ASUS TUF Gaming VG27AQ (2019), 27"

At £450, the Asus VG27AQ is pretty competitively priced considering its key specs (and its manufacturer). This is good news, as it’s by and large an impressive bit of kit. Physically, the assembly process and build quality are good, and the adjustments make it very versatile. The essentials are covered when it comes to connectivity, but the lack of USB may be off-putting to some. Default image quality is also great overall – the monitor excels when it comes to colour accuracy, and it’s strong on measurements of contrast, white point, and gamma too. Viewing angles are solid as well, but colour uniformity on our sample wasn’t quite as good as it should be. As the TUF Gaming branding suggests, though, this screen is all about gaming. A 27” screen with a 165Hz maximum refresh rate (144Hz native), a 1440p resolution, and brand-agnostic adaptive-sync is absolutely primed for gaming, and the VG27AQ delivers the goods. The addition of ELMB-Sync is exciting and an industry first, and though the execution isn’t perfect it’s a step in the right direction. Either way, it’s safe to say that >100Hz is the optimal territory. If you’re going to be feeding it a lot of ~60Hz inputs (e.g. from a console or demanding games with adaptive-sync enabled), you won’t be getting the most out of it. But if you’re a gamer who prioritises high frame rates, the VG27AQ fits the bill very nicely indeed.