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If you’ve been on the fence about picking up an OLED monitor, maybe this is the one that’ll change your mind. The Asus ROG Strix XG27AQWMG is a 27-inch, 1440p Tandem W-OLED monitor with a 280 Hz refresh rate and variable refresh rate (VRR). And it’s strictly stunning.
Thanks to the Tandem OLED panel, protection algorithms, and physical heatsinks, you can stop worrying about burn-in. The included stand is solid and takes up little desk space, or you can mount it to a monitor arm with the included VESA adapter.
Really, the only thing sacrificed here to get to the lower price point is the refresh rate, but 280 Hz is more than enough for almost any game, and it’s hard to push it to the max on anything less than an RTX 5090.
About this review: Asus provided the ROG Strix OLED XG27AQWMG for this review. It didn’t see the contents before publication, nor had any input into the finished product.
The Asus ROG Strix XG27AQWMG is fantastic for gaming on, and you won’t want to stop. The Tandem W-OLED screen is bright and beautiful, and the True Black coating eliminates the dirty screen effect that W-OLED is known for.
The Asus ROG Strix OLED XG27AQWMG was announced near the end of 2025, but it took a while to get to retail outlets. It’s available now, with a $650 price tag. That’s $50 more than the MSRP of the launch materials, but such is the state of tech. It’s still a great value at that price, considering that to get a better one you’d be spending nearly twice the price.
The panel might have a glossy coating, but it’s got True Black, which reduces the amount of light reflected back into the panel, making darker scenes actually dark and reducing the purplish tint OLED can get. I prefer glossy on OLED anyway, as it removes the dirty screen effect (DSE) that matte coatings accentuate on WOLED panels like this.
The XG27AQWMG is a well-built monitor that feels far more solid than the thin side profile would suggest. The panel is metal-backed to wick away thermals and provide structure, and all the electronics are housed in a plastic bulge. The stand is solid and comes with all the adjustments you might want, and it includes a VESA adapter in case you don’t want the stand.
The ROG logo at the bottom also hides a proximity sensor that can blank your screen when you move away, and behind it is an OSD joystick, a programmable button, and the power toggle. You also get one DisplayPort 1.4, two HDMI 2.1, a 3.5mm audio jack, and a USB hub for two ports.
This is one colorful display, covering 100% sRGB, 95% AdobeRGB, and 100% P3. Gamma deviates somewhat at lower brightness levels, but anything over 30% brightness is on track, and let’s face it, you won’t be running it that dim anyway.
Color accuracy is good enough for gaming, but not for photo editing or anything with strict color requirements. The glossy coating keeps the OLED display crisp and clear. It handles reflections fairly well thanks to the True Black coating, and it isn’t a problem in most rooms.
It does take switching to any HDR mode to reach the full peak brightness of 650 nits, but I measured 390 nits in SDR mode, which is plenty for daytime desktop use. You’ll likely want HDR on anyway; the HDR 500 TrueBlack mode is my favorite, and set the Adjustable HDR to on for that wonderful peak brightness.
The Asus ROG Strix XG27AQWMG should be on any gamer’s wishlist. 27 inches is the sweet spot for most gamers; it’s 1440p, so that reduces the need for a powerful GPU, and the 280 Hz refresh rate is fine, really. The most frantic in-game action won’t get streaky or blurred like IPS, and high-contrast games like Marathon and Cyberpunk 2077 look amazing.
You might be wary after seeing all the Reddit posts about this particular model’s gray banding issues. I can confirm it’s present, as TFT Central also found, and that it’s not a big deal in normal usage.
The image above has the exposure cranked up slightly to show the issue: vertical bands across the screen. That’s the worst-case scenario, by the way, with a monitor testing video running and the brightness turned way down, at 280 Hz. Running at 60 Hz, you can’t see much in the way of banding, even at the same settings.
What you actually see is much closer to this image, where the black areas are dark enough to look continuous. That was also the case for gaming or productivity tasks, where I couldn’t see the issue at all.
The panel does also have some level of VRR flicker, mostly on the top left corner (at least on this unit). That’s not a knock on the Asus; pretty much every OLED has this issue, but I’m pointing it out for completeness. The latest firmware version fixes most of the quirks, and I recommend upgrading as soon as you unbox it.
It’s not always the panel’s fault, but if you’re sensitive to color tones you’ll hate it
The Asus ROG Strix OLED XG27AQWMG is the best OLED monitor I’ve tested to date. It’s bright, beautiful, and has amazing contrast, and is tweaked for the speed you crave when gaming. Let’s face it, not many people need a 500 Hz monitor, and the 280 Hz on this panel is plenty for gaming use.
It’s bright, beautiful, and has amazing contrast, and is tweaked for the speed you crave when gaming.
That said, the glossy coating might not be to everyone’s taste. That enables crisp, clear visuals without DSE, which is a huge plus for me. Normally, I prefer QD-OLED because the white pixel of W-OLED looks weird on matte coatings, so Asus going glossy was the right move. If you’re looking for a gaming monitor, this is the one to get.