Saturday November 21, 2009 10:58 PM AEST

ASUS PG191 Monitor

  • Email a Friend
  • Print Page
ASUS PG191 Monitor
 
75
---
By Craig Simms
Jan 31, 2007
Tags: Asus | 19in | LCD | Monitor | PG191

Another monitor that promises to ignite the retinas (and eardrums) of gamers everywhere.

We’ve not been too impressed by ASUS monitors in the past – while build quality has always been impeccable, it has consistently been behind the pack in terms of image quality. With the promise of a new ‘gaming’ monitor with built in subwoofer, our interest was significantly piqued enough to give it another chance.

Turning off the damn preset modes as usual and returning to a neutral colour temperature, we ran through our usual DisplayMate tests, the screen capable of showing a decent 2 black through 253 white, and unfortunately also some patchy uneven blocks in the gradients towards the darker end of the scale.

The vertical viewing angle at the default colour settings is nigh on abominable, with prevalent colour shifts within a five degree range. With
a directly perpendicular-to-vision setup, the whites turn red at the top and completely blow out at the bottom. Thankfully this can be mostly overcome by using a custom colour profile and completely ramping the brightness, proving once again that presets are not only for idiots, they’re programmed by idiots.

The touch sensitive buttons respond well – too well in fact, as it’s all too easy to turn the bastard thing off or access menus you don’t want to when attempting to adjust the tilt of the panel, thanks to the poor placement of the touch sensitive buttons down the side.

On the sound side, it doesn’t take much to drive the poor little speakers into clipping and crackling as expected, but thanks to the built in subwoofer this is without doubt the single best built-in monitor speaker you’ll hear once you’ve tweaked the equaliser settings manually. Yes, we said it’s decent, and it’s attached to a monitor. Of course it’s not a patch on having a separate proper speaker set, or a decent set of headphones like the AudioTechnica ATH-A900s, but if you have to minimise clutter it’s not too bad a solution.

Gaming was excellent, with Quake 4 revealing rich colours and the 2ms response time covered motion well.

The PG191 is quite a good attempt from ASUS, but there are better alternatives out there.

 
Product Info
Specs:
19"; 2ms G2G; 800:1 contrast ratio; built in 1.3MP webcam; 3x USB 2.0 ports; DVI; VGA; headphone/microphone jacks.
Supplier:
Price when reviewed:
AUD$650
price check*
No results found for ASUSG191.

Compare prices on similar products at staticice.com.au
*Products and prices sourced from staticICE and are in no way associated with Atomic MPC Powered by
 
This article appeared in the February, 2007 issue of Atomic.

The latest issue is on sale now!

Want to learn all about Diablo III? Want to find out what the best Solid State Drive is on the market today, and how to look after it? Want to catch up on the latest hardware, games and in depth tech from Australia's best enthusiast mag?

Get your copy today :)
Comments

Be the first to comment on this article.
Thoughts on this article? Add a comment below.
Login or register to submit a comment.
 
 
 
Atomic Magazine

Issue: 107 | December, 2009

Atomic is a magazine aimed squarely at computer enthusiasts, gamers, and serious PC upgraders.

Every month we bring you the latest reviews of new technology and PC components, in depth features on everything from overclocking to console hacking, and gaming previews and interviews.
 
Latest Comments
"I got an XP pro oem with a game build rig 18 months ago and continued to ignore Vista, to my ..."
by TonyB | Nov 21, 2009 10:24 PM
 
"tanmoyrf.....WTF are you on about ? Spam @ Atomic ? Shame."
by Ezekill | Nov 21, 2009 9:56 PM
 
"Holy shit, batman.

*runs"
by colganaitor | Nov 21, 2009 7:17 PM
 
""sudo preupgrade"
...failed to download installer metadata
------------
So ..."
by wlayton27 | Nov 21, 2009 8:16 AM
 
"^ I find with CoD4 that I can jump on an empty server and be joined by 6-12 others before the ..."
by Ezekill | Nov 20, 2009 10:10 PM
Latest User Reviews
Shenmue II
10%
asdfasdf
 
EVGA X58 Classified
90%
great board, a few things could be better
 
EVGA X58 Classified
90%
Gorgeous looking
 
Sapphire 4890
90%
So good, I immediately wanted a second one!
 
MSI 790FX-GD70 motherboard
90%
Allmost the prefect gaming board