There is a monitor from ASUS and this one really did pique our interest. It’s within the ProArt series – the ASUS ProArt PA27JCV. It does a lot of steps right by moving to USB-C and removing some legacy ports, while also providing more modern ports for our convenience.
Now, let’s get into the specs. This ASUS ProArt PA27JCV is a:
- 27-inch IPS LCD
- 5K monitor with 5120×2880 pixels in resolution (16:9)
- 218 ppi (important)
- 60Hz refresh rate
- LuxPixel AGLR display (anti-glare low-reflection)
Looking at the specs alone, it is already impressive. By doing some math and calculating the PPI value, we result in a magnificent value of 218 PPI. This number is important as Macs need a specific PPI to achieve the “retina display” and this display became a great alternative to Apple’s Pro Display XDR, albeit at a slightly lower resolution but still plenty much anyway.
The display quality is astonishingly good, though there are some details that we need to know. Out of the box, we can get around a maximum of 560 nits of maximum brightness and can cover about 99.96% of sRGB and 98.07% of DCI-P3 color gamuts while having an average ΔE of only 0.133342 and a maximum ΔE of 1.137085. This goes in-line with whatever ASUS claims on their website.
The LuxPixel technology is an AGLR coating that ASUS did on the ProArt PA27JCV, and AGLR stands for anti-glare, low-reflection. This LuxPixel technology worked so well that I originally thought this was a mini LED display since the display is so sharp and the colors are so vivid.
I do have to highlight one thing – I highly recommend disabling the Dynamic Dimming feature. It makes the display become a pseudo-mini LED display with some dimming zones. However, I find it to be distracting as certain parts of the screen will look superly flat in terms of colors and hence, that is why I disabled the Dynamic Dimming.
This monitor also has an ambient light sensor that can automatically change the brightness and screen color temperature according to the environment. We can disable this too, if we want to.
Another great feature that we have is KVM, but we’ll have to talk about the ports first. We have the usual DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.1 ports, but we have double USB-C ports. One of it has support for DisplayPort Alt. Mode and also outputs 96W of power. If we plugged in our mouse and keyboard to the monitor’s USB ports too, then we can get display, charging, and both mouse and keyboard through a single USB-C cable.
The second USB-C port can be used to connect to our desktop, and that acts like a USB uplink cable. I’m so glad that ASUS used USB-C instead of a USB 3.0 Type-B port.
The ASUS ProArt PA27JCV is also smart enough to change which device gets control of the USB devices depending on the display input. It’s a bit difficult to understand, but we do have a video talking through KVMs from start to finish. I highly recommend you check out the video if you’re interested to know more about KVMs. Even though the video is a bit dated, the information is still very much relevant today.
Oh, there are also two more ports at the corner – one USB-C and another USB-A ports.
Since this is a ProArt monitor, ASUS built-in some more features that are great for video editors like me. The OSD menu can have an overlay for safety margins, so we don’t have to rely on the video editing app itself for that overlay. This is perfect if we use the ASUS ProArt PA27JCV as our live preview monitor.
We technically don’t even have to touch the minor to change the settings as we can also install the ASUS DisplayWidget to change the brightness, contrast, and many other settings. We can also assign specific color profiles to be used for specific apps too – for example, sRGB for DaVinci Resolve and Native for Google Chrome.
The included monitor stand is also a great one. It has a pretty small flat base and supports the usual tilt, pivot, rotate, and height adjustments.
The monitor itself also supports the standard 100x100mm VESA mount, so we can use that if we want to.
Should you buy the ASUS ProArt PA27JCV monitor?
With all things considered, this monitor is indeed an amazing one. It has KVM – which is a feature that I use on a daily basis to switch between two computers constantly, a crisp 5K resolution with the magical 218 PPI for Macs, magnificent color accuracy throughout, and also great features like the safety margins built-in.
If you need or can make use of these features, then great! This monitor is perfect – especially at the price of just RM3,950. Yes, it’s very affordable as all of these features come along with the monitor itself. Plus, we can also get 3-years one-to-one replacement too!
The other alternatives are – of course, Apple’s own Studio Display. It’s much more expensive by default and tacks on another few thousand Ringgit if you want the nano-texture display. This ProArt monitor already has the LuxPixel AGLR by default.
LG also has another 5K display of their own, but it doesn’t seem to be available for sale anywhere. I tried finding online and it costs about RM5,500.
And that is why I highly recommend this monitor and I can even see myself daily-driving this too. It’s just that good.
