Asus ProArt PA279cdv Review: 27-Inch QD-OLED Monitor Delivers Strong HDR Brightness

The Asus ProArt PA279cdv, a 27-inch QD-OLED monitor, delivered strong HDR brightness results in testing, though it also received some criticism for its design and audio quality.

Design and Connectivity

The monitor's side bezels are somewhat large, and the top and bottom bezels differ in size, which the reviewer found visually distracting. The stand, however, is highly functional, offering swivel, tilt, portrait rotation, and roughly 5 inches of height adjustment. It includes basic cable management via down-firing ports, and its flat base takes up little desk space.

On the back, two USB-C ports each serve a distinct purpose: one supports USB-C 3.2 with DP Alt Mode and delivers up to 96 watts of power to a connected laptop, while the other is dedicated to a KVM switch, allowing two PCs to be connected and switched between seamlessly. The monitor also includes two USB-A ports, a headphone jack, HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 1.4, and a DisplayPort Out for daisy-chaining additional monitors. All ports are clearly labeled.

Onscreen controls sit on the right side of the front panel, consisting of five buttons, a power button, and a joystick. The menu offers numerous color modes and detailed picture settings, which can also be managed through the Display Widget app on Windows 11 or macOS.

The built-in speakers were judged to sound poor, a drawback given that the monitor is partly marketed for entertainment use.

HDR Performance

OLED panels can switch off individual pixels entirely, producing deep blacks, but brightness is what ultimately determines HDR quality. In testing with an HDR pattern, the monitor recorded 1,038 nits in a 1 percent window and 917 nits in a 4 percent window—solid figures that enhance the viewing experience for movies and games. By comparison, the Apple Studio Display XDR reached 1,905 nits in a 25 percent window, though that display costs more than $3,000, making a direct comparison somewhat unfair.