Geared toward graphics professionals who depend on accurate color representation, the Asus PA249Q ( at Amazon) is the latest addition to the company's Pro Art line of professional grade monitors. This 24-inch model is loaded with features and offers excellent color accuracy and wide viewing angles, courtesy of IPS panel technology. As with its predecessor, the Asus PA248Q, it has a little trouble displaying darker swatches of the grayscale. It's significantly more expensive than the Asus PA248Q too, but it uses a more expensive AH-IPS panel and is a 10-bit display (the PA248Q uses an e-IPS display and is an 8-bit display). Additionally, this new model covers a wider color gamut than its predecessor, including 120-percent of the NTSC color space, 99-percent of the Adobe color space, and 100-percent of the sRGB color space. It's our new Editors' Choice for mid-range desktop monitors.

Design and Features
Design-wise, the PA249Q is identical to the PA248Q. It uses the same matte black cabinet and has the same ruler-like markings etched into its bezels. The 1920 x 1200 IPS panel has a 16:10 aspect ratio and a peak brightness of 350 cd/m2 (candelas per square meter). It is supported by a square stand with a telescoping arm that allows 4-inches of height adjustment and a hinge that provides 25-degrees of tilt and 90-degrees of pivot maneuverability. The arm offers 120-degrees of swivel as well. You'll have to use your graphics control panel to change the image orientation as the PA249Q does not support auto-rotation. The stand can be removed and the VESA mounting holes can be used to hang the PA249Q on a wall or in a kiosk.

The rear of the cabinet is home to the monitor's many ports, including DisaplayPort, HDMI, VGA, and DVI inputs. There's also an upstream USB port and a headphone jack. On the left side are four USB 3.0 ports that are conveniently facing outward for easy access. Seven function buttons are positioned on the right-hand bezel including power, menu, input select, and Splendid (picture preset) buttons. They are joined by two programmable buttons and a small joystick similar to Lenovo's trackpoint controller that makes it easy to navigate the OSD menus.

The Asus Splendid picture presets include Standard, Theater, sRGB, Scenery, and two User modes. New to this model is an Adobe RGB preset. The Color settings menu offers all the usual brightness, contrast, saturation, hue, and color temperature, and gamma controls. Advanced controls include six-axis hue and saturation settings and RGB gain and offset settings. As with most Asus monitors, th ePA249Q offers the Quick-Fit feature with different grid layouts that allow you to see how photos and other elements fit onto a page in real size.

Asus covers the PA249Q with a three-year parts, labor, and backlight warranty. The monitor ships with DVI, VGA, USB, and DisplayPort cables, a resource CD, and a factory calibration report.

Performance
The PA249Q delivers very accurate colors that are rich in tone. The chromaticity chart below shows where reds, greens, and blues should be to meet their respective CIE (International Commission on Illumination) standards (inside each box is considered ideal). As illustrated in the chart below, color accuracy is pretty much spot-on, as is the panel's white point (6500k).

Grayscale performance was good but the darkest shades of gray were slightly crushed (meaning they appeared black). The panel handled light grayscale reproduction with aplomb. Viewing angles were superb; there was no color shifting or loss of luminance from any angle, which is the mark of a good IPS panel.

The panel's 6-millisecond (gray-to-gray) pixel response did an adequate job of handling fast moving images, although there was a trace of motion blur while playing Far Cry 2 on the PC. That said, the artifacts were barely noticeable. High-definition video from the movie "2012" on Blu-ray looked great and played smoothly.

The PA249Q used 37 watts of power during testing while operating in standard mode. That's a significant reduction compared to the Asus PA246Q (73 watts) but slightly higher than the PA248Q (30 watts).

The Asus PA249Q is an excellent choice for anyone seeking precise color reproduction in a mid-sized monitor. It is equipped with every video input you'll ever need and has a built-in four port USB 3.0 hub that allows you to connect peripherals right at your desktop. Its viewing angle performance is outstanding, and the stand offers numerous adjustments for optimal viewing. Despite its dark grayscale hiccup it is a top performer, and as such is our newest Editors' Choice for mid-range desktop monitors.

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