ASUS PQ321Q 31.5" Monitor & 4K Experience
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2014-05-07
·
2,057 words · ~10 min read
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with its Factory tuning and data center DNA an Intel 730 series SSD is an
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amazing choice for gamers and performance enthusiasts all right so
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this video might be coming at a bit of a strange time if the focus was going to
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be on this exact model of 4k monitor
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which was first shown off way back at computex 2013 and has been available
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pretty much since then at around 3 ,000 to $3,500 an early adopter price point
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if I ever seen one no instead the focus of this video is going to be on my
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experience of using a 4K display because this is the first time I've actually
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gotten the opportunity to try one in the comfort of my own home and at work and
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now that 4K is finally coming down in price with a susu's PB 287 Q coming at
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around 800 bucks for a 28 in model it is a very exciting time to take a look at
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this sexy technology so first I'll give a rundown of this one this very gorgeous
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PQ 321 q that I guess I can hold hostage
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now until ASUS sends one of the new ones
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unlike the lowcost variants that will feature TN panels of various quality
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this monitor features an EXO or indium Gallum zinc oxide based panel there's a
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great post actually by a complete stranger who goes by the handle of
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glenwing on overclock.net Linked In the video description that does a great job
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of explaining the benefits of this technology but in short because an exop
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panels controlling transistors are smaller respond more quickly and can
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even be clear we can get faster response
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times High higher pixel densities and more power efficient or even transparent
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displays for the rest of the specs we'll move pretty fast here this thing is a
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beast it weighs 30 lbs much of which is the robust stand it consumes about as
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much power as an idling gaming desktop at about 80 to 90 watts and it's got a
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31 1/2 in 3840 by
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2160 LED EDG lit screen with one of the best anti-glare Coatings that I've ever
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seen it's actually I think the perfect balance between reducing Reflections and
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still keeping colors vibrant looking not scattering the light too much the unit
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is super thin 35 mm at the back which
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contrasts sharply with the Dell 30-in monitor that we use for high-res
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benchmarking and this thinness is enabled by an external power brick
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versus having an internal power supply I've seen other reviewers complain about
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this approach but I disagree 100% I would rather take up space on my floor
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with big Power bricks than space on my desk which I can actually use it's not
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like I'll be moving this thing around speaking of movement it has height
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adjust pivot and tilt but no portrait um
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rotate mode um you can actually take the
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screws off and then put it in portrait mode permanently but it's not something
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that you can just switch between easily it has a side mounted DisplayPort 1.2
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connector with two side mounted HDMI connectors it should be noted that due
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to the way this monitor works it's basically like two monitors side by side
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with no bezel in between you will need to use either a DisplayPort device that
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supports multistream that's 1.2 or higher or two separate HDMI cables going
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into both ports if you want to run the monitor at 4K 60 htz with stronger
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DisplayPort implementations in HTMI 2 coming soon this won't be an issue on
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future models but it is something to bear in mind here the monitor uses a
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sharp exop panel capable of producing 1.0 7 billion colors with a reasonable
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degree of accuracy but with some tendency towards a rmer a warmer overall
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tone to the image it should be noted that it was never really marketed as a
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pro art series for serious color work so it should still be good enough for most
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people the buttons for controlling the on-screen display are around the back
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and this is unusual but they actually aren't even labeled on the front they're
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only labeled on the back of the monitor it's okay though an optional sticker is
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included if you want to be able to see what you're doing but given that the
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onscreen display doesn't have a ton of useful options like ASUS's Pro art
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series does I would probably just leave the front label off for a super clean
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aesthetic if it was mine okay back to that panel type again I've mentioned
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this a few times EXO is not actually strictly speaking a panel type like IPS
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or TN and apart from telling us that it's exob based ASUS hasn't been
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entirely forthright with what type of panel is in the PQ 321 q but on PC
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monitors. info they figure it's an IPS or similar display which makes sense
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given the strong colors and and outstanding viewing angles if you want
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more details on the monitor particularly with respect to color reproduction for
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professional work or more nitty-gritty details of the spec un un teched an
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excellent review of it which I'll link in the video description the rest of
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this video will focus on my experience using it and my thoughts on the upgrade
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to 4K so I'll open with this a bigger screen is not always a great upgrade I
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used a 30-in Samsung monitor as my daily driver for a couple of years and while
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it was great once I got used to it scaling back to 27 as I recently did has
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actually been just fine too but some people will always want bigger and
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better so if you do want a huge display then you need to consider pixel density
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there was a period of time when many folks particularly Gamers were buying
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32in TVs with resolutions as low as 1366
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X 768 and then lulling at me at lens for
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paying so much for my 1920x 1200 24in
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monitor which was obviously much smaller but that kind of solution was always
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very fatiguing for me to look at if you increase the size but not the pixel
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density text and icon sizes are effectively blown up making everything
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look blocky if you increase both pixel density and size proportionally you get
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effectively more of the same level of detail and same size text and icons but
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when you ramp up resolution faster than
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size you get a very different Computing experience and everything starts to look
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much more crisp or as Apple would call it retina at 140 pixels per inch the PQ
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321 Q is the highest density desktop monitor I've ever used by a significant
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margin about 30% better than a 27in
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1440p display and it's incredible to see how sharp everything looks the only
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challenge is that while ramping up resolution gives us more screen real
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estate to spread out our work it also decreases the size of elements now to
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the point where it's hard to read text and click on things accurately unless
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the solution to this of course is scaling which is what smart osses like
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Android and iOS do but unfortunately Windows doesn't handle scaling amazingly
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well because even with improvements in Windows 8 which I unfortunately don't
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use yet thirdparty software makers need
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to support it for it to work properly from within applications what this means
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is that if I leave the scale at 100% Windows Explorer text has the same
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sharpness as text in 7zip or Steam but
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if I scale to 150% all of a sudden text
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in thirdparty applications can look terrible by comparison it was not just
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isolated to these two applications there are some other things that behave
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strangely at such enormous resolution as well remember that this is effectively
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for 16in 1080p monitors side by side and
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stacked with no bezels between them websites designed for fixed width will
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just float in a sea of emptiness in the middle of your screen and dynamic
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websites won't Faire much better with elements strch stretched out to the
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edges of the screen or even just broken out right one solution to that is to
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split your monitor into virtual smaller ones using third party software but
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that'll just take some tinkering for you to get things set up the way that you
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want it it's just something to think about speaking of the way you want
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things for all the complaining I've done about scaling and text and whatever else
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the 4K experience when you're doing it right when you're enjoying native
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content is absolutely unreal it's one
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thing to see a 4K TV at a trade show
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it's another thing entirely to have one two feet in front of your face playing
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all of your favorite games natively at 4K because PC games support that stuff
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as long as you have the graphics horsepower for it it is a great time to
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be a PC Gamer because of the improved pixel density I find myself hardly even
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needing anti-aliasing anymore in Dirt 3 I went from 0x to 2x to 4X and then it
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got to the point where I had to have my nose like 6 in from the screen to see
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any jaggies whatsoever when you add to that the beautiful colors and
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respectable but not amazing processing leg on this monitor the experience is
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unlike anything else I've always found that surround would be okay for me but
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the bezel just totally takes away from the immersion well this it's just it's
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there in your field of view and it looks amazing I mean I think the craziest and
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most exciting thing about it is that while I found over 30 in to be a little
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bit big this technology is coming soon
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to smaller display sizes which means even high higher pixel density and at
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lower prices 4K might not matter much to
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me for my TV but for my desktop computer
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it makes a really big difference it's like when I moved from 24in 1200p to
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30in 1600p all over again it's absolutely beautiful the one thing I
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really need to see though before I'd be willing to drop $800 to $1,000 on a
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really nice 4k monitor is g-sync support I noticed this at NVIDIA's Montreal
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event when they had some 4K TV gaming demos running but the larger the screen
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the more noticeable giant tearing artifacts across it are to me these sync
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is a solution but it adds more leg to what I'm already expecting to be slower
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than average monitors in this first round of affordable 4K monitors although
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I haven't like tested any of them yet so when ASUS delivers about $1,000 4k 60hz
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g-sync monitor they will not be able to take my money fast enough thank you guys
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think that pretty much wraps it up guys thank you for watching and as always
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