If you’ve been itching to buy an Ultra High-Definition (UHD) monitor, but have been waiting for prices to drop below the $1,000 mark, your wait is over. The Asus PB287Q ($649) impresses with its sharp UHD image quality, robust colors, and a generous feature set. It has an adjustable ergonomic stand, HDMI and DisplayPort video ports, Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL) connectivity, and a couple of Low-Blue-Light settings. Add to that the fact that it does a remarkable job of displaying crystal-clear UHD content and can handle fast-action gaming smoothly and cleanly, and that’s earns the PB287Q($613.99 at Staples)(Opens in a new window) our first Editors’ Choice for midrange UHD monitors.

Design and Features
Companies such as Asus, Dell, Lenovo, and Samsung are now offering 28-inch UHD monitors with a native resolution of 3,840 by 2,160 that are priced in the $650 to $750 range. Granted, they are based on twisted-nematic (TN) panel technology rather than the high-end Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide In-Plane Switching (IGZO/IPS) technology used on the much bigger Dell UltraSharp 32 Ultra HD UP3214Q( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) and Asus PQ321( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) models, but they cost thousands of dollars less than the big boys.

The PB287Q’s 28-inch panel sits inside a nondescript, 2.5-inch-thick, matte-black cabinet with 0.5-inch bezels. The bottom bezel holds a silver Asus logo, six function button labels, and a power LED. The actual buttons are on the back of the cabinet behind their corresponding labels.

There are hot keys for the Main Menu, Brightness Control, Input Select, and the Asus QuickFit and SplendidPlus Video Technology features. QuickFit, found on other Asus monitors such as the MX299Q, offers a series of patterns that allow you preview document and photo layouts onscreen before printing. SplendidPlus Video Technology is Asus-speak for picture presets and includes Standard, Scenery, Theater, Game, Night View, Reading, and Darkroom modes. The Darkroom and Reading presets use Asus EyeCare technology, which reduces the level of blue light (excessive blue light is known to cause eyestrain) and eliminates flicker.

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The 16-pound cabinet gets solid
support from a stand consisting of a square base and a mounting arm with a slider that provides 5.9 inches of height adjustment. The cabinet has a tilt range of 25 degrees, and a Lazy Susan disc on the bottom of the base gives you 120 degrees of swivel. You can also pivot the panel 90 degrees for portrait mode viewing, but you’ll have to change the image orientation using your graphics card control panel, as the PB287Q does not support auto-pivot. There are four VESA-compliant mounting holes on the back of the cabinet should you decide to hang the monitor on a wall using an optional mounting kit.

Also around back are two HDMI inputs, a DisplayPort 1.2 input, an audio input, and a headphone jack. There’s no USB port, but one of the HDMI ports is MHL-compatible, which lets you to connect to compatible smartphones and tablets using an HDMI-to-MHL cable (not included). Not only does  MHL let you view content from your mobile device, it will charge it as well. The PB287Q has 2-watt, down-firing speakers that are moderately loud, but a tad trebly.

In addition to price, size, and panel technology, one of the biggest differences between the PB287Q and the Asus PQ321 has to do with how the image is delivered to and handled by the monitor. Both the Asus PQ321 and Dell’s UP3214Q require Multi-Stream Transport (MST) over DisplayPort 1.2 to achieve 3,840-by-2,160 (UHD) resolution at 60Hz. Basically, MST takes two video streams and displays them as a single, UHD image. The PB287Q’s panel technology and scaler (controller) allow it to use a single stream to display UHD at 60Hz via DisplayPort 1.2, but as with the bigger models, UHD over HDMI will only display at 30Hz. This is a limitation that will be resolved when HDMI 2.0 becomes more widely available.

Along with Brightness, Contrast, and Color Temperature settings, you can adjust Saturation and Skin Tone (reddish, natural, yellowish) in the Color menu, while Sharpness, Aspect Ratio, and the Asus Smart Contrast Ratio setting can be tweaked in the Image menu.

Here, you’ll also find a VividPixel setting that enhances image outlines and reduces noise. It has a range of 0 to 100 and can be changed in increments of 25. By default, this feature is set to 25, and I’d suggest leaving it that way, as bumping it up causes some images, especially colored text, to appear overly sharp, while reducing it to 0 has the opposite effect and makes some objects appear too soft. Other menu items include Picture-in-Picture and Picture-by-Picture settings that let you determine the size of each window, their input source, and their position on the screen, and a power-saving Eco mode.

Asus covers the PB287Q with a three-year warranty on parts, labor, and the backlight. Included in the box are HDMI, DisplayPort, and audio cables, a quick-start guide, and a clip that helps keep cables organized.

Performance
An impressive performer, the PB287Q correctly displayed every shade of gray on the DisplayMate 64-Step Gray Scale test and provided excellent highlight and shadow detail on my test images, a rare feat for a TN panel. (Many TN panels have trouble displaying the lightest and darkest shades of gray.)

Thanks to the panel’s 10-bit color technology, the PB287Q’s deep colors and natural-looking skin tones rival that of a good IPS display. My 4K photo images looked spectacular on this monitor, as did the Timescapes 4K video trailer I used in testing. The highly detailed mountain waterfall scene was breathtaking.

Out-of-the-box color accuracy was generally good in my tests, but as we saw with the Dell UP3214Q, greens were slightly skewed. The color chart below shows the ideal coordinates for each color, represented by the boxes, and our measured color coordinates, represented by the dots. Red and blue and fairly accurate, but green is completely outside of its box. If precise color matching is important, you may want to calibrate this panel. The flaw is minor, however, and does not affect overall picture quality or result in oversaturated greens or green tinting.

The panel’s 1-millisecond (gray-to-gray) pixel response provides smooth gaming, with no noticeable ghosting or blurring at 60Hz via the DisplayPort input, but you’ll need a powerful graphics engine to play at 3,840 by 2,160. I played Aliens vs. Predator with all of the effects set to high, and the Nvidia GTX Titan card in my PC was more than adequate, but when I switched over to an HDMI 1.4 input, gameplay was noticeably choppy because the monitor was limited to a 30Hz refresh rate. Make sure you have a powerful graphics card with DisplayPort 1.2 or HDMI 2.0 outputs for smooth UHD gaming.

When it comes to viewing angles, the PB287Q is one of the better-performing TN-based monitors I’ve tested, but it’s still no match for a good IPS panel. Colors remain intact, but the picture becomes slightly washed out at around 65 degrees from center when viewed from side, top, and bottom angles. The panel used 40 watts of power during testing in Standard mode and 28 watts when set to Eco mode. That’s on par with slightly smaller 27-inch monitors, such as the BenQ EW2740L (34 watts in Standard; 23 watts in Eco) and the Acer K272HUL (38 watts in Standard; 30 watts in Eco). The 30-inch Asus PQ321 used 72 watts while operating in Standard mode.

Conclusion
The Asus PB287Q does a remarkable job of displaying crystal-clear UHD content and can handle fast-action gaming smoothly and cleanly. Its viewing angle performance is noticeably better than what I’ve seen from most TN panels, though it still isn’t as good as what you’ll get from an IGZO/IPS panel. Its overall color quality and gray-scale performance are superb, and the picture is bright and uniform. Greens are slightly off, but not to the point of oversaturation. We haven’t yet tested competing models from Samsung, Lenovo, and Dell, and there’s little doubt that more competitors will emerge, but for now, the PB287Q is your best bet for a midrange UHD monitor.