ASUS ProArt Display PA279CRV

If you expect ASUS to honor the Australian Consumer Law (ACL), think again. My recent RMA experience has been an absolute nightmare of corporate deflection and shifting liability. I bought an ASUS monitor that developed "panel bubbling" within a year—a clear manufacturing defect. ASUS approved the RMA and provided a prepaid shipping label. During transit, their contracted courier severely crushed and tore the outer corner of the box. The service center’s own photos clearly show this violent mishandling. The screen arrived completely smashed.

Instead of taking responsibility for their courier, ASUS Support assessed it as "Customer Induced Damage (CID)" and demanded I pay for the repair! They cited their internal website policy, claiming the "customer is responsible for packaging," completely ignoring the fact that they organized the freight and bear the risk under the ACL. No amount of internal packaging could have survived the external structural crush their courier inflicted.

To make matters worse, their "Escalation Team" deployed delay tactics, demanding I produce "pre-shipping photos" of the box—an entirely unreasonable request for a standard consumer, especially when the courier's violent damage is already proven by their own photos.

ASUS is attempting to use their web policies to bypass statutory consumer guarantees. I have ceased all direct communication with their unhelpful support team and am taking this case to NSW Fair Trading. If you are buying ASUS, pray it never breaks. If you have to RMA it, be prepared for them to use every trick in the book to blame you for their own logistical failures.

A colour calibrated bargain – After 11 years, my previous 24" ASUS ProArt monitor was getting a bit flaky with the soft power switch having failed although it is still working and has been relegated to duty as a spare. There wasn't any real thought about anything than another ProArt although I did look at comparable monitors but the ASUS range still stacked up for value. The difference between the various 27" ASUS models is confusing with 4 models to choose from - 2 of which are QHD (2560x1440), this one is 4K (3840x2160) and there is one 5K (5120x2880) model as well.

Assembly was reasonably easy as was calibration although it took awhile finding a resolution I liked having made the change from the old models 16:10 aspect ratio to 16:9 now. It is significantly 'sharper' than the old one (helped by the 0.155 pixel pitch (the old one was 0.270) as well as brighter to the point where I chose sRGB as the colour space to tone down the brightness because in HDR mode it's just too much for my taste.

In terms of colour accuracy (the reason for spending this sort of money) it is better than the previous model in most colour spaces and by quite a margin and that one was pretty good anyway. It's most noticeable with DCI P3 colour space where the accuracy is improved from low 70% to 99% in my own calibrated testing.

Likes: colour accuracy, sharpness, much improved OSD interface; better support for Pantone. Dislikes: The stand is somewhat flimsier and narrower so that even turning on the soft power button actually pivots the screen a little and I have to straighten it again.