Asus’ new 27-inch OLED gaming monitor has a heatsink to keep cool

Asus is one of many brands jumping into making smaller OLED gaming monitors for 2023. Acer and LG took their shots. Now, the model Asus had been teasing is real, and it’s got a clunky name: the Asus ROG Swift OLED PG27AQDM. Screen-wise, what it’s offering matches the others; it’s a 27-inch, 1440p, matte-coated OLED that runs at a fast 240Hz refresh rate with a .03-millisecond response time. But it does have one big difference: a heatsink to keep it cooler and prolong its lifespan.

I haven’t seen this one in person yet, but its display seems like a delight to look at. It covers 99 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut, so digital artists and other creators might be able to use it — when they aren’t gaming, that is. Like other OLEDs, this one offers a virtually infinite contrast ratio with per-pixel control of brightness and color for the best possible picture.

Screen tech aside, this monitor’s design might be what sets it apart from those other similar models. It has a slick cluster of RGB LEDs on its back, as most Asus gaming products do, and its stand looks sturdy. You’ll either love or hate that it projects a ROG logo onto your desk (hopefully that can be turned off). What’s fused to the rear of this monitor sets it apart, too. It has a heatsink that Asus says allows it — along with an air vent — to pull heat away from the panel, lowering the temperature by up to five degrees compared to similar models.

OLEDs aren’t known for overheating to the point of shutting off, but a heatsink could help to mitigate the risk of OLED burn-in over time. That’s an ever-present concern with OLED, but it’s one that has become less of a concern as most monitors and panels already have multiple features to dim, shift, or switch off pixels. Asus says the PG27AQDM has a peak brightness of 1,000 nits when displaying an HDR image taking up 3 percent of the total screen. That’s the same figure that LG’s 27-inch UltraGear OLED is shooting for without a heatsink, so perhaps it’s best to expect long-term benefits from the heatsink instead of any short-term upgrades.

Asus claims to have designed a display algorithm focused on delivering a uniform brightness, giving no pixel more power than it needs to be displayed. In addition to efficiency, it aims to make the luminance the same across the board, even when you have multiple windows open. We’ll have to see how this works during testing. No price has been shared, and Asus hasn’t confirmed which ports are included here, sadly.