 My review of the Samsung U28D 590D marked the beginning of reasonably priced 4K displays, but while the ASUS PB287Q took an extra six weeks or so to arrive, I guess it goes to show what a little bit more incubation time can do for a product, because this is one heck of a monitor. A global leader in tech recruiting is celebrating geek pride by giving away 10 amazing tech prizes. For more info, visit the MODIS Facebook page or modis.com. This 28-inch display actually uses the same panel as the Samsung one that I just mentioned, so that means that yes, it is TN, but with its 1000 to 1 contrast ratio and support for 10-bit color using frame rate control dithering, it's one of the best TN panels I've ever seen. It is still not IPS, so there's noticeable color and contrast shift when looking from the top or bottom, and I even noticed a subtle color shift with pure whites turning a bit yellowish at the edges when using the monitor normally, but frankly, it's the kind of flaw you'll notice for a few hours that you can completely forget about unless you go looking for it once you're actually using the thing. Let's just put it this way, Asus thought it was good enough to put their PB branding on it, and I agree with the decision. That is to say the monitor looks pretty darn good, but while it's a godsend for video and photo editors who want to spread out all their tools with all them pixels, it's not suitable for professional color work. The added TN benefits, though, of better than average ghosting performance and only around 11 milliseconds of total display lag, including input and pixel response, is a big bonus, though, for gamers. Get ready for a beautiful gaming experience with less than one frame of total display lag. Another thing that comes along with the PB branding is robust build quality. The bezel is reasonably thin, but much more importantly, it has a durable matte finish. Hold on, not that durable, but durable, so it won't get covered in fingerprints then instantly get covered in micro scratches when you try to wipe them off. Compared to the Samsung value 4K, Asus's offering is an obvious buy for me for this reason alone, but it actually gets better. The PB287Q has 15 centimeters of height adjust, 120 degrees of swivel, 25 degrees of tilt, and even 90 degree pivot. And if that isn't enough for you, it has a VESA mount on the back so you can mount it to a wall or a multi-display arm or whatever else you want. And all of that is without costing extra. Being able to position the monitor correctly is not only great for ergonomics, but also for countering the inherent TN viewing angle limitations. Well done, Asus. On the back, behind the removable cable cover, we'll find power in, an audio input for the unexceptional built-in speakers, and a headphone passthrough, a DisplayPort 1.2 input, which supports 4K at 60 hertz with a single tile. And by the way, the SLI issue with single tile 4K displays is now resolved as of today. And two HDMI inputs that are limited to 30 hertz because HDMI is just too slow for 60 hertz. Speaking of which, for a laugh, I ran this monitor at 30 hertz for the first two days to see if I could get used to 30 hertz. I can't. It's horrible. Do yourself a favor and don't buy any of the 4K monitors that run at 30 hertz. It'll be fine for movies, but it's just not enough for games or for me, even general desktop use, where there are simply better options available like this one. One interesting thing about the HDMI inputs is that this monitor supports picture-in-picture and picture-by-picture if you really like having a separate computer for things instead of having another window running on the device that you're already using for some reason. And it also supports NHL, so you can play content from your phone if you feel like doing that. Neato. Now, before we dig through the otherwise excellent on-screen controls, I have something to get off my back. ASUS, this rear-mounted button nonsense is the worst thing ever. LG's joystick is better, BenQ's capacitive buttons are better, and heck, so is this. It's hard to figure out which button is which without feeling out the entire row or shifting my head to the right to align it from straight on. So yeah, please stop. Otherwise, it's really excellent. ASUS's splendid video modes range from very useful with sRGB being my favorite these days as a content creator, but standard also looking pretty good, all the way to totally useless with reading mode being unfortunately horrible. But don't worry guys, darkroom mode is a good alternative. It also reduces the blue light output just like reading mode, but doesn't monkey around with the sharpness, so it looks quite a bit better. The usual brightness, contrast, etc options are in here, and under image we get some really cool stuff including five levels of overdrive control and four levels of sharpness enhancement with the all-important off option available for both of them. Very nice. Under system setup, you can dim the backlight to save power, turn off the power led, lock the power button on, overlay a crosshair for no scoping all them noobs. Seriously though, this is basically cheating and no competition will let you use it, but I mean I guess it's cool to have it on there. And you can change the display port mode from 1.1 to 1.2, which is basically the first thing you should do when you get the monitor. 1.1 doesn't support 4k at 60Hz. Now because I had a bit more time with the PB 287Q compared to Samsung's offering, I decided to try using it a few different ways. I already mentioned that I tried it at 30Hz, but what I also tried was with 150% scaling and with no scaling at all for a couple of days each. And this is where I feel like for the first time in a while, these software guys, Microsoft and application developers have a lot of work to do to catch up with the hardware. Unscaled, the extra screen real estate is really nice, but it felt like I was doing an eye exam the whole time because I was straining a little bit. And without LG's handy virtual screen splitting app using stock Windows multi-window management tools like Aerosnap, either gave me tons of white space or didn't leverage the extra pixels other than in applications that support zooming really nicely where the fonts look like really great and really smooth. I'd recommend picking up something like Display Fusion though so you can create your own virtual desktops if you're planning to use it unscaled. But most people won't want to anyway, particularly without Vivid Pixel, which I bumped up to 25 to improve text sharpness a touch. I could use it, but it just wasn't comfortable like that. And this is the double edged sword of a whopping 157 pixels per inch. In supported applications like games, the image is so crisp that you can't even really see anti-aliasing beyond 2 to 4x. I mean, man, it's beautiful. So it hurts that much more when you turn on scaling to 150% to make text sizes comfortable, but then many applications don't scale correctly, causing their text to be blurry and crummy looking. But when she looks good, man, she looks good. And the applications that work correctly are coming slowly but surely now that the flood of 4k desktop and other high density displays has really started picking up speed. And truthfully, going with Windows 8.1 can actually help with that already. One of the, you know, for some of the purists out there, a few things that Windows 8.1 truly does do better than previous operating systems. Now, one thing that actually helped make the non-scaled scenario somewhat usable for me with this monitor was the DC LED backlight versus the more traditional PWM control that causes subtle flickering at anything but 100% backlight. I've only seen this on a few monitors so far, but it really does make the display less tiring to look at, which for me means my vision is less likely to blur as the day wears on. Particularly when you're using very large monitors, I find my eyes do get quite tired normally. Now, the conclusion for this product is pretty simple, as you'd expect. It uses the same panel as Samsung's offering, which means it's good enough for any general consumer but not good enough for serious color work, and has some subtle but occasionally noticeable inconsistency on uniform light backgrounds. But it has a very long list of great features and improvements over the Samsung model that earn it a must-buy rating for anyone looking for a reasonably priced 4K monitor. Its flicker-free backlight genuinely makes it more comfortable for me to use than PWM-controlled monitors. And at the same price, you get 60Hz support, VESA mounting, a solidly built ergonomic stand with all the usual adjustments, better gaming performance, an outstandingly comprehensive on-screen display, and a three-year warranty with one year of zero-bright-dot coverage, which is pretty solid. Not as good as Dell's three-year bright-dot warranty, but a lot better than Samsung's basic one-year warranty, so I feel like it's a really well-balanced package. So there you have it. My feelings about 4K versus 3440x1440 21x9 monitors like the LG 34UM95 haven't changed. But right now, the 34UM95 is the only option available in that form factor, and while it's IPS and I prefer the lower pixel density, its poor included stand and input lag of around 17-25ms are definite points against it, not to mention it's much more expensive. So from the perspective of a gamer or a value shopper who's looking for an 8-megapixel 4K monitor, this is it, folks. It's time to go buy one. Speaking of going and buying one, do you have any idea how long it took for my sales guy to go buy this fedora for me today? The store's like seven minutes away by Google Maps, and he was gone for an hour, apparently due to traffic, although I suspect he was probably goofing off. But none of that changes the fact that when you run to the store for a quick errand, it always takes longer than you think. And that, my friends, is why we have Dollar Shave Club. Dollar Shave Club's highly skilled team of wild animals, visible minorities, and wild-eyed machete-wielding businessmen delivers high-quality razors to your door once a month, and I will kill you for making any more noises while I try to do this video. Once a month so you don't have to leave the house to look great whenever you do. And for less than 10 bucks a month, Dollar Shave Club is available in Canada, the U.S., and Australia, although notably in Australia it's exactly 10 dollars, but it's 10 Australian dollars, so that's still less than 10 real dollars. And I love their no-nonsense approach to business. Their razors, shave butter, and one-wipe Charlie's butt wipes for men are high quality, and it also means that they don't mess around with costs the way the book industry does. Seven dollars in the U.S., ten dollars in Canada, my a**. Dollar Shave Club charges only a bit more in Canada and in Australia to cover higher freight costs and the exchange rate. It might seem like a little thing, but it says a lot about their philosophy. Join the club now at DollarShaveClub.com slash Linus and start shaving time and shaving money. As usual, guys, the link to pricing and availability for this monitor is in the video description below the like, dislike, and share buttons, which you should use accordingly. 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