Review: ASUS PA27UCGE 4K display with colorimeter

Review unit on loan from Asus Singapore

The Asus ProArt PA2UCGE is a 27-inch 4K 160Hz display released in 2025. Price at the time of review is SGD 1109 on Asus Singapore online store.

This monitor has many features, and the main selling features for me are the shading hood, built-in colorimeter and KVM switch. If you do not need those features, I would recommend the similarly priced Asus ProArt PA27JCV 27-inch 5K display instead which has higher resolution but refresh rate is 60Hz.

This review is from the perspective of someone who does graphic design, edits photos and videos.

Specifications

Things included

• DisplayPort cable
• Full-sized HDMI cable
• Full-sized DisplayPort cable
• USB‑C video cable
• USB‑A to USB‑C cable
• Power cord
• Quick start guide
• Warranty card
• Color calibration report
• Monitor hood
• Stand (base + upright)

Shading hood

The shading hood comes in five pieces that have to be assembled.

The shading hood has these elastic rubber extensions for attaching to other pieces, and to the back of the display. I'm not sure how durable the rubber will be when exposed to high humidity for long periods of time in Singapore.

A shading hood helps block out unwanted light which is very useful in a room with uncontrolled lighting, such as when the display is used by the side of a window without curtains. I prefer a monitor with a shading hood and do not consider those that come without, and unfortunately many monitors are not designed to work with shading hoods.

Design

Design of the display looks clean and simple, just like most desktop monitors nowadays.

Be careful when holding the monitor and do not hold the part where the colorimeter is as that seems fragile. The colorimeter will rotate from the back to the front using a motor to have the lens face the display for colour calibration. It is possible to rotate the lens with your hands but I'm not sure if that will damage the motor so avoid doing so.

Upon powering up the display, the colorimeter may produce a mechanical motorised sound if it's not in the correct stored-away position.

The back is made of plastic and feel plasticky but overall build quality is alright. The display supports 10 x 10cm VESA mount.

The selection of ports is good.

On the right (with display facing front) are kensington lock, power switch and power port.

On the left are

• 2x HDMI 2.1 (FRL)
• 1x DisplayPort DSC
• 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C with 96W power delivery
• 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C
• 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A

And here are the bottom left of the display is a USB-C port with USB 2 transfer speed and 15W output and a 3.5mm audio jack. There are two 2W speakers located at the bottom corners and audio sounds hollow.

Here are specifications for HDMI 2.1 with FRL (Fixed Rate Link):

• Supports up to 48 Gbps total bandwidth (post‑encoding)
• Uses 4 lanes with fixed data rates: 3, 6, 8, 10, and 12 Gbps per lane
• Replaces TMDS for high‑bandwidth modes
• Enables uncompressed 4K 120 Hz and 8K 60 Hz video
• Supports compressed 8K 120 Hz and 10K 120 Hz via DSC
• Supports 10‑bit and higher color depths
• Supports BT.2020 color space
• Includes link training and error detection mechanisms
• Designed for high‑speed jitter, skew, and timing tolerance
• Backward compatible with HDMI 2.0 TMDS modes

Here are the specifications for DisplayPort 1.4 with DSC (Display Stream Compression):

• Supports Display Stream Compression (DSC) 1.2a
• Enables visually lossless compression at 3:1 ratio
• Maximum raw bandwidth: 32.4 Gbps (HBR3)
• Maximum effective payload: 25.92 Gbps
• Supports 4K 120 Hz uncompressed
• Supports 4K 144 Hz with DSC
• Supports 5K 60 Hz uncompressed
• Supports 8K 60 Hz with DSC
• Supports 10‑bit and 12‑bit color depths
• Supports HDR10 metadata transport
• Supports Rec.2020 color space
• Forward Error Correction (FEC) for link stability
• Adaptive Sync support
• Multi‑Stream Transport (MST) support
• Auxiliary channel bandwidth: 720 Mbps

The specifications for HDMI 2.1 with FRL and DisplayPort 1.4 with DSC are important if you need those specifications.

At the bottom left of the monitor are the proximity sensor and light sensor. The proximity sensor will sense your presence within 30 - 90cm and if you're not around, the display brightness will be reduced.

The light sensor can adjust display brightness and colour temperature depending on ambient lighting. This feature does not work well as I can often see very obvious colour shift while working.

I do not use the proximity and light sensors.

Colour calibration

Having a built-in colorimeter or colour calibration is convenient. Just choose to calibrate from the OSD menu and calibration will start, and the process takes around 17 minutes. Oh, make sure there's nothing below the colorimeter as any obstruction will prevent the colorimeter from deploying.

Calibration data will be saved onto the monitor itself, which means you can connect the display to another computer and won't need to go through calibration again.

Downside here is the colorimeter only works for the Asus display, so if you have a dual display setup, it's better to use your own colour calibrator to ensure both displays are calibrated to the same standards.

The other downside is there's no calibration report after the calibration.

Since I use a dual display setup, I prefer to use my own Spyder X2 colour calibrator and I measured colour support for 100% sRGB, 90% P3, 80% NTSC, 84% AdobeRGB and a maximum brightness of 713 nits. Contrast ratio is listed as 1000:1.

So the Asus PA27UCGE is essentially a 100% sRGB. 90% P3 is lower than the advertised 98% P3. The display has colour accuracy that's good for web design, photo and video editing.

Brightness of 713 nits is quite impressive and higher than the advertised 600 nits. The display is so bright that Asus has a 400-step slider to give you finer adjustment for the brightness. I personally use my monitors around 150 nits.

Backlight looks even and viewing angles are good.

Visual quality looks good. This display is bright, vibrant and sharp. 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) resolution on a 27-inch display looks sharp. Pixelation is not noticeable from one arm distance away.

If you need even higher colour accuracy for print design, be prepared to spend a lot more with AdobeRGB displays, and many of those do not have refresh rates higher than 60Hz.

This display can be used for gaming, but whether you can achieve 160Hz refresh rate will depend on how powerful your computer is, and the video connection or cable you use.

KVM switch

This display has KVM switch that lets you use the same keyboard and mouse with two computer systems.

My keyboard and mouse both use USB-A wireless receivers that can be inserted into the monitor's two USB-A ports.

First computer is usually connected to the USB-C video port. The other USB-C port does not support video transmission.

Second computer can be connected with HDMI or DisplayPort. And to use KVM, the second computer has to connect to the monitor with another USB cable (either USB-A to C or USB-C to C).

In the OSD settings, just set KVM Upstream 1 to the first computer, and Upstream 2 to the second computer. The keyboard and mouse will switch connection automatically when you switch input source.

By the way, the OSD is easy and straightforward to use. There are many buttons for shortcuts and navigation is fast with the directional toggle.

MacOS issues

MacOS does not work well with 27-inch 4K displays.

To achieve the 1440P workspace, MacOS will have the resolution at 5K and then scale down to the 1440P workspace and the visuals look sharp. When my M1 Mac Mini from 2020 goes to sleep and comes back on, I find that several web browsers would have the UI renderer run with high CPU usage to the extend that makes the Mac Mini sluggish. The Mac Mini becomes responsive again after a restart, but there's a chance it will become sluggish again after waking from sleep.

Windows does not have such problems with UI scaling.

If you use MacOS, I recommend the Asus PA27JCV 27-inch 5K display instead, but that does not have a shading hood and colorimeter.

Conclusion

The Asus ProArt PA27UCGE is a monitor with many useful and convenient features. Colour accuracy is decent and the brightness is incredible. Just like any monitor, there are pros and cons so just note the limitations.

The main selling features for me would be the shading hood and built-in colorimeter. But if you don't need those features, I don't feel like you should spend money to buy a monitor with features that you won't be using.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Clean and simple design
+ Has shading hood
+ Anti-glare works well
+ 27-inch size is a good size for visual content work
+ Good colour accuracy but not as good as advertised
+ 700 nits brightness is higher than advertised
+ 4K on a 27-inch looks sharp
+ Built-in colorimeter is convenient
+ KVM switch works well
+ Has USB-C for video and 96W charging
+ 160Hz is good for gaming
+ OSD menu is easy to use
+ OSD menu has many features
+ 3 years warranty
- 27-inch 4K does not work well with MacOS
- Measured 90% P3 coverage is not as high as the advertised 98%
- Speakers sound hollow
- Light sensor does not work well
- Colour calibration process is 17 minutes long
- No post colour calibration report

Availability

The Asus ProArt PA27UCGE display can be purchased from Shopee SG (seller A | B | C)