you prefer as with most of the settings on this monitor. The same goes for the “Uniform Brightness” and “Blue Light Filter” options. I preferred “Clear Pixel Edge” disabled because images just looked off for some reason when I had this option enabled. I also disabled “Uniform Brightness” because once again, to me personally, it looked off. Other users may prefer these options enabled though.



Colour temperature can be adjusted in the user interface too though I left mine set at 6500K after experimenting with some of the other options. If you have a colour calibration tool, you may want to dive into these settings a lot more to get everything perfect for your tastes. However, if you’re a gamer, there’s really no need to fuss about with this unless you’re really a stickler for how specific colours should look to your own eyes. The preset options with some minor adjustments to saturation and contrast are easy to understand and set up.

Using the monitor for around 2 weeks, I never really had any issues or problems with it. I did spend quite a lot of time adjusting the colours and settings to my personal tastes though. After this it was good to go and quickly swapping presets was a breeze when changing between playing games and watching video content. And speaking of video content, movies look great on this monitor too thanks to the colour accuracy, brightness and the additional White sub-pixel in the OLED colour matrix. If you’ll be using the monitor for typing up content in Microsoft Word, I do recommend toning down the brightness and enabling the blue light filter to reduce strain on your eyes.

If you have a colour calibration tool, you may want to dive into these settings a lot more to get everything perfect for your tastes.

Being a 2K resolution OLED monitor with a high refresh rate and high colour accuracy, the Asus ROG Strix OLED XG27AQDMG checks all the right boxes for its target market of gamers. The only major downsides being that it doesn’t support 240hz across all its connectivity options, doesn’t have a Type C USB port and that the glossy finish is prone to glare and reflection in bright spaces (Which can be a deal breaker for some users). If you’re looking for a monitor that display crisp, beautiful HDR visuals, this is definitely it with only Mini-LED or QD-OLEDs competing with it.

*The ASUS ROG Strix OLED XG27AQDMG is priced at R19,999 (incl. VAT)