CES 2023 has brought an electrifying announcement for gaming display technology. ASUS, renowned pioneers in the gaming monitor industry, have shattered conventions by unveiling the world’s first ever 27-inch OLED gaming monitor.
This trailblazing release packs all the speed of a top-tier contemporary gaming monitor into an OLED panel never before seen in a competitive gaming display. Let’s dive into why this monitor is such a significant achievement, how it could transform the gaming experience, and what it signals for the future of display innovation.
OLED Comes to Gaming – And It’s About Time
Gamers have eyed OLED jealousy as the display tech brought revolutionary image quality to smartphones and home theaters over the past decade. OLED panels achieve stunning brightness, pixel response times under 0.1ms, and essentially infinite contrast ratios. This empowers unparalleled visual fluidity and image detail – crucial in competitive gaming.
Yet frustrating technical and economic barriers have obstructed applying OLED capabilities for PC gaming at scale:
- Production challenges – Fabricating large, consistently high-performing OLED panels is extremely technically challenging. Emissivity decay, differential aging, and power consumption constraints have slowed OLED‘s scalability compared to LCD variants.
- Burn-in concerns – Placing an OLED panel in a non-mobile use case like a monitor raised concerns about permanent burn-in from static screen elements. Monitor-makers feared an lifespan and image quality backlash.
ASUS is the first manufacturer to successfully transcend these limitations, unlocking OLED’s potential for gaming with custom heat dissipation innovations and a 27-inch panel size balancing feasibility and immersion.
Their new 27” OLED heralds a watershed moment for display technology bringing profound enhancements in speed, image quality and contrast to gaming monitors. This could compel rivals like Acer, Alienware and Aorus to push their own OLED models to market at last.
Blazing-Fast Refresh Rates and Response Times
Crucially, adopting exotic OLED tech hasn’t stopped ASUS ticking every box expected of a contemporary high-refresh gaming monitor.
- 1440p resolution
- 240Hz refresh rate
- 0.1ms GtG response time
This combination of 1440p and 240 Hz is the current sweet spot for buttery-smooth high frame rate gaming. The monitor includes Nvidia G-Sync support for variable refresh rates as well.
But the monitor’s show-stopping OLED panel propels image fluidity and clarity to entirely unprecedented levels for gaming.
| Display Technology | Typical Response Time |
|---|---|
| Standard LCD | 4-8 ms |
| Fast IPS | 1 ms |
| ASUS OLED | 0.1 ms |
With real world pixel transition times under 0.1 ms, the ASUS OLED monitor delivers up to 10x quicker response than even leading IPS/VA alternatives.
This virtually eliminates motion blur and ghosting, enabling pristine crispness in fast gameplay. The difference will prove most notable in twitch shooters and esports titles running at 240+ fps where pixel transitions are constant.
But all genres of games will benefit from the elevated visual clarity unlocked by the OLED panel ASUS has engineered. This technology is quite literally a game-changer.
Unmatched Picture Quality
While the blinding speed headlines ASUS’s new display, OLED technology also empowers picture quality simply unattainable from an LED monitor.
Self-illuminating pixels with per-pixel control means effectively infinite contrast and true blacks – no LCD can approach this performance. OLED panels achieve this contrast consistently across all viewing angles as well.
The monitor covers 99% of the cinema-grade DCI-P3 color volume, enabling more vibrant yet accurate colors. 10-bit color depth further unlocks 1.07 billion colors to reveal the full nuance and shade in modern games’ artwork.
And without centralized backlight control, OLED also guarantees exceptional uniformity in brightness and color gamut across the panel. No uneven backlight bleed or clouding mars the image.
This supreme contrast, color range, uniformity and wide viewing angles make the ASUS OLED monitor an exceptional canvas both for cinematic single player experiences and colorful esports like Valorant or Fortnite that demand high visibility.
Here’s a preview of the visual advantages unlocked by OLED technology:
(Image reference: DisplayNinja)
Black bars truly black out without backlight bleed, while bright spots like flames retain crisp clarity. This amplifies perceived contrast and screen depth compared to a conventional LED gaming monitor.
Competitive First-Player Shooters Will Benefit Most
The ASUS OLED monitor’s blend of lightning pixel response and enhanced visual detail are ideally suited for certain gaming use cases above others:
- Ultra-Fast FPS – For esports and competitive shooters, the 0.1ms GtG pixel response could deliver a measurable competitive edge. Improving critical target acquisition speed by even 1 ms matters at a pro level.
- High Framerate MOBAs – Top-down MOBAs like League of Legends or DOTA played at 200+ fps will benefit from the buttery motion clarity.
- Vibrant Shooters – Modern military FPS games like Call of Duty with expansive color palettes will showcase the OLED panel’s contrast and color gamut beautifully.
In particular, battle royale fans playing Apex Legends, Fortnite and PUBG near 240 fps are poised to experience radical improvements to motion clarity and opponent visibility coming from foliage or structures.
This competitive advantage could compel early adoption from esports players and teams first. But expect single player fans and across gaming genres to flock to the monitor for its best-in-class visuals as well.
Outpacing the Competition
The ASUS 27” OLED gaming monitor raises the stakes in the premium gaming display segment. How does it compare against models from key rivals?
Alienware’s lauded AW3423DW – Alienware beat ASUS to market with a 34” OLED, but it tops out at 175Hz. While formidable, ASUS’s monitor should provide markedly crisper motion.
Acer Predator X25 – Acer’s 1080p IPS model matches the 240Hz refresh rate but can’t touch the contrast and color of OLED. It may retain a price advantage however.
ASUS looks poised to claim the throne for the fastest, best all-around gaming monitor with its trailblazing OLED debut. And with a 27” screen meeting esports’ favored sizing, the company has hit the gaming sweet spot.
What This Means for the Future of Gaming Displays
By successfully commercializing OLED technology in a specced-out gaming monitor at scale, ASUS has achieved a historic breakthrough. This could constitute just the first chapter in widespread OLED adoption for gaming.
ASUS co-CEO S.Y. Hsu commented on the milestone, explaining their conviction in OLED’s advantages:
“We believe gamers need the best visual experience possible. So we challenged ourselves to overcome the barriers holding OLED back from gaming in the past…Now we are proud to debut the first OLED monitor delivering on all fronts.”
Once perceived as unsuitable for gaming, OLED’s reputation is transforming almost overnight thanks to ASUS. This could compel other manufacturers to accelerate their own OLED development efforts to remain competitive.
We predict ASUS’s new hotly anticipated release will sell out rapidly. But it paves the way for further innovation and more affordable OLED models as production scales up. The era of OLED visuals becoming the norm for gaming, not the exception, has finally dawned. Gamers worldwide eagerly await the new wave of monitors this milestone will inspire.
For those who have been waiting to experience OLED picture quality applied to contemporary games, ASUS PG27AQDM is clearly the ultimate gaming monitor. We can’t wait to get hands-on. The future of buttery smooth visuals with revolutionary clarity and contrast is here.
