ASUS ROG Swift 41.5″ OLED 4K G-SYNC Gaming Monitor with HDR

Just an update to my original review below. After Asus’s service department reviewed my claim, they agreed to cover the cost of the repair. So after another week a member of their support team called me to let me know they were shipping it back to me and gave me the tracking info. They also wanted to close out the case but I told them I wanted to wait to make sure there was no issues with my monitor. Upon arriving I took pictures of the whole box and made sure to take pictures as I was unpacking for records sake if thing turned out bad. Good thing I did because it came back again damaged on the other side of the monitor.
Once again, I contacted their support to let them know about this and was told to ship it back to them and they would pay to have it shipped overnight. I packed it back up and shipped it out. After about a week I heard back from their service department. First to tell me that the damaged is not covered and that if I wished to have it fixed I would have to pay, then a follow up email, telling me to ignore the other and that they were going to replace the monitor.

After that last contact It has been a little over a week before they reached out again to offer me a replacement of a different older model that is nearly $600 less than what I paid for and has none of the features other than being about the same size. Suffice to say, I said no. Waiting to see now what they plan to do.

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I dont normally write word reviews for products but this current situation has made me so upset that I feel the need to share so others may be aware going in.

I bought this back in January and we really happy with it. Picture was great and performance was as expected. Honestly was very happy. Had to take precautions because was worried about OLED burn in, but other than that, was not worried.

A few months down the line, decided to pull the trigger and put together a new PC that was top of the line. While doing benchmarks, noticed the black spots on the screen along the side. At first, thought it was a stuck pixel but after contacting their chat support, was told it would need to be sent in to be fixed.

Was given an RMA and off it went. Took a bit but they finally sent it back after about 2 Weeks. Did not get any notice about what was fixed, in fact only reason I knew it was coming back was Fedex sends me notices for anything shipping to me. After getting it back, took out and set it up. Upon plugging it in, now the screen is complete busted. After looking at the monitor, it was damaged in several places and warped along the side.

Contacted their support again and advised that now instead of a monitor with black spots, its now completely busted. The had me check the box it was sent back in but there was no sign of any damage as far as I could see. The only difference is it seemed to have less packing material than when it went out.

Was told to send it in again, and I did so, with a new box and more padding. I got the notice back from their repair center that the damage is not covered and that if I wish to have it fixed, I would have to pay $1219.42. This is almost the cost of what I paid for the monitor.

Suffice to say I am very upset and have contact their support again, and was told to dispute the charges and they would review the claim.

I have had this for barely 6 months, 1 month of that has been me shipping this back and forth. I am hoping that they do right by me but at this point I do not have much faith.

If you are considering the Asus PG42UQ, you first should ensure this is the right size for your space. A 42” flat screen is exceptionally large on desktop, but it is more than simply a big screen in your face. At this size you will see substantial distortion on the outer 1/3 of the screen due to differences in eye to screen distance when it is placed at the back of a typical 30” deep desk. You need a minimum of 36-40″ viewing distance to make this tolerable. That likely means a wall mount unless you have one of those super deep executive desks. The ideal distance for me is about 44”. That may not be possible for a lot of installations. This is going to be a big adjustment if you are coming from a 34 or 38” curved ultra-wide.

Coming from a 38” UW 3840×1600 I was worried about losing the width and ‘gaming immersion’. The later turned out to be untrue and the very tall screen makes up for a lot. However, it is mostly wasted space when it comes to apps and productivity. Increased distance and sub pixel layout encourages scaling over 100%. I can’t fit more on this screen compared to the 38” UW and it is in less useful places. Using Windows snap tools can help, but that again puts the viewing distance at the forefront. You cannot read a page if half of it is distorted for perspective and color. The PG42UQ does come with some smaller aspect ratios you switch to, but the obvious 3840×1600 is not among them and they all come with strong limitations. No VRR/Gsync in apsect mode. I have a hard time believing any competitive FPS gamer is shopping for 42” 4K screens with a 120Hz max, just so they can shrink the screen to 1920×1080 in the center and lean way in.

If you are convinced you need a 42” 4K OLED, then the next question is if it should be this one. My unit was a March 2023 purchase with a Dec. 2022 manufacture date. It arrived with FW v033 and multiple problems. HDR was extremely washed out over DP 1.4 and moderately affected over HDMI 2.1. The monitor would often fail to turn on after a restart or wake. The 138 Hz OC mode caused multiple games to either shrink in perspective or outright crash. There were severe problems with any game using Windows HDR instead of it’s own implementation. Fortunately, you can go backward on FW with this monitor and I reset to the Aug 2022 launch v028. That eliminated all the problems above, but over-extended colors and made the ABL too aggressive. You’ll see both noted in most early launch reviews. Moving up to the v031 that came a month after that, the colors snap back in line, the ABL follows expected behavior, but a peculiar problem with the LED power light was introduced. But hey, it is a simple power on light. How hard could that be to fix?

Apparently quite difficult. The Asus FW 033 version lists the following notes. Optimize Console HDR, Improve power indicator issue, Fix 138 Hz wake up issue. Instead it looks like this:

Optimize Console HDR -> Caused the previously mentioned HDR washout, resolution, and compatibility issues in all other PC HDR modes. They made HDR extremely difficult to use and while I can offset the color issues with detailed settings in the NVCP, I cannot stop the crashes, make the DP 1.4 work, or prevent the Windows HDR from going bananas after exiting the game. None of these were present on the previous firmware.

Improve Power Indicator Issue -> Yup, they fixed the light. At the expense of preventing the monitor from waking or turning on. Make sure you can reach the electrical plug.

Fix 138 Hz wake up issue -> Nope. 138 OC mode is broken on 033. Works fine on v031.

So Asus managed to turn a couple of minor issues into several usage breaking bugs. The real problem is that was 6 months ago and there has been no effort to address any of it since. So I while I can sit on v031 and manually manage my power light with the remote every time, I have to consider that Asus has abandoned this product and has no intention of addressing the issues. 5 firmware versions in the first 3 months. 2 of them pulled. The last is the most damaging and difficult to use. It doesn’t seem like that is the point where you take 6 months off and work on something else. This is also probably the moment to mention the Asus PG42UQ is NOT certified by the Display Port organization, unlike their prior 43” and 48” 4K monitors. If you do not have a GPU with a HDMI 2.1 output, you should not be considering this. Neither the DP 1.4 included in the box nor the half dozen others I have around provide consistent performance at the specified values.

So all of this leads to the very obvious question of why should you buy the PG42UQ instead of a LG 42” C2 with the same panel and a glossy screen? The LG C2 is nearly universally praised. The PG42UQ is decidedly mixed. The PQ42UQ has a special text clarity algorithm, which most professional reviewers feel looks worse than the C2 without it. The PG42UQ has a very large heatsink on the backside which in theory could maintain higher brightness levels during prolonged use, but it comes with increased thickness and an extra 10 lbs. It’s not easy to assess if the heatsink has any value without a side by side test. I do find the matte screen on the PG42UQ to be useful for my home office that gets some strong indirect light in Summer. I’ve had no issues with it during daytime use and have plenty of brightness to spare. The SDR color vibrancy is leaps and bounds above my LG 38” UW. This monitor does have some merits, but is that worth a substantial increase in price over what a 42” C2 sells for now? For most people that should be a no unless you are like me with a house full of LG screens and looking for a different twist. It remains to be seen if that was the right decision or not.

Price went up almost 400 dollars since I bought a week ago
Arrived with damaged box and cracked screen whent to get a replacement now it says it will be delivered in 1-2 months
But you can buy another one and get it in 2 weeks for more money now this is a scam

monitor is NOT WAKING UP from sleep mode
have to unplug/plug back hdmi or power cable to get it come back, it is very annoying
latest firmware
UPDATE1: Overclocking to 138Hz causing this, 1 star until they fix it
UPDATE2: Asus released firmware update which suppose to fix the issue…. but during update process screen went black and have never back on again… WOW… JUST WOW!!!! At least 1 person on Newegg reported the same outcome

First monitor arrived with a cracked screen, second monitor arrived, screen cracked. I’m not sure where fault lies, but I’m gonna buy elsewhere.

I know that there were third party sellers that was jacking up the price, but if you waited a day, Amazon had them back in stock at MSRP. The ship date was in November, but after a day I place my order, my order updated for me to receive it in a few days. No reason for this to have a 1 star if you didn’t purchased it.

As for the monitor, it is perfect for me. Just make sure you update the firmware to unlock additional features in the OSD. I don’t see any crushed blacks on the display, the colors are vibrant and smooth. Get a decent wall mount if you are not going to use the one that comes with it. It is a little heavy due to the heatsink, but not that bad. But, it was heavier than my Samsung 40 QLED I had on my wall.

But at the end of the day, I am happy with this purchase, you will not regret it!

So this monitor is amazing, and is definitely a big upgrade from my prior Asus 34″ ultra wide screen.

The color quality is amazing and gaming is phenomenal at 4k 138hz. That being said, there are a few drawbacks. First, the bios has some pretty big bugs. The monitor will not come out of sleep mode when you are running 4k @ 138hz, which is incredibly annoying. It’s advertised as running at 138hz, so that’s an issue that should have been addressed before release. Second, the brightness is not that high when you’re running large windows with a lot of white. Third, the way Amazon shipped this product is completely unacceptable. The box is very thin, and it’s not double boxed. The box had really large, deep puncture holes. It was honestly a mini-miracle the monitor was not broken when I received it. There are also larges areas that are not protected at all by the internal Styrofoam, so it doesn’t take much to puncture the box into the glass. Overall pretty surprised they would ship a product that costs $1,499+ with such shoddy packaging.

*UPDATE 12/16*

So they released a firmware update that fixed the issue with the monitor not waking up from sleep. So I’m bumping my review to a 5/5.

Pro:

Build
Build quality is sturdy

SDR Mode
Out of box is beautiful and vivid color

Con:

Wake up
Sometime doesn’t wake up usually happen restart or wake up from sleep mode, also there some delay wake up.

HDR Mode
HDR in Win 11 color is wash out, I try HDR calibration and adjust setting in Nvidia control the color still not that good. There barely any setting in monitor menu adjust the color, after you enable HDR mode most setting is grey out.

Overclock 138hz
Using 138hz from time to time you will see screen blinking/flickering.

Do not buy this monitor until Asus fix firmware issue, I’m use this monitor for 3 weeks firmware v033 from late November 2022, I’m writing this review on early February 2023, over 2 months still no new firmware update fix those issue.
Is same LG C2 panel use but Asus adding their unfinish feature, I return mine and I buy a LG C2 instead both SDR and HDR look amazing.

Well I sent back the same day I received it. The screen was beautiful yet every few minutes the the screen would flicker. I will possibly re-order when more are in stock.

Have always loved Asus. Monitor could be amazing, but v33 firmware broke HDR on all monitors with super washed our colors. (Previous firmware HDR worked, but other issues existed). Asus support has turned terrible. They try to claim it’s working as intended, even though professional reviewers and reddit has mass threads on this. When you escalate, it falls into a black hole of support not responding and getting delay tactics from service.

If you choose to RMA, they won’t refund or even swap units (even though the issue is on all Pg42uq with v33 firmware) as they claim stock issues. Then want to give you a different and downgraded monitor type.

Asus lost me as a longtime customer. I’m returning back to Amazon, even though a pain to pack all this up. It’s 100% Asus support issues. Disappointed.