Computer Lounge reinforces Asus' poor quality control on ROG Swift PG279Q

[lak]

 

Computer Lounge, an NZ retailer has performed brief testing on 20 samples of Asus' ROG Swift PG279Q and has reinforced the sentiment expressed by many owners of this monitor concerning poor quality control. While many owners of this monitor have been engaging in 'panel roulette', this exercise is unacceptable for a monitor with specifications and a retail price that would lead one to assume it is a top tier monitor. The testing performed by Computer Lounge is the final nail in the coffin for the PG279Q and it is advised that customers stay away. With the anticipated release of the PG348Q, customers should tread lightly, as it has become apparent that Asus' ROG monitor quality control practices are non-existent.

 

 

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Computer Lounge is looking into the backlight bleed of a specific high end IPS panel. We rigged up 20 of these panels and checked for BLB as well as dead pixels.

What we'd like to know is whether you think the backlight bleed on these panels is acceptable for a high end monitor.
If you bought these monitors, would you find this acceptable? This it totally up for discussion so sound off below on what your thoughts are!

For the BLB photos below, we left the monitors at all stock settings- no calibration, turned off all of the lights.
The images were shot with a Panasonic GH4 with settings at f2.0, iso 200 and shutter speed at 1/2 a second. The edited images just had their exposure reduced by one or two stops. The originals are denoted as M(monitor) and the number - M1,M2 etc. The edited images are denoted as M1-E. The reason for editing was to better show the BLB and a more realistic representation of it, as it's hard to do with just the camera alone.

Due to the seriousness of the issue, Computer Lounge has also gone as far as placing a disclaimer on their product page outlining that the product quality of the PG279Q may not reflect its retail price:

 

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Please Note: These units have been opened and tested by Computer Lounge for quality control purposes, to make sure you get the best screens possible.

All monitors are susceptible to backlight bleed of varying levels depending on the panel technology, bezel thickness and other miscellaneous factors.
Make sure you adjust your brightness settings to a suitable level.

* Backlight bleed will not be covered by warranty until we get confirmation from Asus.
* When the display panel face is aligned to the front, the indication arrow on the base (stand) will be misaligned by about 1 degree. This does not effect the performance of the display at all, but is not covered by warranty until we get confirmation from Asus.

All of Computer Lounge's evidence reinforcing Asus' poor quality control can be found here, along with supporting community polling for the PG279Q:

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Album:
Edit- updated album with watermark for those nasty internet thiefsies
http://imgur.com/a/jWO59

Two Strawpolls here
How many have an acceptable amount of BLB?
http://strawpoll.me/6721455

You purchased and received this monitor:
http://imgur.com/BLVwRY6

Would you return it or keep it?:
http://strawpoll.me/6721439

 

I have purchased many Asus products in the past and wouldn't hesitate to purchase one of their graphics cards or motherboards. However, this debacle is disgusting and should have been avoided by putting the correct quality control practices in place - I thought Asus regarded themselves as the 'gold standard'. Consumers shouldn't need to go through the process of returning monitors and trying their luck with a replacement.The Asus PG279Q is a top tier monitor and consumers are not getting what they are paying for, which is clearly evident in Computer Lounge's testing. Many thanks to Computer Lounge for performing this investigation and creating awareness among the community, regarding Asus' poor ROG monitor quality control.

 

Should Asus initiate a product recall on the PG279Q? Have you purchased a PG279Q and does your experience reflect what is mentioned above?

 

Source 1: http://www.gpforums.com.au/threads/507416-Back-light-bleed-tests-20-high-end-monitors-tested-Need-GP-s-opinions

Source 2: http://www.computerlounge.co.nz/components/componentview.asp?partid=25747

[SurvivorNVL]

From what I am seeing lately across the internet and with people recently building Haswell-E systems amongst my friends - an Asus board or monitor doing well is a swing and a miss 3/4 of the time.  Oddly enough my one friend has a crap ton of Asus componentry and has no issues with any of it.  Asrock and MSI have been rock solid for three friends, though.  Monitors--everyone gets the age old recommendation of Dell or BenQ.

[Lethal Seraph]

I would be pissed if I had those issues on a very pricey monitor.

[PlayStation 2]

Yet another reason why I don't and never will buy Asus.

[Hunched]

This happens to all IPS panels, not just Asus (since they don't even make the panels anyway)

I don't recommend IPS because of this, it's actually plagued.

[RZeroX]

Does Asus even do QC on these panels, also how good are the Acer Monitors are they this bad as-well?, that's pretty bad for all these panels having backlight bleed I would be annoyed if I pay $1500 for one of these monitors.

[Kherm]

Wow, that's bad.

[Hunched]

2 minutes ago, RZeroX said:

Does Asus even do QC on these panels, also how good are the Acer Monitors are they this bad as-well?

All IPS panels are this bad with backlight bleed.

There is no IPS monitor you can buy and be safe from backlight bleed. 

Acer and Asus both us AUO panels primarily, as does basically everyone who isn't Samsung or LG.

[zacRupnow]

If a monitor costs over $500 it better have some damn good quality control and lifetime warranties.

Spoiler

https://youtu.be/JX2GSVoqlRQ?t=73

 

[SurvivorNVL]

24 minutes ago, Hunched said:

This happens to all IPS panels, not just Asus (since they don't even make the panels anyway)

I don't recommend IPS because of this, it's actually plagued.

Of all my Dell monitors I've ever owned - none of them have had backlight issues at all.  It's been very even.  Asus quality itself seems to have just depleted with time, and Acer never really had high quality.  Dell and BenQ IPS are always solid offerings.  Dell more so due to their Ultrasharp line and the policies surrounding it.  Never have had a dead pixel or backlight issue yet with Dell.  Well, that's not true - an old Dell CRT died a year after getting it, but all the ultrasharps are flawless.

[Hunched]

24 minutes ago, SurvivorNVL said:

Of all my Dell monitors I've ever owned - none of them have had backlight issues at all.  It's been very even.  Asus quality itself seems to have just depleted with time, and Acer never really had high quality.  Dell and BenQ IPS are always solid offerings.  Dell more so due to their Ultrasharp line and the policies surrounding it.  Never have had a dead pixel or backlight issue yet with Dell.  Well, that's not true - an old Dell CRT died a year after getting it, but all the ultrasharps are flawless.

Well the forums crashed and deleted my large informative post so cool.

Dell sometimes uses LG IPS panels and is a bit different in that regard, but even their U2414H has these issues which I believe is a very popular model.

Asus is likely to be the biggest target simply because they're the most popular, it may not happens with them more than anyone else but since they sell more units it gets reported more than a less popular model from a competitor equally likely to suffer.

 

It's also possible there is cherry picking going on. BenQ, Asus, Acer, none of them not even Dell can control whether or not the panels they get have backlight issues as they don't make the panels. 

AUO is what BenQ, Acer, Asus, and mostly every else primarily use in their displays. Samsung and LG typically like to keep their panels in their own displays, not handing them out to others.

 

If cherry picking is going on, which wouldn't surprise, this could explain why some models/brands may be better than others.

Out of everyone there is, AUO works most closely with BenQ. BenQ gets everything first, and later on identical panels are seen in use by Acer and Asus.

Again, it still happens with BenQ.

 

There is no model or product line that is immune from IPS backlight issues, it happens to every single one, they're all a lottery. 

Sure, perhaps your odds are better with some more than others, but there really isn't any solid information on that. It's always a risk unfortunately.

[Valentyn]

Looks pretty bad honestly, and the QC on the P278Q was never great as well. Asus just have all round poor RMAs as well.

My LG 34UM95 had no visible backlight bleed, and barely any IPS glow, and that was on an Ultrawide. There's no way I would accept a monitor of Asus with such poor quality; not for the premium they charge.

[lak]

I did some further investigation to better understand what was going on here. In my initial email to Asus Support, I requested to know whether the BLB, uniformity and pressure spot issues had been resolved. Amy's response is below and she assures us that these issues have been resolved:

 

 

However, I do not agree with this poorly worded response, which skirts around my initial questions that were explicitly outlined. The fact that she refers to them as issues does imply that the poor quality control issues are being diverted to the right channels at Asus – this should also be captured via returns and replacement metrics. Unfortunately, Amy’s response is full of false promises and is reiterated by the fact that community members in the thread below, continue to have the same issues, which Amy claims that Asus have resolved:

 

http://www.overclock.net/t/1558309/various-asus-debuts-rog-swift-pg279q-144hz-ips-and-g-sync

 

What I don’t seem to understand is how a top tier monitor can pass through to the hands of consumers and still have a plethora of issues. If anything, I would expect a monitor of this caliber to be subject to stringent quality control guidelines and have no issues whatsoever. It is incredibly disappointing for Asus who has such a high market share and influence in the gaming monitor market to be delivering sub-par products at inflated prices.

 

[SansVarnic]

Interesting, never had an Issue with any of my ASUS products.

[CTR640]

I once had an IPS monitor and I returned it the very next day.

Too much backlight bleedind and overexaggerated brightness.

 

[Hunched]

7 minutes ago, lak said:

I did some further investigation to better understand what was going on here. In my initial email to Asus Support, I requested to know whether the BLB, uniformity and pressure spot issues had been resolved. Amy's response is below and she assures us that these issues have been resolved:

 

 

However, I do not agree with this poorly worded response, which skirts around my initial questions that were explicitly outlined. The fact that she refers to them as issues does imply that the poor quality control issues are being diverted to the right channels at Asus – this should also be captured via returns and replacement metrics. Unfortunately, Amy’s response is full of false promises and is reiterated by the fact that community members in the thread below, continue to have the same issues, which Amy claims that Asus have resolved:

 

http://www.overclock.net/t/1558309/various-asus-debuts-rog-swift-pg279q-144hz-ips-and-g-sync

What I don’t seem to understand is how a top tier monitor can pass through to the hands of consumers and still have a plethora of issues. If anything, I would expect a monitor of this caliber to be subject to stringent quality control guidelines and have no issues whatsoever. It is incredibly disappointing for Asus who has such a high market share and influence in the gaming monitor market to be delivering sub-par products at inflated prices.

 

Again... this also happens to every single $800+ IPS panel.

Happens to the $1500 Acer X34.

It happens to fucking everything that is IPS.

Asus is not a special case here....

 

If anything everyone should be pissed at Samsung, LG, and AUO for making all these flawed IPS panels. They're the ones making the fuckin things...

People are getting mad at the middle man, the guys that built nothing except for the frame, stand, and OSD. 

Why aren't Samsung, LG, and AUO doing any quality control before sending their panels out to Dell, Asus, BenQ, Acer, and everyone else? 

[Valentyn]

14 minutes ago, Hunched said:

Again... this also happens to every single $800+ IPS panel.

Happens to the $1500 Acer X34.

It happens to fucking everything that is IPS.

Asus is not a special case here....

 

If anything everyone should be pissed at Samsung, LG, and AUO for making all these flawed IPS panels. They're the ones making the fuckin things...

That's not entirely true, in the cases with the LG 34UM95-P, many times people were able to drastically reduce the BLB by loosening the bezel around the points. As they were simply attached too tightly. Even so after it all, LG tightened up their QC and their monitors have rarely had issues now.

Bleed and IPS Glow are not the same, and the 34UM95-P I owned had nothing compared to the Asus panels shown in the article. Actually none of the IPS monitors I've ever owned have looked so bad before where easily 1/3 or more of the panel is affected. I would never accept a panel of such low quality.

[Ddm5]

I've personally played roulette with Dell about my U2713HM that I still have. The first I had from Scan.co.uk was very bad in terms of backlight bleed. The second I ordered direct from Dell (Silver version) turned out very nicely in terms of backlight bleed but one of my pixels died early on but since it's unnoticeable I can't be bothered returning it to play roulette again. Asus still need to step their game up regarding QC. Whoever is producing the panels needs a kick in the teeth as it isn't acceptable by either the supplier or Asus in the end. 

[thekeemo]

Just think of the customer support.

[Prysin]

ooo shit. This gonna hurt ASUS a bit...

[Curufinwe_wins]

7 hours ago, Hunched said:

All IPS panels are this bad with backlight bleed.

There is no IPS monitor you can buy and be safe from backlight bleed. 

Acer and Asus both us AUO panels primarily, as does basically everyone who isn't Samsung or LG.

All IPS-like (ah-ips, ahva, pls etc) panels are not THIS BAD. This isn't first gen IPS anymore.

 

Sorry that ordinary AUO sourced panels are notably worse and less consistent than the alternatives.

 

Yes you can never be 100% certain about not getting some glow (and depending on how picky you want to be you will basically always find "something") but most lineups are SO MUCH better than the panels being thrown into these high refresh displays.

 

By their novelty alone that isn't all that unexpected to be honest, lower refresh conventional ips-like panels have made huge strides since release and even monitors still being offered (like the Asus pb278q(r)) tend to be much better today in that regard than their original release. (Just like everything, good TN panels today are almost incomparable to original displays)

 

Obviously ips-like panels are not for every application, but I personally think the idea of generally recommending anything other than ips-like panels to be totally idiotic (opinion:duh).

[Curufinwe_wins]

16 minutes ago, Prysin said:

ooo shit. This gonna hurt ASUS a bit...

Probably not. Asus has a "dedicated" following and anything RoG sells just fine.

 

I swear to a lot of people on the forums here if you call out Asus for anything motherboard related they totally lose their minds. (Like the f'n idiotic choices on many of their x99 mobos or the z170 impact)

[MoonSpot]

The unfortunate end result of this, I believe, will just be more automation in production in an attempt to reign in the quality issues and people losing their manufacturing jobs.

[kuddlesworth9419]

I had an Asus sound card Xonar D1 I think. It didn't last very long and I had problems with it for ages. I just bought a DAC and AMP after that and I have no problems with them. They are different though. Still after that I didn't bother getting anything Asus. If anyone wants a good monitor with the same specs get the Acer one. I have it and it's great. I have just noticed a dead/stuck pixel though although I have had it since it came out and haven't noticed it then. The high res panel makes it so they are barely noticeable which is cool. I have that and a little bit of light bleeding on fully black screen. It's a better product in my opinion other then the shiny plastic which isn't that bad at all.

 

It's the same story with MSI. I have the SLI x99 plus and it's a very good motherboard, I just have problems with the USB. But that might be down to just USB being shit in general. Drivers are stuff perhaps.

[Prysin]

39 minutes ago, Curufinwe_wins said:

Probably not. Asus has a "dedicated" following and anything RoG sells just fine.

 

I swear to a lot of people on the forums here if you call out Asus for anything motherboard related they totally lose their minds. (Like the f'n idiotic choices on many of their x99 mobos or the z170 impact)

Well, this is a retail company. Their mission is to sell you stuff. If they have dodgy products, then said product not only reflects badly on Asus, but also the retailer.

So when a retail company goes as far as saying "this isnt as good as you think", then they are betraying their own cause for the sake of protecting the customer.

Their cause, after all, is to sell you this monitor. That is what they are there for.

By saying "dont buy this, buy something else", they are sacrificing their own profits for the sake of being nice. Being nice doesnt make you money (cough just look at AMD). It gives you "cred" among consumers, but it does not make money. So Computer Lounge in this case is willing to sacrifice profit in order to inform their customers that one of THEIR chosen products that THEY chose to sell in the first place, is not up to snuff.