Part of Asus's Pro Art monitor line geared towards professional designers and photographers, the PA246Q ($499 list) finds the sweet spot between ultra-expensive high-end IPS monitors, such as the NEC MultiSync PA241W ($1,049 list, 4 stars), and more affordable IPS models, like the LG IPS236V ($259.99 list, 4 stars). This wide gamut display delivers rich, well saturated colors and wide viewing angles, and offers just about every connection option you'll ever need. Its grayscale performance is good but not great, however, and it doesn't have an auto-rotate feature.
The PA246Q uses a P-IPS (Professional In-Plane Switching) panel, a relatively new addition to the IPS family of panels that is capable of displaying 1.07 billion colors. The 24-inch panel has a native resolution of 1,920-by-1,200 with a 16:10 aspect ratio and uses CCFL (Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamps) for backlighting rather than LEDs. As such, the matte black cabinet measures a hefty 3 inches deep at its thickest point. The bezels (also matte black) are etched with ruler-like lines that are purely cosmetic and serve no practical purpose.
The cabinet is perched atop a stand with a telescoping arm that provides every adjustment you'll need to achieve the ideal viewing perspective. Adjustments include 25-degrees of tilt, 3.9-inches of height, 120-degrees of swivel, and 90-degrees of pivot so you can switch from landscape to portrait mode. Unlike the NEC PA241W, the Asus PA246Q doesn't automatically change the image orientation when you pivot the panel; you'll have to go into your graphics control panel and change it manually.
When it comes to connectivity options, the PA246Q is as good as it gets. At the rear of the cabinet are DisplayPort, HDMI, DVI, and VGA video inputs as well as an upstream USB port and an earphone jack. On the left side are two downstream USB ports and a card reader slot that supports a multitude of media card formats including MS/HSMS/MSPRO/MS DUO, SD/Mini SD, MMC/RS-MMC, NAND Flash, and xD. The USB ports and card reader are conveniently located so you don't have to reach around the back of the monitor to plug in devices.
There are seven small function buttons on the lower bezel, including the power switch, that serve as hot keys for brightness and contrast adjustments and are also used to navigate through the on-screen settings menu system. One button is designated as the QuickFit button which when pressed overlays a series of grid patterns and paper and photo sizes to help you layout diagrams and view photos in real size on the screen. Grids can be displayed in centimeters or inches and you can fit pages to A4 or standard letter size. Photos can be sized using 2x2, 3x5, 4x6, 8x10, and 5x7 templates. There's also a button for selecting one of five picture preset modes, including Standard, sRGB (compatible with the sRGB color space), Adobe RGB (compatible with the Adobe RGB color space), Scenery (vivid, highly saturated colors), and Theater (warmer colors). A user mode lets you save your own custom color and luminance settings. Lastly, there's a button that lets you toggle through the various input sources.
The PA246Q offers a generous selection of picture settings. Along with the basic brightness, contrast, color temperature, saturation, and hue adjustments, users can change gamma settings and fine tune color settings with six-axis (red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, yellow) hue and saturation adjustments as well as RGB gain and RGB black level offset adjustments. Image adjustments include sharpness, focus, position, and ASCR (Asus Smart Contrast Ratio), and you can set up a picture in picture window if you want to view images from two different input sources.
The PA246Q not only offers a generous feature set, it delivers great picture quality. Colors were rich and well saturated, transitioning evenly from dark to light on the DisplayMate Color Scales test. Grayscale performance was also very good but not quite as accurate as what you get with ultra high-end monitors such as NEC's PA301W. The PA246Q reproduced light grays without a problem on the 64-Step Grayscale test but had some trouble at the low end of the scale; the darkest shade of gray was crushed and appeared black. Still, it definitely exceeded my expectations considering its sub-$500 price tag. Small text was sharp and legible down to 5.3 points (the smallest font available on the DisplayMate Scaled Fonts test).
As is the case with most IPS monitors the PA246Q offers stellar viewing angles. Color fidelity remained true when viewed from an extreme side angle as well as from the top and bottom. The screen darkens slightly when viewed from the very top looking down but not to the point that it degrades the overall image quality. The panel's 6-millisecond gray to gray pixel response does a reasonably good job of displaying moving images without a lot of ghosting or blurring, but I did notice an occasional motion artifact during my Far Cry 2 gaming test. Chances are, hardcore gamers will seek out a monitor with a faster response time anyway.
The CCFL backlit PA246Q used an average of 73 watts of power during my testing, which is relatively high compared to similar sized LED backlit monitors. In comparison, the Lenovo LS2421p ($219.99 direct, 4 stars) used only 16 watts of power, as did the Gateway FHX2402L ($229.99 list, 3 stars). The HP LA2405wg ($379 direct, 3.5 stars) used 41 watts, and the Asus ML248H ($209.99 list, 3.5 stars) used 23 watts.
Asus includes VGA, DVI, DisplayPort, and USB cables in the box, but not an HDMI cable. The monitor comes with a three year warranty that includes a guarantee of zero bright dot pixels as well as Asus's Rapid Replacement service which covers the cost of shipping during the warranty period.
The Asus PA246Q is an affordable pro-grade monitor that for the most part, performs like a more expensive model. With a feature set that includes four different video inputs, a USB hub, a highly adjustable stand, and a built-in card reader, this is one of the more versatile monitors around, and its IPS panel delivers stunning color reproduction. Despite its power hungry backlighting and lack of an auto-rotate mechanism, the PA246Q is one of the best deals around and earns our Editors' Choice for mid-range desktop displays.
COMPARISON TABLE
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