The ASUS ProArt PA34VC Curved Professional Monitor is a 34.1-inch UWQHD Curved (1900R Curvature) display that comes packed with all the bells and whistles you can think of – i.e HDR10, 100% sRGB, Color Accuracy ΔE < 2, Hardware Calibration, Thunderbolt™ 3 and more.
ASUS pulled no stops and did not go half-hearted in implementing any of the feature set, making the ProArt PA34VC one of the best professional monitors out there. The big question is if putting all of those features in one package justifies the end price tag. Let’s talk about it in detail.
Highlights:
- 34.1-inch UWQHD 1900R IPS display with frameless design
- 100% of sRGB color gamut, pre-calibrated for excellent color accuracy
- HDR-10 compatible makes it possible to create more dynamic and realistic images
- Thunderbolt™ 3 USB-C supports video signals, data transfers at up to 40Gbps, and
- Power Delivery provides up to 60W of power to external devices
- ASUS ProArt™ Calibration technology features a 14-bit look-up table (LUT),
- Uniformity compensation and the ability to save color profiles on the monitor
UNBOXING and OVERVIEW
We prepared a short video of our unboxing of the PA34VC so you could see the contents of the box since we received it sealed and untouched but if you wanna skip the 10minute video, just read on to see the contents of the package.
The contents of the box are divided in 3 compartments. The first box you’ll see inside the master box is the one that contains all the cables, wires, manuals and documentation.
Inside the box are the following items:
- Thunderbolt™ 3 Cable
Power cord
DisplayPort cable
USB-C to A cable
Quick start guide
HDMI cable
Support CD
Warranty Card
Color pre-calibration report
The second compartment houses the base of the monitor.
It’s a pretty solid base and has good balance to keep the monitor steady and secure. The monitor is basically hook and play. Once you hook it to the base, it automatically locks in place.
Lastly, you’ll be greeted by the panel itself which weighs quite heavy so you may want to seek help in bringing it outside the box.
Prop it in place, and Voila – You have your PA34VC. There’s no need for any screws or tightening which is a good thing. It’s pretty convenient and provides a hassle free way of enjoying your new purchase.
Now, let’s dig deeper.
Ports and Buttons
As seen on the print of the first box inside the masterbox, there’s a handful of ports on the PA34VC.
- Thunderbolt™ 3 USB-C™ Upstream/Downstream (with Power Delivery)
- Thunderbolt™ 3 USB-C™ Downstream
- HDMI(v2.0b) x2
- DisplayPort
- 3.5mm Mini-Jack
- USB3.0 Type-A x3
Thunderbolt 3
For our testing, we used the thunderbolt 3 port with upstream as the input for the display from our Zephyrus, and at the same time it was charging the device via the Power Delivery. It’s a pretty nifty trick especially if you don’t want a lot of cables hanging out from your desk.
Navigational Buttons
For the buttons, theres 5 buttons that changes function according to the menu on screen, a power on/off button and a joystick to navigate through the menu. Speaking of the menue, it’s a pretty extensive one and you can configure the colors according to your liking to a very significant detail.
Factory Pre-Calibrated
Speaking of configuration, the ProArt PA34VC is actually pre-calibrated from the factory and it has the best colors out of the box. Let’s talk about that in detail next.
Monitor Features
Picture in Picture, Picture by Picture
Let’s start with one of the useful functional features of the ProArt PA34VC – PiP and PbP, meaning Picture-in-Picture and Picture-By-Picture, respectively. These features let you receive signal from 2 different sources, say from your playstation on 1 side and your PC on another. [This will be a nifty feature for streamers].
Ergonomic Design
Moving on, as seen in our overview video, the ProArt PA34VC features an ergonomic design allowing you to swivel left and right, tilt up and downwards and even adjust the height.
Rich Color Accurate Screen
And ofcourse, the stars of the show – High Color Coverage, Accuracy, Uniformity and HDR10 compatinility.
Ofcourse, you’d be viewing this review on a different monitor so colors and results may be different from the ones we want to show you so we instead tested using a Spyder5 Color Calibrator tool to show you the color results and color coverages.
Testing Results
Here’s the quick spec of the monitor as detected by the PC. The refresh rate shows 59hz but it can actually cranked up to 100hz and HDR can be turned on as well as 10-bit color.
Upon testing the device, we compared it with another professional monitor, albeit one of the more affordable ones with less bells and whistles.
GAMUT TEST
The Gamut test will show you which color space your display exactly covers.
True to the promise, the monitor captured 100% of the sRGB range, 72% of NTSC and a pretty good 78% of the aRGB range. This is one of the best results we’ve seen from any monitor so far.
Now heading on to the other tests we conducted via the Spyder Elite, here are the results:
TONE RESPONSE
LUMINANCE TEST
UNIFORMITY TEST
The uniformity test gives you an idea that the monitor can give you an even distribution of backlight and uniformity of your screen at different brightness levels.
COLOR ACCURACY
The absolute values you can see in the report are Delta E values. The closer this value is to 0, the better the performance on this precise area of your screen.
BRIGHTNESS
OVER-ALL RATING
If you can see, the ProArt PA34VC scores very high in most of the categories in the Spyder test, save for the Tone response giving it an over-all rating for 4.0 / 5.0. The most important here though is really the color uniformity and color accuracy. To professionals who need the most accurate results, a slight variance in shade can cause big problems and undesired results. Luckily, the ProArt PA34VC aces this test and proves that it can deliver.
The challenge is the price, however. Given a suggested price of around PHP120,000, it’s no easy decision. You’ll be tempted to get cheaper alternatives with promises of “similar performance” but the absoluete truth is that if absolute performance is necessary, you cannot settle for anything less accurate.
CONCLUSION
To a select number, this monitor is WORTH it. It’s a gold mine even. To others, there are other options out there in the market. But like we mentioned at the start of this review and in our unboxing, this monitor isn’t for everyone. This is for the best in their field who need the best results from their monitor and no less.
The verdict?
If you have money to burn, this is a no brainer. This is one of the best monitors you can ever get for your money. And while you’re at it, get 2 of them.