Review: ASUS ROG Swift PG348Q Monitor

I recently got my hands on the beautiful ASUS ROG Swift PG348Q, the latest monitor from the Republic of Gamers line of tech to review and wow, is it ever something. The monitor is a whopping 34 inches (diagonally) ultra-wide, curved screen with a 16:9 aspect ratio and a 3440×1440 resolution. The beast of a monitor is built with the new Republic of Gamers Armor Titanium with a Plasma Copper color scheme. The stand is equipped with a built-in LED light effect which projects the ROG emblem brightly and clearly on your desk.

The Key Features include:

• A 34 Inch Display with 3440×1440 resolution (Quad HD)
• 50hz over HDMI and 100hz over DisplayPort
• An HDMI 1.4 input
• A DisplayPort 1.2 input
• 4 USB 3.0 ports
• 1 Audio Jack

I really enjoyed testing out this monitor, it was a welcome change from the old Dell monitor I usually use (the ASUS is about 4 times the size of the Dell!) The first thing I noticed after I plugged in the monitor was how fast is booted up. I barely got my finger off the power button when all of a sudden the monitor came to life. Staying on the topic of the controls, the back of the monitor features 3 buttons and an easy to use toggle switch which replaces the tedious task of pressing multiple buttons multiple times. The face of the monitor is completely void of buttons which works with the clean aesthetic the monitor has going on.

The display is sheer beauty. Vibrant and colorful with a 3440×1440 resolution and 110 pixels per inch (PPI). The monitor is equipped with the latest in NVIDA G-SYNC technology pulling off flawless 100hz refresh rates which definitely helps with the normal stuttering and tearing while I play. The monitor’s ultra-wide screen offers gamers better peripheral vision which definitely helps. The screen is definitely adaptable. There is about 11cm of adjustable height space, 25 degrees of tilt, and the screen is able to swivel from side to side freely. The monitor has mounting capabilities using a 100mm VESA mount.

With all the good comes some bad. Before I was able to embrace the beauty of the PG348Q I had to put it together. Putting together the base made assembling Ikea furniture look like a child’s play. Pair that with the wordless instructions and you’ve got 30 to 40 minutes of hair-pulling frustration. Once I had the monster built and set up it was time to plug everything in. After finally locating the inputs I had a hard time actually getting the power and HDMI cables plugged into their respectable inputs. Unless you’re sitting directly under the monitor, you can’t see anything. The size of the base is a bit of an issue too. The base is almost a foot from front to back which necessitated me to commandeer my family’s living room table to be able to host the ASUS.

Let’s talk about the price for a bit. Sitting comfortably at £1,000.00 (which is approximately $1890 CAD/$1480 USD). The Acer Predator X34, one of the PG348Q’s competitors, sits a little cheaper at about $1700 CAD with virtually the same specs as the ASUS PG348Q. With that in mind, the extra $200 for the ASUS monitor seems a little unreasonable when you can get literally the same specs with about $200 left over.

The sound is also a major issue with this monitor. When I play the sound from the monitor it sounds very tinny, like the sound system was an after-thought with ASUS. Plugging headphones in doesn’t improve much as the maximum volume is very low.

All and all I really enjoyed using this piece of tech from the Republic of Gamers line from ASUS. It made watching movies more enjoyable, and I even plugged in my Xbox One and spent hours just gaming. It felt like a huge improvement over my 42’’ Samsung LED TV. Like I said, there ARE cheaper alternatives, but for the price of the ASUS PG348Q it comes with amazing specs and details, and if I had the money I’d definitely justify the extra $200 to go with ASUS which in my opinion, is the more reliable tech company. If you’re looking for an amazing visual experience with an ultra-wide Quad-HD screen, then I would say that the PG348Q is worth the price tag.