ASUS Designo MX279H Review

Are you searching for a widescreen monitor that comes with a lot of features but doesn’t blow a hole in your pocket? Then you’re in the right place. The ASUS Designo MX279H is a 27″ monitor that comes with a slim profile and targets anyone who wants a nice display without spending a lot of money.

In this ASUS Designo MX279H review, we’ll dissect this new monitor from ASUS and see why there is a buzz around this display. This is one of the most attractive ones under $200 but is that good enough for you to take your card out of your wallet? How good is this monitor for gaming? Does it cover all or most color gamuts? We’ll answer these and more in the full review below.

Design

The ASUS Designo MX279H is one attractive monitor. The first impression of the monitor is really good and looks premium. The front face of the display sports a modern look, thanks to the thin bezels surrounding the screen. The bottom bezel is a bit thicker than the rest and comes with the logo in the center.

The bezels are only 0.8mm thin and make up for an excellent viewing experience. If you’re a gamer or if you design a lot, these bezels will not interrupt your work in any way. The monitor is super thin on the sides at about 0.57 inches. The monitor will not take a lot of space on your desk and will fit in nicely without any problem.

The aluminum looks the part and adds some more character to the monitor. It holds the display nicely and gives you zero wobbling of any kind. You can tilt the monitor forward and backward to a certain degree. But the stand fails at pretty much anything else. You can swivel the display, pivot, or even adjust the height of the display.

The ASUS Designo MX279H comes with a couple of 3W speakers. The speakers are more than decent and deliver good sound. If you’re interested in watching movies and series on this display, then the sound should be more than enough as they are tuned by Bang and Olufsen. There might be a bit of distortion at high volumes but it’s mostly negligible.

ASUS Designo MX279H Specs

The ASUS MX279H is a 27″ monitor that comes with a full HD resolution. We have an IPS display at our disposal and is one of the best panels in the market in this price range. One drawback here is that the display might be a little too big for this resolution. As a result, the pixel density is not that great and sometimes can result in a smooth picture quality.

But having an IPS does have its advantages. The colors are excellent and are very much true to life for this price point. This makes this monitor suitable for both media consumption and gaming. The native aspect ratio of 16:9 also helps this point. The viewing angle is around 178 degrees and you can see the on-screen contents from almost anywhere in the room without losing any detail.

The ASUS Designo MX279H model has a peak brightness of 250cd/m². This is not that high but, at the same time, it is not too shabby. Even when you’re in a bright room, you can use this monitor without having to crank out the brightness.

Performance

The ASUS Designo MX279H monitor comes with an ASUS smart contrast ratio of 80M:1 While this is not your usual contrast ratio, it still manages to improve the overall output of the display. The blacks appear deep and you don’t see a lot of grays when visualizing blacks. The grayscale performance of the monitor is also neat. You can easily spot different shades of gray which is cool.

The monitor comes with a response time of 5ms which is pretty good. Because of this response time, you don’t see any ghosting or motion blur when watching movies during games. The input lag is also very much in line making this display suitable for serious gaming.

The monitor comes with 8 preset modes which can provide you the settings you need for specific tasks. The modes available are sRGB mode, Darkroom mode, Night view mode, Game more, Standard more, Theatre mode, Reading mode, and Scenery mode. Though you can easily fine-tune your own settings, switching between these modes is fairly quick and accurate.

The ASUS Designo MX279H models with special features to help protect your eyes. The monitor manages blue light emission to reduce it to a minimum in certain modes. There is also very little flicker in comparison with other monitors. This is great for your eyes when you plan to spend long hours in front of the monitor.

Connectivity

All the ports can be found on the back. For connectivity, the ASUS Designo MX279H comes with a couple of UDMI ports. In addition to the HDMI ports, there is also a VGA port. Though it looks limited in terms of connectivity, most users will be able to get the job done with these options.

Bottomline

The ASUS Designo MX279H is a solid, 1080p monitor that comes with an IPS panel. The monitor does a great job when it comes to colors, contrast and overall picture quality. Gaming is also fun on the ASUS Designo MX279H as there is very little motion blur and ghosting involved. If you’re looking for an inexpensive monitor with good features and gaming abilities, then this one here is a solid choice.