ASUS TUF Gaming VG28UQL1A Monitor (Hardware)
Official GBAtemp Review
Product Information:
I really like monitors. That should come as no surprise, I'm sure most of us do. Littering my desk and illuminating me with an unhealthy heavenly glow, they're an essential part of day to day life and all the miscellaneous entertainment that comes with it. In such a competitive market for a desk mainstay, you need something to tick your specific boxes, and it needs to do so at the right price. I'm taking a look at the TUF Gaming VG28UQL1A to see what it can offer, and exactly who it's for.
Before diving any further, let's take a look at the most important specs:
Display
- Panel Size (inch) : 28
- Aspect Ratio : 16:9
- Display Viewing Area (H x V) : 620.93 x 341.28 mm
- Display Surface : Non-Glare
- Backlight Type : LED
- Panel Type : IPS
- Viewing Angle (CR≧10, H/V) : 178°/ 178°
- Pixel Pitch : 0.160mm
- Resolution : 3840x2160
- Color Space (DCI-P3) : 90%
- Brightness (HDR, Peak) : 450 cd/㎡
- Brightness (Typ.) : 300cd/㎡
- Contrast Ratio (HDR, Max) : 1,000,000:1
- Contrast Ratio (Typ.) : 1000:1
- ASUS Smart Contrast Ratio (ASCR) : 100000000:1
- Display Colors : 1073.7M (10 bit)
- Response Time : 1ms(GTG)
- Refresh Rate (Max) : 144Hz
- HDR (High Dynamic Range) Support : HDR10
- Flicker-free : Yes
Video Features
- Trace Free Technology : Yes
- GameVisual : Yes
- Color Temp. Selection : Yes(4 modes)
- GamePlus : Yes
- PIP / PBP Technology : Yes
- HDCP : Yes, 2.2
- Extreme Low Motion Blur : Yes
- ELMB Sync: Yes
- VRR Technology : FreeSync™ Premium & G-SYNC® Compatible
- GameFast Input technology : Yes
- Shadow Boost : Yes
- DisplayWidget : Yes, DisplayWidget Lite
- Low Blue Light : Yes (Hardware Solution)
- Multiple HDR Mode : Yes
I/O Ports
- DisplayPort 1.4 DSC x 1
- HDMI(v2.1) x 2
- HDMI(v2.0) x 2
- USB Hub : Yes(2 ports USB 3.1)
- Earphone Jack : Yes
- USB 3.0 (Signal) : x 1
There's a lot to look at here, so let's break it down a piece at a time. At the most basic level, we're looking at a 28 inch 4K (2160p) monitor capable of outputting a marvellous 144 frames per second. With an ultra-low response time of 1ms and supporting variable refresh rates (VRR) in the form of GSync and FreeSync Premium, it's loaded with everything you'd need for the most high-end of gaming experiences. While my somewhat middling PC (Ryzen 5 3600 paired with an RX 5700 XT) can scrape out some 4K graphics on select games, it isn't the ideal setup to see what this monitor can offer at its best. With this in mind, while I have been using it as a PC monitor also, the majority of my gaming experience comes from using the display with a Series X console. Thanks to Game Pass, I was able to grab a few games to best experience the joys of higher framerates and high fidelity graphics, even at the same time on occasion!
The environments of Hitman 3 look fantastic.
If I'm going to cut to the chase, the VG28UQL1A is great. Before talking about the display itself, it's worth shining some light on the number of ports available and what each is capable of. The single DisplayPort 1.4 is for your PC gaming, and is capable of the full 4K/144Hz experience. You then have two HDMI 2.1 ports each capable of 4K/120Hz, which are ideal for the latest console generation and their maximum output. Finally, you have two HDMI 2.0 ports that can handle 4K/60Hz. These were the ones I dedicated to the older or less graphically intensive consoles like the PS4 and Switch. Having five available inputs is an absolute joy, with the display automatically switching to another active source if the one you're currently using is turned off. Being used to monitors with two or three HDMI inputs at most, it's been great to not have to juggle cables when wanting to go between Xbox and Switch.
Now I'm not new to 4K displays. When I bought my Series X a few months back, I wanted something at a relatively affordable price that was capable of 4K/60Hz, since there aren't that many games that currently push the system to its theoretical limits. I ended up settling on LG's 32UN500. At £299 it offered a good image with ample screen real estate at 32 inches, FreeSync, and some surprisingly decent speakers. How does the VG28UQL1A fare by comparison? It's better, there's no doubt there. Due to the smaller screen size, the image feels far more crisp, and the colours on offer feel more vivid than with the 32UN500. It's also worth mentioning that both monitors do feature some sort of HDR, but from what I understand it isn't what people would class as "true" HDR. I won't pretend to know much about the topic but would encourage you to do some digging if this is a sticking point for you. I will say that the ASUS display looks great even with HDR disabled and it's a good job too, since you may need to have it disabled for various other features to function.
When first testing the ASUS display, I had an issue with the way the it displayed white and contrasted it to other colours, almost creating pools of darkness around tiny brighter specs. This was most noticeable when using my PC with the cursor pushing through the darkness of Steam's client in an incredibly obtrusive way. What I didn't realise at the time was that this was in fact a feature enabled by default: Shadow Boost. What it's supposed to do is make shadows darker around lighter elements to make them stand out on-screen. To its credit it does work quite well during actual gameplay, but it definitely sticks out in more day to day usage. It is worth noting the monitor acts as expected with this feature disabled, but if you do want to see it in motion, I recorded a short clip using a white diamond on a dark background in Paint:
The monitor is packed full of really neat features, but there does seem to be a common theme of misconceptions and a lack of communication as to how everything really works, especially when wanting to use features in tandem. It's under the GamePlus menu I found some of the most interesting settings. You can display a timer on-screen, show the current FPS, and even add a zoomed crosshair to the middle of your screen, dubbed "Sniper Mode". I really enjoyed the zoomed crosshair when playing around in Hitman 3, allowing me to pull off incredible shots at long range with little more than a silenced pistol. At first though, this option was completely unavailable. It was unavailable, I think, because the monitor was in racing mode, this being one of many different colour options, grouped under the GameVisual menu, for the display. While playing Hitman however, I couldn't access the GameVisual menu. It was greyed out. After some crafty Googling, it turns out this is because I had HDR enabled. So to follow this back, because I had HDR enabled, the GameVisual menu was unavailable to me, and because the GameVisual menu was unavailable to me, I couldn't change to a mode that would allow me to use the sniper feature of a completely different menu. The documentation to explain this? Non-existent. This isn't the only set of interconnected settings either. For every toggle you enable, three more will become greyed out. It wouldn't be so much of a problem if you were able to toggle these greyed out settings to automatically disable whatever it was incompatible with but because this isn't the case. You're stuck flipping switches until the light you're looking for magically turns on.
Sniper Mode gives you a zoomed in square at the middle of the display.
Though the GameVisual settings caused me a reasonable amount of stress here, they do offer some interesting choices. There's a number of modes aimed to highlight different things for an optimal experience no matter what you're wanting to use the monitor for. I'm not the kind of person to be constantly changing settings to let me watch a film or view some scenery in a slightly different way though. The mode I ultimately set on was the sRGB mode. Compared to the others, the colours come across in a way I could only describe as a vivid dullness. There's a bizarre clarity to it I just find really appealing. Out of these options, there is one that deserves a bit of a spotlight, even if it wasn't necessarily useful to me: MOBA mode. It's an incredibly simple concept. Dim down every colour to draw emphasis to reds and greens, the colour of health bars in-game. I had a play around with this for a bit of fun and it's a really cute idea. Not being in the MOBA sphere myself, it's tough to say how much of a difference it would make to a seasoned player, but on paper it's a great feature to include.
You can see MOBA mode in action here, making non-red and non-green colours greyscale.
Outside of the more game-oriented features there's one big feature I look for when looking to buy a monitor. Though it's not something important to everybody, at the top of my most wanted list is a picture in picture (PiP) mode, and I'm glad to say the VG28UQL1A features both this and picture by picture (PbP) as available options. Of course, both of these are greyed out if you happen to have VRR enabled, and of course, VRR is enabled by default. The monitor does make some effort in this instance, giving you a warning screen if you happen to enable VRR for yourself down the line to let you know which features will be disabled, but because it's enabled out of the box, it's not something you're likely to know. As far as PiP goes, it's a fairly standard affair. You can pop another source in any of the four corners of the screen, and pick between the PiP source or the primary source for which you the audio from. It would've been nice to see some kind of audio mixing available here, but that's more of a hope than an expectation, as it's not something I've seen in any other PiP-enabled monitor. It works fine though, and is great for catching up with YouTube while playing more laid-back console games.
You can also keep a console running while you work!
One of the more underappreciated features of the monitor comes not from the display itself, but what it's mounted to: the stand. It's incredibly stable with a good range of motion to be rotated left and right, up and down, raised and lowered, and even tilted. That's right, you can use this high end gaming monitor in portrait mode should your twisted heart so desire it. What really stands out here is the flexibility on offer. Naturally you wouldn't want this to be a full-time portrait monitor, but if you happen to be working from home and want a quick and convenient way to view a document, it's there. You rotate and you're done. No mess, no faff, and you can just change it back to normal when you're done. A good stand goes a long way in supporting a monitor, and I'm glad this one doesn't disappoint.
You can see the versatility of the stand here.
To sum it all up, the VG28UQL1A is a magnificent display packed with a great assortment of small features to build up to a great product. Can I recommend it though? I'm just not sure. While the retail price of £750 may come as a bit of a sting, it's not unreasonable for what's on offer. The real question is whether you'll actually be using what's on offer to its fullest. With only a handful of Series X games capable of a native 4K image at a higher framerate and the PC hardware required to match this output being several times more expensive than this monitor, my advice would be to wait. In time these fantastic displays will reach a point where they're affordable to the masses, and in that time there'll be the games and hardware to warrant actually buying them. If higher framerates are important to you, you can find 1440p monitors at half the price of this with just as many great features; best of all your rig will probably be able to run games to match the monitor's potential without having to mortgage your house. I really do love this monitor, but now isn't the time where it excels. The VG28UQL1A has me excited for the future, even if I don't quite think it has a place now.
Verdict
- Delivers a stellar 4K image
- Fantastic assortment of ports to use
- Great selection of features to enhance the experience
- PiP and PbP available
- Versatile and sturdy stand
- Can be a lot of effort to enable features you want
- There isn't really much out there to take advantage of what this monitor is capable of
- £750 is a lot to pay considering the above con
