ASUS ZenScreen Smart Monitor Review

ASUS ZenScreen Smart Monitor Review – The Google TV Monitor You Need

The ASUS ZenScreen Smart Monitor MS27UC wants to do it all. The 27-inch 4K monitor is the latest display from ASUS, and instead of falling into the ProArt range, which is more tailored to designers, this ZenScreen is made for everyone. If anything, it kind of reminds me of the Apple Pro Display, but of course, a lot more affordable.

Watch thisASUS ZenScreen Smart Monitor review

For many, this display will be an attractive product. The inclusion of Google TV means it is an entertainment and media device. The speakers provide a solid experience for music and movies. The panel is then quite robust too, offering some impressive colour range and contrast. This display ticks a lot of boxes, and after using it for a few weeks, I could not help but wonder why this product is only a thing in 2025.

First off, we have the design of this ASUS ZenScreen Smart Monitor MS27UC. In the box, there’s not a lot to discover. You get the monitor itself, a remote, which can be confused for a TV remote, the power cable, HDMI cable, and a USB-C cable. There’s also the stand, which comes in two parts. There’s the back arm and the standing foot.

ASUS ZenScreen Smart Monitor Review

Assembling this stand is very simple and easy. It also takes no tools. I grabbed the foot, placed it at the bottom of the back arm, and screwed it into the stand using the thumb screw. That back arm is then clipped into the back of the panel. The arm features a little cut-out for cables. There’s also fabric on the attachment to complete the wrap-around fabric design that is found at the bottom of the display.

In terms of the arm ergonomics, the display can be moved up and down the arm. When at the lowest point, the display is 1.5cm off the table, and at the highest point, 11.5cm off the table. The panel can then be tilted up by 18 degrees and down by 5 degrees, but it cannot be rotated into a portrait orientation. The arm can also be removed, and you can use a VESA mount.

ASUS ZenScreen Smart Monitor Review

The back of the panel is where you’ll find all the ports. There are two USB 2.0 Type-A ports, one HDMI 2.0 port, one DisplayPort 1.4, an earphone jack, and a USB-C port with power delivery of up to 90W. It is all powered by a kettle plug port situated on the opposite side.

From a design point of view, this ASUS ZenScreen Smart Monitor is an incredibly attractive piece of tech. Maybe not for a gamer or a youngster who wants to surround themselves with Razer products and RGB everywhere, but someone who enjoys clean and minimalistic tech, it is a perfect match. It is a productivity display and looks like one.

ASUS ZenScreen Smart Monitor Review

The silver coating is sleek across the entire device. The fabric finish is sophisticated, and even the stand is subtle. There’s even a shelf design on the back of the monitor where you can store your keyboard and mouse. Granted, if it fits on the shelf. It is quite thin at only 3cm.

The logo is etched into the back, and the OSD dial and buttons are found under the display. There’s also a Harmon Kardon logo on the bottom right just so you don’t forget what brand of speakers are in the product. The speakers are hidden away under the fabric. There are two 5W speakers here. More on the tests in a bit.

ASUS ZenScreen Smart Monitor Review

The remote included in the box matches the display. It is a white control that includes all the usual Google TV buttons you’ll expect if you own a Google TV media box or television. It is powered by the usual double AAA batteries.

I have zero complaints about the design of this product. It is exactly something I would buy and enjoy having on my desk. It is sturdy, and the general design is clean. I think you know what you’re buying here, and it does the job.

ASUS ZenScreen Smart Monitor Review

Setting up the display was fairly simple. Usually, monitors are just plug and play, but due to the Google TV nature here, you obviously have to sign into your account and update apps, etc. Setting up Google TV takes a few minutes, and if you have the ecosystem to link this display to your Home Hub, you can do that too.

Upon setting up the display, the usual Google TV home page and experience is overlayed onto whatever device you have plugged in. So if you want to go to an HDMI source, you can use the remote or use the OSD buttons to get there. Sometimes reaching for the remote was a pain, so I would often quickly swap sources using the display buttons.

ASUS ZenScreen Smart Monitor Review

Navigating around Google TV is also done with either the remote or the OSD. However, there are also shortcuts on the nub to quickly access certain features. For example, turning up and down the volume can be done on the display’s nub. I could also open settings by flicking it left. Of course, you can use the remote for all this too, and best of all, it doesn’t have to be pointed at the display either.

Menus and navigation on the ASUS ZenScreen Smart Monitor were fast and snappy. I didn’t have any lag or stuttering. It was impressive to see this perform so smoothly. There are some things that bothered me. I wish I could assign the OSD shortcuts to what I want. So I could assign a brightness toggle to the display instead of having to go all the way into Settings, Picture, Basic Settings, and Brightness to do so.

ASUS ZenScreen Smart Monitor Review

I often change the brightness of my monitor during the day to suit the ambient lighting in the room. Too bright, and it strains my eyes, so I move it around as I see fit. This would make it quite a chore. Apart from that, the general user experience is solid here.

Then onto the display. The ASUS ZenScreen Smart Monitor includes a 27-inch 4K IPS panel that performs fairly well. It isn’t the brightest panel I have ever used at only 350 nits, but I think the brightness suits what it wants to achieve. This isn’t a TV where you need 500 nits of specular HDR peaks. Although, it would be nice. This display achieves the max of 240 nits of brightness, which is okay.

ASUS ZenScreen Smart Monitor Review

Colour range is decent too. It produces 100% sRGB, 79% AdobeRGB, and 82% DCI-P3 colour gamut. There’s also a 5ms response time, and the panel is 60Hz. While all of this means HDR content isn’t delivered at its best, I think the versatility of this display makes up for that.

Everything I did looked good and worked fairly well. The odd Apple Arcade game that I play during the day while working was delivered in vibrant colour and crisp 4K. HDR videos on YouTube looked stunning, especially the HDR videos I put up on my own channel. If you haven’t watched my videos in HDR, you really should.

ASUS ZenScreen Smart Monitor Review

I don’t have many complaints about the display performance. Sure, this panel isn’t the most calibrated and designer-perfected one on the planet, but it is good enough for basically everything else.

The speakers are also decent. They are loud and punchy. It makes listening to music and watching content so much more enjoyable. Before picking up the Pebble Speakers, I used to use the built-in Mac Mini speaker, and it was the worst. This display would be the perfect product for me. Or anyone who works from home and just needs some speakers during the day for ongoing content.

ASUS ZenScreen Smart Monitor Review

So the ASUS ZenScreen Smart Monitor ticks all the boxes but one – there’s no webcam or microphone here. This is a pretty big missed opportunity for ASUS, I won’t lie. To include a small 720p camera and a mic would have made this perfect. It would mean I could make calls on my Mac during the day, issue commands to Siri, and join in video meetings with my camera on. No webcam also complicates life because if you are a business person, you’ll now need to go buy one, and it would have to fit into the entire style of this display to suit the set-up. It would also have to be mountable on the display’s top. It is a lot of work which could be avoided.

This is made worse by the fact that this monitor wants you to plug your mouse and keyboard into it. There’s a whole feature that lets you easily wire the display to your accessories and even navigate Google TV using them. So it would have been the cherry on top to have a webcam here for productivity, family calls, and other video stuff.

Overall, I think the ASUS ZenScreen Smart Monitor is a great product. From the design to the general panel quality, it was decent. The speakers are especially good and make all content better.

THis ASUS ZenScreen Smart Monitor review is based on the MS27UC unit sent to us by ASUS. You can find out more about the display on the official site here.

ASUS ZenScreen Smart Monitor Review

Summary

The ASUS ZenScreen Smart Monitor MS27UC is a well-rounded smart display that does more than you’d expect from a monitor. It offers a decent display and great speakers. It could do with a webcam and the IPS panel does have some nasty bleeding issues but considering this display ticks so many boxes, it isn’t bad at all.

Overall
7.5/10
7.5/10
Marco is the owner and founder of GLITCHED. South Africa’s largest gaming and pop culture website. GLITCHED quickly established itself with tech and gaming enthusiasts with on-point opinions, quick coverage of breaking events and unbiased reviews across its website, social platforms, and YouTube channel.

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