ASUS ProArt PQ22UC 4K OLED Monitor: £4699, ~$5150
by Anton Shilov on March 22, 2019 5:00 PM EST
ASUS announced its first professional OLED display back at CES 2018 over a year ago. The compact and lightweight 21.6-inch 4K monitor covering 99% of the DCI-P3 color aimed at professionals attracted a lot of attention from various parties, but it has taken ASUS quite some time to perfect the product. Only this month the company began to sell the display on select markets with broader availability expected going forward. Meanwhile, the price of the monitor looks rather overwhelming.
The ASUS ProArt PQ22UC features a 21.6-inch 4K RGB stripe OLED panel produced by JOLED using its printing method. The panel supports a 3840×2160 resolution, 140 - 330 nits brightness (typical/peak), a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1, and a response time of 0.1 ms. The monitor features an internal 14-bit 3D LUT (lookup table), can reproduce 1.07 billion colors, and comes factory-calibrated to a Delta E <2 accuracy. The ProArt PQ22UC is said to feature a 95% uniformity compensation to avoid fluctuations in brightness and chromaticity on different parts of the screen. ASUS says that it can cover 99% of the DCI-P3 color space (without specifying whitepoint chromacity) and supports HDR10 as well as HLG formats for high dynamic range content. Meanwhile, ASUS yet has to reveal which other modes the display supports (e.g., REC2020, REC709, etc.).
Besides very accurate colors and a very high contrast ratio, the main features of the ProArt PQ22UC are its compact dimensions, a foldable stand, a foldable protection case, as well as a low weight (about a kilogram or so with the stand). To further save space and make the product thinner, ASUS equipped the the ProArt PQ22UC with two USB Type-C and micro-HDMI inputs (no word on exact protocols, but DP 1.2 and HDMI 2.0x are likely). The compact dimensions and weight enable owners to easily carry it around, which is particularly important for people who need to do post-production outside of their studios as well as various on-set routines. ASUS does not ship the monitor with a light-shielding hood, a common accessory for displays used for cinematography and color-critical workloads, due to its portability.
| Brief Specifications of the ASUS ProArt PQ22UC | |
| PQ22UC | |
| Panel | 21.6" OLED |
| Native Resolution | 3840 × 2160 |
| Maximum Refresh Rate | 60 Hz |
| Response Time | 0.1 ms (black to white) |
| Brightness | minimum: 0.0005 cd/m² typical: 140 cd/m² maximum: 330 cd/m² |
| Contrast | 1,000,000:1 |
| Viewing Angles | 178°/178° horizontal/vertical |
| Pixel Pitch | 0.1245 mm² |
| Pixel Density | 204 ppi |
| Display Colors | 1.07 billion |
| Color Gamut Support | DCI-P3: 99% sRGB/Rec 709: 100% (tbc) Adobe RGB: ? SMPTE C: ? Rec2020: ? |
| Stand | Tilt and height adjustable |
| Inputs | 2 × USB Type-C (DP 1.2?) 1 × mini HDMI (2.0a? 2.0b?) |
| PSU | External |
| Launch Price & Date | Spring 2019 €5000 ~ $5000 |
The ASUS ProArt PQ22UC display is now available from select stores in Austria and the UK for €5,160 and £4,699 with taxes. TFTCentral claims that broader availability is expected in April, but the official price for the UK will be £4,799 with taxes. If we roughly subtract the UK sales tax from the current retail price and convert the sum to US Dollars, we will get something like $5150, which means that the product will likely carry a ~$5000 MSRP in the US.
Related Reading:
- ASUS Unveils ProArt PQ22UC OLED Monitor: 4K, 99% DCI-P3, 0.1 ms Response Time
- JOLED Demos 21.6-Inch OLED Monitor for Gamers
- Dell at CES 2019: Alienware 55-Inch 4K 120 Hz OLED Gaming Monitor Showcased
- New 8K OLED Displays for Tablets and Laptops: 8.3 and 13.3 Inches
Sources: TFT Central, AVMagazine
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lilkwarrior - Sunday, August 18, 2019 - link
It has LUT.bug77 - Saturday, March 23, 2019 - link
You don't need 144Hz on an OLED (or ULMB), OLED isn't as laggy as LCD.Of course, as a gamer you wouldn't spend five grand with only 22" to show for it.
DesktopMan - Saturday, March 23, 2019 - link
This is actually a common misconception. You still have retina induced motion blur on OLED due to retinal smear, which is improved by black frame insertion or higher refresh rate. More info: http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/down-the-vr-...Valantar - Saturday, March 23, 2019 - link
Also, it's not like faster response times make up for lower refresh rates in any way whatsoever.Beaver M. - Sunday, March 24, 2019 - link
Wrong. You NEED higher refresh rate on higher frame rates. Else it will start to stutter and you will never see the true speed of high frames.Also the response time is directly tied to the refresh rate. The higher the fresh rate, the lower the response time (if the panel can deal with it). So there is no point putting only 60 Hz on a panel with such low response time, then having the audacity to put that response time in the spec sheet. Because effectively you cant see those 0.1 ms, because the refresh rate cant display it.
Its like saying "this car has 300 HP", but when you floor it, it will be limited to only 100 HP, because the transmission is so weak, it would blow if you would use the full 300 HP.
Makaveli - Friday, March 22, 2019 - link
who is this product for?is 4k even usable on a 21.6 display?
Spunjji - Tuesday, March 26, 2019 - link
Why do people always ask that? Yes, it is. Set scaling to 200% and you have the same sized elements as 1080p, only with vastly better anti-alisaing on smaller text and sharper images (where the original files have the right resolution). This is how I have my 17" 4K laptop set up.Alistair - Friday, March 22, 2019 - link
This is so sad. It should be $1000..... Oh well my OLED dream died again.Duncan Macdonald - Friday, March 22, 2019 - link
Not bright enough for outdoor use, too small for the 4k resolution to be of use for most people (with a 17 inch 1920x1080 display at 50cm distance I need a magnifying lens to distinguish adjacent pixels). Possibly useful in a cramped production studio without the room for the size of monitor that would do 4k justice. With the uneven aging of OLED displays (blue pixels deteriorate faster than red or green and at a rate that depends on the amount of blue light emitted by each pixel) the impressive Delta-E will deteriorate over a few years.sing_electric - Monday, March 25, 2019 - link
There's certainly some odd choices here - but it's worth saying that a lot of pros work with a monitor hood and at close distances so they don't get outside glare. I'm not sure why this is being sold as a "thin and light" quasi-portable display, though.