ASUS MX279H LCD Monitor Unboxing & Overview
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2013-05-07
·
1,452 words · ~7 min read
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Welcome to our most bold and daring unboxing ever. This is the ASUS Designer
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Series MX279. And what's bold and daring about our
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unboxing of it is the fact that we're doing it outside pretty much in the
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rain. Now, I didn't realize that this is just going to open up like this. I've
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never seen an LCD box that's configured quite like this. So, let's have a look
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at what they have to say for themselves on the outside of the box. First audio
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is by Bang and Olison with their Ice Power technology. So there's two 3 W
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speakers that are actually on the back of the monitor, but they use quite a
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large speaker size in order to get deeper bass. Um it uses a frameless
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design which is8 mm or 0.800
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in or something like that uh for the frame. So we're going to show you that
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after. It uses an IPS screen with
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motion blur reduction technology that makes it suitable for gaming in spite of
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the fact that it is IPS, not TN. An LED backlight, a 178 degree viewing angle,
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and of course, a 5 millisecond response
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time. So, let's check this out. First of
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all, we've got ASUS's warranty card, which we're not going to worry too much
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about. Next, we've got an HDMI to DVI
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cable. This is an interesting inclusion and the reason they've done this is if
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you want to come closer and have a look at the accessories, just yeah, pick it
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up and come on over. Um, the reason they've done this is that the monitor
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itself doesn't actually have a DVI
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input. So, you'll run this DVI cable to your video card or other device and this
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HDMI connection into the back of the monitor. So, that's why they that's why
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they include that. They also include there we go, a VGA cable just in case
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you're still using one of those, but please don't. This is such a beautiful monitor and it's just wasted. Uh just ah
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utterly wasted on that 3 and 1/2 mm
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audio connection. A power brick. So
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there is no power supply built into the monitor itself. This is because it is so
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slim that there wasn't enough room to even integrate this. And then a power
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cable for that. Next up, we've got the ring which is actually modeled after
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like kind of a a sund dial inspired design. So you guys are going to see
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what I mean as soon as I open it up. It looks just like a sund dial. And then
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the monitor sits forward on it like this. Uh it's got rubberized grips on
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the bottom, so it's not going anywhere once you put it in place. And then
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assembly looks like it's going to be super simple with one screw in the bottom that holds the entire monitor
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onto the top. So let's go ahead and
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enjoy the uniqueness of this packaging here, which has thrown me off a little
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bit because I was not expecting it to be quite like this. You can see the monitor
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itself is protected by a hard foam. So,
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we've got about here, check this out. We've got about probably a little over
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half an inch of foam protection around the outside of the box. However, monitor
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packaging has gotten slimmer and lower profile as monitors have continued to
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get slimmer and lower profile. And this monitor itself is actually not that
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heavy. So, I don't expect it to be that much of an issue. So, this is what ASUS
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means by frameless design. Check this out. There's the bezel. That's it.
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That's all. The screen looks matte from here, but I think what we're going to
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discover is that there is a Yeah, there's a covering over it. So, that
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film protector I'm having a little bit
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of trouble getting off. At least I hope that's a protective film. Come on.
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Uh, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I just won't do that. We'll be
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back in a moment. So, we got rained on out there. Either way, it looks like the
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only removable plastic film is on the back, the front. Actually, the reason I
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couldn't get it off is that it is an anti-glare coating. So, while ASUS has
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used a single panel for the front of the monitor here, in order to make sure that
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it's h very seamless and very smooth, they they've gone for the route where they don't want a super glossy single
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panel. And they've put an anti-glare coating that is, I guess, protective as
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well as reducing the uh the reflections
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that makes it well, I mean, you can see, but you can't see a clear reflection of
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my hand through the monitor. So, we're going to have to fire this up and see how it works. I'm I'm pretty excited to
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check that out. In terms of the IO,
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because the monitor again is so thin, this is so this is the same reason we
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ended up with a design that has the
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power brick external. Um, at the back you're going to see that there isn't
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really much room to hide the inputs and
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outputs. So on the back we find HDMI 1, HDMI 2, and VGA. The reason they've gone
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with dual HDMI, I think, so this is just my guess is that that way you can easily
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hook up like a computer and a game console and switch between them at your
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convenience. VGA is just there for legacy. There is your line in as well as
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headphones out if you don't want to use the integrated speakers and DC volume in
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and a Kensington lock. The back is a gloss finish in contrast to the front
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which is that matte finish. Uh, personally, I'd love to see less gloss
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and more matte, but if they're going to put gloss somewhere, I'm glad that it's
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on the back because when you look at the side of the monitor, you actually can
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see again, it's matte. So, every part that you're going to be looking at is
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going to be matte and so I it bothers me a lot less that way. Let's do a cell
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phone size comparison. So, this is the HTC1. So you can see the monitor is
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extremely slim and only bulges out a little bit towards the middle at the
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back where the IO is and other than that maintains its sevelt
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uh profile. Now,
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okay, it should be noted guys that the actual picture doesn't go quite to the
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edge. So there's about a pinky's width of space here where there isn't going to
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be an actual image, but we'll maybe show you that in more detail once we've got
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it fired up. So, the installation procedure, I'll just show you guys. ASUS
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recommends putting it down on a table. I came up with the uh with the cardboard
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idea myself because I'm not comfortable putting something like this directly
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down on the table because the double-edged sword of having no bezel is
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that, you know, you have no bezel. If you lay it down on something, you're basically laying it down almost flat on
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the screen. Although, this bottom part here does protrude out a little bit. So,
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it wouldn't be it wouldn't be quite just flat on the screen. So, there you go.
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That's what it looks like. and we'll uh we'll fire it up in a moment and give
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you guys our impressions. All the onscreen display uh controls are here
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along the bottom. They are tactile buttons, so you can actually feel what
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you're pressing. So, that gives you control of your brightness, your input,
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your menu, as well as your splendid options. So, that's ASUS's feature that
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allows you to pick different uh different picture profiles for it. And
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then last but not least, it does have quick fit, which is a feature that we haven't seen on anything other than Pro
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Art up till now, which puts grid lines on the screen, so you can easily um size
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things up just by looking at