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.

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Sources: TFT Central, AVMagazine

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  • euskalzabe - Friday, March 22, 2019 - link

    WHY. Why can a 55" be bought for $1500, but a 21" panel cost FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS. (!!!!!!)
  • imaheadcase - Saturday, March 23, 2019 - link

    Because you and millions of other people still don't understand a TV is NOT THE SAME AS A PC MONITOR.
  • lowphas - Saturday, March 23, 2019 - link

    Okay, I got that this is not rgbw, and smaller in size, and has less features... but what is the point you want to make here?
  • Valantar - Saturday, March 23, 2019 - link

    3D LUT support is the key here. Alongside 99% DCI P3, >95% color/brightness uniformity (and factory calibration, even if this is less of an issue for this market) this is extremely close to a reference grade monitor. Those are typically 3-5x the price of this. A bit weird that it doesn't support DCI 4K, but that's probably okay for the price.
  • bigboxes - Monday, March 25, 2019 - link

    You have decide if you need a monitor or a TV. They're not the same.
  • Xex360 - Friday, March 22, 2019 - link

    The price doesn't make any sense, it doesn't offer anything special for the price.
  • imaheadcase - Saturday, March 23, 2019 - link

    Besides being OLED and the stuff listed in article..sure...
  • lilkwarrior - Friday, March 29, 2019 - link

    Seems you didn't read the features of the monitor that easily makes it the price it's asking for that's typically in $10,000-$25,000 pro monitors that aren't portable.
  • sorten - Friday, March 22, 2019 - link

    $5150? That's crazy ...
  • lilkwarrior - Friday, March 29, 2019 - link

    It has features like a built-in 3D LUT table. Understandably targeted out of the price range of average joes

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