Review: ASUS ProArt PA27USD OLED display

Review unit on loan from ASUS Singapore

The ASUS ProArt PA27USDM is a 26.5-inch 4K 240Hz OLED display with outstanding colour accuracy targeted at creative professionals. ASUS made this for photographers, video editors, graphic designers, colorists and digital imaging technicians. This has almost everything. I have reviewed many monitors over the years and this is likely the best monitor I've ever seen. It's so good it's probably overkill for most.

Price is SGD2699 (~USD2100) and comes with a 3-year warranty. Yes, it's expensive which is not surprising.

Specifications

• Model: ProArt Display OLED PA27USD
• Panel size: 26.5 inch (viewable)
• Aspect ratio: 16:9
• Display viewing area (H × V): 589.97 × 332.93 mm
• Display surface: Anti‑Reflection
• Panel type: QD‑OLED (Quantum Dot OLED)
• Viewing angle (CR ≥ 10, H/V): 178° / 178°
• Pixel pitch: 0.155 mm
• Resolution: 3840 × 2160 (4K UHD)
• Display colors: 1,073.7M (10‑bit)
• Color gamut: 100% sRGB; 99% DCI‑P3
• Native color temperature modes / presets: ProArt Preset (CAL 1 / CAL 2 / CAL 3), sRGB, Adobe RGB, Rec.709, BT.2020, DICOM
• Brightness (Typical): 250 cd/m²
• Brightness (HDR, Peak): 1,000 cd/m² (peak on small window)
• Contrast ratio (Typical / HDR Max): 1,500,000:1
• Response time: 0.1 ms (GTG)
• Refresh rate (Max): 240 Hz
• HDR support / certifications: Dolby Vision; HLG; HDR10; VESA DisplayHDR True Black 400
• ASUS OLED Care: Yes (panel care features)
• Flicker‑free: Yes
• Built‑in color calibrator: Yes (automatic hardware calibration)
• Inputs: Thunderbolt 4; DisplayPort 2.1; HDMI 2.1; 12G‑SDI
• Connectivity / hub: USB hub and daisy‑chain support (Thunderbolt / DP MST where applicable)
• Ergonomics / stand: Height, tilt, swivel, pivot; quick‑release short feet; VESA mount compatible
• Dimensions (W × H × D): ~610.3 × 378.8 × 59.6 mm (varies by stand configuration)
• Weight: ~4.74 kg (monitor only; varies with stand)
• Power consumption: (typical / max) — refer to official spec sheet for exact wattage
• Special features: Hardware calibration, ΔE 1 factory calibration target, multi‑format HDR presets, professional I/O including SDI, high refresh rate for mixed creative/workflows
• Release / announcement: 2026 (CES product / ASUS announcement)

Things included

• Monitor
• Warranty Card
• USB-C to A cable
• USB-C cable
• Thunderbolt™ 4 Cable
• User manual
• Power cord
• Monitor hood
• Mini Stand
• L-shaped Screwdriver
• HDMI Ultra High Speed Cable
• Ergonomic Stand
• DisplayPort 2.1 (DP80) cable
• Color pre-calibration report
• Cable Clip

Design

The monitor comes with detachable feet already attached.

The two feet can be rotated to have the monitor stand upright. These two feet and the handle behind make it easy to deploy this display outdoors. To remove the feet, just push the button and take them off.

There are three parts to the stand: the base, stand and monitor holder. All three parts have to be assembled before the monitor can be attached to the stand.

The monitor has adjustment for height, tilt and rotate.

This is a heavy monitor, and of course you should remove the feet if you're using it as a desktop monitor.

These are the ports available:

• Thunderbolt 4 x 2 (daisy chain)
• DisplayPort 2.1 x 1
• HDMI(v2.1) x 2 (FRL)
• USB Hub : 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C
• 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A
• Earphone Jack : Yes
• USB-C Power Delivery : 96W
• USB 3.2 (Signal) : x 1 USB Type-C (for KVM switch)

There's even a 12G-SDI port mainly used for broadcast, live production. There aren't many monitors with 12G-SDI so this is one key selling feature.

These are the specifications for 12G-SDI:

• Standard: SMPTE ST 2082-1 (Physical Interface) and ST 2082-10 (Mapping)
• Data Rate: 11.88 Gbps (nominal 12 Gbps)
• Max Resolution: 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) and DCI 4K (4096 x 2160)
• Supported Frame Rates: 50, 59.94, and 60 fps (Progressive)
• Chroma Subsampling: 4:2:2 or 4:4:4
• Bit Depth: 10-bit or 12-bit
• Audio Support: Up to 16 channels of embedded digital audio
• Physical Interface: 75-ohm BNC (High-frequency 12GHz rated)
• Typical Coax Distance: 70 to 100 meters (depending on cable grade, e.g., Belden 4694R)
• Backward Compatibility: Supports 6G, 3G, and HD-SDI signals

Daisy chaining requires thunderbolt or DisplayPort and I don't have another suitable monitor to test with.

ASUS has provided some hooks that can be attached by the side of the monitor for cable management.

I don't find those hooks useful since the cables still dangle beneath. I prefer to have the cables go above the stand.

Display

The shading hood is already assembled and can be installed or removed easily. There's also a small hole at the top for you to use your own colour calibrator.

The anti-reflective coating is very effective. Shown above is the anti-reflective coating vs the reflective display of the Samsung Tab S9 Ultra.

The visual quality of this display is stunning. The OLED display is sharp, vibrant and bright. It does look better than LCD, more specifically the white looks more white and darks are much darker. Contrast ratio is 1,500,000:1. You don't need a side by side comparison with other displays to know that this is a stunning display.

Typical brightness is advertised to be 250 nits and HDR brightness up to 1000 nits. I find the monitor too bright so I don't use it anywhere near maximum brightness. Actually I use my monitors at around 120 - 150 nits.

Response time is 0.1ms and refresh rate is 240Hz. This monitor can be used for gaming and for designing games.

The display is already colour calibrated at the factory and ASUS recorded average Delta E of less than 1. Average Delta E is the variance between the input colour and measured output colour. Anything less than 2 is good, less than 1 is excellent.

The monitor comes with a built-in colorimeter which is very convenient.

Third party colour calibrators can be used too, with the ASUS ProArt Calibration app. Supported colour calibrators for Windows and those for macOS are slightly different. If you use the built-in colorimeter, you may not need to use the calibration app.

ASUS advertised colour support for 100% sRGB, 99% DCI-P3 and BT. 2020. I measured 98% DCI-P3 which is close. I did not bother to measure sRGB because I don't think it's necessary to do that for an OLED display. AdobeRGB is just 91% though. I've reviewed several laptops with OLED displays but I've never gotten my colour calibrators to work properly so I've never been able to measure AdobeRGB, so I can't say if 91% AdobeRGB is normal or not.

Oh, the calibration process is around 8 minutes. The calibration data is stored onto the monitor itself, which means the monitor does not need to be re-calibrated again when connected to another computer.

Anyway, the colour accuracy of this display is fantastic and suitable for most colour critical work, unless you want higher AdobeRGB.

I measured the colour accuracy with both the built-in colorimeter and my Spyder X2 colour calibrator and results are consistent.

OLED protection

OLED can suffer from burn-in and ASUS has these features to prevent burn-in:

Panel Protection: This is pixel shift to prevent the same colour from being on screen too long. When you first power on the display and notice the left and right bezels are not of the same thickness, that's due to this feature. When you adjust this feature through the OSD, you will see the whole desktop move.

Image Protection: This detects static images such as logos, taskbar and reduce their brightness.

Proximity sensor: This will sense the user and reduce the brightness when no user is detected.

Some of these features may have visible changes when in effect. Sometimes I can see the window bar brightness change visibly which is distracting. These settings can be disabled from the OSD settings if needed.

KVM switch

This lets you use one set of keyboard and mouse with two computer systems through the monitor.

First computer is the one connected to the Thunderbolt port. Second computer can use DisplayPort or HDMI, and will need a USB connection to the monitor too.

Downsides

There are some downsides or limitations.

1. MacOS UI scaling does not work well with 27-inch and 4K resolution. It's a well documented fact. You may have to install BetterDisplay to handle the UI scaling. My M1 Mac Mini from 2020 was sluggish when running this display, but my M2 Pro Macbook Pro could run it smoothly and with a dual display setup.

2. OLED displays have pulse wave modulation. People with sensitive eyes may be affected by PWM flicker. I am not affected by PWM though. If you're not sure if you're affected by PWM, I recommend you go look at OLED displays at an electronics shop.

3. There is coil whine when this display was connected to my Macbook Pro with USB-C and HDMI. There was no coil whine when I connected the display to a phone, tablet, two Windows laptop and the M1 Mac Mini.

4. AdobeRGB is surprisingly not above 95%.

5. There are speakers and audio quality is not good, which is not surprising.

Conclusion

This is a great monitor. Visual quality is fantastic and there are so many features. There are some minor downsides but none are deal breakers, except for the PWM if you're affected by that.

This monitor is extremely satisfying to use. I will miss it when I return it to ASUS Singapore.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Bright, vibrant, sharp display
+ Amazing contrast level
+ Effective anti-reflective coating
+ Shading hood included
+ There are detachable feet and carrying handle for outdoor use
+ Built in colorimeter
+ Colour calibration data is stored on the monitor
+ True 10-bit display
+ Supports daily chaining with Thunderbolt, DisplayPort
+ Supports KVM Switch
+ Has many useful ports
+ Supports 12G-SDI
+ OSD is easy to navigate
+ Third party colour calibrators can be used
- PWM may affect some people
- MacOS does not work well with 27-inch 4K resolution
- Colour calibration is around 8 minutes
- Audio quality from speaker is bad
- AdobeRGB is surprisingly not close to 100%
- Coil whine can be heard with my Macbook Pro but not other devices

Availability