Asus MX299Q Review

Whether you're looking to replace your dual-monitor setup or just want more screen real estate, the Asus MX299Q ($469) offers a stylish solution at a reasonable price. This 29-inch, ultra-wide monitor boasts an Advanced High Performance In-Plane Switching (AH-IPS) screen with a 2,560-by-1,080 resolution and a 21:9 aspect ratio, and it is equipped with a better-than-average sound system. Color quality is rich, and image detail is sharp, thanks to solid gray-scale performance, but the panel's green-color accuracy is a bit off, and the control buttons can be annoyingly erratic.

Design and Features

The MX299Q shares the same sleek, floating-screen design as its smaller sibling, the Asus MX239H($350.00 at Amazon). The 29-inch panel has a non-reflective, anti-glare coating and is housed in a thin, 1-inch, bezel-free cabinet with a curved back and a 0.8-inch slice of brushed silver trim along the bottom edge. A circular, two-tone silver base with a chrome mounting arm lets you tilt the monitor, but there's no height, pivot, or swivel adjustability. The cabinet doesn't have VESA mounting holes, which means you can't hang it on a wall.

There are six clearly labeled, touch-sensitive buttons and a power switch on the lower right side of the cabinet that are used to adjust picture settings and navigate the on-screen display (OSD) menus. One of my biggest gripes with the MX229Q has to do with the buttons; at times, they are way too sensitive, which makes it difficult to adjust settings without overshooting your target. The buttons also act as hot keys for adjusting speaker volume, selecting an input source and a picture mode, adjusting brightness, and launching the QuickFit function. QuickFit offers a series of patterns that allow you preview document and photo layouts on the screen before printing.

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The MX299Q offers six picture presets (Standard, Scenery, sRGB, Theater, Game, and Night View), as well as Brightness, Contrast, Gamma, and Color Temperature settings. There's also the Asus Smart Contrast Ratio (ASCR) control, which adjusts the contrast ratio depending on screen content, sharpness, and aspect ratio settings.

All of the I/O ports are mounted on the back of the cabinet, facing outward. These include a DisplayPort, an HDMI port, Dual-Link DVI video inputs, and two audio ports (audio-in and headphone). The HDMI port doubles as a Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL) port, which is used to send video from compatible smartphones and tablets to the monitor and charge them at the same time. You don't get any USB ports on this model like you do with the LG 29EA73-P( at Amazon), but the MX299Q is also about $130 cheaper.

Desktop monitors typically don't offer much in the way of audio output, but the MX299Q is an exception with two 3-watt Bang & Olufsen ICEpower speakers that deliver outstanding high and mid tones and a decent dose of bass. It's no substitute for a good 2.1-channel desktop speaker system, but it's remarkably loud and crisp for an embedded speaker solution.

The display comes with a three-year warrantly on parts, labor, and backlight. In the box, you'll find Dual-Link DVI, HDMI, audio-in, and MHL cables, as well as a quick-start guide.

Performance
A solid performer, the MX299Q cleanly displayed every shade of gray on the DisplayMate 64-Step Gray-Scale test and delivered sharp image detail in my test photos. Users who work with multipage documents will appreciate this monitor's ability to display crisp, well-defined fonts of all sizes.

Color accuracy out of the box was decent, but not ideal. As shown on the chromaticity chart, red and blue (represented by the colored dots) are very close to their ideal coordinates (represented by the boxes), as determined by the International Committee on Illumination (CIE). Green, however, is completely outside of its ideal zone. Skewed greens are not uncommon in midrange monitors though, and the flaw does not translate to oversaturated colors or tinting. Color quality was quite good while watching World War Z on Blu-ray, and shadow detail in the darker night scenes was sharp, thanks to the panel's ability to display shades of dark gray.

The monitor's 5-millisecond (gray-to-gray) pixel response provided smooth video playback and performed admirably on our Aliens vs. Predator gaming test, although there were minute traces of ghosting in darker scenes. Power consumption was a bit above average for a 29-inch, ultra-wide monitor; it used 43 watts of power during testing while set to Standard mode, and 40 watts while set to Eco mode. In comparison, the LG 29EA73-P consumed 34 watts, and the Acer B296CL used 32 watts, both in Standard mode.

Conclusion
With its sleek lines, solid performance, and affordable price, the Asus MX299Q is a compelling choice. Granted, it doesn't offer the wealth of features that you get with other ultra-wide displays, like the Philips Brilliance MultiView (298P4QJEB)( at Amazon) and the Acer B296CL($209.00 at Amazon), but it has a lower list price than each of them and delivers good image detail and robust audio. If you can spare an additional hundred dollars or so, the Acer B296CL, our Editors' Choice for ultra-wide monitors, offers very good color and gray-scale performance, an ergonomic stand, multiple USB ports, and a more extensive selection of video ports.